OOTB Presents…

Hello again everybody. Well, OOTB 410 was excellent, and what’s more there’s a review of it on the Out of the Bedroom website! Hope you enjoy.

Now, on Tuesday (15 Feb) at Out of the Bedroom 411 it’s Tim Holehouse, former Edinburgh resident and regular player at OOTB in the Canon’s Gait days, he now tours full time playing his trademark self penned acoustic music everywhere he goes. Catch him back in Edinburgh at the Montague Bar from 8pm. Open slots as usual of course, so please turn up before 7:30pm if you’d like to perform.

Other stuff i should tell you about… Tonight (13 Feb) at The Listening Room in the Blue Blazer (on Bread Street from 8pm) the featured performer is Susanna Orr-Holland. She’s got a wealth of interesting songs, definitely an original performer.

Also tonight (13 Feb), i just saw this on Nicky Carder‘s FB status: “Tonight in Edinburgh The Deep Red Sky, Squirrel (This Silent Forest), Caro Bridges and the River and Jill Leighton will be at the Voodoo Rooms Speakeasy from 7pm. There is a massive discount to the local regulars so come along if you’re around.”

Tomorrow (14 Feb) you could go to the Inky Fingers anti-Valentine poetry slam, it’s at the City Cafe at 8pm and admission is a suggested £4/3 donation.

Tuesday it’s Out of the Bedroom, of course, featuring Tim Holehouse, free entry, from 8pm, at the Montague Bar, bring everyone you know…

And i just got this from the amazing comedy genius Tommy Mackay, check out his new FB page and treat yourself to some hilarious tunes. And remember to click “Like”.

Next Sunday (20 Feb) you can hear Rossco Galloway and the Chans performing at Joseph Pearce bar on Elm Row (near London Road/Leith Walk) for free from 6:30-9:30pm

A week on Monday (21 Feb), by the way, Lorraine McCauley and the Borderlands are performing in Edinburgh at Fort Community Wing at Fort Primary School on North Fort Street. It’s an evening of stories, songs and poems on the theme of love, and it runs from 6pm to 9pm.

I am certain there are many more cool events going on, just keep your ears and eyes open for them. And if you’ve not heard some of these performers i’ve just mentioned then go and google them. I didn’t put links to all their myspace pages this week, but there’s a lot of good music out there for somebody with an active search engine. Have a good week, see you at the Montague Bar on Tuesday!

Calum Carlyle
Out of the Bedroom

Hi everybody,

First of all, it gives me great pleasure to announce the return of the Out of the Bedroom featured act slot, and it gives me even greater pleasure to announce that the first featured act slot (this week on Tuesday 8 Feb) is the incomparable Caro Bridges and the River. Great songs, great performers. That’s it, don’t miss it!

There will, of course, be the usual open mic slots, so do come along (by 7:30pm if you’d like to perform) for that as well. And bring your mates! We’re by no means a performers only club, and the standard of performance has been very high at OOTB, and can only improve with the reinisitalisation of the featured act slots. It’d make a great (free) pub night out for anyone who likes music. So tell all (and also sundry) about it, they don’t know what they’re missing.

On the subject of featured act slots, remember you can check out who we’ve got coming up at any time on www.outofthebedroom.co.uk as well as on the OOTB myspace.

Then on Wednesday 9 Feb, it’s the second episode of Edinburgh Unplugged, this month featuring OOTB favourites Sir Tom Watton, Dave (heroininanutshell) Robertson, as well as recent Listening Room headliners Underclass and Metaltech (playing their first ever “acoustech” set! A once in a lifetime opportunity to hear this!)

Friday, you know about the McEwan’s Ale House open mic on Clerk Street at 9pm for 9:30pm, lovely bar, lovely open mic night.

Sunday, there’s quite a few things on, there’s the Listening Room, open mic at 8pm, featured act at 9pm, and it’s in the Blue Blazer on Bread Street every Sunday.

Also every Sunday, Red Dog Music in the Grassmarket run a 3pm afternoon instore gig, called Hair Of The Dog Sundays, the next one (on 13 Feb) is Underclass, though i don’t know if they’re playing acoustic or electric, why not go along and find out? Also, check out the list of upcoming bands performing at Hair of the Dog, it looks great.

