Music venues play second fiddle to King’s

Edinburgh Evening News Thursday 16th March 2017

I see that Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre is to undergo a £25 million makeover with £5m to be provided by Edinburgh Council. This it says will secure the theatre’s future for another 50 years. Work will start in 2021 which at the rate things are going will coincide nicely with Edinburgh’s last music venue closing. The King’s Theatre you see has played host to the likes of Noel Coward, Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Simon Callow and Ian McKellen while the Picture House having hosted gigs by David Bowie, The Smiths, AC/DC, Queen and R.E.M. was deemed suitable to become a Wetherspoons.

Read more at: http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/kevin-buckle-council-content-to-repeat-old-mistakes-1-4392632

An Avalanche of options when it comes to good bands

There are so many ways now music is recommended to people based on what they have bought or listened to and yet you still cannot beat personal recommendations especially from a shop. Even now I still get asked regularly in emails if I can recommend bands and not always Scottish ones.

Avalanche is as well known for supporting American bands like Bright Eyes and Neutral Milk Hotel and many Dublin bands including Whipping Boy. We liked New Zealand bands so much we had several on our label and indeed our most successful album was from the band Snapper who have gone on to influence many other bands.

However I do still often get given a non-Scottish band and I’m asked if there is a Scottish equivalent or sometimes it is a big Scottish band like Belle and Sebastian or Mogwai and I’m asked for another smaller Scottish band in a similar vein. After last week’s column which namechecked quite a few bands I did receive a few enquiries from folk saying they had enjoyed listening to the bands and could I recommend any more.

So, in no particular order artists that are maybe less well known but I can highly recommend listening to are Quickbeam, Star Wheel Press, The Savings and Loan, Ballboy, The Scottish Enlightenment, Laurie Cameron and There Will Be Fireworks. I can also highly recommend the Kevin MacNeil and Willie Campbell album Visible From Space. A mixture of genres there and by no means all indie guitar!

Read more at: http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/kevin-buckle-council-content-to-repeat-old-mistakes-1-4392632