LANTERNS ON THE LAKE, LA BELLE ANGELE, EDINBURGH, AUGUST 23 2025

The second of two actual Edinburgh Festival gigs this year. This one's a band I've not seen for aaaaages*, but the wife quite fancied it, so why not?

* Good grief! Longer ago than I thought. 2013, it was.

 Line-up:

THEO BLEAK: Dundee based singer/songwriter, poetic and emotional, songs about life an' stuff. Not actually called Theo Bleak. Actually called Katie Lynch. Chap with the guitar is called Mark. Not overly active on the socials, but you could try Instagram.

Video:  https://youtu.be/JH2LqyjAN0I    https://www.instagram.com/theobleak

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LANTERNS ON THE LAKE: Alternative/indie cinematic dream-poppy almost-folk with a social conscience from Tyneside, they've been around since 2007, which is quite a long time ago. Last time I saw them I'm sure they had a violinist. No sign of her tonight. Never mind, they're still very good indeed, showing off a mix of old, new and rarely seen songs. 

Video:  https://youtu.be/RmrwDQTigqg   https://www.facebook.com/LanternsOnTheLake

CLOTH, LEITH DEPOT, EDINBURGH, AUGUST 12 2025

The first of two actual Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows this year. This one is part of a series of conversations with Vic Galloway combined with live sets. Tonight's show features indie kids CLOTH, fresh from their tour supporting the mighty MOGWAI. 

Incidentally, the ticket price for this gig included a £1.00 levy to help out independent venues. This is a VERY GOOD THING, and everybody should do it.

Line-up:

SIOBHAN WILSON: The wispiest of indie/alt-folk singer-songwriterism. Gentle and beguiling and absolutely lovely. Siobhan is SUFRECS, the organiser of this series of events. Her Bandcamp page would suggest that she has been doing this singing-songwriting thing for a number of years but she still displays a charming schoolgirlish excitement at doing it in front of an audience. A delight.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/sNwln8sTf2c   https://siobhanwilson.bandcamp.com/music  https://www.facebook.com/siobhanwilsonmusic

                                    

Next, we get the interview with Vic Galloway, well known DJ and presenter. Interesting, I guess, and a large part of the event concept, and even a chance for the audience to put a few questions to the band. However, the chat limits the band to a brief 5 song set, and I'd like to see more of them.

CLOTH: Glasgow-based but Borders-born twins Rachel and Paul Swinton, fresh off a big tour supporting Mogwai. They don't sound like Mogwai. Subtle, low-key indie, they're normally a three-piece, but they're playing without their drummer tonight. Which is odd, because he's here, at the back of the room, his duties being covered by a little box apparently called Roland. 

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/GNFMzXI7GEM   https://www.facebook.com/clothband

SLOTH, FRINGE BY THE SEA, NORTH BERWICK, AUGUST 5 2025

FRINGE BY THE SEA is a 10 day multi-arts festival in the normally sedate seaside town of North Berwick, East Lothian. It's also only a few miles away from my house. It would, therefore, be rude of me to not pop along for a sample. The list of bands appearing includes the likes of BOOMTOWN RATS, AIR, THE BLUEBELLS, SANDI THOM, EDDIE READER, etc. so, obviously, I choose to see local ambient post-rocky shoegazers SLOTH. 

The festival takes place in, around and near North Berwick, but the main events happen in two tents in the Lodge grounds. A big tent - to the right of the picture below - and a not-so-big geodesic dome of a tent - to the left. SLOTH are in the latter. You should note that the picture was taken BEFORE the tents were erected.

Today's event narrowly escaped Storm Floris, which passed by yesterday shutting everything down for the day.

But it's all OK now.

This is, possibly, one of the oddest audiences I've ever been in. It's quite busy, half of the crowd looking like -no offence intended here - middle class holiday makers and parents, and the other half  being a few dozen small children, ages maybe 4 to 10-ish. Oldies at the back, kiddies on beanbags at the front.  I have my doubts whether the kids have the patience for SLOTH's ambient hypnotic post-rock style and, indeed, there is a lot of fidgeting and chattering, but it's all pretty good natured and nobody minds. I do, however, get the impression that the band is holding back, and would be happy to get all Mogwai on us if they had a chance. Also, as we are surrounded by food stalls, the whole tent smells faintly of popcorn and fish.

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/1e1OBqYKGhE

SLOTH don't do Facebook, or the socials generally, but you can find them on Instagram if you look hard enough - @sloth._band, I think... They also have one song on Bandcamp, coincidentally the song on the above video.