Doune the Rabbit Hole has announced new dates and a revised lineup for its 2021 incarnation. (more…)

Former Bay City Rollers frontman Les McKeown has died, aged 65. (more…)

Scotland’s music venues have been given the green light to open again from May 17. (more…)

Edinburgh multi-venue city festival The Great Eastern will finally make its debut in the capital (more…)

Several Scots independent musicians including Starry Skies and Iona Fyffe are to be offered financial support by Creative Scotland and Crowdfunder UK.

A total of 20 projects are competing to win up to £10,000 in match funding towards their projects in Creative Scotland’s Crowdmatch, following last year’s Crowdfunding Creative Scotland competition.

Starry Skies aim to use the funding to record songs written during the lockdown, for a new album called ‘Small Wonders’, while Iona Fyfe, who recently won a battle with Spotify over recognition of the Scottish language, is recording a new album of folk songs.

Other acts who can benefit from the scheme are singer/songwriter Amy Duncan, planning to make a new album ‘Cocoon’, and Flew The Arrow who plan a vinyl release for their album ‘Huntress/The Warmth & The Weight’ will get a .

Harpist Rachel Hair is teaming up with Manx Gaelic singer Ruth Keggin to record an album as a duo for the first time, and arts house Cryptic aim is to launch their ‘Sonic Surroundings’ – wha they describe as “virtual journeys to unique locations”, launched with a performance by Elisabeth Elektra.

Also on the list are an arts magazine, a non-fiction book publisher, a children’s circus, textile studio, and a community choir. Also up for funding are an arts collective in Ayr, a Ceilidh festival planned for November, and a virtual comic festival.

Starry Skies frontman Warren McIntyre said of their planned ‘Small Wonders’ album – the follow-up release to ‘Be Kind’ and ‘Do It With Love’: “A theme of many of the songs is the importance of love, hope and service to others along with a greater appreciation of all the things we have in common.” He also pledged that all funds raised would be spent with local businesses and support jobs here in Scotland.

More on the scheme at the Creative Scotland Crowdmatch website.

The 2021 incarnation of the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival has been postponed until next year. (more…)

TRNSMT Festival has been delayed by two months in an attempt to ensure that the delayed event can go ahead (more…)

Glasgow post rock veterans Mogwai have scaled the heights of the UK’s Official Albums Chart, reaching Number 1 for the first time with their tenth studio record ‘As The Love Continues’.

The Lanarkshire-formed four-piece had faced a tense week as it became clear that they were contenders for the top slot, with rapper Ghetts eventually finishing at number 2, despite taking to the streets of central London in an armoured tank to promote his third long-player ‘Conflict Of Interest’.

Eventually he was forced to concede defeat in the race for the top, but with some class, tweeting “Big congrats to @mogwaiband 25 years in a game where longevity isn’t easily achieved. Salute”. Mogwai responded accordingly.

Thank you @THEREALGHETTS That’s really appreciated. Your campaign was brilliant and your record is great. All the very best. Mogwai ❤️ https://t.co/LZnO00Ycsr

— Mogwai (@mogwaiband) February 26, 2021

Mogwai finished the week just 2,900 chart sales ahead of Ghetts, 25 years after the release of their debut single ‘Tuner’/’Lower’.

That 7″ was self-released on their own Rock Action label and while many of their early and seminal releases were on Glasgow indie Chemikal Underground, as well as PIAS, Matador, and Sub Pop, the quartet have been independently releasing their music since 2011’s ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, but You Will’.

‘As The Love Continues’ is also the week’s best selling vinyl album and the top seller in UK independent record shops.

Speaking to OfficialCharts.com, the band said: “We’re unbelievably happy to have the Number 1 album in the UK. We want to thank everyone at Rock Action Records – both of you – and mostly to thank everyone who has bought, downloaded and streamed the album, and supported us over the last week, and the last 25 years. It’s something we’re amazed by. We’re taken aback by everyone’s support, kindness and generosity.

“It is 25 years this week since the release of our first single ‘Tuner’/’Lower’, the first release on our own label Rock Action Records. We didn’t start the band or the label to get into the charts. None of us ever envisaged either the band or the label being in a position where having a Number 1 record would be a possibility.

“We started the label with a loan of £400 from my now-brother in law. Martin’s folks generously helped us out by paying for the studio to record the songs. We were just kids that wanted to make an amazing noise and get our record played on John Peel. Amazingly John did play the record, and one thing led to another to get us to the point we’re at now. It’s been an incredible journey making music together over the last quarter century, taking us to places we never dreamed of and getting to play our music to more people than we ever imagined.”

More at mogwai.scot.

Some of Scotland’s most talented rock musicians and filmmakers are teaming up for an ‘Inter-Creative Collaborations’ project (more…)

Nathan Evans could have Brian May playing guest guitar on a future release (more…)