Edinburgh folk get their city back!

Fireworks concert brings record-breaking Festival to a close

After 50,266 performances of 3,269 shows in 294 venues across Edinburgh, the final curtain has fallen on the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe – and it’s been yet another record-breaking year for the luvvies …
Continue reading Edinburgh folk get their city back!

Enter Famous Fridays headliner competition

Scottish entertainer and Forth 1 radio presenter Grant Scott has called on all unsigned bands and artists (over the age of 25) to submit their video entries to The Famous Grouse for an opportunity to win a prime time Friday headliner slot and perform live at The Famous Grouse House this festival! Continue reading Enter Famous Fridays headliner competition

See the Timebank Temptations this Friday

See North Edinburgh’s own award-winning singing group at North Edinburgh Arts Centre – free concert

Severing Time at North Edinburgh Arts

Friday 24 June 7.30pm

North Edinburgh Arts

North Edinburgh Arts Theatre Project & Festival and King’s Theatres Edinburgh Learning and Participation

INVITATION

You are invited to the Sharing of Work – Severing Time – on Friday 24th June 7.30pm

This performance includes Theatre, Dance and Video work by the Adults and Children of the North Edinburgh Arts Theatre project.

Severing Time investigates the influence and resistance we have towards the pressure of advertising, media and social networks, and considers the challenges, disruptions and distortions to our well-being and sense of self that virtual encounters can create. The ‘self’ we manufacture for internet-based encounters can be reductive, dehumanising and commodifying. It can also be a reflection to find and reclaim ourselves.

Background and Development of the project

North Edinburgh Arts Theatre project is an established and well-recognised Theatre project for adults, and has a track record for exciting and innovative productions and events. The project was developed in 2011 after research into the requirements of local people. The main finding of this research was that people wanted to make theatre again, after a history of using theatre and other art forms to create work which highlights their community and its needs and aspirations.

The project supports the participants’ aspirations and hard work for well-being and full creative lives, making strong contributions to their own communities as well as participating in the North Edinburgh Arts Theatre project.

In November 2011 North Edinburgh Arts Theatre project developed Yes We CanCan – a Cabaret of Resistance, which was the cementing of the project. Since then, the project has participated in a number of performances including Theatre Uncut in 2012 & 2013 and it regularly offers Sharing-of-Work and Work-in-Progress events. The 1d Tenement Opera in January 2015 through the support of the People’s Health Trust was an exciting and important development for North Edinburgh, and since then, the film Remembering Today, which was made in October 2015, has been acclaimed and celebrated.

Now North Edinburgh Arts’ Theatre project is delighted to be joined by Festival and King’s Theatres Edinburgh Learning and Participation Coordinator for the next stage in the Project’s development. The Learning and Participation Coordinator is leading Drama Workshops for the children of participants, and welcomes wider participation from other children interested in drama and theatre.

If you are interested in the Theatre project please email Sandra admin@northedinburgharts.co.uk

Events force temporary closures at Meadowbank

Referendum count and Elton John events mean temporary closure

Meadowbank Sports Centre will be temporarily closed for events taking place from 23 – 25 June. Some areas of Meadowbank will also be closed before and after the events for set up and ‘break-down’. Continue reading Events force temporary closures at Meadowbank

£2,500 traditional music bursary open for applications

Exactly six months from today, the winner of a new bursary to support young Scottish traditional musicians will be unveiled, coinciding with St. Andrew’s Day 2016. Set up through a partnership between independent charity the Saltire Society and Hands Up for Trad, set up in 2002 to promote Scottish traditional music, the new bursary is now open for applications. Continue reading £2,500 traditional music bursary open for applications

Pink Floyd: Royal Mail issues special stamps to honour rock legends

Royal Mail has revealed images of a set of ten stamps that will be issued to mark 50 years since Pink Floyd turned professional and became the ‘house band’ of the London Underground movement of music and arts.

The stamps are now available to pre-order at

www.royalmail.com/pinkfloyd

and will be available to purchase from 8,000 Post Offices from 7 July 2016.

Six stamps feature iconic album covers: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn; Atom Heart Mother;The Dark Side Of The Moon; Wish You Were Here; Animals and The Endless River.

The band is renowned for its innovative album covers, many of which have become design classics. Through working with leading graphic designers and photographers, they established a body of work that is instantly recognisable, with album cover art considered among the most iconic ever created.

Most of the band’s album covers were devised by Hipgnosis, co-founded by Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson in 1968. They were at the forefront of album cover design, using experimental techniques in photography and multiple exposures, and retouching to create the startling images.

A further four stamps within a miniature sheet celebrate the live performances of the band. Arguably the most visually literate band of all time, as well as being one of the most successful, their live appearances were renowned. They were among the first groups to make extensive use of light shows and projection of films for their appearances, increasing in ambition over the decades.

The four images convey the experience of these live performances, from the appearances at the influential UFO Club, London in 1966 where they invented the ‘psychedelic’ light show; to the extremely ambitious staging for albums such as The Wall and the Division Bell tours.

Pink Floyd were formed when the founding trio of bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright were augmented by original guitarist Syd Barrett. In 1968, guitarist David Gilmour joined the band shortly before Barrett’s departure.

