“Eh…excuse me, could you please pass the salt and the little bowl of lemon dragees as well? Thank you”, said some random two-dimensional character at a generic dinner party one hopelessly mundane evening that crawled ever so slowly into the dark abyss of some night. ‘Dragees’ is a strange word you never really hear of, or used in any conventional conversation. If someone actually said ‘dragees’ then it would only be worthy of strange confused looks coming back at the poor unfortunate naive sod who was dumb enough to ever bare that word at all in such naked public scrutiny. To me it sounds more like a one-word description of trainee cross-dressers. It’s actually of French origin and usually describes a small sugar-coated sweet of some sort, even a medicinal pill coated with sugar to disguise the taste.

Hello. OOTB 534 is upon us with an amazing featured act booked in this Saturday. Allan Dixon played at the very first incarnation of OOTB many years ago and then moved to Los Angeles to make music for films. When he returned to OOTB a few months ago, he brought the BBC to film him. He amazed us all when he played OOTB a few months back, and he has since. Now here is another chance to find out why!

Here’s a link to some of Al’s music: soundcloud.com/aldixonmusic

Open slots are up for grabs as usual. Turn up 7:15pm-7:30pm to book fifteen-minutes of stage time and we’ll start the talent ball rolling at 8pm. Original material only and free entry.

Be there or be a lozenge waiting to be sucked at a confectionery fair…

OOTB 😀

Hello. I hate carrier bags. They are annoyingly noisy, particularly when a strong Scottish wind blows hard on filled shopping bags creating a loud rippling rasping sound as I walk home. Catching the attention of passers-by who peer through the thin plastic transparent sacks noting two packs of toilet paper bulging through. “Oh look at him, he’s off home to do a great big doofer. Hope he’s got some Airwick in there too. Serves him right for buying four pizzas, three microwave meals and a Pot Noodle. Bastard!”

Anyway, let’s get onto this Saturday’s featured act. The Keystone Project was created by musician and producer Ross Taylor and singer/songwriter Jane Gilbert. In the hazy wild days of their youth, Jane and Ross first wrote together in the mission hall studios down in Leithshire. After a long stint away from home, Jane has returned to Edinburgh to join forces once again with the talented Mr Taylor. Working on a new EP ‘Limited Stop’, The Keystone Project have refined their unique sound. With Jane’s ethereal vocals and Ross’s extreme multi-instrumentalist skills, they have created a musical monster.
http://soundcloud.com/thekeystoneproject

Open slots are available as usual. Bring along your wind machines and carefully pitched musical rasping plastic bags to play some original tunes. OOTB starts at 8pm, but turn up 7:15pm-7:30pm to sign up for a fifteen-minute booking.

Be there or be sludgy inside a bag like some rotting pear.

OOTB 😀

Hello. We’re back! Just so there’s no misunderstanding, Post Festival Open Slots is not a weird celebration of wooden poles in which OOTB have pre-excavated deep holes in the ground for embedding such items for your convenience in readiness for a linage of telegraph-poles or some big tent sort of thing (ting-a-ling). My god perish the thought of us doing something so obscure, industrial and mundane. Post Festival Open Slots is here to sooth our after-festival tourist-ridden headaches with an evening of original music and unique performances.

We start off at 8pm this Saturday, but turn up sometime before 7:30pm to book a fifteen-minute slot of stage time if you fancy showing us what you got. It’s original material only, be it of song, music or spoken word. Free entry as always.

Our Open Mics page has been updated for September if you want to check out who else is hosting wooden-pole with pre-made hole appreciation carnivals.

Be there or be forever a round peg in a square…

OOTB 😀

OOTB is now on Festival break and will not be hosting any shows throughout August.

We return on Saturday 7th September at 8pm

See you after the Festival, OOTB 😀

Hello everyone all at the same time. OOTB 531 is our final event before the insanity of the Edinburgh Festival is annually shackle-free of its straight-jacket and let loose like a rabid dog for several weeks to devour all the tourists in its slavering jaws. Don’t despair though, OOTB will return on Saturday 7th September after the festival’s ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ has finally emptied its straining bowels of festive digestions somewhere in the Meadows park.

