14TH JULY 2016
It might not seem that way, but it’s been busy recently with band related activity. I’ve been neglecting this blog as usual - I will write more soon about our recent Californian trip. It was great to go back there and we made a good start recording the next album in Los Angeles after the short tour. We’ll continue work on the new record after the summer months. The third Iona Village hall music festival just happened and it was another big success - it gets better every year - some great bands and always a lovely & unique atmosphere. Plans are already in place for another in 2017 - check the IVHMF Facebook pages for all information.
IONA VILLAGE HALL MUSIC FESTIVAL
My main news is the book I have been sporadically working on for years is finally available for sale, or rather ‘pre-order’. It is coming out on our label Empty Words and sold through the pledge shop. It will not be available to buy anywhere else. It is limited to 1000 copies and what is not sold by Aug 27th online will be sold at my September concerts.
Here are some facts about it…
• It’s called ‘instrumentals’ - I am normally pretty good at naming songs and albums, but I struggled with naming a book. Quite often in a song if i’m not sure about what to sing I suggest an instrumental section…
• It is not a ‘collected lyrics’ style book, although song lyrics take up 60% of the words in it. They are written the way I imagine them though, which might seem random to some
• Randomness plays a big part of this book
• I have been putting the package together with my pal Alex Brown. Alex is a photographer and designer who has worked with me putting together artwork on my last few solo albums and the recent Idlewild records also. We have spent a lot of time making sure the book looks just right. Alex Cares.
• It is hardback and printed on thick paper, printed by a small artisan printer - it is expensive, but it is expensive because it it high quality and has taken time - I am not trying to rip you guys off!
• I have always enjoyed painting - I am an art school drop out. Photographs of many of my paintings feature throughout, as do other photographs - some archive of the band, some of my notebooks, some of the Hebrides. Alex is a photographer by trade, I am an enthusiast. There are lots of photos. Good ones.
• The book is a limited run of 1000 - it is coming out on our (idlewild) label Empty words and sold through the Pledge shop. Any remaining books not sold by August 27th will be sold on my September tour. The book is selling well currently though, so if you definitely want to own one, I would suggest putting an order via the pledge shop and not wait to get one at the gigs just incase there are none. I see the Pixies are also selling their new album through this pledge shop set up. Bonus -
• We are also selling prints of one the paintings. These are limited to 100. Like the books, any remaining prints will be sold on the September tour after Aug 27th. The last I heard 84 had been sold though, so not many left. The painting is of the Isle of Mull. Specifically Glen More.
• That’s about it - 152 pages - words, paintings, photos, hardback, limited edition. Worth having if you like this sort of thing. You can’t put it in your pocket, but it’d look good on the bedside table, or the coffee table, or in your hands by the fire at the Clachaig inn, resting your feet with a pint of dark ale on the table next to you.
Last news worthy item - Idlewild play Kelvingrove Bandstand on Augsut 5th. This is one of our last concert until we have a new album ready, and is certainly the last concert of the ‘Everything Ever Written’ era. This has been an amazing two years for us - writing & piecing the album together throughout 2013 & 2014, recording it ourselves - getting back onto stage with the memorable Highlands & Islands acoustic tour in Sept 2014 - the album release in March 2015 - Top 20 chart placing - selling out the UK tour - headlining festival stages - Japan - America again - more sold out acoustic/electric UK shows - really it’s been quite an unexpected, life affirming experience and we’re carrying all those good vibes & ideas on into the brand new album. In the meantime, come and help us celebrate with our largest headline Scottish show at an iconic Glasgow landmark. With great support from C Duncan - still a few tickets remaining.
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29TH APRIL 2016
I’m not superstitious but I admit that the first four months of 2016 have been particularly bad for celebrity deaths - writing in the Guardian, columnist Deborah Orr puts it well - ‘People whose careers in entertainment began in or after the 1950’s - when mass culture started becoming truly dominant and helped make their innovations so rich - are beginning to die. Grief for the lost stars of mass culture is going to be a part of the fabric of western life from here on in’.
Rock and roll is a relatively young art form, and such a significant one with a huge impact on generations of teenagers now grown into adults (like myself) - as well as all the teenagers of today. The first wave of really influential artists - the ones who made music or said things that had not been heard before - they’re all in their 60’s now, or older. There are also more famous, or public figures there ever were. We’re going to have to get used to this.
Prince was an artist I associate with growing up in the 80’s - being forced to watch my sister and her friends doing dance routines to ‘Purple Rain’ and ‘Little Red Corvette’ (both classics admittedly). In the 90’s I was into Nirvana and Sonic Youth and underground US rock, not ‘Diamonds and Pearls’ and the other songs that Prince was putting out, I couldn’t relate to ‘Get Off’ or ‘The Most Beautiful Girl In The World’ and so didn’t pay much attention to his career. I didn’t start to really appreciate him until years later.
When Idlewild started touring in America in the 00’s we started playing in Minneapolis and at the First Avenue venue. This is legendary place full of musical history, and if, like me you’re a nerd for this kind of thing, it’s a pretty fascinating place to be - it seemed that literally everyone had played here and all their names are painted in stars along the outside wall - the toilets have no doors - that was another thing I remember. The Replacements were from Minneapolis, and Bob Mould too which I admit, was much more exciting to me at the time, nevertheless I’d seen the ‘Purple Rain’ film plenty of times and it was very cool to be on the same stage.
Minneapolis looked like any other American city to me after a month or so on tour and I tended to follow the same routine wherever I was - find a diner, have coffee and pancakes, and then go for a walk looking for book shops and record stores before load in and soundcheck. I found plenty of both in Minneapolis, buying two things that have remained favourites ever since - ‘The Book of Disquiet’ by Fernando Pessoa and ‘Sign o The Times’ by Prince.
I looked at that book and listened to that album everyday for the remainder of the tour. One is a a Portuguese post modernist classic - almost more of a philosophical quandary than normal novel, written from the perspective of three different characters - or ‘heteromyns’ as Pessoa called them. Existential musings falling somewhere between the vivid world of the mind and dreams and the monotony of a daily, work-driven existence. And then there’s ‘Sign o the times’ - with it’s eclectic, and defiantly messy mix of electro-funk, smooth soul and psychedelic pop rock - Prince is inhabiting many different characters over the course of this album. The lyrics and overall vibe is one of existential dread and end of the world doom. But funky with it. In a way the book and album work well with each other. They are expressing a lot of the same anxieties, thoughts, dreams - both in their own unique way.
One of Pessoa’s Heteronyms Bernard Soares writes, - “my soul is a hidden orchestra; I know not what instruments, what fiddle strings and harps, drums and tambours I sound and clash inside myself. All I hear is the symphony.”
Prince has 40 albums and I own two (1999 is the other one) I’ve got much catching up to do. These large bodies of work that David Bowie and Prince left behind are literally things that will be discovered again and again for ever and ever.
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15TH APRIL 2016
George Mackay Brown
Last year I pitched the idea of writing about my favourite Scottish poet & writer George Mackay Brown to a few publications here in Scotland. I say pitched, really I sent a couple of emails and didn’t hear back - I think pitching involves a bit more follow up & effort. After rejection I toyed with the idea of trying my hand at a radio programme or podcast, even contacting a few producers. Ultimately though I came to the conclusion that my appreciation and love of GMB (that’s what he’s known as in print) was too intertwined with the way I think, perhaps even too personal to really make a coherent (or entertaining) radio programme or newspaper article. In lieu of all this, but wanting in my own way to mark the 20th anniversary of GMB’s death, I thought i’d just put a few ideas and thoughts about him down here
If you’re not familiar with GMB - have a look on wikipedia, or if you’ve got more time, read Maggie Fergusson’s excellent biography of him ‘The Life’. To summarise though - GMB was born in Stromness in the Orkney Islands and aside from a spell living in Edinburgh in his thirties, spent all his life in the town on the islands. His poems, short stories, novels and plays are all set in The Orkneys and it is where he drew all of his inspiration. He was an Island poet in the old norse tradition, describing the world through the lens of Stromness.
Stromness is one of Scotland’s prettiest towns - the first time I visited was in 1992 - I came with my parents and we stayed in Stromness youth hostel - we were travelling around the highlands and northern isles and we came during something called ‘Stromness Shopping Week’ which I thought would consists of a few more coffee mornings than usual, maybe an outdoor stall or two - not 1,000 people getting drunk and having a party in the main street all night long. It was like some long lost wild link to their viking tradition. If I’d have been 19 or 20 I would have probably been into it - but I was 15 and with my parents staying in a youth hostel.
The morning after the sleepless night I walked into Stromness books & prints and bought a copy of George Mackay Browns ‘A Calendar of Love’. There was a display of all his books in the window. I had heard of him, but never read him. I was a keen reader, starting to explore Scottish writers after years spent reading American ones. I bought another two GMB books on that trip to the Orkneys ‘A Time to Keep’ and ‘Greenvoe’ which I read as we travelled around staying in various youth hostels and B&B’s.
At that time I had no idea that GMB lived about 200 metres from the bookshop, this was 1992 and although elderly and frail, he was alive and very much still a part of Stromness life. I have thought about his many times since and wondered if I walked past him. Or if I’d walked past his window and he looked out and saw me carrying one of his books.
In 1996 GMB died. He was 76 year old. I read the obituary in the newspaper and re-read all the books of his I had, going out to find the books I didn’t in second hand bookshops. I had discovered his poetry by this point, and was now 20 years old, living in Edinburgh and had formed Idlewild. We had started to play gigs and since I was the singer & lyricist I had started to pay much more attention to GMB’s poetry - his use of words & clipped phrases - very much influenced by the norse sagas - never a word wasted.
I went back up to Orkney in 1998 on holiday with my girlfriend at the time. By this stage I was a major GMB fan, enough to bore my girlfriend (who was a Scottish literature student so that’s saying something). I never visited his grave, but I stood outside the house he lived in for most of his adult life - 3 Mayburn court - wondering about the layout, hoping that the new residents weren’t wondering what a young man was doing staring at their house from across the cobbles.
The following year we were back up with the band - playing at the Kirkwall theatre on our first tour of the Scottish Highlands and islands just as ‘Little Siscourage’ was being released as a single. The NME were following us for that tour and there wasn’t much time for me to indulge in my GMB pilgrimage, so I had to make do with the battered book of poems I’d brought along, reading them over on the ferry and as we drove from Stromness to Kirkwall, and then over a glass of Scapa ale at The Bothy Bar before and after the show. The late NME journalist Steven Wells - known for his punk credentials and outspoken confrontational style was writing the feature and was particularly dismissive of my love of this ‘dead, pastoral poet’ as he put it (Steven was the last of the heavyweight NME writers who defined the paper in the 90’s. His endorsement was seen as a seal of approval - even if he started slagging us off right after ‘100 Broken Windows’ was released).