And if you’re in Leith on Sunday, there’s an open mic night there too, here’s what they say about it: “Open Mic Night, every Thursday night in The Parlour Bar, Duke Street, Leith. Music kicks off at 8pm and it runs to 11.30pm. All musicians are welcome and we love to hear original material as well as covers, and we also like to encourage musicians who maybe feel their style of music might not always fit in with the more traditional acoustic open mics. Every performer gets a home-made cake (made by host, Packets O'Shea) and a free drink.” and here’s their FB page for more info.

That’s it, see you on Tuesday, and hopefully round the place as well. Keep your eyes open, because i get invites, on FB and such, through the week, to tons of good stuff that i’ve not mentioned here, and i’m sure you do as well. Example, i didn’t know this time last week about Saturday’s Battle of the Bands at Maggie’s Chambers, which Augustalia won (congratulations to them!), but also Miasma were playing there as well as many other great bands, shame i missed it actually. So yeah, keep your eyes open, there’s a lot of good entertainment in Edinburgh at the moment, more than there’s ever been, regardless of what anybody might say. You notice the people who claim Edinburgh doesn’t have a good music scene are the same people who never go out to anything?

Anyway, see you all on Tuesday,

Calum Carlyle
Out of the Bedroom

Hi everybody, well, we’re properly back now, Out of the Bedroom 407 was great, and lots of people turned up, including a slew of new performers. Thanks to everybody who did come along, hope you had a great time, for those of you who couldn’t come alng, we’re rerunning the fun every Tuesday night so come along some other week… like this week for example! 🙂 This Tuesday is Burns Night, so we’re having a Robert Burns themed evening, so if you have any Robert Burns poetry or song that you want to share, come along on Tuesday 25 January. You can still do your own songs as well by the way…

Speaking of our relaunch though, lo and behold, there’s a review, so whether you were there or not, you can relive the highs and commiserate over the lows all over again. Relive the experience in full colour by clicking here.

FAWM – What are you waiting for? Inspiration?

By the way it’s only a week and a bit till February, so if you’re a songwriter, you’ve not got long to get geared up for FAWM (February Album Writing Month), why not join in with this community of songwriters as they frantically write songs through the month of February, collaborating with each other and commenting just as furiously on each other’s work… Anyway, I found FAWM a lot of fun, and quite productive, so i’m doing it again this year. Get involved and sign up at www.fawm.org.

Okay, onto this week’s events. I’m too late to tell you that tonight (Sun 23 Jan) it was Al Shields as featured act at The Listening Room, but then you’ve all got your finger on the pulse, so I know some of you would have toddled along to the Blue Blazer for 8pm tonight anyway. The Listening Room’s every week at 8pm, and the other open mic night that’s on on a Sunday happens at Espionage beginning at 10pm.

Monday nights, I believe the Captain’s Bar is still running open sessions from 8pm, and on Tuesday it’s Burns night with OOTB at The Montague Bar, on the corner of Montague and St Leonards Streets, at 8pm (or 7:30pm if you want to perform).

And the other big deal event of the week is the final ever Lot Acoustic Showcase on Friday 28 January. The acts are: Neoviolet, Jump Press A, Caroline Gilmour, Aaron Shanley and Amy Duncan, which is phenomenal value for a fiver, by anybody’s standards, and since it’s the last time you’ll get to see a gig in the Lot (at the corner of Kings Stables Road and the Grassmarket), I think it’s not to be missed.

Finally, the Live And Unsigned competition asked me to mention the following to you, so if this is your sort of thing, here are the details:

Live and Unsigned is the largest national music competition for original artists; bands, vocal groups and solo artists, and auditions are coming to Edinburgh Corn Exchange 29th January 2011 Over 10, 000 acts from across the country enter every year... Are you good enough to enter? The competition gives you plenty of opportunities and provides the chance to perform live in front of some of the country's top producers, Label execs, promoters and DJs. If you make it through the auditions you will compete at the Live Showcase finals with a chance of making it to the National Grand Final and the Live and Unsigned Festival. YOU COULD BE PLAYING THE LIVE AND UNSIGNED FESTIVAL! Over £100,000 in prizes are up for grabs along the way with the winner offered a comprehensive winners package which includes; festival slots (Including representing the UK at the biggest festival in Asia I rock), UK tour exposing their music to over 40,000 people and a recording contract with Future Music, with up to £50,000 investment! To enter now and read some more on the competition go to www.liveandunsigned.uk.com

That’s it, see you all at OOTB and beyond!

