OOTB Presents…

So, that’s it. Festival’s over, now we can get back to enjoying ourselves properly without all those arts types in the way! Students are back soon too, so they’ll be (hopefully) looking for all the best events on offer.

Speaking of which we’ve got something on offer for you on Tuesday (6 Sep), it’s Lost Telegrams at Out of the Bedroom. Not only do we get a featured act set from these creators of acoustic goodness, but we’ll also have two hours of open slots guaranteed to be filled by some of Edinburgh’s most impressive talents. No BS, i’m serious, the standard is really high at OOTB. And that’s at The Montague Bar on Tuesday at 8pm, for free! 7:30pm if you want to sign up for a slot to perform.

Then it’s the return of Secret CDs on Wednesday 7 Sep at The Voodoo Rooms. It’s only £3 for four acts, and this month the acts are: Lost Telegrams (hmm, that name sounds familiar!), Sam Barber and the Outcasts, Annette Chapman, and The Aspect (an electro-folk duo i believe) and that’s at 8pm at The Voodoo Rooms.

Also on Wednesday, Caro Bridges and the River are supporting Karima Francis at

Sneaky Pete’s on the Cowgate from 7-10pm, tickets are £6 and Caro Bridges is the first act on. 

The usual festivities are happening at the Ale House at 9:30pm on Friday, and at the Blue Blazer on Sunday at 8pm. Both free, both have open slots, and the Listening Room at the Blue Blazer has got The Sundancer as the featured act this week so pop in to that, it sounds good.

I don’t think i’ll be running a competition any time soon on this mailing list, just to follow that up for those who read last week’s email. Out of the bulging mailsack of two responses, only 50% were actually positive about the idea, it doesn’t bode well for the number of people who might enter the competition.

Next week has a bunch of stuff on as well, it’s Supermarionation giving us a featured act set at OOTB, and next Wednesday (14 Sep) it’s the first ever Edinburgh Unlimited featuring Donna Maciocia, Matt Norris and the Moon, Tim Holehouse, and Gipsy Rufina, all for only £2! We need to make this a hugely stonking night so come along, and most importantly get your friends (who like music) to all come along too. Also, at least two of them are touring acts (not local) so you’re unlikely to get the chance again in a hurry. (oh yeah, and please “like” the facebook group too)

Okay, thank you, music lovers, see you all soon!

Calum Carlyle

Out of the Bedroom

OOTB Presents… Ben Young!

So, did you survive the Festival? Apparently the Fringe is now finished (as of today) but the actual Festival officially lasts till next Sunday. Hope to see you all at the Fireworks Concert by the way!

Well, we’re still bringing you some of the best local and visiting artistes at Out Of The Bedroom, including this week’s featured act, it’s Ben Young! He’s incredibly good at writing and performing, and what’s more he’s a jolly nice chap too. This is pretty much your only chance to hear him play in Edinburgh so come along to The Montague Bar tomorrow (Tuesday 30 August) for his half hour feature set. And remember there are a ton of open slots too from 8pm, which tend to feature some great performers as well. Plus it’s free.

So yeah, that’s about it. Obviously don’t forget to go to some of the other things that are on too, if you have the time. There’s the open mic night at Noble’s in Leith on Thursday, and the Ale House open mic night on Friday (it was excellent again last week). As i said, it’s the Fireworks Concert on Sunday, and in previous years this has meant The Listening Room has taken a week off, though not this time, apparently. I just had a look at the Listening Room website, and it turns out that not only are they still running the night on Sunday 4 Sep, but it’s the incomparable James Igoe doing the featured act slot. It’s an 8pm start (open slots first, featured act afterwards) and it’s free, so go along there for an explosive performance from him.

Next week i’ll be giving you the details of the next Secret CDs night, and the week after it’s the huge relaunch extravaganza of Edinburgh Unlimited (formerly Unplugged) at Medina. Check your FB invites if you want to know the details before then, but again, both events promise to be a huge dollop of quality at bargain basement prices.