After that there was a 15 year absence from the orkney islands. The books though remained a touchstone - the same way that a Dylan record is never too far from the record player, a GMB book is never far from the bedside table, or the fireside, or in the suitcase for a tour. He was a companion.
Idlewild finally made the trip up to Orkney again in the autumn of 2014 to play an acoustic gig at the new theatre in Kirkwall high school. We spent the following morning of our day off in Stromness, and I got to visit the GMB grave at Warbeth cemetery and pay my respects - it took us quite a while to find the grave, as it is understated and not obvious. George lies amongst the community that he wrote about and his beautiful and modest headstone reads only ‘George Mackay Brown - Poet - ‘Carve the runes, then be content with silence’.
Afterwards we walked around the town, stopping at 3 Mayburn court again. Andrew, Lucci and Rod were interested in all my facts & fandom so I got to feel like finally I really could enthuse - thanks guys! - afterwards we retired to the Stromness hotel for a bottle of Orkney Blast (Orkney is rightly famed for it’s long brewing tradition and is home to some of Scotland’s greatest beers & ales - GMB would approve). Even though the carvery lunch was unremarkable, the bar & building itself are handsome, old and a good place to spend a few hours - and also a haunt of GMB in his day. There was something poignant to me about the meal and the visit. The gig the night before was good too, Idlewild had just started playing again after a break and I felt that I’d reached a stage in my life (probably at the same age as GMB) that this is what I do and what I will continue to do, regardless of trends, criticism, popularity - all that comes and goes like the tide. What matters is the work, and the search for meaning through the work. I think this is a revelation GMB also had as he sometimes faced criticism for the repeating themes and motifs in his work - sometimes his books were popular, other times they weren’t. He carried on regardless - and in doing so created a large body of work with a real (and unusual) sense of clarity. What I like about it so much and what keeps drawing me back is that all life is there in GMB’s Stromness - the town is the world. The Orkneys are the world. I have travelled a great deal more than GMB ever did, and lived in various places and countries, but I have no more insight than he does about the human condition from doing so - just more photographs.
When asked about GMB’s place in the cannon of Scottish Literature Edwin Morgan commented - “who can predict? I think people will always enjoy his clarity, his storytelling, and the whole background of an anciently inhabited group of islands. I am less sure of the ritualistic, often simplistic Catholic element of his work and I am inclined to think that his stories will stand the course better than his poems. But he is certainly a part of that creative generation and he is an original”.
GMB was certainly an original. There is always something new to discover in his work. I can’t recommend him enough, and on the 20th anniversary of his death I encourage you all to go and seek out his poems & stories.
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7TH MARCH 2016
The first Idlewild live album is out now - we’re all really happy with it. Live albums are a notoriously tricky equation. The balance between capturing the raw energy of the concert without sacrificing a performance that will lend itself to repeated listens - it is a hard one. We have done live releases of sorts in the past - the live DVD in 2007 and also live downloads available for the pre order of ‘Post Electric Blues’ (recorded at the King Tuts residency in 2008) - and ‘Live at Duart Castle’ - the acoustic download that came with pre-orders of ‘Everything Ever Written’. This time though I guess it was more considered - we recorded quite a few nights so we could pick the best performances (although the majority chosen were from the Barrowlands in Glasgow and London KoKo). It was all mixed by Kris Pohl and there was a lot of thought that went into the songs picked, the mix, the presentation - everything basically. A labour of love I suppose since we have always been a good live band and we wanted the album to reflect that, and the diversity in our back catalogue. It’s become maybe my favourite Idlewild record - maybe it’s because it’s the first time I’ve got to be in the crowd so to speak. The old songs, re-arranged and played in a way that befits them now have so much vibrancy to them and the songs from ‘Everything Ever Written’ benefit considerably. That album, although one of the most creative and satisfying to make, was still made in quite a dysfunctional way - Rod and I starting it and over the next 18 months the others joining in. We weren’t really a proper band until three quarters the way through. So on the live album the songs from that record get the chance to sound like proper band songs on disc - ‘Use It (If You Can Use It), ‘Left Like Roses’ and ‘Utopia’ have never sounded better. The album (which is released on our own Empty Words label) will not have general release as such, but will be available to purchase shortly from the Idlewild web store, and also at future concerts. In due course it will also appear on Spotify and iTunes. Go seek it out if you haven’t already…..
I’ve been enjoying spending a bit more time in Dundee. We’ve been working on the new Idlewild album in Andrew’s rehearsal space he keeps in the city (which he also lives in). Some will know of course that I spent a good portion of my growing up living in Carnoustie, just outside Dundee and come from a family of Dundonians. Although I associate the city with my childhood, my grandparents and The Broons and Oor Wullie (ask a Scottish friend) - it is fairly changing as a place and seems on the cusp of some sort of cosmopolitan makeover. When I was a teenager we fantasied about Glasgow and Edinburgh, thinking nothing interesting ever happened or came to Dundee. But with the building of the new V&A Museum and the general facelift the whole waterfront has had - also the cheap spaces available to artists and the always reliably good Art School - all adds up to a positivity and creativity that I never noticed before. Still, there will always be a pint of tartan special at Speedwell Tavern - our favourite post songwriting watering hole, and an old school Dundee institution if ever there was one. The kind of place Paw Broon would have been proud to prop up the bar.
We begin recording our album in Los Angeles straight after our Californian shows in May. I am excited about this. I took a real liking for LA when we recorded ‘Warnings/Promises’ there in 2004 - of course back then, on the major label pay roll, we had a hired house in the Hollywood hills with a swimming pool, and were recording for two months at Sunset Sound Studios and were by all intents and purposes living out a laurel canyon 70’s fantasy. This time the studio is a lot more modest (although no less funky) - it’s where my new Jazz hero Kamasi Washington (‘The Epic’ - my album of 2015) recorded his record, so hopefully some of his space age jazz fusion vibes will rub off on us. We’re AirBnB-ing it in a 50’s bungalow in Echo Park close to the studio. it’ll be interesting to drive around and see what’s changed in the decade I’ve been away from the city. It’ll be sunny & warm, great mexican food, Ameboa records, a paddle in the Pacific. Good times.
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23RD DECEMBER 2015 - CHRISTMAS BLOG BY RODDY
For the past 13 years or so at some point in an Idlewild concert Edwin Morgan’s voice booms out of the PA system, reciting his poem ‘Scottish Fiction’ - it’s probably the poem I know more than any others - I’ve heard it a thousand times and yet I always enjoy that moment in the gig.
On the train home from tour I started reading ‘The Midnight Letterbox - selected Correspondence by Edwin Morgan’ - his collected letters basically. Reading someone else’s letters is quite a strange thing (although fascinating) - you get a sense of being somehow closer to the person than before - I guess mainly because when you are writing to someone you are not expecting the correspondence to be published in a book and you are much more open. There are letters to TS Eliot, Allen Ginsberg and Alasdair Gray amongst many others. If you’re interested in the man then I’d recommend it.
I didn’t know Edwin well, but visited him a few times and recorded him reading the poem in the bright front room of his flat in Whittinghame court back in 2001. I was nervous that day, but mainly because I was worried that I didn’t know how to work the mini disk player and would mess the recording up. Edwin himself was warm and charming company.
Recently I’ve started putting together a book of my words and pictures. I’m working with my friend Alex Brown on this. Alex is a photographer and designer who has put together the artwork for my/our last few albums. We’re keen to make something that looks and feels good, so it won’t be a standard ‘collected lyrics’ style publication, or an attempt at poetry. The majority of the words are made up from lyrics, but there is a lot of different stuff in there too, as well as plenty of photographs of paintings, drawings and notebooks.
It was interesting to have a listen to the early records and think about the words again. There is a great tune - “you don’t have the heart’ from Hope is Important. Don’t know why I totally forgot about that one - it’s noisy and fairly strange considering this was our debut album for a major label, and the words are slightly superfluous to the riff - but at the start there is a snippet of conversation that I’ve been listening to again and again - I really can’t work out whats going on. In a good way.
There is another tune on that record ‘lowlight’ - I’m not that keen of the words, but we recorded that one live in the studio and if anyone ever wants to know what Idlewild sounded like in 1997/8 - then listen to that - it’s off kilter and noisy and quite improvised in a basic way, but, exciting. If anyone wants to know what Idlewild sounded like in 1995/6 then listen to that and imagine it being played even worse. And me throwing my shoes at the crowd.
For Idlewild 2015 has been a wonderful year. In February ‘Everything Ever Written’ was released to good reviews from fans and critics alike - it debuted in the top 20, a place we haven’t been for a while. The tour sold out and the London Roundhouse was the first of the years extra special gigs. 3,000 Idlewild fans in one place singing back at us.
Over the summer we found ourselves playing good slots at quite a few festivals - sometimes even in the dark! Trips to Japan and America followed - the first in a decade. And we ended the year with another successful tour around the UK playing acoustic and electric sets, including a very memorable Glasgow Barrowlands show - live album available to pre-order - http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/idlewildlive
The feeling among the band is one of excitement and possibility - there is something still fresh & enduring about the group, and we should get on with writing and recording a new album. Aside from the Hogmanay show that’s what we’re going to be doing for the first half of the new year.
My albums of the year - predictable perhaps for those that know me (or read this blog regularly) but my most listened to records of 2015 were by two bands that have been Woomble stereo staples for a long time now - Wilco (with their ‘Star Wars’ album) and Vetiver (with their new one ‘Complete strangers’) . I love both those bands, and their new releases were reassuringly great.
2015 was also the year I got into - Spotify, and I’ve enjoyed discovering a lot of new music through that, particularly it’s been fuelling my burgeoning interest in free jazz.
Probably the best gig I saw this year was in Cafe Oto in London and was two sets of improvised free jazz (shamefully I can’t even remember the names of the musicians) - at times it was complete chaos, at other times meditatively quiet, but the whole thing was memorising and relaxing. Patti Smith at Glastonbury was incredible too.
Like I said aside from getting my book together, 2016 will be spent at work writing and demoing songs for the new Idlewild record… but for now I’m going to light the fire, pour myself a glass and listen to the storm…
I’d like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas - thank you for supporting the band through the year - and have a happy, healthy & productive 2016!
