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.

OOTB Presents…

Hi folks, thanks for reading, i know most people don’t read these every week (and i suspect many don’t read it any week!) but you’re reading this now, so that’s a great start. Here’s some information about independent original music in Edinburgh for you:

This Tuesday at OOTB (23rd August) at The Montague Bar, we have a lot of open slots, and Caro Bridges And The River are playing the featured act slot. It’s an 8pm start, 7:30pm to sign up for an open slot. I am hoping to pop in myself at some point, but i will be playing a gig at The Southern Bar on Tuesday it’s free, here are the details, if you fancy coming along to that too actually.

I just wanted to quickly say thanks to everyone who’s come to either our Tuesday nights or Saturday nights so far in the Festival, they’ve all been good, thanks from me to everyone who was there for my set on Saturday night, i do have one or two other gigs lined up in case you missed that though.

Then on Saturday (27 August) we’ve got three featured acts! Liza Day, John Watton, and Holly Shep. They’re all fantastic, you’re going to get them all for free, this is at The Montague Bar, 8pm start, 7:30pm to sign up for an open slot.

While I’m here, I may as well tell you that the incredibly talented Ben Young is coming to Edinburgh specifically to play Out of the Bedroom next Tuesday (30 August), at The Montague Bar, and you need to check him out. He’s not played in Edinburgh for two years, though he used to be an OOTB regular, and he’s really good. How can you pass that up for free?

As you may know there is a huge amount of stuff happening in Edinburgh at the moment, so i won’t attempt to list it all, though Johnny Pugh has asked me to let you all know he is hosting The Listening Room on Sunday (28 August) at The Blue Blazer, and as it’s his final night in Edinburgh, it promises to be a celebratory going away party of sorts. Two hours of open slots, why not go along? It’s free, in case i didn’t mention that, and starts at 8pm.

Next thing i need to mention is Edinburgh Unplugged. We have had an incredibly successful run in The Royal Oak, as many of you will be aware, but we are now moving to a new venue, Medina (beneath Negociants on Lothian Street), and we’re very excited about it. So we’re changing the name of the night to the funky, hip, and dynamic EDINBURGH UNLIMITED, and having a big launch night on Wednesday 14th September. That’s downstairs in Medina, it’s an 8pm start and it’s only £2 for four acts! So who are these acts? Well for the 14th September, it’s Matt Norris And The Moon (professional sounding modern folksters), Donna Maciocia (a one woman juggernaut of sound), Gipsy Rufina (travelling Italian singer-songwriter), and Tim Holehouse (bearded blues/country impressario).

Then we follow it up with another honking hootenanny on 28 September, also at Medina.This time the acts are: Fitzroy Soul (tackling an acoustic set for the first time ever!), Nyk Stoddart (dark textured folk songs, with possibly some zany humour for good measure!), Stu Goodall Band (excellent local acoustic performers), and Darcy DeSilva (an upcoming Glasgow folk artist, with an excellent band). All this for only £2, and it’s in Medina on Wednesday 28 September.

Sorry for going overboard on the promo of this but we really want to make the night a big success in the new venue so we can continue to bring you the best in emerging music at a low cost, so please come along and support Edinburgh Unlimited when we relaunch at Medina. We’re still using the existing facebook page for now (at www.facebook.com/EdinburghUnplugged) but this will change soon, so keep your peepers on that page for more updates as they happen.

Now, i was contacted recently by a chap who runs a fortnightly podcast of independent new music. If you like music, you need to check it out. And if you don’t, why are you even reading this? :¬) Go and check it out, here’s the link:

http://labelledindependent.podbean.com (or on iTunes)

It’s a new music podcast featuring releases from independent labels and artists in the UK – giving them a platform to get heard, so have a listen, and if you are an independent artiste yourself, then why not get in touch with them and see if you can get your music featured on the podcast?

That’s pretty much it for now, from me anyway, so get out there and get some music into yourself, and i’ll be back with more musicky goodness in your inbox about this time next week.

Calum Carlyle
Out of the Bedroom

Hi folks!

