128: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival

19th August 2017 & 26th August 2017

Performing live at SIPS Pop Up Bar, Edinburgh as part of the Pressure Valve night.
These were gigs in the tent on Niddry Street so entry was free and the live music started at 7pm.
We played a mixture of acoustic guitar / vocal tracks (originals and a few choice covers) and also some tracks with loops and KP3+ samples and beats… this was a little different for the SIPS crowd but I think everyone enjoyed the show.

We’ve loved being part of the Pressure Valve artists featured at this year’s event and look forward to bringing our new musical projects to their events in the near future.

NEXT UP:
2 Shows in October 2017 supporting Marilyn Carino

116: Summer tour 2017 starts here

Friday 7th July 2017: Gig 1: Sketchy Beats Cafe, Edinburgh
Thursday 12th July 2017: Secret Gig: video preview party, Dunfermline

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Summer has arrived and we have a brand new video to share with you all soon.
We’re all booked up with summer shows in Paris and London, and have even booked in a couple of shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

First show of this year’s summer season was at Sketchy Beats Cafe’s The Hip Hop House; a great run by WERD (SOS) on two levels.
Downstairs there is hip-hop sets and battles whilst upstairs it is live bands & singer-songwriter sessions… we were on upstairs and played a low-key guitar/vocal set featuring a new cover we’ve been working on recently.

It’s always a great night with a wide range of acts, all in support of the community run space in Leith, Edinburgh.
Hayley G (Devils in Skirts) were also playing and they provided the wee PA, mixer, mic stands etc.
We only managed to see a wee bit of their set (as we were both busy the next day with boring work stuff and aimed to catch the last bus home), but they were  sounding tight and as always the crowd were loving their set.

Then after a couple of days sorting out tracks for the aways shows we found time to rehearse with guitarist Phil at ColorSound studios.

Finally, we took a trip over to Dunfermline to have a little preview party / gig for the under 18’s who’ve been involved with the new video.
A good friend and promoter (Cob) helped with the venue, PA / lights etc. and the kids brought friends and family along to check out their work.

5 of our under 18’s are the ASDS senior dance troupe who we filmed for way back at the start of May ’17.
The other two are fantastic young actresses & models who are friends of the SN family.

We had a lovely evening sharing the video as well as some behind the scenes footage and images. We also played a wee live gig for the kids which they seemed to enjoy and think we may have made a few new fans in their parents too.

UP NEXT:
At the end of May we spent some time finishing the filming for our final music video and we’re having the launch party at Bannerman’s Bar, Edinburgh on Saturday 22nd July 2017 with very special guests Heart Of Orion (USA) and CaveYear (Edinburgh). `

Sacre Noir / Heart of Orion / CaveYear – Event Link

089 – First Sacre Noir live show of 2015

Friday 6th February saw the first live show for Sacre Noir of 2015. The last few months have been spent focusing on writing and arranging new material, so when Charly Houston got in touch to see if we were able to support a visiting London-based band we figured fate had dealt it’s card.

Krafty Brew Poster

The gig was held at Krafty Brew in Edinburgh (which I hadn’t heard of before this gig) and was a 4 act line up featuring a mixed bunch of styles including Underview who had come up to Scotland for the weekend to do some recording / gigging. Everyone brought their own original sounds to the show, and it was more like a great house party than a gig in a typical venue!
Krafty Brew is situated in an urban industrial estate in north Edinburgh and has only been open for 5 months, but already has hosted a bunch of great events (including an impromptu Gomez set), and is definitely not going to remain a “nice little secret” for too much longer. The beer and cider are brewed on the premises and the general vibe is very laid back.

Krafty Brew

First up was the very talented singer/songwriter Miss Irenie Rose; she hails from the Isle of Lewis and has a truly beautiful vocal tone. Her set was mainly made up of original guitar/vocal numbers peppered with random stories about ‘Irish brothers’ and ‘hairy kippers’ (très amusant), but there was also a couple of loop-pedal based tracks which showed of her voice perfectly. Her music reminded me of Jewel Kilcher (songs circa 1995), where the lyrics paint a picture you could almost see and hear if you closed your eyes and listen closely.