RW
21ST NOVEMBER 2015 - USA TOUR DIARY
Day 1 - Sunday October 18th - Edinburgh - Chicago >It’s only just over a week since we returned from Japan - my jet lag is barely under control, and we’re meeting at the airport again for another long haul flight. We’ve not done this sort of travelling for 10 years at least. This year has been pretty amazing in that respect. I’m not moaning. I’m excited.
In between these trips we played a sold out concert in Paisley Abbey with the Royal National Scottish orchestra. Playing with a 60 piece orchestra in an 11th century abbey is not the usual sort of event that we cram in. Needless to say it went by a bit of a blur and I’m sure it’s significance will develop with time. I’ve been told it went well.
Anyway - another long haul flight - although I must say, after the Japan trip (14 hours of flying) 8 hours to Chicago doesn’t seem too bad. Normally on planes I try to read and twitch nervously for the duration - this time for some reason I am much more relaxed - I drink a few beers and watch a few terrible films, which is what everyone else seems to do on an aeroplane. Curiously, I also watch another film through the gap in the seats in front of me. Of course there is no sound, but it doesn’t matter. I enjoy it more than the films I chose.
We are doing this short trip back to basics, just the band - no sound man, tour manager or equipment (other than our guitars and pedals) - we are using the support bands. To be honest I had my doubts whether Idlewild would ever play in America again - we haven’t been out here in ten years and our last three albums haven’t had a US release. from 200-2005 we had a bit of a run I guess - we toured frequently had a record label (Capitol) who issued our records and put a bit of money behind us (which is what it is all about really, no more so than in America) - we had a bit of success on college radio, made some fans and ended up with a sizeable cult audience, particularly on the coasts.
When our deal with EMI ended in 2005 that was the end of our American deal too, and since then we have never been back. It is difficult to sustain anything in America if you’re coming over from Scotland without a record label or support. Visas, flights, van hire etc - you’re in debt before you’ve started - the country is so vast & varied too, you can be popular in one city, drive 12 hours to the next one and play to ten people. It is no wonder why American bands find relatively easy in the UK - a country full of eager music fans and no drive is more than a few hours.
Never the less, a lot of folk have remained interested in our music. Buying the albums on import and being vocal on social media about getting us back over to play. We have done literally no press for this tour. In many ways, is remarkable how it’s happening at all, but tickets have sold well considering, and our new American booking agent Mike, is a big fan of the group and views this short tour as the start of something new.
Taxi into Chicago - to be back in America feels familiar & weird. I worked out on the plane that combining all the Idlewild tours, and including all the time i spent living here (as a teenager in South Carolina, as an adult in New York) - that I have spent 6 years of my life in the US and have visited (or at least driven through) every single state except Alaska. I feel like i know the place, and yet don’t know it at all - and maybe that’s whats great about it.
The hotel - the city suites on Belmont avenue - again deja vu - we have stayed here lots of times before - even the smell of the room is familiar. I phone my wife to tell her we’ve arrived - she recalls a panic attack she once had in this hotel during a gruelling three month American tour she was on with her band. Our room faces onto a brick wall. I’ve just arrived but can sympathise.
We all head out and do that thing where we walk down a street and no one can decide where to go, so we walk back to where we started and just go to the bar across the street from the hotel. It is a sports bar and the baseball is on all the TV’s. Chicago cubs against the New York Mets - the world series. A big deal judging by some of the dudes getting worked up around us. I don’t know much about baseball, or sports in general. but I like the outfits and the associated language - ‘a big hitter’ ‘in the ballpark’ ‘covering all the bases’ etc.. When i was at American high school I remember how passionate some folk were about it. So I keep any cynicism quiet and actually start to get involved in the game. Of course several glasses of delicious Goose Island IPA help with that.
Day 2 - Monday 19th October - Chicago
Wake up. It’s early. Jet lag. Stay in bed until I know the diner next door will be open and then get up and go to it. Diners are one of my favourite things about America - I know I am guilty of romanticising them - imagining all the everyday human dramas that go on over scrambled eggs; all the lonely cups of coffee drunk it booths.
Our first visit to Chicago was back in 1999, where we spent a week in Electrical audio, the studio owned by Steve Albini, recording five songs for our album ‘100 broken windows’ with Bob Weston. Bob had recorded many underground rock records that we had pored over - record by Rodan, June of 44, Rachels amongst many others. At the time we were all very into that sounds and aesthetic and recording with Bob was a pleasure. He was a great host too - he picked us up from the airport in his transit van, took us to the studio (where we were staying) then out for a meal to his favourite restaurant and then onto see Cheap Trick at the Riviera theatre. We also spent a good bit of time that week watching bands at the Lounge Ax, the sadly defunct indie rock hang out/venue - we saw At the Drive in, who blew all our minds. It was a eventful, unforgettable week, and the songs we recorded weren’t bad either.
On subsequent US tours (2001/02/03/05) we always visited Chicago, playing at the Lounge Ax, the double door (3 times), and finally the metro. We also opened for Pearl jam at the united centre. At the risk of sounding stupid, it feels much more of a normal city than say, LA or New York. In a good way though - full of very friendly mid-westerners proud of where they’re from. Bars feel ‘local’ if you know what I mean. Probably a good city to live in, although the winters would be miserable.
The bottom lounge, where we’re playing is in an odd part of town, surrounded by industrial units - The Jaguar club are opening for us on these four shows. They are a New York based band and are graciously supplying us with their back line to play through. Thanks guys! they seem like a lovely bunch of people.
After soundcheck I sit in the front bar for a bit and get chatting to some fans who have driven and flown from far and wide for this gig - it’s fairly mind blowing the commitment people have towards Idlewild. I can understand why America took to us initially though - we were clearly influenced by US bands (REM, Superchunk, the Replacements to name a few), so had a familiar sound, but with a Scottish sensibility which was vaguely exotic to American music fans I think. We were also loud and unpredictable live, which gave the whole thing an exciting edge. ‘100 broken windows’ was a cult hit here (Spin magazine named it as the ‘number 1 album of the year you didn’t get to hear in 2000’) - I think most of our US fans discovered us through that record - either that or supporting Pearl Jam around America in 2003, where we played in front of tens of thousands of people each night under their endorsement.
We take the stage - the crowd is a respectable size, and importantly all very into it. We’re playing really well these days and have a set list of 30 songs to choose from. we spent a lot of time making the songs as varied as they could be - changing arrangements, adding harmonies, editing sections that didn’t interest us anymore. It is a unique version of Idlewild now and the set list has never sounded better. We are recording the UK tour next month to preserve this set, and this year, in audible amber. You can order it here.
After the show we sell t-shirts and chat to fans (and Bob Weston who has come down) before all heading back to the hotel. Jet lag forces everyone to bed. Apart from Colin. nothing ever forces Colin to bed.
Day 3 - Tuesday 20th October - Chicago
Odd to have a day off when we’ve just got going, but such was the planning. The day starts off well. Breakfast at the diner next door - Denver omelette, coffee, side of cinnamon rolls(!) and hash browns. feel like I’ve eaten two meals afterwards. It’s the American way.
Breakfast over, we take taxis’ to the north of the city - thanks to the generosity of studio manager Mark Greenberg we get a tour of the loft - the studio owned and run by Wilco. I have been a big Wilco/Uncle Tupleo fan for over 20 years - they are a band we all love. What an amazing place and space they’re got - We’ve been slowly getting our own place together in Edinburgh to practice and record, but the Loft is off the scale - it is every bands dream to have a place as inspiring as this to work in!
We go to a local diner for coffee to talk about what we’ve just seen. Everyone is really inspired and talk turned to our new record, and the way we’re going to record it. It’s a great moment - all of us in a neighbourhood diner somewhere in suburban Chicago, over weak coffee, getting excited about music, art, ideas….
After this we take taxi’s downtown and to the arts institute of Chicago - the 2nd largest museum in America housing some of the worlds greatest works of art - American art, old masters, you name it, it’s here. I’m not ashamed to admit that alongside seeing some of the greatest works of art on the planet - I’m also fairly pumped to wander the corridors where they filmed some of the scenes from ‘Ferris Bueller’s day off’. Like anyone else who grew up and was a teenager in the late eighties/early nineties the films of John Hughes played a significant role in my life - pretty in pink, some kind of wonderful, the breakfast club, and my favourite - ferris buellers day off. I can’t think of a director who captured the inner lives of American teenagers (and subsequently Scottish teenagers - any teenagers!) so accurately — the ‘poet laureate of teen angst’ as he’s known, the American high school experience chronicled. Also, all brilliant & honest time capsules - I went to American high school in the eighties and it was exactly like that.
After all that art we have a late lunch in a downtown diner. Ruben sandwich, fries, beer. Today feels like we are on holiday. In fact all the tours and shows we’ve done this year have felt like that. More bands should take a break - then they will feel grateful and like they are on holiday instead of moaning all the time. Hannah, Andrew, Lucci and and I head to dusty grooves in wicker park - one of the best record shops in the city - maybe the best if you’re into jazz, which we all are. Spend some dollars and then hit a few more record stores before retiring to the Rainbo club for some drinks & pinball. I was taken here in 2005 and remember having a great time. It’s by all accounts a bit of a low key, indie rock landmark - dimly lit, very friendly, with great music and cheap beer.
I actually don’t think this day could have gone any better.
Day 4 - Wednesday 21st October - Boston
Up early and back to the airport for the flight to Boston. It’s actually ok and on time, and not much waiting is involved, and minimal nerves & turbulence and so I’ve almost forgotten about the experience by the time we’re picking up our hire car. We’re upgraded and given an absolutely massive thing - if you can imagine what a splitter van would look like if it pretended to be a car.
Inside it’s spacious and comfortable though - no ones complaining. We drive into Boston. The gig tonight is at a venue called ‘the sinclair’, in Cambridge - the nicest bit of Boston as far as i can see. Cambridge is the home of Harvard university and is suitably full of students dashing between classes with books under their arms and scarves trailing behind them in the wind.
There is a great bookstore that I’ve been to before - the Harvard bookstore. Where I live (the Hebrides) there are no bookstores. I love bookstores, so i take full advantage of this free time and spend over an hour looking through and reading the great selection of books on the shelves -, leaving with Patti Smith’s new memoir ‘M Train’ which i immediately start reading in a neighbouring coffee shop.
The venue is very good and new with a great restaurant next door where we eat. Once again the crowd are deeply into the songs and afterwards we meet folks who have traveled from as far as Canada and Texas. We drive after the show for an hour to Sturbridge to stay at the roadside - ‘Scottish Inn’ - Rod behind the wheel - classic rock on the dial. It flies by and we are in our room & bed by 2am.
