The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Edinburgh Festival: Music highlights
Various venues, throughout August
Contemporary music has enjoyed mixed fortunes at Edinburgh International Festival down the years.
Not traditionally a staple of the arts extravaganza, that changed in 2000 when T in the Park organisers DF Concerts and Tennent’s Lager launched T on the Fringe as a riposte to the noticeable paucity of gigs around the city in August.
For 13 summers venues such as Meadowbank Stadium, Liquid Rooms and Cabaret Voltaire hosted leading alternative and emerging talents, with the event downsizing to the more bijou Edge Festival in 2008 following its sponsor’s withdrawal.
At its peak, Scotland’s indie kids revelled in headline shows from the likes of Pixies, Snow Patrol, Radiohead, Muse, Foo Fighters and David Byrne.
DF’S decision to curtail the event in 2012 created a noticeable void, with little in the way of gigs being staged over the next couple of years. However, matters improved in 2015 when Franz Ferdinand, Sparks, Anna Calvi, King Creosote and Sufjan Stevens all played EIF, and since then it’s attracted the likes of Youssou N’dour, Sigur Ros, Young Fathers, PJ Harvey and Jarvis Cocker.
This year’s 18 shows kick off with returning Fence Collective founder King Creosote opening the Scottishthemed Light on the Shore series with support sets from Iain Morrison and Hamish Hawk on August 9. Throughout the month Caledonian heroes such as Mogwai, Julie Fowlis, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Honeyblood, Karine Polwart and Django Django will be performing at Leith Theatre, with organisers promising guest appearances from cherry-picked cohorts including American singer-songwriter Joan Wasser – aka Joan As Police Woman – krautrock legend Michael Rother and trance exponent James Holden.
Arts collective Neu! Reekie has put together two bumper line-ups, with US avant-garde legend Lydia Lunch, Edinburgh art-punks The Fire Engines and Michael Rother performing on August 12. Later, Scots indie icons The Vaselines and The Pastels are joined by dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and Swedish synthpop darling Molly Nilsson on August 17.
Other highlights at Light on the Shore include Aberfeldy-born Hollywood actor Alan Cumming hosting an afterparty club night, Anna Meredith performing her 2016 Scottish Album of the Year-winning debut Varmints with the 30-piece Southbank Sinfonia orchestra, a re-imagining of Boards Of Canada’s EP Hi Scores by Berlin-based classical collective Stargaze and a night of DJ sets from influential electronic artists Sophie, Lanark Artefax, Spencer and Sofay.
Away from Ferry Road, the big shows to look out for are acclaimed ex-czars frontman John Grant at Edinburgh Playhouse on August 20 and a festivalclosing performance from Grammywinning art-pop experimentalist St Vincent, aka Annie Jones, at the same venue on August 26.