Tag Archive: French Wives


Dream of the Inbetween

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Filed under: Albums, Interviews — 2 Comments
May 2, 2012

Album of the Week: French Wives – Dream of the Inbetween

The Tidal Wave of Indifference and French Wives go back a fair bit, not least after the band’s rousing performance at the Tidal Wave of Indifference Presents last year.

We’re unashamed and confirmed fans, at least of their live performances, so a chance to get an advance listen to their long-awaited debut album was a no-brainer. It would have been a little awkward if it wasn’t any good, but thankfully the band haven’t put us in a difficult position.

Produced by Tony Doogan (Mogwai/Belle and Sebastian) over the last year or so, Dream of the Inbetween is an accomplished statement of intent. Doogan’s production has worked wonders for the band and the faintly tinny sounding early EPs are long forgotten, with a big, boisterous sound right from the start.

Stuart Dougan’s vocals are right at the top of the mix throughout and from opener Modern Columns onward, the value that Siobhan Anderson’s violin adds is finally clear – not something which has always been obvious live, or on previous recordings.

So yes, they have a violin, and also a nice line in sweaters, but this is a million miles away from the template of Scottish folk pop that’s becoming a little wearing. Album standout Numbers has some tasty guitar sounds that you certainly wouldn’t hear this side of an Aberfeldy album.

There are quieter moments like Back Breaker and Younger is a delicate almost-ballad that hits a rousing chorus, before crashing out on huge-sounding coda.

The stop/start rhythms of a rearranged Me Vs. Me takes them into Franz Ferdinand territory and other motifs do subtly reference other notable Scottish bands – Admiral Fallow are a clear influence – but the songs on Dream of the Inbetween are good enough for this to be an instantly forgivable misdemeanour.

French Wives have taken their time over the album in an effort to get it absolutely right. And it’s paid off. With a trip to SXSW in March and being named in the Bloggers Alternative Sound of 2012 list (yes, we voted for them!), they have both ambition and good will to go with the songs. Don’t bet against them being this year’s breakout Scottish band.

We spoke to guitarist Scott Macpherson, meaning that French Wives join a dubious roll call of bands interviewed twice on the Tidal Wave of Indifference.

How was SXSW? Suitably knackered I hope?

South By was a great experience. We’re really privileged that we were able to go. Obviously we don’t know when or if we’ll ever be back so we really wanted to make the most of being out there. And I think it’s safe to say we definitely did! The famous Texan hospitality treated us rather well. In the weeks following it we definitely were knackered, but we’ve been back for like a month now, so it’s very much back to reality. For example, I’m currently writing this from the bar I work in. There are only two customers in, both of whom are eating scotch pies I substandardly heated for them. It kind of puts the cutting about like a rock star for a month into perspective!

The album’s out at last! A good feeling?

Yeah it’s a great feeling, but also a terrifying one. People often talk about how it’s like letting your children go to school or whatever and I’m beginning to understand that now. I just hope it’s good and people don’t bully it in the playground! But in all seriousness we’re really excited for people to hear it especially after we spent so long working so hard on it. We’re all really eager to hear people’s take on it, as it might be a bit different to what some people are expecting.

Will you be hawking your wares on the festival circuit this summer?

Hopefully, but we’ve nothing confirmed just yet. All the work for the US tour and the album launch tour have left us lagging behind a bit, but hopefully it’s not too late!

What’s next then?

I suppose we just have to see how this record goes. I mean, we’ve got ambitions for stuff we want to do and places we want to go, but it’s all a bit up in the air depending on the level to which the album is received. All going well, hopefully a LOT more gigs during the second half of the year.

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The Sound of 2012: The Blogger’s Shortlist

Filed under: Random Nonsense — 3 Comments
January 2, 2012

Happy New Year dear readers!!

Last month we highlighted that some of the UK’s top blogs (and ourselves) had come together to dream up an alternative to the BBC’s increasingly poor ‘Sound of…’ lists. Auntie’s 2012 selection is looking particularly dire so we were happy to wade in with our views about who folk should be listening to this coming year.