Day 5 - Thursday 22nd October - Brooklyn
Wake in the Scottish Inn. Outside it’s a beautiful day - clear & crisp - the leaves on the tree are fabulous colours - Sturbridge is very pretty. This is `New England and i like it. head to Annie’s kitchen - the diner next door. The man at the booth next to mine wishes me a good morning, recommends the omelette and goes back to his newspaper. It is all a bit like something out of a John Irving novel. I order pancakes and look out the window, imagining a life as a New England academic being recommended omelettes but choosing pancakes at Annie’s kitchen every morning.
The drive to New York is quite painless - we listen to classic rock radio again, everything they play is pre-1980. What are classic rock stations of the future going to play? I have the feeling they will still be playing the Eagles.
One toilet stop in the Bronx later, we are handing the car back at the car hire in Brooklyn in the early afternoon. Tonight mostly all of us are staying in an air b&b apartment in Williamsburg, although I’m staying with a friend and (former New York flat mate) in Manhattan. I lived in New York for most of 2004 in a room on 13th street in the East Village. The room was small, but i was rarely in it, instead I wandered the city taking it all in, and meeting some outrageous characters in the process and generally having a great time. Homesickness, hatred of air travel and falling in love took me back permanently to Scotland in 2005 but i will always be fascinated by this city - it is well and truly one of the most remarkable places on planet earth. When i left, Williamsburg was just starting to become the place to go out in - ten years later it most definitely is the place to be. There are so many great looking cafes, bars & shops - and all with a lovely neighbourhood vibe. It’s one subway stop from Manhattan - no wonder why everyone wants to live here.
Tonight’s gig is the best yet - packed out and the crowd are great. There are quite a few familiar faces out there - lots of people that we used to know. Andy Greenwald - an early champion of our band and now a successful author and podcaster - Tim Wheeler and Mark Hamilton from Ash, a band that we supported back in 1998. Tim and Mark have both lived in America for years. It’s good to see them.
The night end strangely in a Scottish bar called ‘Iona’ where the music is far too loud, and we are all wondering why we’ve ended up in a Scottish bar.
Day 6 - Friday 23rd October - New York
Wake up - walk along Rivington, up Clinton street (stopping for some superb blueberry pancakes at the Clinton Street bakery) - up Avenue B, through Tompkin square, along St Marks place looking for the bookstore (it’s closed down) - continue on to the Strand bookstore - spend an hour there - through Greenwich village to the west village and meet Rod in a coffee shop. We are doing an interview where we rank all our albums - we’ve done one like this before, I guess that’s what you do when you’ve got lots of records out. My top 3 Idlewild albums - joint 1st place - ‘Everything ever written’ and ‘warnings/promises’ close 2nd ‘100 broken windows’ - three albums that i feel are accurate descriptions (artistically, personally) of me in that moment of time. Rod and I disagree about it a bit, and we’re not really used to doing interviews together so we talk over each other a lot (actually we do that all the time) - after the interview we walk slowly up to the venue chatting until we get to the Gramercy theatre.
New York has made it’s mark on Idlewild - we recorded a bit of ‘the remote part’ in New York at the Magic shop with Lenny Kaye producing. Lenny is a bit of a legend to me - a really inspiring man to be around. ‘Warnings/Promises’ was mixed here, uptown with Michael Brauer. Michael mixed a lot of the Dylan bootleg albums - i remember quizzing him constantly about that. last year Rod came over to mix ‘Everything ever written’ with Jon Angello in Brooklyn - The New York bands have always had a big influence on us - Patti Smith group, Sonic Youth, Television, Ramones…. I’d like to think that there’s a little bit of this city mixed into a lot of our songs.
The gig is great - considering Blur are playing their first US show in a longtime a few blocks away we pull in a good crowd. It is the biggest stage of the tour too, which is nice and I can actually hear myself over Colin’s cymbals. Idlewild is more of a collective now almost - each member has their own projects on the go (the most recent in Andrews excellent first solo album ‘Soroky’) and when we meet to play and write there is a really creative pulse and energy to proceedings. We’re all excited to start another record and have lots of songs ideas to build on.
Afterwards a big group of us head out, descending on a local bar - turns out there is Karaoke going on and so we all get to it - Andrew shines with his version, Hannah with her note perfect ‘Your Cheating Heart’ and I try my best with a selection from the musicals - ‘I am sixteen going on seventeen’ and ‘Surrey with a Fringe on Top’. It’s now 2am and only in New York do you have the option to go and watch Jazz and play ping pong - and that’s what we do, until about 5am when I walk home eating pizza. The streets are still buzzing & alive. What a place.
Day 7 - Saturday 24th October - New York
This doesn’t really count as a day ‘off since the tour is over, but we’re still here for another day - a day that involves much wandering around Greenwich village and the west village, bloody mary’s at Cafe Dante, pizza at Motorino’s and then in the evening Hannah, Andrew and I take in the Fred Hisch trio at the legendary Jazz club the Village Vanguard……
2015 has been a revelatory time for Idlewild - putting out an album on our own label and it being so well received - the tour selling out, and getting to visit Japan & America again after all this time. Like I say, there is a new feeling about what we can do and where we can go - I mean, we’re realists so we’re not aiming for number 1, but artistically, to quote David Metzler - ‘it is creation, and being creation, it is new every time’.
- RW
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11TH NOVEMBER 2015 - Japan tour diary
Day 1 - Sunday 27th September - Edinburgh - Tokyo
‘ Rattling me along
to where you wait in Shinjuku -
the Odakyu line is my silk road ‘
….That’s taken from Machi Tamara’s Japanese poetry classic ‘Salad anniversary’. I’ve long been interested in Japan, and Japanese culture. Idlewild have been there twice previously - in 1998 and in 2007. Both of those visits were only for the duration of the short tours. We’ve never spent more than 5 night in the country, and have never really had any days off (or free time) to explore. This is often the case when touring with a band - you travel widely, but don’t ever see much. Both previous visits were memorable for the concerts, and also the excellent and unusual meals we would be taken for afterwards by the record company - and of course the karaoke bars we’d inevitably end up in after the meals.
I’ve never had the sense that I have seen much of Tokyo though, or felt the atmosphere of the place properly. This time it’s different - everyone has brought their partners along and we’re all staying on after the tour finishes for a holiday - we’ve got our 7 year old son (Uist) with us too.
We all meet at Edinburgh airport, everyone beaming in from different places - Dundee, Glasgow, London, the Hebrides, North Berwick. We’re flying with Lufthansa and changing planes in Frankfurt - I hate flying, I get nervous and I can’t relax, and I haven’t been on a long haul flight since the last Japanese trip 8 years ago. It is easier to deal with your adult anxiety when sat next to a child though - his genuine excitement rubs off, and actually I start to (almost) enjoy being 5 miles in the air traveling at 600pmh over Siberia. I read quite a bit of the book I’m working through ‘Yeah, Yeah yeah’ by Bob Stanley. Essential reading for those interested in popular music.
day 2 - Monday 28th sept Tokyo
‘ In Yokohama’s chinatown
perhaps the last time -
buying a smile shaped cookie ‘
the flight lands into Tokyo Handea airport at around 2pm local time. By the time we’ve cleared customs, got our bags and are driven into the city it is about 5pm. We’re staying for the first three nights in ‘hotel wing’ which is kind of like a Japanese Premier inn, only with much smaller rooms and politer staff. Our room is on the 11th floor. It’s cramped, smells of smoke, and is too warm - not a good combination - there are also only two single beds, and three of us. We head out for a wander. It’s warm and bright, but nice when you get off the main drag and into the myriad of side streets - It’s one thing I remember about the city - just off these huge, busy streets, the side streets are quiet and calm, and everyday life goes on unaffected by the noise & chaos. There are quite a few shrines to look at. Everyone else has headed off into nearby Shinjuku for beers & sushi, but we opt for a bowl of noodles in a small neighbourhood place and then head back to the hotel. We are all asleep by 8pm
day 3 - Tuesday sept 29th - Tokyo
‘ “one basket 100 yen”
Tomatoes lined up at the shopfront
wear a disgruntled look ‘
A dislocated night of sleep - Jet lag has me wide awake at 2am - Uist and I play eye-spy out the window looking over the lights & sprawl of this mega-city. We drop off again about 5am and end up sleeping until 11am, yet still feel exhausted when we wake. Jet-lag. We take a taxi to the Omte-Sando vicinity for breakfast. We have fantastic guide book - http://hellosandwich.blogspot.co.uk (everything in here that we go to, from cafes & restaurants to bookshops & galleries is brilliant. It is highly recommended for anyone visiting Tokyo) - Pancakes are a breakfast craze out here and Avenue A’s are good, and so is the coffee. It is warm outside and I feel spaced out. We walk to Kiddyland. 5 floors of Japanese toys. It is not the ideal place to feel spaced out in, but it is also quite excellent - lots of interesting toys and general Japanese madness. We are all bigs fans of the films made by Studio Ghibli - ‘My Neighbour Totoro’, ‘Spirited away’, ‘Princess Monoku’, ‘Pom Poko’ - each one an animated classic. There are lots of affiliated toys and merchandise for sale here.
the venue, Womb, is in Shibuya, which the the bright, brash and busy area that houses many of the cities best bars, venues, shops etc - I guess you could compare it to times square, or Piccadilly Circus, but it is entirely it’s own place. Womb is a 500 capacity club, with a high ceiling so it appears even more spacious. We are playing here for two nights. The PA system is positioned behind the stage slightly, which is quite a mad move - the band get blasted with volume and the monitors onstage are almost pointless. Soundcheck is difficult.
In previous visits a lot of our time has been taken up with interviews - ‘everything ever written’ has been released on a small local label called ‘Vinyl Junkie’ . We have not done much press at all prior to this trip, and are doing nothing while we are here but the record has been well received, the label seem happy, and we have a loyal Japanese fan base who have snapped up tickets. The Vinyl Junkie folk are all here and are very nice and can’t do enough for us. They go out to get us food - a huge tray of sushi and bowls of ramen noodles. The noodles are some of the best I’ve eaten. This is not the usual dressing room fare. The dressing room is high up above the stage with a glass wall, so that all the guests can watch the show in comfort.
concerts start early in Japan - doors are 6.30pm and we are on at 7.30 sharp for two hours, followed by an autograph session. This is customary here, and actually quite a pleasant experience. back in 1998 we were perplexed by the whole thing though - we had pretty much been on tour all that year. Japan was the last stop and we were tired & burn out. The record ‘hope is important’ had done quite well though, and the shows were all sold out. The NME were over interviewing us for our first cover feature, and we were even on Japanese TV, playing the game ‘twister’ with 2 fans who had won a competition to do so. It was a surreal and action packed 5 days. I don’t think Bob was sober for any of it. I also remember that since Japanese crowds expect at least a 90 minute set, that we had to write new songs especially for the shows. Our sets at the time was 50 minutes max, and that was playing almost every song we had. we played them all so damn fast. I don’t think those songs we wrote were ever played again. I can’t even remember what they were called.
