Nina Nesbitt, HAIM, Skerryvore, Hoolie at the Hydro, Bottle Rockets and more
Plus festivals latest, new opportunities listed, featured playlist, latest from Norway and a round up of this week's Music Takeover by the SMIA and Wide Days
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🗞️ Demand for tickets to Skerryvore XX at Floors Castle in Kelso on Saturday 31 May 2025 celebrating the 20th anniversary of the band has been so huge with over 5,000 tickets already sold, that organisers have decided to make an additional 2,000 tickets available for extra attendees to experience this spectacular Scottish Borders event. Fellow Tiree natives Trail West join the bill with British-born Irish country music singer Nathan Carter also making an appearance. Tickets.
🗞️ Willie Campbell and Findlay Napier are teaming up for a songwriting retreat at the brilliant Black Bay recording studios on Lewis in November. Details.
🗞️ Special shout of to The Chosen Lonely. I’ve been trying to do a podcast recording with them but been utterly rubbish at organising it, so please go see them at rhe Old Hairdressers in Glasgow this Sunday and other venues instead.
🗞️ And psssst 🤫 … fans of James might want ti check their Insta for an Edinburgh gig.
MUSIC
🎵 Brilliant to hear Nina Nesbitt previewing an ‘at home’ acoustic version of Mountain Music for release on 16 May.
🎵 Joining Nina at HebCelt in July will be Laura Silverstone who has also been teasing new music recorded in Germany in her social media accounts. She’ll also be playing the Edinburgh Meadows Festival 50th celebrations on June 7.
🎵 The amazing Bottle Rockets are back with unreleased material and a gig at King Tuts on 10 May.
🎵 HAIM have announced a Glasgow date for their ‘I Quit’ tour.
🎵 Suzanne Vega has just celebrated 40 years of her first album by releasing her tenth.
🎵 Hoolie at The Hydro will be a celebration of all things Sir Billy Connolly with Mànran, Elephant Sessions, Trail West and Beluga Lagoon topping the bill.
🔴 This week’s GSIB playlisted - Punchbag, Girls.SpeakFrench, Lorde
FESTIVALS
🎪 Today is the first day of Edinburgh Tradfest.
🎪 Shetland Folk Festival is well underway.
🎪 Here’s your set times for the Black Isle Belter.
🎪 And for next weekend’s Skye Live Festival.
NORWAY
🇳🇴 New song out today from Iris Caitwait 🌟
🇳🇴 Girl In Red, Marstein and Kygo with Ava Max were among the big winners from the Spellemann awards in Oslo - the biggest music awards night in the Norwegian calendar. You can see a list of all the winners here.
🇳🇴 Aurora caps her biggest UK headline show at a sold out Wembley on Saturday with a career spanning free exhibition at The Stables in London’s Covent Garden - Some Type of Skin - with outfits and her prized possessions from across every tour era
🇳🇴 Sigrid kicks off a series of live performances today with a summer jam packed with music festivals, but has been teasing new music and a forthcoming album with her long-standing songwriting and producer collaborator Askjell. She’s just reignited her YouTube channel with a clip from TRNSMT.
🇳🇴 Dagny is hitting the road again including Åre in Sweden tomorrow, two UK dates and finishing in Trondheim in October.
🇳🇴 Neon Ion - the solo project of award-winning Norwegian vocalist Natalie Sandtorv - is back with new solo music with ‘Softer’ the first taste of songs that will make up a new album. But the story is much more remarkable than that. The song was written in the aftermath of Sandtorv being diagnosed with Sudden Deafness – a sudden loss of hearing that changed her life overnight. A studio session had already been booked with cohorts Mokkelbost and keyboardist Ole Petter Aalgård, and she was close to canceling everything because of her hearing issues. But when Erlend suggested they just meet in the studio for a coffee and chat, she had no idea that this would be the beginning of a new era for Neon Ion. “I hadn’t sung a note since the hearing loss,” says Sandtorv, “and every sound I heard, it hurt. But when we sat in the studio and Ole Petter started with a soft, gentle synth sound, something began to happen. It brought out a melody, and slowly but surely, we were off.”
EVENTS
🤝 A great day and turnout for Wednesday's Music Takeover event hosted by the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) and Wide Days in the glorious surroundings of the Edinburgh Futures Institute (a genuinely terrific space) for some superb talks.
The Union trio of Emily Thomas, Robin Gillie & Michael Hart looking at brand identity, planning and running a digital media marketing campaign, various platform strategies, audience targeting, influencer engagement and other areas. It was followed a masterclass from the excellent SJ A. from EmuBands on connections, distribution, editor and playlist pitching, approaches for different platforms and how to perfect an artist's streaming presence on likes of Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, Deezer, TIDAL, YouTube and others.
A panel discussion hosted by the ever engaging Kitt Carr looked at how artists including Stephen McAll of Constant Follower who recently scored a Number 2 album in the charts with The Smile You Send Out Returns To You (which I'm playing as I write this), Ali Gillies of the post prog band Idiogram who just released their debut album Reunion of Broken Parts, and photographer Jannica Honey, made their campaigns stand out from the crowd with personalisation, thinking differently and in some cases planning up to a year ahead.
It's also 20 years of omnipresent The Skinny magazine, so the day closed with a discussion by Co-Founder Sophie Kyle editor-in-chief Rosamund West and music editor Tallah Brash being quizzed about the highs and challenges of creating and maintaining a cultural treasure by Born To Be Wide’s always thought provoking Olaf Furniss.
Full of great anecdotes, laughs and a glimpse into publishing at scale, a reminder if any were needed of how key a role all play in championing arts and culture in Scotland.
OPPORTUNITIES
🤝 Help shape the future of music in Scotland - join and complete the SMIA annual member survey.
🤝 The SMIA’s weekly round-up of jobs and funding opportunities is here.
🤝 Hands up for Trad are highlighting opportunities for an Event Producer with Fèis Rois and the Clore Leadership Programme.
🤝 Edinburgh Youth Orchestra are looking for a General Manager, as advertised with the Scottish Music Centre.
TIK TOK
Our video clip of Beluga Lagoon performing The Glen live in Stirling has now reached 100k + views over on my Tik Tok channel.
FEATURED PLAYLIST
Scottish Unsigned 2025 by Jack Brodie