And if the chilly weather is keeping you in your house, why not listen to some of the new songs that have been written by songwriters the world over as part of 50/90 in the last couple of months? There are even some familiar OOTB regulars taking part. Enjoy!

Calum Carlyle
Out of the Bedroom

PS – i’m thinking of running some sort of competition in this mailing list sometime, what do you think? If you could reply by emailing reviews@outofthebedroom.co.uk and let me know what you think of that idea it would be awesome.

Right well the festival’s properly started now!

We had a great time on Tuesday and on Saturday at The Montague, you should have been there (oh you were? well i hope you enjoyed it then!)

Anyway, this Tuesday it’s The Last Of Barrett’s Privateers as the featured act, and on Saturday it will be Graeme Mearns and Hannah O’Reilly who are our two featured acts. It’s still FREE admission and there are still open slots at both nights (both 8pm start, 7:30pm artist sign up).

Also, it being the Festival we get an even higher chance of interesting and impressive open mic performers, so if you can make it at all, i’d suggest making OOTB at the Montague your regular hangout on Tuesdays and Saturdays (and the Ale House on Fridays and the Blue Blazer on Sundays of course!)

I was going to do a huge list of all the OOTB related performers and links to all their pages listing their gigs, but you can do this yourself, it’s a mammoth task for me! 🙂

Oh yes! I’m hosting the penultimate OOTB open couch session today (Sunday!) as well at 3pm, in Red Dog Music in the Grassmarket, bring an instrument and join in the jam session!

Actually i might have to go and get ready for that. Keep in touch, friend us on facebook, come to the gigs, get involved! You’re only alive once! 🙂

See you out there in festival land!

Calum Carlyle
Out of the Bedroom

Is it a surreal moment in your life? Who knows, but it’s Out Of The Bedroom number 435! It’s at The Montague Bar, it starts at 8pm (7:30pm for performers), and it’s on Tuesday. And the featured act is Calypso Brown, she’s got personality, talent, and a great singing voice. Don’t miss her. If you’ve heard her already, you know why you should come along, and if you haven’t heard her already, now’s your chance. I’m serious. This is your chance. 🙂

And the other purpose of this email is to let you know about all of our Out of the Bedroom events over the month of August at The Montague Bar. There will be open slots at all of these events as well as the featured acts listed. They’re all free admission. Here’s the list:

Tue 2 Aug – OOTB featuring Calypso Brown

Sat 6 Aug  – Out of the Ordinary featuring Texas Breakfast, and Sir Tom Watton

Tue 9 Aug – OOTB featuring The Last Of Barrett’s Privateers

Sat 13 Aug – Out of the Ordinary featuring Graeme Mearns, and Hannah O’Reilly

tue 16 Aug – OOTB featuring Paul Gilbody

Sat 20 Aug – Out of the Ordinary featuring The Marvellous Mrs Mulvihill, and Calum Carlyle

Tue 23 Aug – OOTB featuring Caro Bridges and the River

Sat 27 Aug – Out of the Ordinary featuring Lisa Day, John Watton, and Holly Shep

Tue 30 Aug – OOTB featuring Ben Young

Every one a gem. I guarantee the ones you haven’t heard of (whichever ones they may be) will be at least as riveting as the ones you have. And this information is also on the OOTB Website.

PLUS many of our performers are doing something in the Edinburgh Festival, so please go and talk to them or google them to find out where and when they’re playing. There’s a lot of great music out there, plan your month, and don’t miss out on the best stuff. At this level a lot of performances are one-off specials, and especially at this time of the year, it’s often not an option to say “i’ll go and see them next time” – anyway, with that thought in mind, i’ll take my leave…

See you in Musicland!

Calum Carlyle
Out of the Bedroom

OOTB Presents… Holly Shepherdson!