This Saturday, as a one-off, is happening a little bit differently. Normally OOTB starts at 8pm, but this week we start an hour earlier at 7pm with our headline act Nathan Fynn kicking everything off. Australian-born Nathan, now residing in Edinburgh, has been performing live particularly around Australia’s Gold Coast for the last twenty years. His style is acoustic folk/blues and has a clear distinctive voice that can grab the attention of any audience. With such talent running through the Fynn family, daughter Annie will be performing some songs too. You would be rather daft to miss this.

Open slots are up for grabs from 8pm ’til late-ish. Just turn up, sign-up and show us what you got. It’s original material only and free entry as always. We’ll do our best to fit everyone in.

Last Saturday’s proceedings were unexpectedly helped along with ‘Hunters Bog Trotters’ running club sharing the venue for the evening. Some of its members were brave and good enough to sing a few songs for us on the stage, aided with a little alcohol of course. It made for a very busy, but rather enjoyable evening of music and darned good fun. Together we even managed to completely murder a Bruce Springsteen song. Justice done.

What random pre-festival shenanigans will this week bring forth? Come down and find out.

Be there or be inconvenienced with a sore bum half-way up the stair.

OOTB 😀

Hello and all that sort of thing ting-a-ling so to speak take-a-leak. Festival time is almost upon us where thousands of tourists migrate into Edinburgh meandering right in our way with aimless purpose, looking upwards and pointing at stuff whilst inadvertently treading in local dog-poo. This Saturday is our second-last event before we give way to festival proceedings. After the madness has abated, we shall return on Saturday 7th September.

Featured act booked for this week normally plays as a duo, but instead has chosen to perform a solo set for us. Jackie Gill writes songs that are focused, catchy, memorable and intelligent. Her style is of alternative acoustic pop sung with a perfectly-pitched vocal that carries a sweet, gentle and emotional tone effortlessly grabbing the instant attention of her audiences. Jackie has played on the OOTB stage before and we are delighted she has accepted our invite to be headline act. A unique performance to not dare think about missing. Here’s a link to some of Jackie’s songs: reverbnation.com/jackiegill

OOTB begins the begin at 8pm for an evening of original performances. Turn up sometime before 7:30pm to book a fifteen-minute stage-slot if you fancy a go yourself. Then we’ll end at the end when our brains cannot squeeze in anymore top quality music in one night.

Some upcoming one-off open mic events worth mentioning are:

Southsider ~ Open Mic Fundraiser For EWRASAC ~ 8pm ~ Sunday 21st July only ~ 3-7 West Richmond St.

Outhouse ~ Live @ The Loft Songwriter Circle ~ 9pm ~ Wednesday 24th July only ~ 12a  Broughton St. Lane

Malones ~ 9pm ~’The Dark Jokes Open Mic’ ~ Thursday 25th July only ~ 14 Forrest Road

Be there or be avoiding this ongoing heatwave in cold frigid air…

OOTB 😀

Hello people and stuff. Our featured act booked for this week is rather famous out there in music-land as he has been playing live since 1990. As an experienced songwriter and performer the wisely music of Norman Lamont is popular, catchy and wry. Like Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen he draws on folk and American melodies touching on universal themes via particularly quirky characters. One of the first singers to grace the stage at OOTB, Norman is backed this Saturday by multi-instrumentalist James Whyte and Mary Robbs indulging in gratuitous violins as his ‘Invisible Helpers’.

‘Accomplished mood-setter and lyricist’ (Skinny).
‘the undisputed King of the Edinburgh Songwriter scene’ (Graeme Mearns)
‘Pot. Kettle. Shiny.’ (Norman Lamont)

Here’s a link to Norman’s website for more info and music: normanlamont.com

Something to look out for on telly this coming October is a documentary called ‘Buskers’ centered around performer Allan Dixon. The BBC turned up at OOTB last Saturday to film proceedings and all went very well. Allan will also be performing for us as featured act in September. Both are not one to miss.

What if a film-crew turn up to OOTB again? Will you be there? We start at 8pm, but turn up sometime before 7:30pm to book a stage slot and let an always appreciative audience hear your fine creations (and stuff).

Be there or be off the air…

OOTB 😀

PLEASE NOTE: OOTB will not be running nights during the festival. After the 27th July we return on 7th September.