Calum Carlyle

Out of the Bedroom

Hello again everybody. This week our feature act are Petits Maitres. They haven’t got a myspace that i can find, i haven’t (to my knowledge) heard them perform. Sorry if you wanted a rundown of what they’re like, looks like you’ll just have to turn up to OOTB and find out by listening to them! I plan to anyway. More havoc and craziness this week as OOTB continues to drag itself through the Festival in the top bar of the hot and sweaty Tron….

Also, I received the following email from Norman Lamont, see if you are interested in being part of this Leonard Cohen tribute event…

I’m working with a small venue to promote a Leonard Cohen tribute evening some time in October. The idea is each person would play one, or maybe two, Cohen songs. There’d be a charge at the door and all proceeds would go to a charity, to be selected yet. At this stage I’m just looking to see who’d be interested, as there’s a question mark over the size of the venue.

Anyone interested, please drop me a line at biz@normanlamont.com

There’s no guarantee of a place for anyone – it all depends on numbers and venue but people can register interest with me. There’s no need to choose a song now.

Tons of other stuff on of course, Matt James is launching his new CD at the Phoenix Cellar Bar tomorrow (Wednesday), with support from Aos Si, Hannah O’Reilly and Jym Ponter, it’s at 6:30pm and costs a fiver.

Andi Neate is playing a show at the Jazz Bar on Thursday at 7:30pm, sorry but i’ll be at OOTB!

Tonight at Medina, Acoustic Edinburgh presents Emily Scott, Jo Mango, and the incredible Banana Sessions. It’s not free during the Festival, as far as i know, but who cares, you’re only young once, right? Personally I’m off to see Susanna Macdonald‘s Experimentalista show tonight (having been kept away by prior engagements and a cold till now).

On the 24th August, which is a week today (Tuesday) there’s another Regent Showcase, unsurprisingly, at the Regent Bar, it’s free, it starts at 8:30 and it’s a whole lot of fun in a bun.

Every Sunday The Listening Room is still chugging away, open slots in The Blue Blazer on Sunday from 8pm to 10pm. Again, a lot of fun, seems you get a lot of interesting performers at the Blazer during the Festival.

The Big Red Door are having a craft sale on the 21st August (which is Saturday) at 10am, oh yes, the Out of the Blue Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street is doing something similar on Saturdays now too, except it’s more of a market with produce and so on, you can get your weekly shopping in! That’s 10am till 2pm every Saturday.

This Friday (the 20th) at 7:30pm at Word of Mouth Cafe on Albert Street, there’s another open mic night. As you know, i think it’s an excellent one, so do come along. it’s free, and it’s fun.

Oh yes! Nearly forgot, I’m going on tour starting on Saturday, so if you live anywhere in the UK (except down south), then do come along, or if you know someone out in the sticks, tell them to go along to one of our more rural gigs. More details here anyway.

Sorry if you have an event i missed off this list, it can be difficult compiling a relevant list of gigs, especially during the festival. Anyway, see you all on Thursday (if you can fit into the tiny Tron top bar that is!)

Calum Carlyle
Oyut of the Bedroom

PS –  i just realised i forgot to mention Fanattica’s final ever gig! It’s THIS SATURDAY in Henry’s Cellar Bar at 7pm. Too important for me not to tell you, so i’m sending this little PS. More details on the FB event page here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=141989199168493

See you all out there in musicland!

The Last of Barratt’s Privateers are the featured act in this week’s Out of the Bedroom, in The Tron on Thursday at 8pm. It’s free, and to be frank, they’re awesome. They’re like modern Scottish bluegrass, and you may recognise one or two of the band members too. There’s no musical reason these guys shouldn’t be charging several quid to get into one of their gigs, see them now while you can for free.And that brings me neatly to something i have been wanting to say on this list for a wee while. Every time i go to Out of the Bedroom, i am impressed by the high standard of performances, and the range of styles. Not only that, the whole evening is free to get into. Despite this, people still tell me they think open mic nights are rubbish and most acoustic performers are samey and boring. If you think this, then i am 100% certain you aren’t going out to enough quality music nights. Either that or you just don’t like much music, and if that’s the case, why are you even on this mailing list?

