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Seven YouTube clips not featuring Susan Boyle
Short on time at the moment, so this week’s blog will consist of a few YouTube clips featuring talented friends and acquaintances from various parts of Scotland. Unlike their fellow Scot Susan Boyle, appearing on YouTube has not made any of these people into instant celebrities, to be emotionally raped by complete strangers the world over.
One day, perhaps, one of our friends will live that giddy, fleeting dream. In the meantime they are quietly getting on with doing really interesting creative things for a small but appreciative audience, none of whom (as far as I know) is Piers Morgan or Ashton Kutcher. I’m not going to tell you how old they are, or how they dress, how many people they have kissed, or the name of their cat. Instead you can just watch the films and decide if you think what they’re doing is interesting or not. Enjoy.
1. Radio Friendly, a video by the Starlets
We played one of our first ever gigs with the Starlets, and they remain one of our favourite bands. They’re from Glasgow, but hardly anyone has heard of them (except in Japan), mainly because they’re so comically bad at promoting themselves. This is the only thing I could find on YouTube - a video for a single from their third album, which came out this week and is brilliant. The man who filmed it, Martin Gray, took the promo photos for our first album.
2. A Gentle Press, a video by Cruiser
Cruiser are a band we know from Dunfermline. We’re playing a show with them in their home town later this month, as part of Tigerfest. This is a cheaply made but oddly poignant film to accompany a recent single. It mostly consists of footage from a very old TV show discussing some new fangled gadget called a synthesiser.
3. Alan Bissett performing an extract from Times When I Bite
Alan Bissett is a very clever and funny man. He writes novels, and recently started writing theatre too. Here’s a short extract from his ‘one-woman show’, Times When I Bite.
4. Kirstin Innes reading from a short story she’s written
Kirstin Innes is a very clever and funny woman (and Alan’s partner). She used to do press for the Arches. She now writes for The List magazine, and has recently started writing really good short stories.
5. To My Ears, a video by Chris Bradley
Chris Bradley is an Edinburgh singer-songwriter who sometimes moonlights with Aberfeldy. This video is great, and I’m not just saying that because it was partly made by my flatmate Victoria, a very talented young animator.
6. People dancing to Found
I bang on about how great Found are so much that I’m sure it’s become very boring by now. Here’s a funny video of some people dancing to one of their songs. See, they’re not just arty experimentalists - they’re a party band too.
7. Astrid Williamson singing Everyone’s Waiting on some Scottish TV show or other
Astrid Williamson is a singer-songwriter who grew up in Shetland but now lives in Brighton. We got very drunk with her at the Fringe a few years ago and stayed in touch. This clip is from way back, when she almost became a pop star. As you read this, Hamish is busy finishing a remix for Astrid that we started doing years ago and then forgot about. She’s about to release a new album on One Little Indian, so we figured we should finally get it done. It might turn up on the B-side to her next single, or not, depending on various things. Watch this space…
Andrew