Few bands in the history of rock have managed to carve out a career as rich and expansive as that of Pink Floyd. From their blues-based psychedelic roots, the members of the outfit have created some of modern music’s most totemic and inspirational albums, with ground-breaking live performances to match.

STAMP-BY-STAMP

THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (EMI Columbia, 1967)

Pink Floyd’s psychedelic debut is named after Chapter 7 of Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s novel, The Wind in the Willows, one of frontman Syd Barrett’s favourite books. Photographer Vic Singh shot the cover image using a prism lens given to him by George Harrison some weeks earlier.

ATOM HEART MOTHER (EMI Harvest, 1970)

Pink Floyd’s fifth album provided them with their first UK Number One. It was also the first of their LPs not to feature the band’s name on the front of the sleeve, setting the tone for subsequent albums. Hipgnosis, co-founded by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, designed the cover – the cow’s name is Lulubelle III.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (EMI Harvest, 1973)

With sales in excess of 40 million copies worldwide, The Dark Side Of The Moon remains in the Billboard chart in America over 40 years after its release, and has been entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-charting album. Created by Hipgnosis, with graphics by George Hardie of NTA, the prism device is a classic.

WISH YOU WERE HERE (EMI Harvest, 1975)

With a theme of ‘absence’, the Hipgnosis design message was summarised by Storm Thorgerson as ‘not being present in a relationship or conversation’. The concept even extended to the album being shrink-wrapped in opaque black plastic which had to be slit or removed to access the music and images.

ANIMALS (EMI Harvest, 1977)

Animals was released as punk raged. While Johnny Rotten wore a T-shirt with the slogan ‘I Hate Pink Floyd’, Nick Mason busied himself producing The Damned’s Music for Pleasure. The photograph of Battersea Power Station features the now legendary floating inflatable pig designed by Roger Waters.

THE ENDLESS RIVER (Parlophone Warner, 2014)

Ostensibly a tribute to the late Richard Wright and described as a ‘headphones’ album by David Gilmour, The Endless River beat all records for volumes of online pre-orders. For the album cover, Aubrey Powell discovered 18-year old graphic designer Ahmed Emad Eldin’s enigmatic work, which was recreated by design company Stylorouge and photographer, Simon Fowler.

PINK FLOYD LIVE

While their studio work has always been important, Pink Floyd have been defined by their live performances. Their early shows in 1966 at London’s UFO Club married the use of pioneering liquid light effects that matched the psychedelic quality of the music itself.

By 1973, the band’s stage set was further expanded to mirror the dramatic sensibilities of the music: the tension that pervades The Dark Side of the Moon was reflected by lighting director Arthur Max’s innovative work, which included a 15-foot model plane flying over the audience, crashing on stage in sync with the explosion during the track On the Run. The In The Flesh Tour (aka The Animals Tour) of 1977 continued that pattern of spectacle through the use of inflatables, including the now famous pigs, and saw Pink Floyd make US stadiums their own.

Next came the Wall, Roger Water’s ambitious theatrical concept base on alienation which saw a physical wall built between the audience and the band.

Some 14 years later, spectacular stadium shows had become the norm, with Floyd underlining their status as pioneers during The Division Bell Tour, captured to great effect on the p.u.l.s.e DVD and beating all records in terms of gate receipts.

1st Class UFO Club, 1966. The UFO Club opened on Dec. 23, 1966. Pink Floyd were booked for the opening along with Soft Machine.

1st Class The Dark Side of the Moon Tour, 1973. This show included the special effect of a plane crashing into the stage at the end of the song On the Run.

£1.52 The Wall Tour, 1981. Gerald Scarfe and Roger Waters designed a series of animations for the Wall Tour. These animations were projected onto a 40-foot high wall of cardboard bricks which was gradually built between the band and audience.

£1.52 The Division Bell Tour, 1994. Over 5.3 million tickets were sold for this tour and it grossed approx. 100 million US dollars.

Stamps, eh? Wonder what Syd would have said?

Made in Scotland arts showcase unveiled

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, has announced the companies and artists selected for the 8th year of Made in Scotland – a curated showcase of music, theatre and dance performed during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s biggest arts festival. Continue reading Made in Scotland arts showcase unveiled

Tonight at North Edinburgh Arts: Tinderbox Orchestra Frontiers & Friends

Exciting times for Tinderbox Frontiers with two concerts coming up!

First up is tonight at North Edinburgh Arts, with support from the amazing SUPA & Da Kryptonites plus some special solo performances too.

Then at Hidden Door for the Edinburgh Youth Music Festival on Sat 28th – see you there!

Search for sacred in music ‘as strong today as ever’

‘Scotland, now more than ever, needs to hear a wide range of perspectives rather than a narrow orthodoxy.’ – Professor Sir James MacMillan

Distinguished Scottish composer and conductor, Professor Sir James MacMillan, will argue that the “search for the sacred in music is as strong today as it ever was” and is the “bravest, most radical and counter-cultural vision a creative person can have” in a lecture at Glasgow’s St. Mungo’s Museum next Thursday (19 May). Continue reading Search for sacred in music ‘as strong today as ever’