I came into the Retreat festival with a concept in my head.
That is, I think the best moment in the Scottish music scene is right now.
I’ve been doing this music-photo thing for years now and I can’t remember being at anything better than the first day of Retreat.
This sort of thing in Edinburgh isn’t new, the now defunct Spectrum festival was pretty similar but it never had a lineup as good as Retreat.
Honestly, it was worth the ticket price just to see Ballboy. All the rest you got was just a Brucey bonus.
Like that moment when Rob St John was joined by Rory from Broken Records for his last song. Playing what you could only call a slow air.
Can it be called a ‘slow air’ if it’s on a fiddle, doesn’t it have to be…?
Anyway, I digress.
He had played a pretty good set up to that point but the last song….
Talk about going into the half time interval with a late goal. This was a moment of true beauty, a delicate chip over the keeper not a 30 yard screamer of a final song.
I confess.
I love Ballboy.
It’s great to be able to have nonsense and banter with them and that’s mostly where Gordon’s between song rants go. Even here today, missing a member (keyboard player Alexa off on adventures in the South Pacific) and as a ‘power pop trio’ their songs still pack a punch and they still have the crowd in raptures.
Gummy Stumps are all pounding drums, crashing guitars and shouty ranting lyrics. Did someone just shout ‘this sounds nothing like the Fall’? I’m not complaining if it does.
Which it doesn’t. It’s more post-punk-post-parkattack-poetry.
Lady North got heckled from the moment the stage curtains opened.
A shout came from the front: “are you Lady North? I thought you’d be a wummin in a dress”.
And from that moment we might as well all have gone to the bar.
Well, if there was a bar.
This was now a private gig for said cheeky punter. The rest of us were no longer important.
Items of clothing were removed and intense eye contact was made throughout.
I can’t actually remember anything of the music. I was far too busy laughing at the masterclass in how to deal with a heckler that I was watching.
They shook hands at the end so hopefully all was well.
This is the first time that I’ve seen Broken Records since Cellist Arne departed.
I always felt he was important to their overall sound so it always worried me how they’d replace him.
In a word they haven’t. It changes the dynamic of the band a little, changes the arrangement of several songs and probably makes them a little more streamlined.
They aren’t an up and coming band anymore and it shows. They really do look the finished article now, they look assured and have that confidence of an established band.
And that brings me back to my original idea.
All the bands that were good in the past are still going and have grown into something better and the new bands coming through are doing really interesting and creative things.
So I say it again. The best moment in the Scottish music scene is now.
(Full photoblog at www.andrewmckenna.net