I have somehow managed to not hear Holly Shepherdson‘s music yet, despite her having played at least twice recently at OOTB. Nevertheless, several people who’s musical judgment i trust say she’s great, so i’m definitely going to make it along this Tuesday to OOTB to hear her featured act performance.

That’s at The Montague Bar on St Leonards Street, 8pm start (7:30pm to sign up for one of the open slots), and it’s on Tuesday 26 July. I don’t like to name names but the open slots will probably be heaving with excellent performers too, so don’t miss out.

Then on Wednesday 27 July, for only £2 it’s Edinburgh Unplugged number 8. This time round, the acts are: Caro Bridges And The River, Andy Paul, Julien Pearly and Gavin Taylor.  Any one of those would be worth the admission price, i think. Anyway, get there promptly, last Edinburgh Unplugged was totally rammed. People were queueing up just to be put on a waiting list for a seat! This is our last Ed Unplugged until 14 September (which is seven weeks away!). It’s downstairs in The Royal Oak on Infirmary Street and it starts at 8pm.

On Thursday, well, you’ve got to have a night off. Let’s hope it’s sunny! 🙂 Actually, there is that open mic night at Nobles on Constitution Street in Leith. It’s at 9pm on Thursdays and it’s hosted by Hailey Beavis. I haven’t been along to the open mic yet but have been meaning to go along. In fact why not spend your night off at Nobles?

Friday‘s Ale House Open Mic day, as you all know. It’s opposite the old Odeon, it starts at 9:30pm and it’s run by Dave Law and all the friendly faces will no doubt be there. I popped in for five minutes on Friday just past and all the performers on the list were excellent and everybody was really friendly. It was really difficult wrenching myself away actually. They’re lovely. 🙂

Then on Saturday, again there are probably a ton of things for you to do, but you’ll need to get your gig guides out to find out what they are. The following Saturday however, we’re having the first or our super secret (apparently) Out Of The Ordinary Extravaganzas. It’ll be on each Saturday of August in The Montague Bar. I have heard rumours of who some of the performers will be, and they are well worth seeing, and definitely worth seeing during the Festival, so stick that in your diary.

Then on Sunday it’s Blue Blazer/Listening Room time again. At 8pm in The Blue Blazer on Spittal Street. It’s an open mic from 8-9pm and a featured act from 9-10pm. By the way check out the new flashy Listening Room website! The best feature is this, click “calendar” on the right hand sidebar of their site and you can see the forthcoming list of featured acts, just like you can do on the OOTB site! This week’s featured act at The Listening Room is The Hermitage.

And that’s it for the final week before the festival. See you out there!

Calum Carlyle
Out of the Bedroom

Hi everyone, i’m just going to be quick this week, i managed to do my shoulder in last week and it’s thrown me for six as far as doing stuff.

Our featured act at OOTB this Tuesday (12 July) (8pm at the Montague Bar) is Roger Emmerson the Bluesfather himself. He’s fully guaranteed to play some great acoustic music, so get yourself along and enjoy the evening. Plenty of open slots too, and i am sure they’ll be filled with a pot pourri of Edinburgh’s finest singer/songwriters as usual. Plus it’s free!

On Wednesday 13 July, downstairs in the Royal Oak on Infirmary Street, it’s the seventh Edinburgh Unplugged, for ONLY £2 you get four bands, performing in an intimate acoustic setting. This time, the bands are: Little Buddha, Lost Telegrams, Edward And The Itch, and Calum Carlyle and the Mixed Reactions. 8pm on Wednesday downstairs in the Royal Oak.

Neoviolet are playing on Friday 15 July at Noble’s in Leith, we’re on about 9:30pm or 10pm or so, I’m sorry i’m so vague about this, but i thought i’d better mention it at least! 🙂 I think it’s even free.  There are other bands too, i’m sure they’ll be awesome. Noble’s is great, did you know they have an open mic there on Thursdays actually? I’m planning to start going to that one fairly regularly too.

Anyway, right, the place is oozing with music, that’s just a small selection, so get yourself out of the house and i’ll see you out there in the mosh pit.