Our show tonight is a different story. We are a totally different group to the one back in 1998. We have eight albums worth of songs to choose from, and we are playing them better than ever. There is a new dynamic, optimism, excitement and possibility to Idlewild now, and each of us savour the moments onstage. It is too fucking loud though. Who decided to put the PA behind the stage?! - it is really hard to hear yourself sing/play. I think we play well though and the crowd are very appreciative and a lot more animated than i remember Japanese crowds being in the past. Afterwards the autograph session is suitably humbling, people have travelled from all over to be at these gigs. A few fans even shed tears - Rods guitar playing gets compared to Neil Young, and one fan gifts us all with a soap on a rope in the shape of a fish.
I am the responsible parent this evening, so head back to the hotel with Uist, drink some green tea and watch Japanese cartoons until we fall asleep. Everyone else heads out partying into shibuya for kobe beef bbq, bar hopping and karaoke!
day 4 - Wednesday sept 30th - Tokyo
‘ A day playing at Enoshima Beach -
you have your future, I mine,
and so we take no snapshots ‘
Uist and I are awake early, so we head out for breakfast (a banana & doughnut from 7-eleven) and then take a short walk to the Tokyo toy museum. Plastic toys, computer games, fast paced movies & apps - the basic fare for most kids nowadays. So walking into the quiet & calm rooms of Tokyo toy museum, filled with old traditional Japanese wooden toys, my initial reaction is - ‘we’re going to be here for ten minutes’ . But the staff are so engaged & involving, there are lots of cool activities and the toys so well crafted and interesting (works of art some of them) and all great fun to play with that I have to drag Uist away an hour and a half later. We could have easily stayed another hour - we hadn’t even got to the origami workshop.
Soundcheck. delicious noodles. A few beers. then the gig. different songs from last night, quite a few older ones that I’m never that keen on playing but always go down well. “I’m a message’ gets it’s first airing for 8 years and is probably the hit of the night. We also play ‘All things different’ from the new album and i get to play electric guitar which is quite exciting, even though i can’t hear anything (did i mention that the PA system is behind the stage!!)
Tonight it is my turn to head out, the gang split up as some of us opt to eat first and hang out close to the hotel. Like other major cities not in the UK, late night dining is very much the thing here - it’s easy to find great food, in civilised restaurants at any time. it’s easily 11pm by the time we find somewhere good to eat and it’s packed - not with a drunken crown like it would be in UK - there is no English spoken, or translated menus, but i just point to the table next to me, what they’re having looks great, and we’re brought out a selection of delicious chicken dishes. I think this is a restaurant that specialised in various parts of a chicken put on a grill - we eat skin and neck, and some thighs, and a cabbage dish that is simple & superb.
After the chicken we meet up with everyone else in a tiny jazz bar, a short walk from the restaurant. We are the only ones in it, and the barman puts on some steely dan at our request. They are a band that we all love. It is smoky (weirdly, in Japan you are not allowed to smoke on the street, only inside) and we drink beer & cocktails. It is a great place to end the night.
Day 5 - Thusrday Oct 1st - Osaka
‘ Three thirty pm in a noodle shop
listening to the whisper
of frying tempura ‘
Today we are leaving Tokyo for Osaka, Japan’s third largest city, 500km down the east coast from Tokyo. It’s a important industrial port famous for it’s nightlife, street food, and aquarium (the largest in the world). The bullet train takes us there - it’s clean and brightly lit, goes very fast and this morning is full of sleeping businessmen. Osaka is a bit grimier than Tokyo, more industrial and just generally a bit less gentile. Really busy too, and more hectic than Tokyo. The venue is a club two floors below a hotel called ‘Fan J twice’ - maybe the weirdest name for a venue ever. The dressing room stinks of kerosene so after a quick(ish) soundcheck everyone vacates the venue until showtime.
Osaka’s street food is one of it’s main draws - Octopus dumplings are a local delicacy or Takoyaki as they’re known. They’re made from a wheat flour based batter that is filled with diced octopus, pickled ginger, and green onion. Topped with dried bonito, and a douse of mayonnaise and takoyaki sauce. It’s ‘Osaka soul food’ and it sold everywhere along the street, served with a Japanese beer. It’s lot more gooey than i expected. One is nice, but by the third, I’ve had enough. Okonomiyaki is another of Osaka’s famous dishes - it’s is a savoury Japanese pancake that originated in the city, topped with a variety of things. I want to try one, but can’t find a stall. There seems to be some sort of Takoyaki/Okomiyaki rivalry because the Octopus dumping sellers take the hump when I ask if they know anywhere good and close to get some Okomiyaki. Have a slice of Pizza instead which is surprisingly good. Italian food is very popular in Japan, and of a high standard. Definitely the best Italian food I’ve had outside of Italy or New York.
in 2007 with ‘Make another world’ we headlined the ‘British Anthems’ festival in Tokyo and then came down to play in Osaka. I remember the trip being enjoyable overall, but short (four days) and that i was crippled with the most horrendous jet lag I’ve ever had - i was falling asleep everywhere, and often had the feeling that I was on a ship - that the ground was moving under my feet. It hit me the worst in Osaka, so my abiding memory of the place is lying down on a couch.
Tonight’s gig is a good one, the onstage sound is really good (the PA system is in front of the stage) and the audience are excited to see us play. After the show & autographs, everyone else goes bowling next to the venue. Myself & family take a walk back to the hotel through the busy, blaring streets. Our hotel room is spacious and commands a great view over the city and so we settle down and watch the city as it moves through the night, toasting our 3rd successful and inspiring trip to Japan with Idlewild.
Day 6 onwards ——
‘ concert over
houselights smile faintly
in the pause before the everyday world returns ‘
From now on we are all on holiday and everyone has their own plans - Lucci, Andrew, Colin and their partners stay on in Osaka for a few days - Rod heads to Kyoto with his wife and friends, and me & my family take the train back to Tokyo (after visiting Osaka Aquarium) for ten days in an Air B&B apartment in a very relaxed and groovy area bordering YoYogi park. There is plenty on the Agenda - vintage clothe & record shopping in Shimokitagawa, the hot springs, Pokemon centre, Inokashira park (although sadly, we couldn’t get tickets for the Studio Ghibi museum) - did i mention that amongst the myriad of quirky, cool stores Shimokitagawa there is a shop called ‘books & beer’? It’s the bookshop from my dreams. One where you can peruse the aisles, lined with author like Osamu Dazai, Tawara and Murikami, with a draught Japanese ale in your hands. What a civilised, fantastic and fascinating city - can’t wait to return soon, and see to more of the country!
- RW
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21ST JUNE 2015
When a great song or a piece of music combines itself with a great scene from a brilliant film there is quite nothing like it - it’s the perfect compliment. Musical & visual. Music videos try and replicate this, but you are never as invested in them as you are with a feature film. I can’t think of ‘Don’t you forget about me’ by Simple Minds, without thinking of the John Hughes movie ’The Breakfast Club’, and with it my childhood in the 80s watching videos in the living room with my sister. I can’t think of ‘Just Like Honey’ by The Jesus and Mary Chain without thinking of ‘Lost In Translation’ which is one of my favourite films. When it came out (in 2003) I was very much in the middle of several years worth of touring and never being in the same place for long - chance encounters, the haze of Jet Lag, not really knowing where you are, how you got there. I really related to the film and the mood it captured. I’m pretty late to the Amazon Prime, Netflix, Spotify party - living remotely like I do, it’s wonder I haven’t embraced it sooner. With Spotify I can indulge in my love of obscure free Jazz and Japanese Noise rock, and with the others I can slowly get through the list of my favourite films - the aforementioned John Hughes and Sofia Coppola movies, Wes Anderson and Woody Allen, alongside older classics - Bergman, Godard, Kurosawa. I’m not sure what I’m trying to say here, or what the point of this paragraph is, other than that I’ve been really enjoying watching/streaming films and listening to music recently. Headline news!
I haven’t ‘blogged’ for some time - Summer in the Hebrides is always busy - everyone gets as much out of the calm weather as they can, spending as little time indoors as they have to. In the summer months I also run a B&B which is an usual twist my life has taken, but not a wholly unpleasant one. Making breakfast and cleaning a room is not exactly rocket science, and you get to meet some interesting people too. This year so far we’ve had scientists, photographers, doctors, plenty of bird watching pensioners, and a couple of banjo players from Boston. In summertime the Hebrides are alive with the sort of pop-up accommodation like my B&B. One of the things I’ve always liked about this place is the fact that people do a variety of things - the postman might also be the bar man and a qualified tree surgeon, or the fisherman might be a masseur and saxophonist. These are two fictional examples though. As yet I do not know two such people. Interesting things are always springing up in unlikely places. From May - Sept when the winter gloom has shaken off (and before it starts again) there is nowhere else like this part of the world - even if this year summer feels like it still has to arrive.
Idlewild-wise we are getting ready for a leisurely summer of festivals here and there around Britain. We’re playing at some festivals we have played at many times before, and some that we have never been to. I’ve written about my opinions and experiences of festivals on this blog before - needless to say I’m sure it’ll be the same this year - some great gigs, some not so great, some fine weather, some downpours. Like life.
I am excited about Glastonbury festival though, as I have always been fan of the event. I went four years in a row - 1992/93/94/95 and it blew my teenage mind. Even although our experiences playing at it (1998, 2000/02/03) have always been tarnished a bit by bad sound/weather/crowd/our performance - I still always get a thrill driving onto the site and being part of this mad, creative, musical, make-shift city that overtakes a Somerset valley for one week every year. As well as looking forward to playing on the Sunday night, I am very much excited to be seeing Patti Smith again, and also Parliament/Funkadelic. Two of my all time favorite acts. Otherwise my time will be spent in the Green Fields and healing area, which is the part of Glastonbury that makes it so unique.