Miss Irenie Rose

We played next in a re-arranged schedule and in our set we played the three singles from Sinking Into Darkness (She Can’t Take It, Rue Crimeé & It’s Too Late Now), six new / unreleased tracks (some of which have yet to be named) plus a cover of the Leftfield track ‘Open Up’. We were all pretty surprised how well the new tracks fitted into the live arena and despite still needing a little refinement here and there, it was a pretty successful 1st run.
Comments from the night included:
“you guys sound a bit like Garbage and a bit like Portishead” – made my night
“really like the new track that has a Reggae feel” – look out for this on future releases

Sacre Noir live at Krafty Brew

Next up was Declan Welsh a singer/songwriter from Glasgow who had a full band with him for this show. A really fun, sing-a-long set of tracks in an indie style (Arctic Monkeys was my first thought) and a great support match for the touring band Underview. They had a similar style and influences, Underview even did a cover of the Arctic Monkeys ‘Mardy Bum’ – they should definitely play shows together again in the future.

Declan Welsh

The final band of the evening was Underview who are a 4 piece Indie Rock band based in Hemel Hempstead. They covered a mixture of genres during their set including a few numbers with a ska-tint and these were the ones I liked the most. They were full of energy from the first note to the last regardless of the specific style and I had a great time dancing along to all their tunes.

Underview

A big thanks to everyone involved in the night; the acts for the great tunes, the venue and manager for the use of his great space, Charly Houston music for inviting us along to play and to Neil (Keep It Creative) for the sound advice on the night! Special thanks to friends, old and new, who came along to support live music – always lovely to see such friendly faces.

081 – Sacre Noir Summer Tour 2014

Saturday 2nd August – Day Off, London
For our final day in London we went out early to make the most of our time; Celeb spotting in Soho without even trying over a coffee… Peter Capaldi (Thick of It / Dr Who), a picnic in Soho Square, an hour in Bar Italia for apple juice and a catch up with KMT (The Penny Black Remedy), free chocolate at Choccy Woccy Doo Dah (mmmm) and a chat with Ann in My Art Invest (an art share idea from Paris – investments coming soon) before heading over to Whitechapel for dinner.

Last Day Triptich 1

We had made a reservation at Café Spice Namastae which is the restaurant run by Cyrus Todiwala (The Spice Boys / Celebrity Masterchef) and was possibly the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten. We started with the homemade chutneys and popadoms (all excellent, but the crab apple was the most unusual) before our ‘real’ starters arrived, then the Thalis for main, all washed down with mocktails and lassi – it was a perfect 2 hours of chatting, eating and being looked after by the fantastic staff. We left feeling very luck to have experienced such original, freshly prepared food in a fantastic atmosphere on our last night in such an exciting city.

Last Day Triptich 2

Sunday 3rd August – Travel Day (London – Edinburgh)
We had a lazy Sunday morning with coffees on Pitshanger Lane before the ritual of packing, un-packing and re-packing on a travel day. Then it was off to Euston Station for our traditional meal at Ed’s diner before leaving London once more. We’ve had a great time in London staying with the super-cool Joe McG (one time flatmate of Robert Plant / designer of Black Sabbath LP covers / daughter who works at Vogue etc etc). We’ve had so much freedom whilst being looked after at the same time; BBQs in the garden and limitless tea and wee-fee… we love staying at Ealing Towers and hope we can show Joe a good time in Edinburgh if he makes it up for a show or two during the Fringe.
The train journey home was painless – no delays or problems with luggage and we arrived as expected into the madness that is The Fringe Festival.
Home Sweet Home

We still have a few shows to play & a video to launch this month, but it feels like the bulk of this tour is done and dusted.

Paris was amazing!
Thanks to; TT – for the great apartment / Pierre, Juliette, Laetitia and all the staff at La Dame De Canton / Teresa, Chakal & all the staff at AbracadaBar / Vincent and all the staff at Au Chat Noir / Dave, Lea, Ben, Leatitia & Tom for being cool / Victor at Midnight Special Records / Popper Must (Be) for a great set at Au Chat Noir / Aubry at Madoro Music Management for being the nicest person we didn’t meet (you really helped loads and we’ll be forever grateful to you for being so cool and professional) and most of all our new best friends Chloé, Ben, Ablass, Dan, Charly, Damien and Robert from AsOne – by far the best band in Paris!
Extra thanks to Chaval for the fantastic pics and to Sithara Ieng for the amazing video of our show at AbracadaBar from his “j’ai filmé pour vous” series.