And, hooray! One of our five picks (French Wives) has made the top five along with a host of other interesting acts all of whom we’ve heard of and all of whom we like the sound of. So forget Azalia Banks and the other imagination-free picks that the BBC and its panel of ‘experts’ have come up with, here are five acts that could define your 2012.

1. Friends

2. Theme Park

3. Beth Jeans Houghton

4. French Wives

5. Daughter

The Beth Jeans Houghton album, due later this month, is sounding great and the French Wives album is expected in March. With excellent albums from Errors, the Twilight Sad and Field Music also out shortly, 2012 is already looking pretty exciting.

The other participating blogs were: Breaking More Waves, My Band Is Better Than Your Band, God Is In the TV, Sweeping The Nation, The Von Pip Musical Express, The Recommender, Faded Glamour, Drunken Werewolf, Flying With Anna, Not Many Experts, Under-classed Idle Ideas, Sonic Masala, Mudkiss, The Ring Master, Both Bars On, Music From A Green Window, Dots And Dashes, The Daily Growl, And Everyone’s A DJ, Kowalskiy, Just Music I Like, Cruel Rhythm, The Blue Walrus, Music Fans Mic, 17 Seconds, Eaten By Monsters, Seven Sevens, Unpeeled, NuRave Brain Wave, Peenko, Music Liberation, Song, By Toad.

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The Sound of 2012 – The Bloggers Alternative

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December 6, 2011

So you’ll have seen the BBC’s much vaunted 2012 Introducing list then and have been suitably impressed/outraged/indifferent, yes?

Needless to say there’s not a lot on there to interest the Tidal Wave of Indifference and our own reaction was little more than shrug, snort and shake of the head.

We’ll not pore over the nominees, because to be perfectly honest, we haven’t heard of most of them.

And of those we have, we’re confident that they’re “not our thing” based on looks, press coverage and the thoughts of our peers. Even the only two ‘traditional’ guitar bands in there (Dry the River and Spector) sound mince.

Even our cat hadn't heard of Azaelia Banks - and she LOVES dreadful pop music

Yes, we most certainly are judging books by their covers, but isn’t that what being a music snob is all about. And the motto of this blog is of course, ‘Life’s Too Short to Listen to Shit Music’ We’re also far more prepared to trust the blogs than a bunch of so-called industry tastemakers, and that’s where Andy Von Pip of the Von Pip Musical Express comes in.

Von Pip has polled some of country’s best known and just generally ‘best’ blogs (and ourselves) about who the real sound of 2012 should be.

A longlist, which will be narrowed down in the New Year, is below and we’re delighted to see one of our nominees (we had to submit five) in here. Can you guess who?

We haven’t heard of all these but are willing to bet there’s a lot more musical invention, spirit and actual quality in here than what the Beeb have come up with:

Houdini Dax

French Wives

The Good Natured

Lianne La Havas

Theme Park

Alt J

The Jezabels

Lucy Rose

Bastille

Beth Jeans Houghton

Friends

Washington

Meursault

Daughter

Outfit

All acts have tracks streaming HERE.

The other participating blogs were: Breaking More Waves, My Band Is Better Than Your Band, God Is In the TV, Sweeping The Nation, The Von Pip Musical Express, The Recommender, Faded Glamour, Drunken Werewolf, Flying With Anna, Not Many Experts, Under-classed Idle Ideas, Sonic Masala, Mudkiss, The Ring Master, Both Bars On, Music From A Green Window, Dots And Dashes, The Daily Growl, And Everyone’s A DJ, Kowalskiy, Just Music I Like, Cruel Rhythm, The Blue Walrus, Music Fans Mic, 17 Seconds, Eaten By Monsters, Seven Sevens, Unpeeled, NuRave Brain Wave, Peenko, Music Liberation, Song, By Toad.

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Gratuitous October Plugs

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October 10, 2011

Evening bairns.

This seems to be happening with increasing regularity. Us getting sent lots of stuff that we want to tell you about, that just don’t fit with our Album of the Week/Bandcrush template.