Calum Carlyle
Out of the Bedroom

Hi everyone,

Right, this week at OOTB the featured act is Julien Pearly. I think he may bring one or two mystery accompanists with him as well, definitely it’ll be entertaining. Plus, all the usual open slots (and this means plenty of Edinburgh’s performers and bands will be giving us fifteen minutes of their best).The other thing i need to mention is that the Montague Bar is great in summer. If you are thinking of OOTB in previous years in our dingy basements while the sun is out, then think again. We’ve got ceiling height windows at OOTB now, it’s glorious! 8pm (7:30pm for performers) at the Montague Bar on St Leonards street on Tuesday.

Secret CDs is this week on Wednesday too, here’s the blurb:

• 10.00 THE SUNDANCER [www.reverbnation.com/thesundancer]
  The Sundancer is the brainchild of the outrageously talented Paul Brunton, who writes uplifting and powerful songs that feed your soul and make you want to dance.  Check out the band’s classic video for `The Alarm Clock Song` (on the Bandcamp site).
• 9.15 LISA RIGBY [www.myspace.com/lisa_rigby]
  Townhouse singer, multi-instrumentalist, Burnsong songwriting winner 2007 and 2009 and one of the finest female singers in Edinburgh.  Lisa releases her new CD this evening – miss this and you know you’ll regret it.
• 8.30 FRANK BURKITT [www.frankburkitt.co.uk]
  Born and raised in the Scottish Highlands, Frank is a humourous raconteur as well as a very fine songwriter and folk artist, and will be playing songs from his new CD ‘Valley of Gold’.  Frank is co-presenter of The Garden Sessions.
• 7.45 JONNY DOWNIE [www.facebook.com/jonnydowniemusic]
  A mere 21, Jonny has been building up a repertoire of songs since he was 15 and has just released his first EP “Out of the Dark”.  Jonny is influenced by artists such as U2, Bob Dylan and Ryan Adams.

And that’s Secret CDs at The Voodoo Rooms on Wednesday at 8pm, and it’s only three pounds to get in.

Today’s the first day of 50/90, the fifty songs in ninety days challenge, and basically if you are a songwriter and you haven’t signed up yet, you’re really doing yourself a disservice. I’m not going to try and cajole you any further, but here’s the link, hope to see you there. 🙂

that’s it, enjoy the summer, while it lasts, hope to see you out there sometime in musicland.

Calum Carlyle
Out of the Bedroom

This Tuesday, the featured act at OOTB is Stewart Maclennan, the evening starts at 8pm (but get there before 7:30pm if you’d like to sign up as a performer). Stewart will be performing a half hour set, and there will be plenty of open slots too, and it’s at the Montague Bar on St Leonards Street.

The other thing i wanted to tell you about is the free mp3s. You already know about them if you’ve been reading these emails, but basically this is your last chance. These free mp3s will be off the internet in a few days (by the beginning of July). So download now, and then buy buy buy the CDs of the artistes you like most.

The other thing i want to tell you about this week is the soon-to-start 5090 challenge. It’s an open invitation to any songwriter to try and write 50 songs in 90 days, beginning on 4 July. You might think this sounds unlikely, but who cares? If you write one song, it’s better than having written no songs, plus they have a thriving online forums and chat, plus you get the overwhelming opportunity to collaborate with literally hundreds of songwriters the world over, for a period of ninety days. Sign up on the site, get active, stay active. I’m not going to moan at you to sign up and all that, if you don’t then you’re the one who loses out. Not to mention the fact that even if all you do is listen, the 5090 website is your heaven as well, because literally thousands of songs will be written over the next three months and you can listen to most of them for free on the site.

And that’s it from me, i have a feeling i am hosting another open couch session in Red Dog Music in the Grassmarket on Sunday (2nd July). It’s free, it starts at 3pm, so bring your instruments along and we’ll all have some jolly good musical fun.

Calum Carlyle

Out of the Bedroom