Hello. This Saturday’s headline act at OOTB is a well known and popular performer out there on the live circuit who is well embroiled in the capital city’s music scenery. Calum Carlyle is an independent singer-songwriter from Orkney, now based in Edinburgh. He writes an enchanting blend of acoustic pop where his catchy melodies and thoughtful lyrics can take his audiences on a journey of human emotion, observation and morality.

He’s played throughout Scotland and England, and even a few times in Australia, as well as three past appearances on the Wickerman Festival Acoustic Village main stage. He’s also helped run Edinburgh’s longest running open mic night, Out Of The Bedroom, and he’s in two other bands, Neoviolet and The Ferny Brackens.

Calum has a solo CD out called ‘Honesty And Thorns’, and another called ‘Better Out Than In’. Both are reasonably priced and can be listened to on his website: calumcarlyle.co.uk

Stage slots are available on the night*. Just turn up sometime before 7:30pm to book one of those slots and everything will kick off at 8pm for an evening of taking part in, and witnessing a heady collection of fine original performances.

*It has been confirmed there will be a film crew from the BBC filming one of the acts this Saturday. OOTB will try to minimize disruption, but please bear in mind that it may be very busy, and sets may be shorter for the open slots due to circumstances we may not be able to control.

Much more worthy of your time than staying in during Scotland’s wettest month and watching a rather dodgy TV show on a rival channel presented by two disturbingly banal celebrities, where more desperate dull and drab so-called celebrities impersonate famous musical celebrities whilst being judged by yet even more meaningless one-dimensional celebrities. Does that ‘staying at home watching crap on telly’ face sound familiar to you?

Be there or be crushed by the unbelievable weight of Bobby Davro impersonating Cher…

OOTB 😀

“Blimey!”, exclaimed the landlady when she heard her tenant sing. Apparently that’s how this Saturday’s featured act got his name. A talent from the Edinburgh music scene, Jack Blimey has been a regular (and now a committee member) of OOTB for some time now. His music is a unique energetic mix of eclectic beat poetry and 1960s spy theme music underlined with a touch of dark humour. He has an acoustic guitar phobia, so it’s normal to see Jack adorning one of his electric guitars which adds to his unique style and sound.

Why not influence a whole audience to say “cor blimey” in harmonic unison after witnessing one of your fine performances? OOTB starts at 8pm, but turn up with your masterpieces sometime before 7:30pm to sign up for a fifteen-minute stage slot for a night of original music and creative works.

A recently started open mic event increasing in popularity that’s worth mentioning is the ‘Antihoot Open Stage’. It’s on at 8pm every Monday at Henry’s Cellar Bar (16a Morrison Street, Edinburgh) hosted by Lach. Acts such as songwriters, comics, poets, misfits, magicians, performance artists, burlesque are all welcome. Sign up time is 7:30pm. Lach also hosts his songwriters’ night every Tuesday, same place, at 7:30pm where acts can be invited from Monday’s open mic to do a featured set. Well worth checking out both of these nights for a good variety of music and talented performances.

Just uploaded some pics of OOTB 526. Have a look on our Photos page.

Right oh well then, be there or be spreading yourself far too thinly everywhere…

TB 😀

Oh hello,oh yeah, and OOTB have booked an oh so brilliant featured act this Saturday. We’ve been enjoying the music of Paul Gladwell for several years now as a regular performer around Edinburgh and beyond. His songs are finely crafted and delivered with equally high levels of professionalism and honesty. His influences include the likes of Rufus Wainwright, Richard Thomson and Nick Harper; and echoes of these can be heard in his own songwriting, though clearly more as homage than as imitation. From the dark and brooding to the pleasantly pop, Paul’s songs have something for everyone.

Fifteen-minute performance slots are for the taking if you want to come out and play. We start at 8pm, but turn up before 7:30pm to confirm a booking as it can be quite busy on the night.

OOTB are soon adding a new page to this website. It will contain links to the main websites of performers who have played on our stage before. If you have played for us in the past and would like to have your main website link established on our new ‘Artists’ page then get in touch via our Contact page, and a photo or pic would be beneficial to use as a thumbnail next to your link.

Looking forward to seeing you all this Saturday.

Be there or be a stubborn old horse-toothed mare…

😀