Touring into the autumn: - After the festivals we are coming to Japan for three shows. We are certainly getting around with ‘Everything Ever Written’ and return to America for the first time in a decade in October. There will only be four shows at this point. America is a big place, and touring it is expensive, particularly if you have no label and haven’t been for 10 years and have no idea if anyone is going to show up at the concerts. We have certainly been encouraged by the initial response though, so with any luck we will be back for more US shows in 2016 if these handful go well.
We will end the year, as I mentioned in the previous blog with a short UK tour playing both Acoustic and Electric sets. These will be billed as ‘an evening with Idlewild’ and they will be wonderful.
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18TH MARCH 2015
The last blog entry happened the day the album was released - of course none of us expected it to appear in the midweek album charts at number 8, or end up in the top 20. In the scale of things, this doesn’t mean much I guess, but for a week or so anyway, it was a real thrill for us. It was the highest we have been in the charts for 10 years. Even though the charts are a much different thing to what they were a decade ago. It was still great.
The tour too, couldn’t have gone better. No one got ill, everyone was having the best time - it was like being on holiday - the way touring used to feel back when we started. As a band too we were playing better than we ever have - all the work that we had put in over the last year or so - the acoustic tour - and all the practices - it paid off and we were a tight, fluid unit able to relax into the set list. Towards the end of the last chapter/era of the band we had a revolving set list of 40 songs or more, but to be honest half of them weren’t played that well or with much imagination. This time around we concentrated on getting 23 songs as good as they possibly could be, working on interesting arrangements and harmonies.
It is often hard to absorb exactly what is happening when you are in the middle of a concert and 3,000 people are all singing right back at you. The Roundhouse in London was a fantastic venue to play in and it was one of best (and biggest) crowds I have ever played to. When the audience carried on singing the songs after we’d finished - it was almost hard to hold it all together. Collectively we were a bit overcome by the love being shown to us. Not just in London, but at all the UK shows. In Europe too - we hadn’t played there for 8 years and the venues were much fuller than they were back then. So a heartfelt thank you from all of Idlewild to all the fans who made the tour such a success.
After all these years I think I finally realise that Idlewild is a pretty important thing to a lot of people. It certainly is to me, Rod, Colin, Lucci, Andrew and Hannah. Next up after the two Irish gigs is a set as part of the Teenage Cancer Trust shows at the Royal Albert Hall. I have always wanted to play there and it is an important cause to support. Festivals are being booked in and in the Autumn we are planning more UK and European shows doing an acoustic set followed by an electric set - Idlewild supported by Idlewild. Pretty sweet if you are an Idlewild fan.
Look out for the new single & video too. Jay Baruchel came over to Scotland to be a part of it which was pretty special. He is a great actor and writer and it turns out we are his favourite band. Jay hadn’t seen us since 2001 so I think he was suitably made up by the Roundhouse show. He also interviewed us for the Guardian newspaper - all this will be appearing in April.
Lastly, I am playing in a boat shed in rural Argyll at the opening of my friends restaurant on sat March 28th. Inver restaurant sits on the banks of beautiful Loch Fyne just south of the village of Strachur (about an hour and a half from Glasgow) - Chef Pamela Brunton is an old friend and a wonderful cook - for the foodies out there she has done stints in Noma, Favikken and a couple of other michelin starred joints. For the nerds, she is also on the cover of ‘Hope is Important’. £25 for dinner and the concert (I’ll be joined by Hannah, Andrew, Craig Ainslie and Sorren Maclean) a bargain if you ask me - http://www.inverrestaurant.co.uk
- RW
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16TH FEBRUARY 2015
For the past few weeks I have been firmly seconded in all things German. Partly this is because I am keenly anticipating Idlewild’s first German tour in eight years, but also because it is one of my favourite European countries and I rarely get to go. My NEU, Can, Kraftwerk and Popul Vuh albums have been on the turntable, my WG Sebald and Goethe books off the shelf, and several frothy weissbiers have been drunk. ‘Krautrock’ has long been a favourite musical genre of mine - bands like NEU and Can seem to take ordinary instruments to a fairly far out place. David Stubbs’ recent and excellent book on the subject ‘Future Days’ is a must read for all fans of experimental German rock ‘…they sought to meld future, present and past into a single unbroken continuum..’
‘Everything Ever Written’ is out now - two years of procrastinating and working on the songs and the recordings, and now it is in the public domain. This also means of course, that it is no longer in our possession and protection and is open for scrutiny and criticism for all those who wish to scrutinise and criticise. At least only for a short while, and then the music is allowed to settle into it’s own time & space and soundtrack people’s lives and be enjoyed the way it was intended to be.
I have written before about the strange relationship between the critic and the artist. It is and always will be a very weird experience to have your work put under review. Most people have experienced this in some way or another I suppose. No matter how many times you release a record, the few weeks when journalists and bloggers start reviewing what you have been working on carries with it a certain emotionally draining quality. ‘Everything Ever Written’ has generally been very well received so far - lots of positive reviews, a few especially so. No stinkers as yet - “..the problems with this band rest squarely at the feet of Woomble..” luckily nothing along these lines.
Almost 20 years into a music career I realise that we are lucky to be still getting the coverage we are getting. Good reviews, bad reviews, in-different reviews. I am really proud of the album and i think we have done a great job piecing it together. I think fans will love it. Really, these are the only things that matter. It is unlike any of our other work, in the way it was made, and also the way the it has ended up sounding. It is a transitional album as it started off with just Rod and I, then Colin, then Lucci and finally Andrew. Started as a duo, ending as a new band. Great contributions along the way also by Gordon Maclean, David Jack, Sam Irvine and Rod’s sister Catrin, whose string quartet played on a number of songs. The next album we make we will be a band from the start. We have already begun writing songs for that too.
The priority now is to play some gigs! I guess one of the main aims we have as a band this year is to play further afield. We haven’t been to America for a decade. Japan for eight years, and mainland Europe for eight years either (although that is changing with the five German shows and Amsterdam gig in February and March). The album is being distributed all over the world via Essential, in Japan via the label ‘Vinyl Junkie’. You might have to seek it out somewhat, but ‘Everything Ever Written’ is available worldwide! Hopefully people will listen/buy, reviewers will notice, radio stations will give the songs a spin, and then we can get our asses over to some of these countries and play some concerts.
The 3rd single from the album will be ‘Every Little Means Trust’ - we are even making a video for this - it will be our first video since ‘No Emotion’ in 2007. It is a fine Idlewild song/single, following in the tradition of ‘American English’, ‘Live in a Hiding Place’ ‘Love Steals us from Loneliness’ … songs for everyone - songs that are easy to sing along to, songs with ‘.. choruses built for singing into the wind atop remote cairns over the crackle of a damp cagoule…’ as writer Ben Myers put it in his very kind and complimentary album review recently.
- RW
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14TH NOVEMBER 2014
TOUR DIARY – SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS
Day 1: Friday October 3rd - Tobermory, Isle of Mull, An Tobar
‘There may it chance upon a quiet isle’
Unlike the rest of the band (travelling in from Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively) I don’t have far to go for this show - I’ve brought the family along today and so we spend a leisurely afternoon in the metropolis of Tobermory heading up the back brae to An Tobar for a soundcheck later in the afternoon.
An Tobar is an important place for me these days - I have written and recorded two solo albums here, and we recorded quite a bit of the new Idlewild album here too. I’ve played a gig here every year for the last five, releasing a live album from one of the shows. It has a unique atmosphere, and Gordon Maclean runs it in a way that all venues should be (and not enough are) with care, love & attention. It is the best sounding live room in Scotland I think.
We have been talking about doing another Idlewild acoustic tour ever since the last one back in 2005. In the past four years I have largely played in an acoustic band and it is a set up that I really like, so I was keen to get back into playing the old Idlewild songs (and some new ones) in this way. Part of the power in our new version of Idlewild are the harmonies - Lucci, Rod, Andrew and Hannah and I all sing really well together. The possibilities are endless & exciting. This tour was planned about a year ago, and most of the tickets sold out within a week of it being announced back in March (thank you!) Travelling around the Highlands and Islands is an absolute pleasure, and playing acoustic gigs makes it even better. It has come round fast and here we are!
The first gig of the tour starts from where we left off from the three English shows in August – two 45 minute sets with a 20 minute interval. We have rehearsed 20 songs for the tour, so two 10 song sets. The An Tobar crowd is nice - made up of mainly locals, all having a good time on a Friday night. There are a few first night nerves and bluffs, but generally we are sounding good tonight. After the show the others stay up drinking wine - Rod and Colin even venture down to the disco at the Mishnish pub, but after singing 45 songs in the afternoon practice/sound check and gig itself, I retire to the hotel to give the voice a rest.
Day 2; Saturday 4th Oct - Tobermory, Isle of Mull, An Tobar
‘Light swum between the mountains’
Oscar Sansom is back up with us today with a small film crew. Oscar has been filming the band on and off all through this year as we wrote & recorded our new record. Combined with all the other footage he (and Michael and Blair) have been capturing since the run of King Tuts albums shows back in 2008, they plan to make a movie about the band.
In the afternoon we head off round to the old pier in Tobermory with them. It’s a photogenic spot with the colourful houses of Tobermory Main Street in the distance. The weather today is quintessentially Hebridean - bright & brilliant sunshine one minute - a hail storm the next. Back in town, after a brief soundcheck we all head down to the MacDonald arms for dinner & drinks. I love this pub - worn tartan carpets, no music, plenty of whisky choices and local characters. Good homemade old school pub food too. It is the place we always come to for our dinner when we are recording or doing gigs at An Tobar. It is part of the Tobermory tradition.
Most of the crowd tonight have traveled in from off island, and it’s all fine apart from a couple of very drunk folk who begin annoying the rest of the audience and are asked to leave at the interval. An Tobar is too small a space to absorb any sort of selfish behaviour like this. The Barrowlands it is not. Sorry dudes. Luckily the 2nd set is un interrupted and we all get into it, starting to really feel our way around the songs and set list, which is good as we are recording both tonight and tomorrows night gig for future use/release.
We all hang around for a while afterwards - Colin’s friend Chris is over from Canada. He is an airline pilot, which everyone is pretty fascinated by, and he gets many questions. I am very nervous in any airplane, so Chris calms a few anxieties. For the time being at least.
Day 3: Sunday October 5th; Duart Castle, Isle of Mull
‘A sweep of sky went round the place’
A drizzly & dreich Scottish day - we all breakfast together in the Western Isles hotel, which commands an impressive view across to Calve Island and down the sound of Mull. Colin heads home today, back to his family and work. He’ll be joining us again in Aviemore. We’re all pretty excited to be playing in Duart Castle and head off down from Tobermory about two. It’s only a half hour drive.
