Hidden Door Festival

Pictish Trail, Kid Canaveral, Tuff Love and Randolph's Leap

For 9 days and nights 28th March to 5th April, the previously derelict vaults in East Market Street, Edinburgh, were transformed into:

Market Street Vaults in full flow

• Two 200 capacity live music venues with state of the art sound and light, plus a third ‘secret’ live music venue for more intimate music events, with over 40 bands and musicians performing over the 9 days
• A series of 18 vaults filled with immersive art installations including light-reactive robots, mazes and labyrinths, stunning video projections, as well as more conventional paintings and sculpture
• A performance Theatre Space with over 40 contributors
• A cinema space screening 9 nights of film and animation programmes
• Not to mention two bars selling locally produced beers and other fruity drinks, and a café space selling food and hot drinks

Hidden Door seized the opportunity to occupy these iconic vaults before they were stripped bare again, and ultimately handed over to property developers Artisan Real Estate and turned into part of the controversial Caltongate project.

Our visit to this one-off extravaganza was Monday night, March 31st 2014.

On the bill were Pictish Trail, Kid Canaveral, Tuff Love and Randolph's Leap.
Arrived late (due to a flat tyre on the long drive back from London) and the order of play had changed a little. Because Scott McMaster, the Kid Canaveral drummer had a "family issue" and could not be there, Kate Lazda and David MacGregor did separate acoustic sets. Rose, the bass player manned the merchandise stand. Due to the late arrival, only caught the last three tunes from Kate's performance. Great guitar as always, and her wistful voice adds a certain sadness to the tracks - it was a beautiful performance. David kicked off with Low Winter Sun, a tough track with very high chorus notes to begin the set. By the end of this song, his voice was right up there and he went from strength to strength through the rest of the set. He even got the crowd split into two harmonic groups and accompanying him on You Only Went Out to Get Drunk Last Night. A really good solo performance from both, and an indication of how good they are and how impressive the song-writing is when stripped back like that.

David MacGregor

Johnny Lynch (Mr Pictish Trail) filled in the gaps with some esoteric DJ sets and some interesting compère work :-)

Next on were Tuff Love. A three piece: Suse Bear on bass, Julie Eisenstein on guitar and Michael O’Hara on drums from Glasgow. They have had rave reviews from many quarters and this is the second time I've seen them live. Sweet Discontent was the stand out track from their set, and although the whole set was hugely enjoyable, they still suffer from a slightly muddy sound mix, particularly on the guitar and vocals. Their recorded stuff is really great (have a listen), but the sound quality of the lyrics and guitar playing didn't transfer to this live set too well. Still, as I said, very enjoyable/danceable set.

Tuff Love

During the next break, took the chance to stroll around some of the other "vaults" and saw some art and video displays. Sorry that time was tight - would have liked to see more. Venison "stag" burger, local ales and some fine Havana rum were also sampled and enjoyed....then back to the "big Vault" for Randolph's Leap.

Randolph's Leap climbed onto the stage (no artists' entrance in this venue, just rummage through the crowd and use a bass monitor with an old guitar case on top to clamber up.
The band is made up of the following folk – Adam Ross (guitar/vocals), Iain Taylor (drums), Vicki Cole (bass), Andrew MacLellan (electric guitar/cello), Heather Thikey (violin), Ali Hendry (trumpet), Fraser Gibson (trombone) and Pete MacDonald (keyboards) though Pete wasn't at this gig.

They sound-checked with News (“has everybody heard the news I’m going insane”) a frantic, funny, sing-along 1' 20" track. The sound was excellent - brass, violin, guitars, drums and voices - the whole ensemble. Adam steps back to the microphone and announces that he's "off to the toilet", leaps off the stage and lopes off through the crowd.

Back a few minutes later, and no hanging around, they launch straight in to Goodbye (from the Fast As A Man mini album) and the crowd are already dancing.

Randoph's Leap

The rest of the set went like this...

Goodbye
Mutiny
Foolishness Of Youth
Black & Blue
Microcosm
Weatherman
Isle Of Love 
Real Anymore
Hermit
Light Of The Moon
and they finished the set with I Can't Dance To This Music Anymore

There were some brilliant moments of Adam thought between songs, in particular the fact that the vinyl and CD version of the new album were available to purchase. "That's CD not seedy" he said "the seedy version doesn't come out until July" 
The sound throughout was really excellent and what a sound they made. If you have never seen them live - just do it!

Of course I had to buy the new album "Clumsy Knot" vinyl and CD (seedy version) combo.

..which came with 
A TRACK-BY-TRACK GUIDE TO RANDOLPH’S LEAP’S DEBUT ALBUM
By Singer/Songwriter Adam Ross

1. UNNATURAL The most westerly song on the album. I wrote it in the Ardnamurchan peninsula to a captive audience of pine martens. A song about self-criticism and anxiety.