All i’m saying is, i go to quite a lot of music nights in Edinburgh and beyond, many of them acoustic nights, and many of them featuring one or two performers who play at OOTB, or who have played there in the past. I like to think i have a discerning ear, and i know who i like most, musically, and why. With this in mind, i think Edinburgh is heaving with great acts, and many of them are playing free gigs the whole time. In short, i cannot in any way agree with anyone telling me that they think our evenings don’t contain a wealth of good performances. I’m not even trying to big up OOTB here, i’m actually trying to acknowledge the immense amount of talented songwriters who have graced us with their music. I mean last week it was Caro Bridges, and she’s really good as well. I can’t remember the last time i didn’t enjoy the OOTB feature act in fact.

I, and the rest of the committee, have worked hard to make OOTB the night it is, and we will continue to do so, for your enjoyment, and i hope that you will continue to come along to OOTB in the future, not out of a sense of obligation, but because you might enjoy it. We hope you will. Don’t get me wrong, i think criticism is good for a performer or songwriter as it helps them improve, that’s why we like to have reviews of our nights (though this is now on hiatus for the foreseeable future again sadly), but lazy criticism from people who haven’t even been along to the evening they are criticising anytime in the past year really has no value other than to create bad feeling.Now i’ve said that, just want to lighten the mood and tell you about some of the overwhelming amount of stuff that’s on in Edinburgh this week. There’s a lot of it, and here’s just a sample:

Tonight (Tuesday) it’s Acoustic Edinburgh at Medina featuring Edwina Hayes, Player Piano and Stanley Odd! – It’s at 8pm, and Acoustic Edinburgh is on every Tuesday during the Fringe Festival. It costs to get in during the Festival though, but it is very worth it. Also tonight it’s another Regent Showcase in the Regent Bar at the top of Abbeymount and Easter Road, starting at 8:30pm i believe, this one is free, and features a selection of Edinburgh’s acoustic performers and at least one comedian. I’ve been to one or two of these and it’s a lovely relaxed atmosphere. You’ll enjoy it. Honest. 🙂

Susanna Macdonald‘s Fringe show Experimentalista is in full swing, and tonight’s your last chance for a two-for-one deal on the tickets, though it’s worth seeing any time in the month.The Listening Room‘s still on on Sunday during the Festival (except on Fireworks night) at 8pm, in the Blue Blazer on Spittal Street and Bread Street, for two hours of open slots, so much eclectecism will be going on there. Also, Word Of Mouth coffee shop on Albert Street are offering a 20% discount during the whole month of August if you quote “facebook”. Bit cheeky of me to repeat that here, so if you do take advantage of this, please join their FB group. Also, while i remember, there’s an open mic night at Word of Mouth on 20th August (a week on Friday i think)? I’ll not be able to go myself, because i’m playing a gig in Bannerman’s that night (which you’re all welcome to come along to, though i think it’s a couple of quid to get in). Anyway, Word of Mouth on 20th August, they run a good open mic night, every time i’ve been along, very diverse, and everybody gets a fair hearing. Starts at 7pm for 7:30 and it’s free.

Now, The Banshee Labyrinth on Niddry Street are host to a few music nights during the Fringe, courtesy of Bainbridge Music, and the one i want to tell you about is on Sunday 15th August, at 7pm. Apart from anything else Neoviolet are playing (which is rare at the moment), and on the same bill you can hear me (Calum Carlyle & Sam Bradley) as well, all for free!!!

Hannah O’Reilly and Andy Valentine are playing at McEwan’s Ale House on Saturday 14th, it’s free too and it’s at 10pm.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) it’s Secret CDs at the Phoenix Cellar Bar, at 8pm too, £2 entry, and well worth it. This months the acts are Collar Up, Freight, Kat McKenzie and Michael O’NeilAlso in the Phoenix Cellar Bar, the following Wednesday (18th) it’s Matt James with his highly interesting percussive guitar style, releasing his new CD “Cyan”. Supporting acts are Hannah O’Reilly, Aos Si and Jym Ponter. Not sure how much it costs to get in but it’ll be reasonable. Not to be missed, since Matt James is not based in Edinburgh anymore.This Friday (13th!) at The Big Red Door it’s Banana Sessions – i caught both of their sets at the Wickerman Festival and i can heartily recommend them to you. Zed Penguins are on too, and though i’ve not heard them yet, i bet they’re awesome too. Go along, and have some fun. It’s on at 8:30pm and it’s one of your last chances to see a gig at the BRD.

