Author Archive

Record Store Days

collection

I bought my first vinyl record online – to some extent, a terribly ironic sign of the times, but also a sign of Shetland’s remoteness. It was Elle Milano’s ‘Swearing’s for Art Students’ EP, angsty teenage indie obscurity on limited edition red vinyl. I got number 455 of 500.

My first experience of buying vinyl in a shop was in OneUp in Aberdeen, which sadly closed at the end of January this year.  I bought a handful of 7” singles, including some Maxïmo Park and ¡Forward, Russia!, each 99p. I felt very, very cool. If I hadn’t been a 14 year old girl, I might have tried to strike up conversation with the shop owner, and if I hadn’t lived a sea away I would have been back a little more often.

Since moving to Edinburgh, I have had some great finds in record shops across the city, from taking a gamble on saxophonist Illinois Jacques at Record Shak to things I immediately knew I would cherish, such as a lovely gatefold edition of ‘Beggars Banquet’ alongside the Grease soundtrack from VoxBox. My local record shop, however, will always be Clive’s.

I never bought vinyl in Clive’s. By the time I came on the scene it was first cassettes, and then CDs – too early for the record resurgence. I remember getting Marvin and Tamara’s Groove Machine on tape, which I still own. What do you mean you don’t remember them? It was the summer of ’99, baby:

I remember my mum and nan discussing in hushed tones whether it was appropriate for me to spend a record token on Wheatus’ debut album because it had a parental advisory sticker. I never did get any more than the radio edit of Teenage Dirtbag. I remember going in with my first proper boyfriend to pick up a copy of Pulp’s ‘Different Class’ so we could discover it together. Cheesy, but so began a love affair that has spanned years (I am of course referring to myself and Jarvis Cocker et al, not the boyfriend). I also remember going in during my heavy Glasgow indie, Domino Records phase and tentatively asking a cheery shop assistant if they had a copy of Sons and Daughters’ ‘Love the Cup’. They did.

Clives

Like OneUp, Clive’s also closed, back in 2011, having served Shetland’s population since the 1970s. Of course I played a part in the closure; we all did, and we all continue to do so. The convenience of online shopping and especially of downloading cannot be understated. As well as this, music services such as Spotify – on which I do have a paid account – mean that you can listen to pretty much anything you’ve ever wanted to, and plenty that you didn’t even know you wanted to, at the touch of a button. I use it as background noise when I’m focusing on other tasks. I download songs from the Top 40 that get stuck in my head so that I can play them to death on my walk to university, and then delete them the next time I reorganise my iPod (limited storage you see! It’s not like a physical shelf where you can just perch case upon case, until one day they all fall down and you think ‘maybe I should get a bigger shelf’).

I would hesitate to say that I treat these downloads as disposable. That seems to be unfair to the artists in question, though to some extent that is always how pop music will be consumed. Possibly more appropriate would be to say that I have no connection to the downloading process. I sit on my bed and I click.

I could count the number of music downloads I can vaguely remember carrying out on one hand. Even fewer online CD purchases. There’s no interaction. There’s no story.

People, righteous vinyl junkies, always point out that in a record shop, you can meet like-minded people. You can take risks based on what they recommend to you, and hopefully you can do the same for them. This is absolutely true, especially if you can get over your fear of looking terribly uncool and uneducated – top tip: throwing yourself in at the deep end and buying the most embarrassing thing you can find will blow that right out of the way.

But it’s also a way to bond with people you already know, discovering music together, sharing your tastes and laughing at each other when you almost accidentally purchase some Scandinavian screamo/thrash/metal ‘cause it had a hilarious picture of a cat on the front. Just goes to show you can never judge a record by its sleeve, or something.

recordz

Music sharing services online have tried to incorporate this sharing facility, and to some extent they probably are effective. However, realistically, how many times have you seen via Facebook that a friend was listening to something on Spotify, or seen their top 3 last.fm artists of the week published on Twitter and thought “hmm, I must tune into some of that”? The experience of heading to a record shop with a friend is a very difficult one to replicate, just as reading in 140 characters that someone you know thinks a film was fairly good is never going to have the same effect as a drawn out discussion with them about it over a couple of pints.

Record Store Day is a fantastic thing to support because record stores are fantastic things – livelihoods – worth supporting. Vinyl is pretty trendy right now: by all means, scrum on down to your nearest emporium today and scramble with the other hipsters for that special edition release. You’ll certainly have a story to tell, and I hope the rush you get will keep you going back. Record shops are worth supporting, but what’s more, they need supporting. Following the demise of Clive’s, Shetland is lacking a dedicated music outlet – and probably always will. On the other hand, Edinburgh’s independent record shop scene appears to be rather densely populated; something for the city to be proud of. If we continue to frequent and nurture these shops, they will continue to give back – and what’s not to like about that?