Duart Castle is the ancestral home of the Clan Maclean. Although the current castle was only finally restored in 1911, there’s been a castle on this sight since the 13th century. It’s been the scene of countless battles, Clan disputes and drama. An iconic spot for sure, and probably one of Scotland’s most photographed castles.
Inside, there’s a certain crumbling charm to the whole place. Current owner, Lachlan MacLean shuffles around surrounded by his scotty dogs, and one dog that looks like a moth without wings (a Peking I’m later told) - The walls of the great hall where we are playing are adorned with swords and family portraits with standards and chandeliers hanging from the impressive wooden beams of the ceiling. Our dressing room is Lachlan’s drawing room, which is cosy and charming, the array of portable heaters keeping the castle damp at bay.
This is quite a special gig for us all. Just being able to get the chance to play a gig in a Hebridean castle is a thrill enough, but the songs, the band and the atmosphere and the way it is all coming together - it’s all working out so well - the songs are sounding better each night. We are having fun.
Esther and Al, who are in charge of looking after the audience, have mulled some cider, which people drink in the interval as the rain and gale force winds whip around the castle walls. After the show we load the gear and PA out of the castle in the pitch black, rain and wind, but no one complains - it all adds into a really memorable concert experience for everyone.
Day 4; Monday 6th Oct - Isle of Skye - Sabhal Mor Ostaig
‘each curve and contour of the hill’
The gales have knocked out most of the morning’s ferries around the western isles, so there is some chat at breakfast about how we are going to get over to Skye. Living as i do in the isles, you get used to this sort of thing. The weather is due to die down at lunchtime. I’m confident that it’ll all be ok.
We set off down to Fishnish on Mull, to connect with the short 15 minute crossing to Lochaline on the mainland. All is good. Rod stays in the car moaning about being on a boat, but Andrew, Lucci and I go up on deck and wave goodbye to Mull. Driving from Lochaline to Mallaig to catch the Skye ferry we go through some of Scotland’s most remarkable landscapes - the Morvern and Ardnamurchan peninsulas are something else really - they feel as remote as any island does. A proper dramatic and unspoilt wilderness waiting to be explored. There is an ever-changing landscape out of the car window.
For lunch we stop at the Glen Uig inn - soup, local smoked salmon, oatcakes - then on past Arisaig & the sands of Morar, ending up in Mallaig, where we sit in the car waiting for the ferry watching the fishing boats. The ferry crossing to Skye is calm and quick - enough time for a local ale, supped while looking over the sea to the islands of Rum, Muck and Eigg. Always wanted to visit them and never have. Someday soon. The venue is only two miles from Armadale, where the ferry gets in, so we are set up and sound checking in no time. Sabhal mor Ostaig it is a modern college teaching gaelic, with a small theatre holding 160 people. The PA is new and the sound man, Hector, knows what he is doing, which is always a relief. We eat dinner in the canteen with the college students - beef stew with mashed potato and carrots.
Tonight we are staying with Duncan, who runs the entertainment programme at the College and also around Skye. Duncan’s house is big and rambling, full of books & cats, with a wood burning stove and wonderful views looking across the Sound of Sleat to the mountains of Knoydart. The concert is good, we’re really missing Hannah on the violin and vocals (she is not coming with us to Skye, Lewis or Orkney) but it certainly gives the gig a different dynamic, with more emphasis on Lucci’s keys and Rod’s lead guitar. Amazingly, most of the audience have come in from off island - France, Newcastle, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Manchester - people are travelling to these concerts from all over. Thank you all for being so interested in the band! it means a lot to us.
After the concert we head back to Duncan’s house under the full moon. He lays on a spread for us - whiskey, chocolate cake, cheese & oatcakes, pots of tea. We have an early start tomorrow to catch the ferry to Harris, but still stay up chatting…
Day 5: October 7th Isle of Lewis. Stornoway An Lanntair
I have mentioned only briefly how much Rod hates boats, and being on the water. To be honest Rod is not that comfortable in nature generally – an urbanite - a creature of the city, the kind of person who would rather sit in the car and look at the view instead of getting out and about into it. That is not a criticism, but we are very different in that respect. Rod is from Leeds and has lived in Edinburgh for 20 years, but has been dragged around the Highlands and Islands so many times (mainly by me) that I do now sense that he has a real, if understated, appreciation for its landscape & vibe.
Luckily the crossing from Uig in Skye to Tarbet in Harris is flat calm, unusually for this time of year. The morning light is beautiful and the crossing is really something. Lucci, Andrew and I stay out on deck while Rod stays inside on his phone.
We’re in Harris early so we drive around to Traigh Seilebost overlooking the Isle of Taransay and go for a walk along the white sands. Harris just might be one of the most beautiful Scottish islands. Even though there is quite a cold wind blowing we stay on the beach for 45 minutes or so. On the way from Harris to Lewis we’re planning on stopping at the Callanish standing stones - erected in the late Neolithic era, they’re a pretty impressive sight and were a focus for ritual activity during the Bronze age. Rather unbelievably on an island of only a few roads, we miss the turn off, so instead we head straight to our hotel in Stornoway, the Royal, for a bowl of soup and a few hours rest.
The venue, An Lanntair is a purpose built concert hall with a cinema and café attached. It is the biggest venue of the tour so far. Once again I feel that we’re missing Hannah’s fiddle and backing vocals, but we pull together and play a good set – the 2nd set in particular lifting off. I must say after five gigs in a row and quite a few late nights I’m looking forward to having a day off tomorrow and am happy for my bed back at the Royal.
Day 6: October 8th - Ullapool
Despite the very early start (ferry queue for 6.15am) and the relatively choppy two and a half hour crossing (I slept most of the way but Rod sat rigid with fear) we’re in Ullapool by 10am and are breakfasting on pancakes and coffee at promoter Robert Hicks house where we are staying for the next two nights.
Robert and Idlewild go back a long way. He was the first promoter to put us on in the highlands back in 1999, and has put us on many times since. He found us the house in Sutherland that we used to write ‘The Remote Part’ and also the house in Glen Elg where we wrote ‘Warnings/Promises’. Over the years we have become good friends, and he has done a fantastic job booking & organising this tour and looking after us. Robert and his partner Helen’s large, homely cottage is a lovely place to be - whitewashed stone walls, old wood, lamps, a wood burning stove – as Andrew says ‘this is the kind of house you don’t want to leave for a few days’ - he’s right, and luckily we won’t have to much.
Ullapool is a great little town – on the shores of Loch Broom with a population of 1,000. Anywhere of this size that can support not one, but two independent bookshops is all right by me. There is even an annual book festival, alongside several music festivals, the biggest of which, Loopallu, was set up by Robert and Helen. It’s one of the highlands most happening towns.
In the afternoon I take a short walk to the Ceilidh place – a venue/café/bookshop/hotel and somewhere I have been coming to for years of highland travel. They sell my favourite beer – Orkney Blast, and I buy a few books – a new Tove Jansson translation and a collection of Nan Shepard poetry. I have myself a fantastic few hours.
Oscar, Michael and the film crew are back and in the evening at Roberts, Helen cooks up a huge & delicious thai banquet for everyone. All in all, the perfect way to spend a day off on tour.
Day 7: October 9th Ullapool - The Arch Inn
After breakfast we all take the half hour drive up to Inchnadamph. Sutherland is truly stunning – the empty lands they call it, and it is barren and bleak and beautiful.
It feels great to be back in Inchnadamph. We park up and take the conival path. We’re not going to have time to climb the mountain today, but we walk a miles or so up it to get the views, and some good shots.
Walking past the cottage where we wrote ‘The Remote Part’ is a nice moment. It has been re-decorated and there are people living there now, or so it looks like, so we just look on from the distance. Back in the late summer of 2001 we wrote most of the songs for that album in the cottage – demo-ing them all on Rod’s 8 track recorder. The drum kit was set up in one bedroom and the amps in another. Midges were a bit of a problem, but we used to have bonfires a lot in the evening to make them go away. I remember clearly the day that we wrote and demo-ed ‘You Held The World In Your Arms’ and ‘Stay The Same’ and being really pleased with ourselves thinking that we had written two songs that sounded like singles – the latter we thought was much better. The former I felt sounded too much like ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ by the Smiths. But it ended up being one of the most popular and recognisable Idlewild songs.
Back to Ullapool for sound check at The Arch inn – which is a small 80 capacity room, but it’s sounding great onstage and Hannah is back. Dinner at The Arch is very good, and we head back to Roberts’ house for a few hours before stage time. It’s a hard house to leave, but eventually we drag ourselves back to the venue and play what I think is maybe the best gig of the tour so far.
Day 8: October 10th Strathpeffer Pavilion
‘Running pools of water, cold and rare’
Roberts home really is a great spot to while away the day. We lounge around all morning - drinking coffee, listening to Beatles records and eating Helens fine selection of home baking until we have to leave about 2pm. It is another beautiful day – sunny and warm. The drive only takes an hour, but goes through some stunning scenery. We stop at Loch Glascarnoch with Oscar and the film crew to do a few shots and photos, but end up having a stone skimming competition, as you do in the middle of nowhere on the banks of a mirror still loch. Andrew wins. Dundee lads ken how to skim staines. We get to the venue about 5pm. The Strathpeffer pavilion is an impressive building – commissioned by the Countess of Cromarty in the late 19th century, it served as entertainment centre for the town’s visitors. The village of Strathpeffer was once a popular health resort (at one time the most northerly spa in Europe). Nowadays it’s a quiet wee town and the Pavilion is used for concerts and weddings. This is the largest venue of the tour, with a 400 capacity. It feels good to be back in front of a big crowd although we have a bit of a problem again with over excited/drunken fans – shouting and talking through songs much to the annoyance of the rest of the audience. Perhaps they didn’t read on the tickets that it was an acoustic gig? Regardless it spoils it a bit for everyone.
Day 9; October 11th Orkney Islands - Kirkwall Theatre
When we hatched plans for this tour late last year I was hoping that it would mean a return trip to the Orkney Islands. Idlewild played here in 1999, just as the single ‘Little Discourage’ was being released. I remember the NME came up to cover it, and the journalist, the late Steven Wells did a good job in scaring us, and most other folk he talked to. Of course 15 years is a long time not to visit Orkney, and while most of the tickets for this tour sold out very quickly, for whatever reason this show has been by far the slowest. Still, ¾ of the tickets are sold so far, it is a deceptively large room but I’m sure it will be fine.