London was fantastic!
Thanks to; Joe for the run of Ealing Towers / Martin / Andy Docherty and all the staff at The Village Inn for letting us hijack your acoustic show / all the “open mic’ers” we met in Putney & Ealing / Barry & Ray / Lisa & Bob / Phil M / Muir V / Tinderdust / Grand Bassam / all the staff at Power Lunches (especially their amazing sound engineer) / Andunemir for filming the show at Power Lunches and to Tom, Charles, David & Ben (dressmaker) for all their support.

NEXT SHOW
Summer Tour 2014: Gig 9 Wednesday 6th August @ The Central Bar (Gateshead)

071 – Sacre Noir Summer Tour 2014 (gig 3)

Thursday 17th July @ Bannerman’s Bar, Edinburgh
We’ve all be really excited about this show for a few months now. Alexis and I played a show with Dressmaker last summer at The Dublin Castle in Camden and we were both utterly blown away by them. It just happened that this gig was their very first and as you can see from my blog after that gig, I was sure they’d be a force to be reckoned with.
BLOG POST 054 – Summer Tour 2013

I hate to say “I told you so” but … One year later they have mastered their live show (less crazy but somehow more chaotic), they have a fantastic EP under their belt (Glass) and every blogger in London seems to be cooing over their very being (Vice are big fans). This month they have taken to the road with the Terminal Gods for a bunch of UK shows and after a successful show in Glasgow’s fantastic 13th Note last night, Dressmaker are now in Edinburgh.

We (Alexis) booked Bannerman’s as the venue for a number of reasons; location, value for money, quality of sound engineer and perhaps the point that clinched the deal, they have recently re-decorated the band flat and with 8 touring musicians to house, this seemed like an amazing opportunity to offer them all a decent space to stay.

Bannerman’s Bar, Edinburgh

Load-in and sound check was between 5pm and 7pm and by 8pm the first act of the evening took to the stage.
The Omega Corridor, one of our favourite Edinburgh bands, had agreed to open the show for us, playing a mixture of tracks from their new EP ‘Local Anaesthetic’ and their up-coming album.
I really love Andrew’s guitar sound, always epic but somehow understated at the same time. Stephen’s lyrics are dark and self-deprecating and with the addition of Euan (2nd guitar) and Frazer (drums) their sound continues to grow. I always feel that their brand of post-rock deserves more attention and urge you all to go check out their music on SoundCloud.

The Omega Corridor – live at Bannerman’s Bar, Edinburgh

Sacre Noir were up next and after having had such a problem-free sound check we were really looking forward to playing. The make-up artist who we’ve been working with for the Sacre Noir music videos had come along, and not only is she a dab-hand with a brush and some fake lashes, but she has done a great job at promoting us to her friends and has even brought some with her to the gig. Erin Culley make-up artist and promoter extraordinaire… we love you!
The bass sounds fired out of the sub-woofers with the most impressive low-end growl I’ve heard for a long time. The crowd danced, the drinks flowed and everyone seemed to have a good time – job done!

Live picture by Gabby Stone Photography

Next up was the mighty Dressmaker who delivered a blistering set and made a whole bunch of new fans. Their stage show is frantic and new drummer Ben (the Frenchman who played topless in a kilt) is so good, he’d give Thor Harris a headache. Dressmaker have a definite Swans influence but they play with no specific agenda and everything they produce seems to sound original. They played an arrangement of the classic Ronettes track ‘Be My Baby’ which was really cool – nothing like the original however Charles vocals sounded amazing and during the verse sections the audience were given a rare moment of less intense noise. I really love this band and can’t wait to play with them again (perhaps at our show in London at Power Launches on August 1st). A special mention goes out to the Dressmaker fan, who is making the effort to see them at every show they play during this tour. Music fans like this are a very rare breed indeed and every musician I know is thankful to every one of you who take it upon yourself to support the artists you love. THANK YOU!

Dressmaker – live at Bannerman’s Bar, Edinburgh

The final act of the evening was the fantastic Terminal Gods: 4 young lads with fantastic poses and a kick ass sampler. They are a solid rock ‘n’ roll band based in London, who played a mixture of original tracks and some well chosen covers and had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands. The strange sight of Edinburgh folk at a gig enjoying themselves reminded me that when you have the right combination of venue, people and music, a little bit of magic happens.