- So what’s on our minds just now? Well, we’ve made no secret of our love for French Wives, even them roping them into our debut gig, which we promise to shut up about one of these days, but we’re now happy to say that their pre-album release promotion trail is now in full swing with a new single and live dates upcoming. The single’s called Numbers, and you can listen to it below and catch them at the following dates. Do go, etc…

Oct 19 Aberdeen Drummond’s Café

Oct 20 Glasgow Mono – single launch with Endor and Blochestra

Oct 22 Edinburgh Third Door

Oct 23 Newcastle Tyne Bar

Oct 24 London Bull and Gate

- And while we’re on the subject of plugging tours, Brooklyn’s Numbers and Letters are over for an unusual, and dare we say brave tour, taking in the following dates:

Oct 11  House show at 26 Peterswell Brae, Stirling

Oct 12 Gourock Cafe Continental

Oct 13 “Surprise Show” in Glasgow (nope, us neither)

Oct 14 Inverness Hootananny

Oct 15 Thurso Newmarket Bar

Oct 16 Glasgow Brel

God knows what dark folkie types from NYC will make of Gourock and Thurso, but good luck to them. We like how they sound anyway, so here’s hoping they find a willing audience in Scotland. You can have a listen to them covering Tom Waits below.

 

- Soooooo, speaking of gigs, you’ll have got your ticket to Pendulum Man’s night of Michael Feerick, Matthew Collings and Debutant in Edinburgh on October 16, yes?

- And how about this… Laki Mera who we featured earlier in the year are in the final five in a competition to head to the Big Apple. They’ll perform two songs in front of a panel of, ahem, “industry experts” at the Garage in Glasgow for their chance to play at Scotland Week 2012 in New York and at the prestigious Scottish Music Awards – The Tartan Clefs in November 2011. Also up for the cup are Woodenbox and Song of Return so it sounds like an evening of quality music is in the offing. We like Laki Mera muchly so wish them the best of luck. They’ve also had album track Crater remixed by Mogwai. It’s rather splendid and available to download for nowt over on their Facebook page, where you can also win tickets for the above event.

- You can’t fail to have missed the latest announcement by the BBC on cuts to staff, services and so on to cope with the licence fee freeze, and in particular the imminent end to Ally McCrae’s BBC Introducing show on Radio 1. Now we found the midnight-2am Sunday night timeslot a little prohibitive, and often didn’t quite manage to go back on iPlayer, but that’s by the by. McCrae is an engaging presenter with maximum focus on up and coming young Scottish talent and the axing of this show removes an excellent chance for new bands to be heard from the airwaves. Let’s face it, a non-regionalised BBC Introducing show just won’t present the same opportunities. There’s a whiff of last year’s (successful) campaign to save 6 Music about this, but a petition to save Ally’s slot from the axe is now open. If you’re interested in Scottish music we suggest you sign it.

- More promisingly, entries for the 2011 Radar Prize are now open. Last year’s winners French Wives (yes, yes, them again) have gone from strength to strength and with 60+ entries already received for this year, we’re hoping for the same quality that 2010 presented. As a Radar contributor, we’ll be on the judging panel too. Details HERE.

- Finally. something a bit different. A friend of a friend has made a feature-length documentary about the Oxford music scene, not just looking at the biggies like Radiohead but mainly at other guys like Ride, Foals and the smaller fish from way back like Talulah Gosh and the Candyskins, called “Anyone Can Play Guitar”. You might have heard of it. Anyway, you can read more here, and director Jon Spira will be taking it to Edinburgh’s Cameo on November 29. There’s no distributor and he’s doing the whole thing independently, so come along and show your support for good music and fine film-making! Here’s the trailer. Guten nacht!

Anyone Can Play Guitar Trailer from video jon on Vimeo.

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Some things we’ve learned about running gigs… and some more gigs we like

Filed under: Gigs, Random Nonsense — 3 Comments
September 26, 2011

Hello there.