I just know there’s a ton of stuff i haven’t mentioned. Sorry if your event was one of them. Okay, off you go, at least one gig a night now, and no excuses! 🙂

Calum Carlyle
Out of the Bedroom

Out of the Bedroom 403 features Cameron Robinson, and he’s great, so come along this Thursday. He’s a strong acoustic songwriter, always with something up his sleeve. He might even bring his ukelele if you’re lucky!

No sign of a review this week, i’m afraid, but don’t let it ruin your week. we’ll always have the OOTB 401 review and photos after all… (Postscript – actually, the OOTB 402 review just came in. You can read it here. Thanks to Adam from Visual-Opinions.com for the review and photos, and if you want to become an OOTB reviewer, please contact Visual-Opinions.com and make yourself known).

Want some new music? Here’s Hannah Werdmuller with a new song called “Fat Pigeon”

And here’s a video of Nyk Stoddart performing “You Are Not Here” live on 24th June at Out of the Bedroom.

You can also see a music video by Pol Arida here and Hannah O’Reilly’s new video can be found here. Enjoy!

And there’s a lot of other music popping up on the 5090 site, which i may have mentioned in passing in previous weeks. A few of the songwriters are from our shores here are a few Edinburgh songwriters you might enjoy:

• Hannah O’Reilly
• Flying Man Shark
• Gerry Bhoy
• Martin Lennon
• Calum Carlyle
• Hannah Werdmuller
• Woodstock Taylor

HOWEVER i strongly urge you to check out some non-Edinburgh performers too, like these recommended tracks for example. Also, check back over the next couple of months when everybody’s uploaded a lot more songs.

One other thing, Tommy Mackay has just co-released a single with Armando Iannucci, Check it out here.

Okay, time for the events. The Listening Room at The Blue Blazer at 8pm on Sunday and McEwan’s Ale House Open Mic on Friday at 9pm both get a mention of course, because they’re consistently good. Now let’s see what else is on.

Tonight you can go and hear a lot of bands for free at Forest Cafe including Acid Fascists, Glassface, Seafield Foxes, Dead On The Live Wire and Andy Brown’s Victorian Karaoke. None of them have any particular connection to OOTB, i don’t think (not yet anyway!) but it’ll be a good night and it’s free. 7pm to 11pm. Tell them OOTB sent you!

Tomorrow at Forest Cafe, it’s “An Evening of Songs with Freeloadin’ Frank” from 9pm to 11pm. Not sure if this is Frank doing a full size set himself or if there will be floorspots from other performers. I’d imagine it’s the latter. Again, it’s free.

There are a lot of Edinburgh Fringe gigs i want to tell you about, but i think i’ll generally mention them in the week approaching the actual gigs. Here’s one show i want you to know about in advance though, it’s Susanna Macdonald’s “Experimentalista”. It’s a really good show, based in part on her new full length CD, which is challenging but very rewarding. Go and book your tickets now to avoid disappointment!

Interesting times for OOTB ahead, as The Tron prepares to close for refurbishment after the Festival, so come along to OOTB over the next few weeks, while we’re still in The Tron and i’ll keep you informed here about what OOTB will be doing for the rest of the year once the Festival’s done. See you on Thursday!

I arrived early to the basement bar of The Tron. There were already a few musicians kicking back in the corner and the event organisers were busy setting up the stage and recruiting the nights entertainment.

I feel at this point that a brief introduction is necessary. Out of the Bedroom (OOTB) is one of Edinburgh’s best open mic nights, with a reputation for spawning new artists and finding great talent. The basement bar provides an intimate setting and helps to ease artists from their bedrooms to the stage. OOTB has regular acts, who use the venue to test out new material, but also proudly presents debut artists, many of whom are playing in front of a live audience for the first time.