Terminal Gods – live at Bannerman’s Bar, Edinburgh

Thanks so much the Terminal Gods, Dressmaker and The Omega Corridor for sharing this night with us.
Also thanks to Christian at Bannerman’s for having us, Hev for the great job at the sound desk and to Gabby Stone Photography for the pictures.

NEXT SHOW
Summer Tour 2014: Gig 4 Sunday 20th July @ The Duke’s Head, Putney (London)
Special guitar / vocal set featuring a selection of originals & covers.

070 – Sacre Noir Summer Tour 2014 (details and dramas)

Monday 14th July – Wednesday 16th July
We’ve spent the last few days finalising the details for our Paris shows; signing the contract for our show at La Dame de Canton & re-arranging the line up for our final gig in the city at Au Chat Noir on July 26th – we will now be joined by Popper Must (Be), an Alt.Folk act from Paris as well as the fantastic Trip-Hop/Rock band AsOne. There has also been an issue or two with one of our Glasgow shows, so there may well be a venue change in the offing. More details and dramas to follow…

Posters spotted in the Grassmarket

NEXT SHOW
Summer Tour 2014: Gig 3 Thursday 17th July @ Bannerman’s Bar, Edinburgh Terminal Gods / dressmaker / Sacre Noir / The Omega Corridor

069 – Sacre Noir Summer Tour 2014 (gig 2)

Gig 2 – Saturday 12th July @ The Corbridge Festival
The sun was shining, the weather was sweet and Sacre Noir were packed and ready to hit the street. We were really excited to be playing our first show in the North East of England and stoked that are headlining the Alternative Stage (hosted by The Academy of Music & Sound, Gateshead) at The Corbridge Festival. We’ve got to say a massive thank you to their out-going manager Kathryn for inviting us to play and also to Sarah and Michael for looking after us on the day. The stage was set up to show off some of the young musicians who have been studying with AMS this year plus the addition of Lesley Roley, Jen Stevens & The Hiccups and Sacre Noir who joined the line up as ‘working musicians’.

We set off early, as it’s approximately a 2-hour drive from our house to the festival site. The bands on the Alternative Stage were due to start at 12noon and we wanted to show our support for everyone.
The drive down from Scotland was lovely and the good weather seemed to be increasing the closer we got to our destination. We arrived with plenty of time to spare as everything was running a little late, so we sought out a pre-gig cup of tea and opted for Tick-a-Tea-Boo’s – a pop up vintage tea room. The tea was great, served in a proper pot with matching cups and saucers… oh yes we are very rock ‘n’ roll in this band. Not Alexis – he had a black coffee!

Tick a tea boo at Corbridge Festival

We headed back to the Alternative Stage in time to see the first act starting. The student acts from AMS, Gateshead were all really good and both Lesley & JS&TH delivered great sets, before we took to the stage at 6pm. When is was time for Sacre Noir to take to the stage, we pretty much just plugged-in, checked things were making sounds and started playing. This was not a good idea and as a result the on stage sound for the first few songs in our set was, well lets just say, not right. We had numerous problems during our 40 minute set, including the kick drum pedal falling apart, the wrong settings lined up for the live loops tracks and random acts of feedback, however the reaction from the crowd was great and the feedback from people we spoke to afterwards was very favourable. We received comparisons to Siouxsie And The Banshees (who I love) and Space Tribe (who I’ll check out) alongside some future gig offers and a free can of cider, so I guess the front of house sound was much better than the monitor mix we were getting on stage. So apart from a few sound problems on the day, almost everything ran as expected at the Alternative Stage – a resounding success.
As we packed up our gear we chatted with the people signing up for our mailing list, only to discover that two different sets of friends came along to check us out after hearing us when leaving the nearby clubhouse. A similar thing happened at our first show of this years tour, we managed to coax a few students into the live room at The Roxy when they overhead us on their way to the toilet and were intrigued. One of the things I love about Sacre Noir is that there is no assumptions or expectations about how we should sound, and I guess that’s why people find it difficult to put us into a genre box or really put their finger on what it is they like about our sound. We received a lovely comment from one of the students from The Academy of Music & Sound, Gateshead who said,
“really unique sound you have”.
There is nothing wrong with unique!

