• ThumbnailIronworks, Inverness, 29 October 2011 With their joint adventures at leading industry event SxSW (South By Southwest) providing the spark for a longer term collaboration, Fence founder Kenny Anderson (King Creosote), and 2011 roster additions, Kid Canaveral, recently embarked on co-headlining tour in support of their single Homerun And A Vow .[Read more]

  • ThumbnailBelladrum Estate, Phoineas, Inverness-shire, 5-6 August 2011 SELLING out well in advance this year, one of the most consistently inventive independent festivals on the calendar returned to the genuinely stunning surroundings of Belladrum Estate across August 5 and 6. Having proved a real highlight two years ago on the Seedlings Stage, Bronto …[Read more]

  • ThumbnailIronworks, Inverness, 26 July 2011 STILL firmly placed at the vanguard of the ongoing new British folk movement, Brit Award winner Laura Marling treated a packed Ironworks to a preview of her forthcoming release, A Creature I Don’t Know , to close her eight date sweep of the Highlands and Islands. With recent taster Sophia being warmly received, …[Read more]

  • ThumbnailInshriach Estate, near Aviemore, 17-20 June 2011 Now in its third year and boasting over seventy-five acts programmed across three days, Insider returned to the stunning surroundings of Inshriach Estate promising its most ambitious and diverse schedule to date. Among the early highlights was the increasingly impressive Homework; one of the picks…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailVarious Venues, 8-10 June, 2011, Inverness NOW in its eleventh year, Scotland’s premier showcase event for emerging artists returned to the Highland Capital. Now firmly established on the wider industry calendar, a robust programme of panels, workshops and live showcases was promised for 2011. The seminar schedule again brought a host of high c…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailBogbain Farm, Inverness, 4-5 June, 2011 NOW in its third year, 2011’s Northern Roots Festival took place at one of Inverness’s most unique live spaces, The Barn at Bogbain Farm. After a relatively quiet but thoroughly entertaining afternoon of comedy songs, Mainline North opened Saturday night’s programme at blistering pace and pretty much remai…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailHICA, Dalcrombie, until 5 June 2011 CURRENTLY showing at The Highland Institute For Contemporary Art (HICA), American artist Richard Roth’s exhibition, Vernacular Modernism , uses a series of everyday objects personal to the artist but universal in nature to open up a conversation around the relationship between local and global values. The main …[Read more]

  • ThumbnailIronworks, Inverness, 15 May 2011 OVER the last twelve months, HI~Arts have been working with a number of artists from throughout the Highlands and Islands on a compilation highlighting a selection of the finest emerging singer songwriters in the region.  With the release now complete, they hosted a showcase featuring four of the acts set to appear […]

  • ThumbnailFort William, Lochaber, 6-7 May 2011 TO celebrate the centenary year of the Scottish Six Days Trial in Fort William, organisers introduced a music element in the shape of mini music festival Rock The Fort to this year’s event. The festival featured a fine selection of emerging Scottish acts programmed across eight days in the main trial […]

  • Alexander Smith wrote a new post, Twilight Hotel, on the site Northings 13 years ago

    ThumbnailOne Touch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 22 March 2011 TWILIGHT Hotel’s recent offering, When The Wolves Go Blind’ , dropped earlier this year to an impressive response and found the Winnipeg duo consolidating their blend of moody country reveries, dark visceral blues, bold storytelling and fondness for all things vintage into a coherent artisti…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailON MY last meeting with Fin Macrae and Al MacInnes (DUFI), our dominant point of identification was a frighteningly similar taste in new music. SO IT was somewhat fortuitous that when I recently caught up with the Highland-based artists, their current exhibition examining the relationship between Street Art, music and childhood, Teenage Kicks…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailHootannany, Inverness, 28 December 2010 TO CELEBRATE a triumphant 2010, exciting Highland-based weekly podcast show Netsounds Unsigned  and Hootannany’s hosted an ambitious End of Year Showcase programming eight acts from throughout the Highlands and Islands and beyond over two floors. The pick of the early showcases was delivered by Wick based ro…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailMadhatters, Inverness, 17 December 2010 FOR MANY, the release of The Xcerts second album’ Scatterbrain’ represented patient progress rather than any significant artistic development, with this progress manifesting musically into a more direct and accessible sound, fundamentally a  consolidation of the elements which made  2009’s debut, ‘In The Col…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailThe Ironworks, Inverness, 26 November 2010 TWO OF THE most promising acts to have emerged from the Highlands this year, Iain Mclaughlin & The Outsiders and James Mackenzie & The Aquascene, recently joined forces to release a split-single and embark upon a co-headlining Scottish tour. Both acts have had an outstanding year in the local context,…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailMadhatters, Inverness, 20 November 2010 THE EXCELLENT Highland based weekly podcast show, Netsounds Unsigned, has grown from humble beginnings into a genuine DIY success story which now generates a regular download audience of over 600 and rising. This growth has resulted in the show becoming an important audience development platform for fresh…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailBogbain Farm, Inverness, 13 November 2010 HAVING released their second album, Let Me Come Home , late last month on the ultra-hip 4AD to a genuinely impressive reception, Edinburgh-based sextet Broken Records proved a huge draw as they brought their spirited indie-folk to a chilly Bogbain Farm in Inverness. Broken Records are at the vanguard of…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailAS ONE half of a hot new Californian rap act based in London, Silibil’N’Brains, Brains McLeod appeared to have it all, tearing through huge advances in a blizzard of excess, partying with some of the biggest stars on the planet, including Madonna and Eminem, supporting hip hop royalty and enjoying the backing of a major record […]

  • ThumbnailHootananny, Inverness, 15 October 2010 FRENCH Wives are no strangers to two things, praise and comparison; and it’s difficult to read anything about the Glasgow based five-piece which doesn’t at once praise their craft, and highlight their artistic debt to a host of other acts, persistently Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura and Arcade Fire. Alt…[Read more]

  • ThumbnailALEXANDER SMITH caught up with rising star RACHEL SERMANNI in the middle of a hectic schedule. WITH a simply frightening summer schedule which has already included Rockness, The Insider, Wikerman, GoNorth, a session with Scotland’s premier taste-maker Vic Galloway and track of the month in the influential Under the Radar column in The Scotsman , …[Read more]

  • Load More