We’ll get to the post mortem of The Tidal Wave of Indifference Presents… shortly, but first here’s a sorta gig guide to help keep you entertained for the next few weeks.

First up is the latest Ayetunes-branded gig at Glasgow’s Captain’s Rest on Wednesday (Sept 28). School night gigs are always a problem for us, especially in Glasgow so we won’t be there, but with Jim’s latest venture involves the redoubtable Shambles Miller,  plus the Sea Kings and Spook School who we’re less familiar with. We recommend you make up for our non-attendance and get yourself along – it’ll cost you a mere fiver.

Saturday (Oct 1) brings an unfortunate clash with both the launch of Supermationation’s new EP Amongst the Northern Lochs at the Wee Red Bar (playing two sets – one acoustic, and one plugged in!) plus support, all for free…. and over at Henry’s is the latest Ides of Toad gig (tickets) featuring John Knox Sex Club, Easter and Fuzzystar.

Tough one, this and we don’t envy anyone having to make that choice. Ours is made for us by virtue of a poorly-planned weekend up north which means that we won’t be heading to either. Hopefully you’re getting a bit of a theme here?

Finally, another mention for Michael Feerick and Matthew Collings at the Wee Red on October 16, as put on by Pendulum Man (tickets). Feerick was the frontman of Tidal Wave faves Amusement Parks on Fire so we’re cursing Maw & Paw Tidal Wave for choosing that weekend to foist themselves on us, especially now that the superb Debutant has been added to the bill. Bugger.

And so, to Saturday’s shenanigans at the Wee Red Bar. Some things we’ve learned:

1. Come loaded with pound coins if you’re going to charge something stupid like £6… alternatively just charge a simple price, like a fiver. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

2. Never have any expectation that the soundcheck will run as you’ve planned.

3. A wide variety of instruments will upset a soundman. Greg, our excellent technical guy was stunned that we’d managed to find four bands with a fiddler, which caused some stress. And that’s before we got to Lost Telegrams’ accordion and mandolin.

4. Don’t trust Facebook. Our list of attendees looked healthy pre-gig, but around a dozen or so people we know personally didn’t show. Things come up, we understand, IT’S OK. But it doesn’t work that well as an indication of attendees. But to be quite honest if everyone that said they were coming on Facebook had showed, we would have had to start turning people away. Seriously.

5. Do expect to have an absolute ball.

Seriously, any pre-gig worries about numbers were already dispersing 20 minutes after doors opened as Lost Telgrams were striking up, and absolutely blown away by the time the Douglas Firs hit the stage. We had almost 130 paying punters through the door, and even though a decent chunk of that came from the bands’ cheaper guestlist, we still had enough money to pay all four acts handsomely (we think) and made a modest profit ourselves which we promptly drank in Brauhaus and the Citrus Club.

So….

Thanks to everyone who came along – you surely couldn’t have failed to have fun?

Thanks to the bands. You were all absolutely brilliant. Well, we think… we were rather busy at the door for Lost Telegrams and the Douglas Firs, then totting up money and selling merch during Star Wheel Press. But there were plenty of wonderful sounds coming from behind us. The only band we were able to focus on fully were French Wives, and they were indeed superb. Everyone told us in the pub how great you all were anyway (and here’s a lovely review of the evening if you’ve not already seen it) and I was delighted to see a bundle of merch being shifted too.

Thanks to the staff at the Wee Red. Like the bands, you took a chance on a rookie promoter. I can only assume you made an absolute packet at the bar?

Thanks to Mrs Tidal Wave for keeping me sane on the night, helping with – no, doing – the door and putting up with my drunken foolishness once we’d moved on.

Phew.

We enjoyed it so much we’re DEFINITELY DOING IT AGAIN. Stay tuned!

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Bandcrush: French Wives

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September 10, 2011

Scottish indie music is surely in the rudest health it’s been in for years. Frightened Rabbit have blazed a trail with signing a major label deal and the likes of Admiral Fallow, We Were Promised Jetpacks and Broken Records all now have international profiles.