After packing up the musical equipment and setting up the tents, we headed over to the food stalls to grab something to eat (noodles all round), spent some time playing with bubbles and Michael’s lovely kids (George & Grace) before it was time to head over to the main stage for Rozalla’s set.

Phil and his new friend George

Rozalla’s set was pretty much the highlight of my weekend. She delivered a blistering performance and even got in a really cool cover version of R.E.M’s ‘Losing My Religion’ before giving her adoring crowd what they really wanted… ‘Everybody’s Free (to feel good)’ – the crowd went mad and for me, dancing in front of the stage with my hands in the air, was like stepping back into my youth for those 3 and a half minutes. I loved every minute of her set and am so pleased to have seen her live.

Rozalla – Live at Corbridge Festival

The two remaining acts on the main stage had to contend with the weather as the rain began to show its head. There also seemed to be a lot of chat about the ‘worlds fastest waltzers’, which looked like a lot of fun if not a little crazy. I gave them a wide berth and we hung out in the marquee listening to Ball-Zee and Big Country. As the night drew on the rain grew heavier so we called it a night.

Sunday 13th July
The next morning was not so sunny. The weather had turned sour and we woke up in a little puddle – the tent had leaked! Tired and a little damp, with the rain still pouring and the debris from last nights party all around, we packed up the remainder of our things, grabbed a cup of tea then started the journey home.

Corbridge – the morning after the night before

By the time we arrived back in Edinburgh both Alexis & I had been sick (travel / motion and lack off sleep I think) but the sun was once again shining and our arrival home was shortly followed by showers and a very lazy day, before watching the world cup final in the evening. I’m sure our friends in Berlin will be celebrating for many a night to come.

NEXT SHOW
Summer Tour 2014: Gig 3 Thursday 17th July @ Bannerman’s Bar, Edinburgh
Terminal Gods / dressmaker / Sacre Noir / The Omega Corridor

EVENT LINK

Terminal Gods / dressmaker / Sacre Noir / The Omega Corridor

067 – Sacre Noir Summer Tour 2014 (gig 1)

Gig 1 – Thursday 3rd July @ The Roxy 171, Glasgow

AlexisSs at The Roxy 171, Glasgow

The first gig of the Sacre Noir summer tour 2014 was as a duo at The Roxy 171 in Glasgow, “a fantastic wee intimate space for live music”. The bar upstairs is really lovely with super friendly staff and a cool menu, which included Buckfast Stew. We have been working with HouseCat Promotions when booking shows for this summer in Glasgow and the booker, Charly, did a fantastic job with the line up for this show. First up was the fantastically talented Josephine Sillars, a singer-songwriter based in Glasgow.

Josephine Sillars

Josephine turned up with her Yamaha and an ironing board; instantly I knew I was going to love this girl. I’d watched her music video ‘Hurricanes’ online so I was expecting a pretty good show, but had under estimated just how good a pianist she is. Her set showed off her composition skills to the max and despite being really tired (she had just moved flat) she sang as well as she played. Being a literature student, her songs, as you’d perhaps expect reflected her ‘nerdy’ side, with lyrics inspired by Seamus Heaney, random meetings and werewolves. To be fair, Josephine has been working on the Glasgow based web series ‘Cops and Monsters’ and the werewolf song is from that project, but she is a self-declared nerd and her lyrics are well worth paying attention too. My favourite track from her set was ‘You (Are Not The Reason)’ which you can listen to on her tumblr page.

Next up was Megan Airlie with her ukulele, playing a mixture of original material and covers. She was joined for the last two songs in her set by a guitarist and percussionist, which was lovely and really provided a nice contrast to the rest of her set.

Megan Airlie

Her voice is mature far beyond her years and her cover choices alluded to her musical inspirations; 60’s surf pop (Beach Boys) and jazz (Nat King Cole). Her cover of L-O-V-E was really nice and my favourite track from her set.
Then we had an acoustic show from Model Jet Pilot, who are usually a very noisy 5-piece. We got treated to two boys (Ross & Gordon), two guitars, some catchy tunes and slick harmonies, I really think they should record an acoustic EP but will also make an effort to catch there full band show at some point, as I imagine it would be right up my street.