2. FOOLISHNESS OF YOUTH I spent ages trying to find a keyboard tone that sounded like Intuition by John Lennon. I didn’t find it. Not even on my £9.99 Casiotone MT-52. The song is kind of about worrying about stupid stuff we did/said in the past. I’m sad that “youth” isn’t really an excuse I can use anymore.

3. NEWS I’m proud of the amount of craziness we managed to fit in to 1 minute and 20 seconds. Hearing Fraser’s trombone part in isolation is an avant-garde joy to behold. It was recorded at Pete MacDonald’s house, which in its past lives has apparently been a Polish embassy, a W.I. dancehall and home to Teenage Fanclub.

4. HERMIT In October 2012 the lyric “hermit the frog” appeared on a Fence Records 7”. In August 2013 Fence Records ended. We recorded this song in the wonderful Chem 19 studios.

5. GINA Gina is in fact a very reasonable employer and I apologise for casting unfavourable aspersions. Someone told me the drums sound like the theme tune to ‘Scrubs’. I used a public domain drum loop so it’s possibly the same one.

6. LIGHT OF THE MOON A good example of a recording which is really different to the live version. I enjoy that aspect of the band. This song gave us the album title (“I’d tie a clumsy knot around a tender thought”). The chorus is about someone being a big fish in a small pond. Not me though. I’ve never been a big fish. At best I’m akin to average sized plankton.

7. WEATHERMAN Somebody once asked me sincerely if this song was based on the film The Weather Man starring Nicolas Cage. Ironically, this is one of the few Randolph’s Leap songs not inspired by Nicolas Cage. An acoustic version appeared on a mini-album called As Fast As A Man and it’s become a favourite to play live.

8. BLACK & BLUE Many things can be both black and blue. For example: the sky, clothing (e.g. trousers), paint, exotic fruit. An attempt to write a song that was really simple but affecting. Musically, it’s inspired by Kath Bloom, Sandy Denny and Karen Dalton. Lyrically, there’s hardly anything to it but I think that works in its favour and it’s my favourite recording on the album.

9. ISLE OF LOVE My girlfriend, Michelle, the person whom I trust and admire more than anyone else, once told me that this song made her feel sick. Oh well. I think I’d been listening to a lot of Jonathan Richman when I wrote this one.

10. MICROCOSM On that same day, Michelle told me that this one sounded Japanese(?!). This song made it onto the album just in the nick of time. Another fun one to play live.

11. SAXOPHONE The oldest song on the album. It’s been around for a while but I knew that when we finally came to record it we’d have to find a good sax player. We found a very good one (Bill Fleming). LISTEN TO THAT FLIPPIN’ SOLO! Thanks Bill.

12. COLD The delightful electric guitar tone on this song is actually an acoustic guitar sent through an effects box. Hard to believe but 100% true. One of the few songs I’ve managed to write without obsessing over rhyming couplets.

13. I CAN’T DANCE TO THIS MUSIC ANYMORE Kid Canaveral recently asked if they could record a version of this song. So by the time you read these words I might be rich as heck. It first appeared on a home-recorded album called The Curse of the Haunted Headphones and is, as far as I'm aware, the only song to reference Crossmyloof train station.

Randolph’s Leap http://randolphsleap.co.uk

Kid Canaveral and Edwyn Collins

Kid Canaveral's Christmas Baubles IV

In September Mandy got two tickets to the fourth Kid Canaveral's Christmas Baubles event on the 14th December 2013.

Details here: http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/music/kid-canaveral-count-down-festival-in-portobello-1-3231803

This time the headline act was Edwyn Collins, ex Orange Juice front-man, probably best known for his post Orange Juice hit "A Girl Like You". Nostalgists click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYFz4pKclyA


So the tickets were put away safely, but as the date approached there was a cloud on the horizon - Mandy's Mum Ivy was going through a tough time in and out of hospital, and Mandy was spending a lot of time down in South London. The week before the gig, it looked like Ivy was not going to make it through Christmas, so Mandy had to abandon her ticket and fly south again for 10 days.

Fortunately Ivy did improve, and is now in a nursing home, but this meant that Duncan was drafted in to use the spare ticket on the 14th Dec.


The day kicked off at 14:30 in Portobello Town Hall, a lovely little venue down by the seaside (opened in 1914) that holds about 550-600 people.

Porty Town Hall

There was a make-shift bar at the back, under the balcony, selling yer basic cans of various beers, and a couple of long tables opposite selling various pastries from the local bakers Fisher and Donaldson.

First act on was Siobhan Wilson from Glasgow. Unexpectedly good writing and a some haunting songs. Well worth a listen here:  http://siobhanwilson.bandcamp.com/

Siobhan Wilson

Next up was Rozi Plain,originally from Winchester. She was skilfully backed by some members of the band EagleOwl. Rozi was quirky, very entertaining and again some really good song-writing. Example here: https://soundcloud.com/folk-radio-uk/rozi-plain-humans

This Many Boyfriends

Leeds indie band This Many Boyfriends were on next. A kinda punk-pop outfit, they cranked things up and added a happy burst of adrenaline. They definitely have potential, but their set was marred by poor sound. Need to review some of their material on-line for a better review I think.