And that’s before you even scratch the surface. Readers of this blog and many others will know all about the many great bands dotted around the country that just don’t get the same recognition.

If there’s one band that could – and arguably should – be ready to hit the same heights, it’s Glasgow’s French Wives. With a number of singles and EPs already under their belts, work on a debut album is well under way with the renowned Tony Doogan in the producer’s chair.

In typical Tidal Wave-style, this is yet another party we’re late for. Desperately late, in fact. Even though they won the inaugural Radar prize, shortly before we linked up with the popular Scotsman-affiliated site, it took us until this year’s Stag and Dagger festival to properly notice them, and we were more than happy to pen a few words about just how damn good they were for the Skinny. 

We’re definitely fully paid up converts now, which is why we asked them to play our first ever gig night later this month with Star Wheel Press, the Douglas Firs and Lost Telegrams, and were seriously chuffed when they said yes.

While some of the bands could be considered to be quiet and low key, French Wives will be bringing brassy, sing-along choruses and catchy melodies to the Wee Red Bar in a few weeks.

We can’t wait, and had a word with singing guitarists Stuart Dougan and Scott Macpherson this week.

So who the hell are you?

SM: We’re French Wives, a 5 piece indie-pop band surviving in Glasgow. We’re four boys and a girl (the band are completed by violinist Siobhan Anderson, bassist Chris Barclay and drummer Jonny Smith).

Describe your sound in ten words or less!

SM: Melodic indie pop music that is hopefully intelligent, yet accessible.

SD: Definitely not folk music!

You’re in the middle of recording your debut album proper – what can we expect from it?

SM: I think in terms of songwriting, arrangements and production it will represent a massive step up from us. We’ve been immensely lucky to convince the excellent Tony Doogan, who has produced some of our favourite bands, to produce the album for us, and what we have so far sounds like it’s coming along nicely. There are eight new songs, and we’ve completely rearranged our “smash hits” (note the inverted commas!) Halloween and Me vs. Me for the record.

SD: At the moment it’s only about 60% complete but it sounds a lot bigger and better than anything we’ve done before. Tony has made a huge difference in terms of bringing out the best in the songs. It makes us slightly shy in offering up any of our old music in the knowledge that this is going to be vastly superior to what has gone before.  All of which makes it increasingly frustrating that it isn’t finished yet!

And when can we expect to hear it?

SD:  The plan is that it will be out in February 2012 via Electric Honey Records.  There will be single coming much sooner though.

A lot of nice things have been said about the band in the last year. Do you feel a burden of expectation?

SM: Ha, not really. With all the nice things that are said - which isn’t really THAT often an occurrence  there is normally an equal amount of bad press, so it evens itself out somewhat in the end. Plus we’ve been so quiet whilst writing the album and stuff for the past while that it seems that everyone has forgotten about us! So we’re hoping to come back with a bang and be a new exciting band again over the next few months.

SD: It’s nice when people say nice things about your music but it’s all to be taken with a pinch of salt.  There are people that gushed about our band when we first started that don’t seem to bother with us anymore and don’t come any see us anymore so I don’t think there’s a burden as such when it can all be quite fickle.  Ultimately we’re confident that we’re making a record that’s much better than what we’ve done previously and if you like our band you’ll really like this.  A lot of our praise has been garnered from quite a small and specific group of people and something Tony has drummed in to us is that the world is a very big place and there a literally hundreds of thousands of people that are yet to hear our music so it’s not really do or die for us just yet.

What can an Edinburgh gig-goer expect from your live show then?

SM: Hopefully some nice songs and some fun and some singing along if they know the words (we like that!).

SD: Generally plenty of space around them as hardly anyone comes to see us in Edinburgh (we’re keen to address this issue – Ed)!  That being said, those that do venture out will see plenty of the aforementioned melodic indie pop, only a little louder and faster.

 

French Wives? I’ve heard dodgy Dave down the Duck sells DVDs called that…. how the hell did the name come about?

SM: There is an old “erotic” film called French Wives that was released in the ’70s however none of us have seen it – but that’s not through lack of trying (try harder! – Ed)!

