list.co.uk/festival Magners Summer Nights | FESTIVAL MUSIC
The Flaming Lips
SUMMER LOVIN’
James, the Flaming Lips and the Waterboys will headline a mini-fest that’s bringing Edinburgh’s Ross Bandstand to life at the end of August. Sam Bradley fi nds out more about Magners Summer Nights
F ollowing on from last year’s successful spot at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Bandstand, Magners Summer Nights is venturing east with three dates at the Ross Bandstand in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens. The festival will include a ‘cider village’ in the Gardens with food and drink alongside the bandstand itself, which is being revamped for the festival. The organisers of Summer Nights, Regular Music, say they want it to become an annual event in Edinburgh’s music calendar – a welcome prospect for those hopeful for renewed use of the long-unloved venue.
Baggy legends James are due to open Summer Nights, bringing an authentic mellow Madchester vibe to the Fringe in their roomy sunhats. After the recent slew of 90s-inspired trends throughout pop culture, it’ll be a relief to have some actual 90s kids around – that is, a band that visited the Hacienda before it was turned into a block of l ats and who l ogged tie-dye album artwork without any discernible sense of irony. Pop-punk Glaswegians Little Eye play in support, adding another impressive name to their hitlist of support slots. Although post-reformation James brought out a new album in 2014, we’ll be shamelessly holding out for the big hits – ‘She’s A Star’, ‘Laid’, ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Born of Frustration’ – each one a quality pop reminder of that golden time before the North West’s indie mantle was assumed by those rufi an Gallagher brothers. The following night, Mancunian indie kids Dutch Uncles grace the gardens in support of Oklahoma’s i nest space rock quartet, the Flaming Lips. With their visually expansive and eccentric live shows, the Flaming Lips have established themselves as one of those ‘must see before
you expire’ acts. It’ll be interesting to see them adapt to the genteel surroundings of the Gardens – but then again, who wouldn’t want to go and listen to a space rock opera in the shadow of a historic castle? The Flaming Lips are as likely to play stoned-sounding Beatles covers as they are to sing about battling a robot army, so expect rolling fog banks of dry ice, mountainous tinfoil capes, psychedelic laser showpieces and unnecessarily long song titles. Dutch Uncles’ chirpy math rock should dovetail nicely with the headliners’ eclectic sensibilities and though they released a new album, O Shudder, back in February, hopefully they’ll play that weird sort-of cover of Grace Jones’ ‘Slave to the Rhythm.’ On the Friday, folk-rock veterans the Waterboys will make a return to founder Mike Scott’s hometown, ready to rattle through a selection of classic hits and ‘big music’ anthems as well as their most recent record Modern Blues. They claim to be the biggest band in the world thanks to a revolving-door lineup that collects band members on tour like an avalanche collects mass on a mountain slope – and the i nal night at the Bandstand should be a similarly large one. Mike Scott’s trademark soaring lyrical moments and twee folk nonsense will both be on the cards, perhaps in equal measure. The Waterboys will be supported by Embra native Freddie Stevenson, a singer-songwriter whose acoustic- folk stylings should provide a suitable warm-up for the night’s main event.
James, 26 Aug, 6pm, £40; The Flaming Lips, 28 Aug, 6pm, £32.50; The Waterboys, 28 Aug, 6pm, £35. All events are at the Ross Bandstand, 0844 844 0444.
20–31 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 67