So i’m back from outer space, hope you’re all enjoying the Ed Fest. Hope you enjoyed Paul Gilbody‘s set on Tuesday, and The Last Of Barrett’s Privateers, Graeme Mearns and Hannah O’Reilly et al last week. Having performers like that at OOTB, with no admission charge, is one of the things OOTB is proud to keep up.

Anyway, here are the juicy details for the rest of August once again, i’ve got one or two other pieces of news for you but they’ll wait till nearer the end of the Festival.These OOTB events look really good though, and i’m looking forward to all of them.

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 Liza Day, John Watton, and Holly Shep

Tue 30 Aug – OOTB featuring Ben Young

So it’s all go. I’ll start including gig listings again in next week’s email i think, it’s just been really busy gigwise, far too much stuff going on at the moment to properly list it all. I’ve even got some solo gigs myself (in fact i’m playing at The Ship in Glasgow tonight, if you happen to be around, it’s free, and it’s at 8:30pm), so it’s busy busy busy for everyone concerned.

Right, see you all out there, i’ll probably do one more email this month and then it’s back to normal in time for September.

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

This week at OOTB it’s Pol Arida doing the featured act slot. He’s got a bunch of huge and impressive songs, and he manages to play them solo, with his own guitar/amp setup and his trademark fingertip guitar playing style. come along and enjoy the melodic onslaught of Pol Arida! 8pm start, 7:30pm for performers, it’s free, and it’s on Tuesday at the Montague Bar on St Leonards Street.

The other thing i wanted to tell you about this week is that we’re running extra special Saturday events all throughout August in a not-actually-connected-but-doing-it-because-of-because-of-the-Festival sort of way. We’re calling them Out Of The Ordinary, and they’ll be in the Montague Bar, same place, same time, but on Saturdays. The format is going to be THREE featured acts every Saturday (and they’re all stoaters, though our Events Officer’s been keeping his cards close to his chest on the exact lineup), as well as a shorter, and therefore probably packed and dynamic, open mic session every Saturday too.

BUT don’t forget we’re also running on the Tuesdays as usual at The Montague Bar, during the Festival AS WELL as Saturdays! Check out our website for details of upcoming featured acts. A quick look down the list reveals the next few Tuesdays feature: Holly Shepherdson, Calypso, The Last Of Barrett’s Privateers, Paul Gilbody, Caro Bridges, Ben Young (yes, he’s back from outer space!), and Lost Telegrams (phew!). Also all the open slots tend to get filled up with an array of incredible performers as well, so get out of your slippers and get down to OOTB on Tuesdays. If you don’t, you’re missing it. 🙂

By the way, Lost Telegrams (while we’re talking about them) were awesome at Edinburgh Unplugged on Wednesday last, as were Edward And The Itch (and as usual my hat’s off to Susanna Mulvihill and Sir Tom Watton for joining me as Calum Carlyle and the Mixed Reactions, i loved playing the gig with them, as i always do). Kirkcaldy band “Little Buddha” never showed up (and have ignored my attempt to contact them subsequently, obviously they don’t take their music, or other people for that matter, all that seriously) but despite their unexpected non-attendance we all had a fantastic time. The photos are on Facebook, courtesy of imagemeister extraordinaire Malcolm Mclean.

Oh yeah, tons of songs are getting written as part of the 50/90 challenge, click the link to listen. Some of our favourite Edinburgh songwriters are doing this this year, have fun listening to all the new songs. Remember, everything on that site has been written since 4 July!

I haven’t even got to other events. The place is heaving with them though, i’m struggling to keep up. I think i’m going to keep it mainly to OOTB, Secret CDs, Ed Unplugged and Out Of the Ordinary listings for the next month or two, as far as this email is concerned, unless people have specific gigs they want me to mention (in which case, just reply to this email letting me know, and i’ll list them too).

Oh i might just briefly mention that there’s a 7-9pm event happening from now till at least the end of the Festival on Sundays, and going to be Thursdays at The Black Rose Tavern on Rose Street, i’ll probably include those too, since there are so many performers from OOTB and the McEwans Ale House extended network playing at them. I may mention the odd Red Dog Music Sunday too, for the same reason. Just warning you. 🙂

Okay, see you all out there in musicland!

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