The
announcement last week that KT Tunstall will host the Assembly Rooms’ Music
Hall stage alongside fellow traveller Pictish Trail and local singer-songwriter
Alannah Moar as part of this Saturday’s Burns&Beyond Culture Trail is a
welcome addition to the four-hour compendium of Edinburgh city centre events.
Presented by the capital’s long-standing promoters, Unique Events, the addition
of Blue Rose Code, aka singer-songwriter Ross Wilson, will see Wilson bring a
full band and string section to Greyfriars Kirk.
The
presence of such major artists in Burns&Beyond’s three-week celebration of Robert
Burns that also sees in Edinburgh Chinese New Year gives the programme a
deservedly higher profile. Beyond any notions of starriness, however, one of
the key things about the Culture Trail is its localism.
This
is apparent across all stages that make up the Culture Trail, be it in the
Gilded Balloon’s comedy line-up or the Chinese lanterns hanging in St Giles’
Cathedral, as well as those mentioned. Edinburgh’s various and numerous grassroots
scenes are celebrated the most, however, across three stages that showcase some
of the finest talent on our doorstep which audiences are encouraged to move
between.
With
more of an emphasis this year on George Street, where some of the city’s more
elegant hidden venues reside, Michael Pedersen and Kevin Williamson’s long-standing
spoken-word and music night Neu! Reekie! takes up an unlikely residence in
Freemason’ Hall. Down the road in the Assembly Rooms Ballroom, meanwhile, just
across the hall from where KT Tunstall is playing, Aidan O’Rourke of Lau curates
the second edition of Lucky Middlemass’s Tavern.
With the Burns & Beyond Culture Crawl
straddling both the capital’s Old and New Towns this year, the Liquid Room on
Victoria Street will host The Leith Collective, a gathering of the clans presented
by multi-tasking producer, singer, band-leader and DJ Joseph Malik. Malik will
oversee proceedings alongside DJs Jo Wallace and the legend that is Ashley
Beedle of Ramrock Records, who released Malik’s Diverse 2 album, as well as
Stranger Things Have Happened, the all-star Edinburgh soundtrack created by
Malik’s all-star ensemble, Out of the Ordinary.
After
several successful shows over the last six months show of strength, The Leith
Collective’s Liquid Room show will feature the massed ranks of the Easter Road
Soul Band, vocalists Daniel McGeever and Einstein, as well as comedy raconteur
Paul McNeill. Also performing will be the Burns-meets-Iggy-Pop-based super-group
The Bum-Clocks, featuring actor Tam Dean Burn, his brother and Fire Engines and
Boots for Dancing drummer Russell Burn, ex Josef K and Orange Juice guitarist
Malcolm Ross, plus internationally renowned keyboardist Steven Christie.
The
main focus for the Leith Collective’s Culture Trail extravaganza, however, will
be on three very different female vocalists. Lynzie Dray, Rosanne Erskine and
Becc Sanderson have all previously sung live with Out of the Ordinary, with
Erskine and Sanderson having also appeared on Stranger Things Have Happened. With
Malik’s backing, all three have joined the Ramrock roster. Sanderson and her
Sextet have just released Bows to Bowie, an album of jazz versions of David
Bowie songs, while Erskine and Dray will shortly be heard on singles released
through the label.
“We’ve
achieved so much with Out of the Ordinary over the last six months,” says
Malik, “and this time out it’s about the three singers. They’re the best
singers around right now, and we’re taking things to the next level.”
With
Out of the Ordinary having recently played Neu! Reekie!, the Culture Trail
line-up includes Williamson revisit his performance of Tam O’Shanter
accompanied by high-flying contemporary dance troupe the Kixx Collective and
musician Craig Lithgow. The event also sees Pedersen join forces with Davie
Miller of electronic pioneers Finiflex/Tribe for a set commissioned by Andrew
Weatherall for his Festival No. 6 event. The pair will be joined by Carla J.
Easton, the Scottish Album of the Year shortlistee who has previously appeared
at Neu! Reekie! with her band Teen Canteen as well as a solo artist. Headlining
the Freemasons’ Hall is Stanley Odd, the Leith-based hip-hop squad playing
their first full band show in two years.
“The
cross-cultural relationship between hip-hop and poetry has always been
important to Neu! Reekie,” says Pedersen. “Hip hop artists like Stanley Odd are
leading an exploration of language in much the same way Burns did years ago,
and I’d like to think if Burns was around today, he’d be doing something
similar.
For Lucky
Middlemass’s Tavern, designed to re-create and contemporise the atmosphere of
an old Edinburgh speak-easy, O’Rourke has pulled together a line-up featuring
poet Nadine Aisha Jassat and a raucous fusion of Irish and Scottish folk with
Bluegrass presented by the Kinnaris Quintet. While the gorgeous strains of Rozi
Plain will headline, a special mystery guest is also scheduled to appear. This
fits in with the clandestine off-piste activity of a Jekyll and Hyde city like
Edinburgh.
“An
exciting hotbed of music, writing, scurrilous thought and late night activity,”
is how O’Rourke sees the Lucky Middlemass’s Tavern concept. “It’s much more of
a salon this year, and I think there’ll be things that come up as well about
what’s going on politically in the world just now.”
Such
activities have long been a part of Edinburgh’s unofficial culture over several
centuries. With roots in the old Scot:Lands event programmed by Unique on New
Year’s Day when they were programming Edinburgh’s Hogmanay events, the
Burns&Beyond Culture Trail is arguably a reclaiming of culture at ground
level.
Malik
in particular is on a mission to gather up the creative forces already embedded
in the city’s artistic life. For all three curators, this means bringing all artists
home to roost, whatever the genre. As Malik sees it, “All my musical heroes
live in my home town, and I get to play with them and hang out with them. We’ve
got the post-punks, the jazzers and the techno kids, and what we’re doing is bringing
every single aspect of Scotland’s music scene together.”
Burns&Beyond
Culture Trail, various venues, Edinburgh, Saturday, 6.30pm-10.30pm.
The Herald, January 23rd 2020
ends
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