Model Jet Pilot (duo)

They played a mixture of old tracks from their ‘Welcome To The Future’ LP and a few new ones too. Their online presence seems to be pretty limited but you can check them out on bandcamp.

So finally it was time for Sacre Noir to take to the stage. We started the set with a new, unreleased track ‘Heartache’ and finished with the next single ‘It’s Too Late Now’ and filled in the rest with a mixture of tracks from both LPs and even debuted a live-loop version of ‘Print Message Here’ from the Demo Recordings III EP. We played 3 unreleased tracks in total and they all felt good. ‘Rebels & Loners’ is a classic Sacre Noir ballad and ‘Afrika’ (soon to be re-named) is a more up-beat track, so they both had their own vibe to bring to the ebb and flow of this set, which I felt worked really well.

Sacre Noir on stage @ The Roxy 171 – photo by Charly Houston

Our sound engineer for the evening was Neil from KIC Studios, who did an amazing job and we can’t thank both him and Charly enough for helping us have a great first night of tour.

Our next gig is as a trio with Phil on guitar at the Corbridge Festival next weekend. Set in the beautiful grounds of Tynedale Rugby Club in Corbridge, along side the live music there will be range of attractions to entertain the whole family. Headliners this year are Big Country with Rozalla and Ball-zee also on the bill.
We will be performing for The Academy of Music & Sound (around 5pm) with some other fab acts taking to that stage from midday.
There is also and acoustic stage with great acts like Talk Like Tigers (who we’ll miss due to clashing stage times) and Chris Helme (Seahorses) so once we’ve wrapped up on our side of the field we’ll need to flip a coin to see which stage we’ll end up at for the rest of the night.

NEXT SHOW:
Summer Tour 2014: Gig 2 Saturday 12th July @ Corbridge Festival
http://www.corbridge-festival.co.uk/

066 – Sacre Noir Summer Tour 2014

Pre-Tour shenanigans & excitement

Summer Tour 2014 – Postcard

As another summer approaches, Sacre Noir returned to the live circuit with a pre-tour show at Edinburgh’s Citrus Club on June 21st. The gig was set up as a birthday celebration, and local acts (favoured by the birthday girl) turned out in force to show some love. Also on the bill was one of my favourite local riot grrrl acts, The Fnords. I have long been a fan of their surf-punk styling’s but it’s been a really long time since I’ve seen them live and their set was, as expected, fierce. A half-hour set peppered with old and new tracks and full of energy. Other acts on the night included birthday girl Pat’s bands P.A.L, Third Bass (whom she didn’t get to play with on the night due to breast feeding responsibilities) and the Incendiary Bats. I hadn’t seen any of these bands before and was super impressed with the line up. P.A.L have a great track called ‘Alex’ – definitely my favourite of theirs from the night and there were some mighty fine guitar and drum skills on show during the Incendiary Bats set (the bass skills on show during this event were of course evident in all bands except Sacre Noir).
We played as a trio & tried out a new original track, currently called ‘Rebels & Loners’ and also our new cover track ‘Open Up’ by Leftfield. The crowd were great! They were really responsive & reacted well to the new additions in our set. It seems like ages since we’ve played live together and it was a great warm up for this summer’s tour.

Next up was a super Sunday practice session at Bainbridge Music on Iona Street. We booked in for a double session; 1st up a trio rehearsal for the shows on July 12th at Corbridge Festival & 17th at Bannerman’s Bar, Edinburgh, then a duo rehearsal for the first night of the tour at The Roxy 171, Glasgow. 6 hours of rehearsal with a break for lunch at Café Casablanca on Leith Walk and one broken pedal (Phil’s Digitech 2nd edition Whammy – oh no) and I think we’re about ready hit the road.

AlexisSs ready for super Sunday Sacre Noir session

We’ve made some changes to the set up and are planning on unveiling a few new songs this summer, so I can’t wait to kick things of on Thursday with the first of two House Cat Promotions shows we have this summer. HCP are a Glasgow based promotions machine that have put together a great line up for us to begin our summer in style.