SD: A friend was going to use it for their band name but didn’t so we pinched it as we needed something for our first gig.  It was to do with a conversation about Jarvis Cocker having a French wife I believe.  It’s nothing to do with the porno, though we’re all eager to see it if it can be tracked down.

Bloggers running gigs – it’ll all end in tears, right??

SM: Not at all! You bloggers seem to be getting dead good at putting on gigs, and of course the major advantage is that they always get coverage in the blogs! We’ve never played a blogger’s night before though, so it all remains to be seen. I think it will be a good one though. It will be nice to go over and play in Edinburgh at a night with a bit of press behind it.

SD: From what I gather we’re going to play to a group of people, get paid and drink beers.  You might actually be my favourite promoter ever?

Perhaps we should hold back such accolades once we know it won’t just be two mates and a flatulent dog you’re playing to. On that note, you can get tickets to the Tidal Wave of Indifference Presents… right here. We have an amazing line-up, do come!

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LIKE OR DIE!

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September 5, 2011

You! YES, YOU!!!

You want to win a ticket to the Tidal Wave of Indifference Presents, don’t you?

What do you mean “what’s that??” We’re talking about the rather fine gig we’re putting on on September 24 starring Star Wheel Press, French Wives, the Douglas Firs and Lost Telegrams of course.

And you, yes, you can win a ticket for yourself and a mate by doing one dead easy thing – hitting the ‘like’ button on our Facebook page.

Here’s how it works – if we get to 100 likes by midnight on Sunday September 11, we’ll do a random draw of the aformentioned likers (excluding those already involved in the gig) for a pair of tickets.

Yes, we’re a wee bit short of that magic number but there’s a whole seven days to go. WE KNOW YOU CAN DO IT.

Can’t make the gig? Don’t ACTUALLY like us – click the button anyway and give others a chance!

Tell your pals – aside from the chance to win this, ahem, pestigious prize, our Facebook page will keep you bang up to date on what we’re up to, and more importantly all the great bands we’re featuring.

Yes, we want you to like us. Yes, we want to promote our gig. But we’re also kind and generous sorts and want to treat YOU to an evening of fine music.

You know what to do.

"Look, Douchebag, just click the damn button!!!"

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The Tidal Wave of Indifference Presents…

Filed under: Gigs, Random Nonsense — 3 Comments
July 11, 2011

Yes, after a year of blogging, ligging, and general arm-chancing, the Tidal Wave of Indifference is finally branching out into the inevitable, and putting on our own gigs.

Our first event will be on Saturday September 24 at Edinburgh’s legendary Wee Red Bar with a mouth-watering line-up.

The debut album from Aberfeldy’s Star Wheel Press was named album of the month for June by Team Avalanche and The Life Cycle of a Falling Bird has been practically flying off the shelves down at the Grassmarket. With endorsements from Ian Rankin, Lauren Laverne and more, the band are influenced by Bon Iver and Midlake and have built their sound around Irishman Ryan Hannigan’s languid storytelling and Craig Milton’s sparsely played banjo and guitar. We’re absolutely cock-a-hoop to have them involved.

After a series of successful EPs, packed shows and being named the inaugural winner of the Radar Prize, French Wives are in the middle of recording their debut album with producer Tony Doogan (Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai, Teenage Fanclub) set for release later in the year. Also named as ‘one to watch’ by Drowned in Sound, the Wee Red Bar will be the perfect showcase for their upbeat, classically Scottish songs, before their inevitable push into the big league.

Former Jesus H. Foxx man Neil Insh released the Douglas Firs debut album, Happy As a Windless Flag, a six year labour of love, earlier in the year but is wasting no time in recording a follow-up with a full band in tow. If the new material is half as good as the likes of I Will Kill Again or the Shadow Line, we’re in for a huge treat come September.

Opening the event will be Edinburgh’s latest exciting alt-folk prospect, Lost Telegrams. Currently looking at recording their debut EP, the band hope to have it ready by the time they take the stage at the Wee Red. Still in their infancy as a band, we’re tipping them for big things and are delighted to have them on board.