This Thursday was the first event that Visual Opinions attended and woe betide us for not being there last week when OOTB celebrated its 400^th evening. We would like to extend a massive congratulations to the crew and urge readers to come along with us from now on, so that you might be there to get your cake at OOTB 500!

So Out of the Bedroom 400 was indeed an all star extravaganza of epic proportions. It was also the culmination of a lot of people helping out and making the night excellent in spite of a handful of minor setbacks. Huge thanks to everyone who pulled together and made it an excellent night, you all know who you are!

This week at OOTB it’s Ms Fi and possibly The Misfits! with a selection of jaunty Edinburgh songs (they might not all be jaunty, no form of contract is implied or given!) – but anyway, we should be back in The Tron (after our brief sojourn to the City Cafe last week!) but if you get to The Tron on Thursday and we’re not there, do try the City Cafe, because you never know…

We didn’t have OOTB 400 reviewed by visual-opinions.com in the end, perhaps we can put it down to the general chaos and confusion of the night. Of course, once more all i can offer are my apologies that we promised a review, and it didn’t get done. Anyway, i’ve got hope that the OOTB reviews might make a comeback at some point, but i’m making no more promises, because OOTB’s facing some interesting times ahead, and unfortunately reviewing is not something we have the resource to commit to at the moment. Hopefully you’ll all understand, and as i say, hopefully the OOTB reviews will return in the future. Let me just say now, if anybody sends me a review of an OOTB night in time for the next mailout (ie: before the Tuesday following the night in question) then it’ll definitely go on the website. If you really want your performance reviewed though, you may have to bring your own reviewer along!

Next Sunday (the 18th) I’ll (Calum Carlyle) be playing the featured set, accompanied by Sam Bradley on his six string fretless bass, at the Blue Blazer, on the corner of Spittal and Bread Streets in Edinburgh, just off Lothian Road. There’s an open mic section from 8-9pm (as you know) and then it’s us from 9-10pm. We’ll be playing songs from Honesty And Thorns as well as a few other songs of mine. Oh yes, and while i remember, now’s a good time to join my mailing list because you’ll get a free alternative version of “No Use Looking Back” with the next mailout, as well as more alternative versions in the future.

Free croissants! You know Word Of Mouth cafe on the corner of Leith Walk and Albert Street? They do have open mic nights every occasional Friday, and they’re usually excellent too, but this week, they are giving away a free croissant with every takeaway coffee, to celebrate Bastille Day which is on Wednesday 14th July. They’re doing the free croissant every day this week though, so pop in as many times as you like!

Now, two things are happening this Tuesday (13th July) that i wanted to mention (though i mentioned them last week too), first of all it’s Niall Connolly at the Roxy Art House at 8pm, he’s an accomplished acoustic
performer, and he’ll be doing the final gig of his tour in Edinburgh. Also on Tuesday 13th July, it’s the fourth Regent Showcase. These are on every month, on the second Tuesday, at The Regent at the top of Abbeymount near London Road. I think they start at 8pm, and it’s free to get in. There’s comedy this month from Graeme Thomas and tons of music by performers that will be both familiar and new to OOTB regulars.

Steven Tonge‘s band Supermarionation are playing in Bannerman’s (212 Cowgate) this Wednesday (14th July, you know, Bastille Day!) at 8pm. Don’t be fashionably late, they’re on first! They’re followed by Revelry and Sister Bitch, who aren’t OOTB regulars as far as i know. Anyway, get yourselves along there, according to the poster it costs £small to get in.

One other thing i wanted to mention to you is our new OOTB Youtube channel! We do sometimes have people videoing performances at OOTB, on an ad hoc basis, and what we’ve started doing is getting people to sign a release form so we can put some of them on the web for you all to experience again. So, there are a song each from Sam Siggs and Karen Edward so far at www.youtube.com/edinburghsongwriters
and hopefully there’ll be more videos added as time goes on. Enjoy!

Finally, now i know i pimped this last week, but really if you’re a songwriter, go and sign up for the 5090 songwriting challenge – it’s a unique opportunity to be part of a seething online community of rabid songwriters. They’re all really helpful and supportive and if you upload recordings of your new songs they’ll all give you helpful feedback on them. It really is invaluable for a songwriter in my opinion. here’s how many songs i’ve done just this week based on the inspiration from that site. Join up now! 🙂