The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Ex-housemartins star brings new band north
Adebut Courier Country gig from Housemartins and Beautiful South legend Dave Hemingway’s latest band is beckoning.
Paul Heaton’s former right-hand man brings Sunbirds to the Green Hotel on December 7, with fans who may have lost track of the singer since he quit spin-off project The South in 2017 set for a bit of a surprise.
Also featuring Hemingway’s erstwhile South colleague Phil Barton on guitar, singer Laura Wilcockson and drummer Marc Parnell, Sunbirds combine US roots vibes with grungey melodies.
RUN OF GIGS
A bumper run of gigs at the Kinross venue launches tonight with a set from Eagles tribute Hotel California, before a nostalgic take on the work of the likes of Small Faces, The Kinks, The Animals and Spencer Davis Group at tomorrow’s sold-out Ready Steady 60s Show.
It’s Scots outfit Main Street Blues at Backstage on Sunday for an early show at 2pm. With a full horn section in tow, they’ll perform classics by BB King, Albert King and Freddy King when they reprise their aptly-titled Fringe retrospective Kings Of The Blues.
Sunday night’s big draw is Swiss blues rock troubadour Felix Rabin. Still in his 20s, he’s previously toured with the likes of Wishbone Ash, and released debut album Pogboy in 2020.
Seasoned progsters Focus play a Green double bill on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Led by the ever-eccentric Thijs van Leer, the fourpiece initially formed in 1969 and scored global 70s hits with the mind bending singles Hocus Pocus and Sylvia, with their founder’s eccentric yodel, flutes and whistles prominent.
The original Focus split in 1978, before twice briefly reuniting in the 90s.
Then, in 2002, van Leer relaunched the band with a new line-up – veteran drummer Pierre van der Linden rejoined two years later.
DUTCH MASTERS
The hard-riffing Dutch masters nowadays include Menno Gootjes on guitar and released a part-live, part-studio double album last year to belatedly mark their 50th anniversary.
Much-travelled songsmith Keith James is at Kinross on Thursday, with songs and poetry by late Canadian great Leonard Cohen and his Andalusian idol Federico Garcia Lorca on offer.
That’s followed by more classic folk rock, with three shows from Fog On The Tyne legends Lindisfarne at the Green starting next Friday night and concluding on the afternoon of December 4.
PUNK ROCK BONANZA
On a different tack, annual punk rock bonanza Book Yer Ane Fest kicks off at Conroy’s Basement today.
The first act is due to hit the Meadowside venue’s stage at 4.20pm, with tonight’s bill comprising Alldeepends, The Sewer Cats, Get It Together, The Kimberly Steaks, Bed Of Wasps and Crocodile Tears.
Tomorrow’s Basement line-up features Forever Unclean, Flinch, Goodbye Blue Monday, Wrong Life, Sunliner, Lou Mclean, Truth Ruiner, Question The Mark, David Delinquent and The IOUS and Work To Rule, with sets from Portable Heads, James Liandu, Animal Byproducts and Tim Holehouse at the connecting Rad Apples.
It concludes on Sunday.
Separately, the unlikely prospect of a Nirvana tribute fronted by Elvis Presley is set to live and breathe at Beat Generator tomorrow in the enticing shape of Elvana.
The English grungemeets-rock ‘n’ roll mash-up played some big festival stages in the summer and arrive in Dundee on the back of a series of rave reviews.
Beat G continues on a soundalike theme next Friday with retro sophistipopsters Style Councillors, and Church gets in on the act with tartan Morrissey/ Marr copycats Frankly The Smiths on Sunday.
Elsewhere, Perth Theatre hosts rootsy Edinburgh songsmith Adam Holmes – an ex-scottish Album of the Year nominee – tonight, with indie-soulster Horse bringing the curtain down on stop-start celebrations of her classic 1990 album The Same Sky at the Fair City venue tomorrow.
SELL-OUT SHOW
Folk-pop favourite Eddi Reader plays a sold-out show along the road at Crieff’s Academy Hall tomorrow, with support from Paisley-raised Americana exponent Jill Jackson.