After getting off the ferry we drive to Kirkwall though the gentle, rolling landscape & whale shaped hills. In Kirkwall we check into the Albert hotel, the same place we stayed 15 years ago. We eat in Helgi’s which is a nice pub on the harbour that stocks all the Orkney ales and sells burgers. Can’t go wrong with that combo. Orkney has a long brewing tradition dating right back to the saga era. It is the place to come if you like ale, and also if you like great cheese, butter, beremeal bannocks, lamb and whiskey. Orkney is often called ‘Scotland’s larder’ for good reason.
The show is good – I know I keep saying that, but it’s hard for me to be more objective, without sounding self-obsessed. My interest and involvement in these songs goes deep. Rod and I have a shared musical history that goes back a long way now. It’s great on be onstage with him again, and Andrew and Lucci have helped turn an old band into a new one. I got to know Lucci a few years ago through Sorren Maclean – the guitarist and singer who I work with on my solo albums. Lucci is Glaswegian but lives in London. He is a successful composer and producer in his own right and one of the most talented people I have had the pleasure of working with, and also very good company. His playing has pushed us all on, and every night he surprises me with something brilliant. Andrew I have known for many years through his band The Hazey Janes (who played with Idlewild several times). He has also played with me in the solo band. He is a pretty amazing singer and songwriter, as well as a guitarist, and now bassist. Andrew is from Dundee. I mainly grew up just outside Dundee and my family are all from the city. We share common bonds, and have been enjoying having a blether about various Dundonian institutions – Wallace’s pies, pubs on the Perth road, Dundee Utd (although Andrew is a Dundee FC man), Michael Marra & Billy Mackenzie. The next time I am in Dundee were are going to go for a pint at Menny’s then go and watch the Dundee derby. It will be the first football match I have been to since 1984. Probably not much has changed.
After the show we have a Scapa ale in the bar next to the hotel, but it’s a Saturday night and getting ‘lively’ which is a word that they often use in Scotland instead of ‘scary’.
Day 10: October 12th - Orkney Islands – day off
The Orkney Islands really are a fascinating place – we only have a day to sight-see, and there is just too much to cram in. Most of all I want to make a pilgrimage of sorts, to the grave of my favourite writer, George Mackay Brown. GMB was born in Stromness, and lived most of his life there, writing poetry, novels, short stories and plays. He is buried in Warbeth cemetery overlooking the hills of Hoy.
Andrew, Lucci and Rod are happy to accompany me. On the way to Stromness we stop off at the ring of Brodgar - a Neolithic henge and stone circle. I find out from the information panel that most henges do not contain stone circles; Brodgar is a striking exception, ranking with Avebury (and to a lesser extent Stonehenge) among the greatest of such sites. Alongside the stones of Steness (which we drive past) these are the northernmost examples of circle henges in Britain. There you go. I wish I knew more about Neolithic history. I find it fascinating.
It takes us a while to find GMB’s grave in warbeth, but when we do it is as understated as the man himself. Standing there is quietly moving. I never knew him of course (he died in 1996), but I have been reading his books & poems since my teens. He is immortal to me through the words he left behind. The inscription on his grave reads ‘Carve the Runes, then be content with Silence’. RIP GMB
We head back into Stromness for lunch at the Stromness hotel, another GMB haunt. It’s the Sunday carvery, and not a very good one, but the place is so old school, that it’s enjoyable, and we toast GMB with a Scapa ale.
3 Mayburn court is the council flat where he lived most of his life, and before leaving Stromness (which is surely one of Scotland’s most picturesque towns) we take a stroll past. There is a blue plaque on the house under the window where he worked. A couple of other GMB fans are taking photographs.
Go, good my songs
be as gay as you can.
Weep, if you have to
The old tears of man
Day 11; October 13th Findhorn – Universal Hall
‘hill after hill raced proud’
It’s an early start – 6am. But by the time we are on the ferry/road the journey passes by quickly. The east coast of Scotland is quite different from the west – much gentler – farming country. Once again it is a stunning, sunny day. Findhorn is a village on the Moray coast not too far from Inverness – the concert tonight takes place in the Universal Hall, which is a mile down the road in the Findhorn ecovillage, home of the Findhorn Foundation – a spiritual community and one of the largest intentional communities in Britain. Amongst other things, the Foundation offers a range of workshops, programmes and events in the environment of a working ecovillage. There is also a great vegetarian café, and a wholefoods shop. I have played here several times before and visited numerous other times and have always enjoyed the atmosphere, and the people. It is full of positivity, and all the wooden eco houses are very cool. The Universal Hall is a great gig and one of the best sounding rooms in Scotland. We arrive at the venue about 4pm. The last time I played here with the solo band one of the highlights was the whiskey barrel hot tub they have out the back. It was quite a treat to sit soaking with some locals before going onstage. Unfortunately it’s broken, well not so much broken, but the temperature gauge is faulty, meaning the water is at boiling point. As much as I’d like to have a dip – I worry that a visit to the burns unit would be on the cards. – Next time hopefully.
We eat with the community, which is a refreshing experience, holding hands with other community members before we eat in thanks for our food. Lovely. Good vegetarian food too. Our concert is rocking. Acoustically rocking anyway. Iain, the soundman takes my instructions to turn it up a bit in the noisier moment quite literally, so it’s getting noisy onstage and off. In a good way though. The Universal Hall – what a place – thanks for having us guys – I hope to return soon.
We’re staying back in Findhorn village at an inn. Kindly, the barman keeps the bar open for us (and some fans who are staying too) and we all have a few drinks and it’s a very pleasant end to another good tour day.
Day 12: October 14th – Aviemore – Old Bridge Inn
‘Now is only earth again’
We take a morning walk along findhorn beach. There are some seals in the distance, and lots of driftwood that I wish I could take home for the fire. We eat breakfast at the Findhorn bakery – it’s a great place. They care about the food they serve. I eat a simple but delicious breakfast – black pudding, fried egg, and Portobello mushroom on a homemade roll. All components cooked perfectly. The coffee is good too.
It is not a long drive to Aviemore – only 1 hour. So we drive beyond it a bit to Loch Morlich and go for a walk. The Cairngorms are stunning – our own Arctic tundra. So different from the western Isles and the Orkneys and all the other landscapes that we have been driving through. What a fantastic & varied small country this is. I am proud to be from it. The loch is calm and Andrew and I decide to hire a canoe and head out for a paddle. It is very relaxing, and we eventually work a system where we get a bit of speed up.
Aviemore has tourists in summer and winter and so always has the optimistic feel of holiday town - a place people are happy to be. The Old bridge inn is a classic stop off on the Scottish gig circuit. It is one of the countries best pubs & restaurants, and the fact that they clear away the tables and put on gigs makes it even better. It is a small room & capacity, but always a great show, and the food is fantastic. You can’t go wrong at the Old Bridge Inn. Colin is also back with us for the next two nights. He manages to somehow squeeze his snare drum onstage (there is not much room for anyone). It was mainly practical and economical reasons that we didn’t use drums on this tour – we are touring in a car which rules out bringing a drum kit – also the set sounds good and works with and without drums/percussion. Of course it is always good to have Colin here, and after this tour it will be the 6 of us on tour.
The accommodation is basic tonight – in the bunkhouse that they own next door to the pub. All 6 of us are in the same dorm room. It’s a bit like being on a school trip, but actually quite fun, despite the stuffy heat through the night and creaking bunk beds.
Day 13: October 15th – Banchory – Woodend Barn
‘songs that are their own surprise’
Another morning walk - through the ancient forest of Rothiemurcus – one of the last surviving ancient woodlands in Europe. 10 million trees they reckon, and some of the Caledonian pine trees are well over 300 years old. You can feel it – the quiet power & history. And it smells great.
Lunch at the Old Bridge – the best thing I’ve eaten all tour - a local venison burger – sounds pretty simple but everything – the salad, meat & bread is prepared with love & attention. Yum.
The drive to Banchory takes us up and over the lecht – one of Scotland’s highest roads with breathtaking views across the hills & mountains. The light in particular today is amazing – there is a storm brewing above the Cairngorms and the drama in the sky is mesmeric.
It is raining when we arrive in Banchory. The Woodend barn is a good venue – an actual old barn with stone walls. There is a restaurant attached where we eat after soundcheck. The stage is big, and after last nights crush onstage at the old bridge this is nice. There is also a grand piano, so Lucci is very happy. The crowd are very quiet, but you can tell they are into it. We get a standing ovation. Nice. After the show Lucci, Andrew and I sit up for a while back at the hotel with a bit of wine and a BBC4 music documentary. We are quite a crazy bunch when we want to be.
Day 14: October 16th – Birnam – Arts Institute
‘The lamp burns low and shadows hover’
We have had such a good run on weather these past few weeks – bright and calm mostly. Today is pouring rain. Thick grey clouds give the drive from Banchory to Birnam a damp wintry bleakness. We pass through Braemar and down through Glen Shee. We stop for lunch at the Strathurdle Inn. Hannah’s uncle is the chef here. There is a log fire burning, old paintings of Stags on the walls. A proper highland Perthshire pub, serving all the pub classics with some nice ales on tap.
Hannah grew up in Rumbling Bridge, 10 minutes away from Birnam, so we are all staying in the empty cottage next to her parents’ house. It’s a cosy spot with great views and a wood-burning stove. Hannah has been playing with me in the solo band for quite a few years now. She is a wonderful musician and singer. She sings and plays quite a bit on the new Idlewild album and will be joining us on tour next year too.
Birnam is right beside Dunkeld, which is a handsome little town, surrounded by woods, in the highland foothills. Popular with tourists, it is only 15 miles from Perth. This is as south as the tour gets, and due to its proximity to the main Scottish cities, tickets for this went super quick. The venue is a large hall with a big stage. The sound onstage isn’t great, but by this point we are playing so well together that it doesn’t matter so much. We get another standing ovation at the end - thanks guys!
After the show we order a curry and all head back to the cottage in Rumbling Bridge to dine. Even though, strictly speaking we have a long drive to Whitby and one last gig tomorrow at the music-port festival, everyone is in agreement that this is the last night of the tour. Sitting around a fire, with some beers and food and lots of pals – it’s the best way to end what has been a wonderful two weeks playing Idlewild songs again, travelling around this amazing part of the world.
Thanks to everyone who joined us on this highlands & islands journey. Hopefully we can do it again sometime. See you all in 2015!
RW