The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Stars on the rise make new streamed releases
Fife rockers are stepping up their game with new tracks out to stream this week. Fast-rising Dunfermline indie outfit TwinsTown and Kirkcaldy power-popsters Shambolics both have new material online, while the live music scene continues its revival with more longplanned Courier Country gigs imminent at last.
TwinsTown’s latest offering Welcome To My World is the hotly anticipated follow-up to their July debut single, the summer anthem Dive In, and the new track displays a darker side to the hearton-sleeve songwriting of the band’s leading lights, identical twins Donald and Stuart Mackay.
Channelling the likes of Orange Juice, Suede and The Libertines, the infectious new cut juxtaposes verses laced with shadowy undertones with a chorus that brims over with a soaring melodic hook.
Previously a five-piece, TwinsTown have recently bolstered their ranks with the addition of their guitarist cousin Rodaidh Mackay, aka ‘The Weapon’, formerly of Aberdeen outfit FaR.
A spokesman said the band have been absolutely delighted to receive some notable airplay in recent weeks from Undertones legend Mickey Bradley, who’s been championing Dive In on his BBC Ulster show.
SHAMBOLICS TRACK
Meanwhile, Shambolics’ new track Sharp As A Razor arrives just ahead of their major slot at Glasgow’s TRNSMT festival, which kicks off today, plus a run of sold-out indoor dates next month.
Their new song has a nod to an all-time boxing great, but the five-piece – Darren Forbes, Lewis McDonald, Jordan McHatton, Jake Bain and Scott Williamson – say it’s ultimately about the joys of being carefree.
And that’s an outlook that’s become something of a mantra for the harmonic troubadours since they formed in late 2015.
“We wanted to write a proper thumping tune that would go down a storm live but still keep a bit of simplicity and swagger about it,” they explained.
“The song is pretty much about not caring what people think or say about you. The chorus lyrics are a little nod to the ‘GOAT’ Muhammad Ali.
“We took inspiration from a rhyme he would use on the build-up to his fight against Joe Frazier.”
Following TRNSMT, Shambolics play Glasgow’s Playground Festival on September 24 before sold out visits to Edinburgh’s Caves, Cafe Drummond in Aberdeen and Dundee’s Church in October.
COCKNEY REJECTS
Separately, Beat Generator Live has Cockney Rejects frontman Jeff Turner appearing in conversation tomorrow, ahead of a full house for Glasgow hitmakers The Fratellis on September 23.
Turner, who’s also known as Jeff Geggus and Stinky Turner, formed the Rejects in London’s East End with his brothers Micky, their brother-in-law Chris Murrell and Paul Harvey back in 1977.
The football-obsessed punk outfit’s biggest UK hit single was their 1980 offering The Greatest Cockney Rip-Off, a parody of the Sham 69 classic Hersham Boys, and they appeared on Top of the Pops to perform their version of the West Ham favourite I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.
They also had minor hits around the same time with the singles We Are The Firm and Bad Man.
Further commercial success proved elusive, but the band have released a string of albums down the decades.
Tickets for tomorrow’s event, which includes a screening of the Rejects film East End Babylon, are available online from Tickets Scotland. Garage rockers The Fratellis released their delayed sixth album Half Drunk Under A Full Moon in April, and they’ve pledged to donate all profits from their BGs show to local independent record stores and their road crew, who were unable to work for almost 18 months.
Best known for their hits Chelsea Dagger, Whistle For The Choir and Baby Fratelli from their 2006 debut album Costello Music, the three-piece head for Dundee in the wake of a considerable buzz around their summer cover of the Baccara disco hit Yes Sir, I Can Boogie, which raised funds for various good causes.
Elsewhere, Kinross’s Green Hotel has Thin Lizzy tribute Black Rose on stage tomorrow, Just Beatles (Sunday) and Hendrix / Cream homage Voodoo Room (Wednesday).