In case you don't know, or you're sitting on the fence, on Saturday 27th October (this Saturday!) Scottish Fiction join forces with Jim from Aye Tunes and Lloyd from Peenko to bring you the first in what shall hopefully become a regular occurrence.
Cast your mind back to 17th June 2012. We had a jolly old time with our maiden gig, that we've been itching to do it again. But this time... Well this time we've kicked things up a notch!
What happens when three Glasgow bloggers meet up for a pint? They decide to put on gigs of course!
May we present to you the first Scottish Fiction Presents AyeTunes vs. Peenko, dubbed, 'Blogtoberfest'!
Together with Lloyd of Peenko and Jim of Aye Tunes it's our mission, and privilege, to bring you the finest Scottish live music
on the last Saturday of each month at The Flying Duck.
And to get us started we've bagged a indie-pop-tastic line up for our maiden gig on Saturday 27th October.
French Wives - With their debut album 'Dream Of The Inbetween' released to
much acclaim earlier this year, we are chuffed to bits to have French
Wives as our headliners. Guaranteed to get you singing, dancing and
clapping along. Fun times!
Cancel The Astronauts - The
Edinburgh five piece have just released their debut album 'Animal Love
Match', one of 2012's finest and full of great hooks, melodies and
rhythms. We can't wait to hear them and you don't want to miss their
feisty live performance.
The Bad Books - Another
Edinburgh lot, we're happy to welcome the four piece with open arms across
the M8. Their live sets are fantastic, although with no recorded
releases yet you'll have to take our word for it!
We'd love to see you on
Saturday 27th October from 7:30pm at The Flying Duck for all of this
and more! We'll be spinning some tunes in the bar beforehand from 7pm
AND entry to the gig gains you FREE entry to The Flying Duck's club
night 'Houndin The Streets'.
Tickets are £6 and are available online now here and also available on the door on the night.
Given that I had plugged this gig a fair bit, I felt only right that I actually parted with my money and attended. Given that Ayetunes' Jim didn't have a black eye or any facial swelling, I'm guessing no one took him up on his offer to punch him in the mouth. T'was a good night of music at the Captain's Rest, the one disappointment I guess would be that more people didn't experience it. C'est la vie...
First up was Kevin P. Gilday putting aside his How Garbo Died day job to deliver some poetry and spoken word pieces. I must admit that this 'genre/format' is not always my favourite (although I did enjoy John Cooper Clarke at The Arches earlier this year). However credit has to be given to the passion and vigour with which Gilday delivered his pieces. His vocal style reminded me of Aidan Moffat. Highlights were a piece about the pain of working in a call centre, which with I emphasis only too much, and a personal piece called 'I Am My Father's Son'.
Up next was my personal highlight of the evening. Mr Miller. Mr Shambles. Shambles Miller to me and you. Starting his set with a favourite of mine 'Things That Make Me Angry', Shambles was full of lively banter and crowd interaction from the start. Following the next track, 'Beer Song' the crowd as asked to accomodate a longer applause, thus given our plaid shirted guitarist some additional time to slug some more beer. A reasonable request if ever I heard one. Comedy is a huge part of Shambles music, and it's his ability to make us chuckle that draw his music closer. Ever the publicist of course a solitary flyer is passed round with the instructions to memorise it's contents, pass it on, and return it back. Times are tight of course. I'm later reliably informed this flyer has survived seven gigs now. That's a healthy return for money invested! Continuing on the theme of light heartness, we are treated to a song NOT about a break up containing possibly the best line I've heard in a song in a long time. All in all, it was a great showing, and hopefully it won't be long until that flyer clocks up gig number eight.
(Shameless plug here. Read Shambles Q&A for the blog here.)
Next up is Edinburgh band The Spook School. It's clear from looking at them how they chose their drummer, as even sitting down drummer Niall is still about three inches taller than the rest of the band! They have put out one of the catchiest songs of the year so far in the form of John Cleese referencing 'History', so I was keen to see what other aces they had up their sleeves. Taking to the stage with lots of energy and drive behind their maiden Glasgow performance, they have an interesting mix of distortion, twee and all round indie-ness. It's clear that the band have spend some time honing their sound, and during the obligatory ukele tracks the sound is very atmospheric, filling the crannies of the basement of The Captain's Rest. If set closer 'History' is a cheery friend who makes you smile, then 'Hallam', which was snuggled in mid set, is the gloomy nihilist. You can download both for free here (or you could be really nice and pay for them. More on this in a bit...) Once the ukele is packed up, and our ears are sonically pleased by the afformented 'History', there's a brief flurry of 'taps aff!' and then done. These guys will do well, watch out for the name.
"Why do they put the old guys on last?" muse tonight's headliners The Sea Kings. Well they might be older, but they certainly don't slow the pace any. It's clear from early tracks, including 'Scarecrows' that the band have a well honed sound, and are very tight as a unit. 'Scarecrows' comes with droony guitars dipped with a country tinge. 'In And Out And Gone' and 'Night Of Broken Glass' both stirs feelings of a Grinderman / Bad Seeds influence, and with a little bit of The Coral too. The lead singer has a good stage presence, staring into the crowd almost seductively as he jives away on stage. 'Bible John' is a worthy foot stomper, a hard hitting track which wears it's morbid undertones proudly. The band go onto to promote their EP 'Some Dark Matters' (which you can buy here) by recalling a story of a guy asking for a refund after accidently buying the CD instead of a download. Here's where things get akward... That guy was me. Read about why here. (Not now though, finish the review then go. Ok I'll remind you.)
Overall great performances by all artists on the bill, and big thanks to Jim from Aye Tunes for putting on another fantastic bill. Check out more about all the bands playing below:
Seeing as I've already committed myself by plugging this gig not once but twice on my Scottish Fiction radio show on Pulse Community Radio, I really should go the full hog.
Just who is Aye Tunes presenting the question may be. Well since you asked...
First up is Kevin P. Gilday who is temporarily leaving the day job of being in How Garbo Died to do a spoken word performance. It all sounds very arty, but it's more than likely worth getting down early for.
Next up is Scottish Fiction's favourite bearded chap, Shambles Miller (check out the Q&A he did for the blog a few weeks back). Hugely looking forward to seeing him live, as his music is a mixture of humour, politics, social commentary and acoustic strumming. All good things.
Jetting into Glasgow for their maiden 'weegie gig is The Spook School. I'm a huge fan of their 'History'/'Hallem' release, which you can listen to/download here, and have given it a fair bit of airplay.
And topping the bill is the jaunty The Sea Kings, who I must admit to not knowing overly much about, so I'm hoping to change that. Judging by what I have heard, it should be a right good time.
So, all of the above for only five of your neatly stacked pound coins (no smash please, Jim will just spend it easier...) there's really no excuse not to travel down to The Captain's Rest on Wednesday night from 8pm.