Last in the pre-break set was The Pictish Trail. Johnny Lynch is the man who runs Lost Map Records (co-host of the Xmas Baubles IV event along with Kid Canaveral) and performs under the pseudonym The Pictish Trail. On this occasion he was backed by the heavy-metal band Massacre Cave (named after the geological feature on the island of Eigg). The combination of Johnny's songs and the quality of Massacre Cave's backing was really excellent - they sounded like they'd all been playing together for years.

Pictish Trail

Johnny, still wearing his Lost Map Records bobble hat, finished up his set with a hilarious solo version of the popular Christmas carol, Little Donkey. Sadly no web footage appears to exist thus far :-)

There was a 75 minute break for beer and some food, so braving the winter stormy weather, headed out to the local fast fooderies for a pizza, grabbed a beer on the way back (Duncan was asked for ID - lol) and settled into our seats for part 2 of Christmas Baubles IV.

Kicking off part 2 was Glasgow three-piece Tuff Love. New to us both, they were quite impressive and started things off nicely.

Tuff Love

Next up was newly reformed De Rosa. Originally from Bellshill, De Rosa released a couple of albums in 2006-2009 before breaking up in mid 2009. They recently re-formed and this was their first outing in a long time. It didn't show though, they were slick and well rehearsed. Though Martin Henry did say at one point "F*ck I'm getting to old for this. Is there anyone else out there who's baldy, bearded and wears glasses?" to which a large proportion of the audience, who were probably ages with Edwyn Collins, cheered and put their hands up!

De Rosa

Co-hosts Kid Canaveral were on next and they were GREAT. Originally St Andrews based, they now hail from Edinburgh and have been hosting the Christmas Baubles events for four years in various venues around Scotland.

The Kids

They were a joy to watch and listen to. David MacGregor is the ideal front man and lead vocalist, keeping the crowd going in between songs, hitting all the right notes and cranking out some lovely rhythm and lead guitar. Kate Lazda on backing (and sometimes lead) vocals is the guitar-riff-queen for almost all the tracks. I think the dancing started about track two of their set. Tracks which were particularly good were: the Wrench, You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night, And Another Thing!! and many more. The audience were well pleased. The Cairn String Quartet joined them for the next track “This is our Christmas song,” David MacGregor explained, apparently getting into the seasonal spirit before saying “It’s not really a Christmas song. It’s about how sh*te it is to be Scottish between the months of September and March.” The track was Low Winter Sun. With the Cairn String Quartet the song sounded really full, and with their backing on several other tracks they added a real depth to the KC set list. They're on the right in the picture below.

(Duncan and Scott can be seen in the picture above - edge of the left-hand balcony just above the stage)

Finally, after extensive stage resetting, it was time for Mr Edwyn Collins. His band came on, and plugged in, checking monitors and levels, then The Man himself. Walking with a cane he gingerly made his way to an amp placed middle stage and sat down on it, to massive cheers from the crowd. This next bit is unashamedly plagiarised from the gig review in the Independent. "It becomes impossible, as the concert goes on, to separate an appraisal of Edwyn Collins’ performance from the sheer emotional weight of seeing him before us. Eight years ago, as has been well documented, the sometime singer of arch ‘80s Glasgow indie-pop group Orange Juice very nearly died following two brain haemorrhages and an infection picked up during his treatment. Now the fact that what he’s been through is still apparent in his demeanour only adds to the joy. His speech and movements are hesitant, and he walks with a cane, but he performs with a smile on his face and his signature baritone is as rich and sonorous as ever."

Perched on his amp-come-seat, he opened with versions of Orange Juice’s Falling and Laughing and the sax-laden What Presence?!, before guiding us on a tour through the easy-crooned jangle of his mid-career solo years, from the ‘90s’ Make Me Feel Again to the recent 31 Years. “All of these are goodies, yes?” he enquired at one point. That the answer was from the audience was "Yes!" and when he and his excellent band moved onto Rip It Up, A Girl Like You and Blue Boy the Portobello Town Hall balcony emptied and everyone was down on the dance floor giving it their all.

Edwyn and band

The Baubles IV finished at about 12:30am and the crowd left in high spirits. 

“Christmas Baubles started because we wanted to have a Christmas party and get lots of bands we liked to play,” says Kid Kate Lazda. “Luckily everyone who came along seemed to enjoy it too. Even after the first year it immediately seemed like something that almost had to happen every Christmas from then on. We’re keen to stick to the original concept – a relaxed party in our home town, and hopefully a celebratory end to a successful year. It’s the one thing that people ask us about all year round, I don’t think there’s any way we could not do it now.”

(Some pictures courtesy of manicpopthrills, Stephanie Gibson and Darren Carle)