Tickets will be available for £6 through Brown Paper Tickets. Doors at 7pm, over 18s only (obviously).

For more information, please email thetidalwaveofindifference@gmail.com. There’s also a Facebook page over HERE. Hope to see you there!!!

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Various Artists, Glasgow Stag and Dagger Festival, Various venues, May 21, 2011

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May 22, 2011

Last year’s event took place in blazing hot sunshine, to the point where, on our return to East Lothian well after midnight, Mrs Tidal Wave was still quaffing wine in the back garden with friends.

So it stands to reason that this year it’s absolutely chucking it down. Typical Glasgow.

Last year’s plan of parking trusty steed Big LEZ (who is hereby christened the Tidalwavemobile) outside the Captain’s Rest was so cunning, that’s what we do again, and after pushing past all the footy fans watching Celtic turning over Motherwell in the cup final, we’re straight downstairs for Blue Sky Archives*. They’re hugely enjoyable and you’ll be reading more about them here soon.

Having heard their latest EP Plural, their quality didn’t come as a surprise. What did, however was the Victorian English Gentlemans Club. We’re here partly on a friend‘s recommendation and partly because there’s little else on.

But my, my we’re rather glad to find ourselves here. This is thunderous, experimental art rock at it’s very best. Clad in slightly baffling outfits, they batter the hell out of their instruments as if McLusky never existed and we’re already considering looking out their music. Outstanding.

French Wives* weren’t someone we were hugely excited to see either. Yes, our chums over at Radar awarded them the inaugural Radar Prize, but they never felt like our cup of tea. So surprise number two of the day – they were absolutely brilliant.

Following them was always going to be a struggle and after having to fight their way through a barely dispersing crowd to set up, the Scottish Enlightenment must have been downcast whenthe bodies had all but evaproated by the time they were ready to start. It’s hard to tell whether the band have let it get to them but after the indie pop blast of French Wives, their downbeat sprawl just isn’t what people are looking for at this stage, even if their honest melancholy is entirely appropriate for the weather outside.

So it’s off to Stereo for Kid Canaveral. In theory, we should be utterly sick of the sight of them but, like crack, their jangly hook-laden pop is utterly addictive. Stereo is nowhere near as busy as Anstruther Town Hall but at least one familiar face is lurking about – Johnny Lynch a.k.a Pictish Trail is filming the occasion and heckling from the front row.

B-side to new single And Another Thing!!, Missionary doesn’t reinvent the wheel but if they can keep churning out glorious tunes like it, then global domination surely beckons.

We haven’t seen Admiral Fallow play live since they were Brother Louis Collective but with superb album Boots Met My Face having been re-released and their star firmly in the ascendant, the band’s old name must feel like a dim and distant memory.

They’re not resting on their laurels either. It would be easy to simply peddle to old tunes until this fresh burst of publicity wraps, but there’s three newies aired to an appreciative ABC audience too. Again, not a change in style, but if you’re producing high quality literate, hummable indie, why change? That said. Subbuteo and Squealing Pigs are still the strongest tunes in their portfolio.

They’re followed the excellent all-girl four-piece Warpaint* who are excellent and impeccably cool throughout, despite bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg sporting dungarees.

Tempted as we are by the return of Sons and Daughters, it’s at this point that we decide that it’s been a long day, and an early jump the next day means that we’d be better off heading home. So it’s off to pick up the Tidalwavemobile.

On arrival at the Captain’s Rest, it dawns on us that English scuzz-pop foursome Mazes are still on so it’s back downstairs to catch a few of their tunes. But again, we despair of the crowd. Where is everyone? They’re a better band than the low numbers suggest. Bah.

So as we make our way along the M8 it turns out that it’s not just tipping it down in Glasgow, it’s raining all the way to East Lothian. But least some astoundingly good music has brightened our day.

*It might look like I’m short-changing a few acts with my write-ups, but I was also covering the event for another publication.

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