Sacre Noir @ The Roxy 171, Glasgow

Before this however I had a small business trip to Birmingham, where I saw this great advert at the Adidas store:

Adidas store Birmingham

Then Alexis & I went to see the marvellous Beth Orton at the O2 Academy in Glasgow. Last year we saw Amanda Palmer play in Edinburgh before we went off on tour & it provided us with an extra kick of inspiration and this year seeing Beth was not dissimilar. She has decided to play just 3 shows in the UK to promote the re-issue of Central Reservation. Both Alexis & I performed tracks from this LP as part of our final year Degree shows, so it was an amazing experience to watch her perform them live. Her band was amazing; Ted Barnes (guitar), Ali Friend (bass), Daisy Palmer (drums), Sam Amidon (violin – Beth’s hubby) and an amazing keyboard player whose name escapes me, but his and his fellow band mates playing was exceptional.

Beth Orton live at the O2 Academy, Glasgow

I really liked Daisy’s backing vocals and the general calmness that they exuded on stage was stunning. Track of the night, although I enjoyed every minute of their set, was Devil Song. This was that track I included in my degree show and listening to it performed live, really brought back memories of my college days and why I wanted to be a performer back then. On reflection I’m sure my ideals haven’t changed all that much.

Summer Tour 2014: Gig 1 Thursday 3rd July @ The Roxy 171, Glasgow
House Cat Promotions Presents: Sacre Noir//Josephine Sillars//Megan Airlie//Model Jet Pilot (Solo)

065 – Sacre Noir Summer Tour 2013 (gig 14)

Gig 14 – Sunday 1st September 2013 @ Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh
The end is neigh and the final show of this year’s summer tour looms large!
A last minute line-up change is called for after Lewis Gibson goes on a last minute holiday… to the rescue are a drum student, a local guitar legend and a couple of festival performers all brought together by the one and only Ewan Gibson. Naming themselves after a poetry meet The Soul Cypher featuring Mekkah & Twenty20 had a practice in the afternoon before the show and delivered a pretty convincing set (I’d love to have seen them if they were a full-time collective). Along with their sense of adventure the two American MCs also brought a touch of musical magic to the start of this event as everything was so relaxed and in the spirit of making good music and enjoying sharing the results.

The Soul Cypher live at Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh

We get ourselves set-up on the familiar stage of Henry’s and launch into our forty-minute set of dark electronica. The sound is tight and loud and we are pleased to hear that we’ve ‘awakened the goth’ in one enthusiastic fan in particular. It’s a good crowd that includes some familiar faces who are here to support our last show of the tour and check out The Penny Black Remedy. We’re really pleased with the response and happy to have played 14 great gigs stretching back to the first night of the tour back in July.

Sacre Noir live at Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh – Photo by Flare Photography

By the time The Penny Black Remedy took to the stage everyone in the venue was ready for their unique brand of musical mayhem, and once again the group didn’t disappoint. As with their show in Glasgow they mixed tracks from their debut LP with tracks from their latest release ‘Inhale… Exhale… Ok, Now You Can Panic!’ to great effect and had the crowd dancing and whooping for Keith’s guitar solos.

The Penny Black Remedy live at Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh

Looking back it’s been an amazing month and a half of gigs and travelling, playing to the new audiences and hanging out in some great cities. Big thanks are due to all the venues and promoters who have helped along the way; The Banshee Labyrinth, Box, The Vibe Bar, The Arc, Power’s Bar, The Dublin Castle, Belushi’s Gare du Nord and Canal Paris, Le Vieux Leon, Soupanova, Little Stage, Pfefferbett Hostel, Pivo Pivo, Henry’s Cellar Bar, Craig McGee, Plugged In Switched On, Bearsuit Promotions, Ben & Lio @ Belushi’s, Selina @ Soupanova, Alex @ Little Stage, Charlotte @ Pfefferbett, It’s a XXXX Blog Thing and Claire @ Henry’s. Big thanks are also due to all the fine bands we played with along the way; Llennett, Hot Jupiter, Little Love and the Friendly Vibes, Tom Coyne, Sir Spence, The Joy, George Frakes, Andy Docherty and The Caped Crusaders, Dressmaker, The Ocean’s Above, Mickey 9s, The Soul Cypher featuring Mekkah and Twenty20 and The Penny Black Remedy.
You can check out a video below which features footage from the gigs, interviews during the tour and more – a great snapshot into the touring life with Sacre Noir.