Interested in exploring Edinburgh’s independent music shop scene? Check out our Nanu Maps: Record Shops to find out more.

Nanu Spotify Playlist: International Women's Day

madonna-y-mia

To accompany International Women”s Day today, Elyse has compiled a bumper six hour, all-female playlist for you to enjoy. There”s a bit of everything – from hip hop to riot grrrl, electro to pop.

Have we missed your favourite fierce and empowering

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Tedx University of Edinburgh: Dee Isaacs Interview

Tedx

Tedx University of Edinburgh is a series of talks taking place today at 2pm in Teviot. The topic up for discussion is “Global Challenges Grounded Solutions” and the speakers range in disciplines from law to inorganic chemistry to music.

The tickets sold out in less than 15 minutes but there are a few other ways you

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can watch the event. For more information check out the Facebook event here. You can also watch live from home on the Tedx website right here.

Elyse caught up with Dee Isaacs ahead of her presentation. Check out her interview below. We will be discussing the even on Nanu Live this weekend.

[powerpress]

Dee’s latest project is the Conference of the Birds at the Botanic Gardens from 6-9th March at 7pm.

My First Hitchcock: The Birds

The Birds

As a rule, I don’t like horror films – not because I scare especially easily but more due to the fact that I am both disgusted and bored by gore. However, I recently read about the relationship between director Alfred Hitchcock and star of The Birds and Marnie, Tippi Hedren, a model and actress discovered by Hitchcock in the early 1950s. Hitchcock’s reported unreciprocated obsession with Hedren effectively ruined her career: her contract with him preventing her from working for anyone else. Perhaps most shockingly of all, however, during five days of filming of the penultimate scenes of The Birds, Hedren was in fact pelted with live birds.

the birds hitchcock

This real life romantic obsession/revenge dynamic was fascinating to me. So, while I may claim not to appreciate the genre, I decided there was analysis to be had in The Birds: also known as My First Hitchcock. Of course, the film has been reviewed numerous times over the years, and there is simply one aspect I want to focus on: the female characters, specifically Melanie. I expected little from the female characters in this film: firstly because it was produced by a man in the early 1960s, but more specifically due to Hitchcock’s feelings regarding Hedren. I was thus pleasantly surprised to discover that, for the majority of the film, Melanie is in her own right a fantastic character. She is confident and strong, warmly charming those around her in order to

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achieve her goals. Her relationship with Annie (Suzanne Plechette) is something that I feel modern day film makers could learn a lot from.

the-birds-annie-and-melanie

(Suzanne Plechette and Tippi Hedren in ‘The Birds’)

Although there is brief animosity between the two invoked by their respective relationships with the male lead, Mitch (Rod Taylor), Melanie and Annie do not treat each other like bitter love rivals, instead respecting each other enough that they even become friends. Perhaps more realistic than the hair pulling cat fights seen frequently in more recent productions. Melanie is also taken seriously throughout the film. For example, when alerting locals in a café to the dangers posed by the gathering birds, she is not dismissed as simply an irrational woman – because she is not. My positive feelings about the film and its female characterisation lasted until the penultimate, bird-chucking scenes. While Mitch and his family sleep in the living room of their house that has been boarded up in order to prevent death-by-beak, Melanie decides it would be a great time to carry out a little exploration upstairs. Naturally, this is when all feathery hell breaks loose. As she slowly climbed the stairs, I felt myself screaming at the screen. Why would a character who has otherwise been so rational and intelligent decide to make this move? Curiosity? Hysteria? Rebellion? It’s fair to say that Melanie’s reputation of rebelliousness precedes her at the beginning of the film, but she adamantly defends herself throughout, both vocally to Mitch, but also in her behaviour. My fear is that she is sent upstairs in order to make Mitch the hero, the stereotypical image of masculinity, carrying Melanie’s limp, injured body back down the stairs and leading the family to safety. I wouldn’t have such a problem with this if that had been the apparent dynamic throughout the movie – but I truly expected more. I did enjoy The Birds. The suspense was fantastic and I appreciated that it resulted from something other than the threat of an axe murderer. I will definitely continue to explore Hitchcock’s work, but my expectations of characterisation have been pared right back once again. It’s a shame, that.

BBC Radio 6 Music Greatest

BBC 6 Music

BBC Radio 6 Music recently ran an open poll in which listeners were invited to vote for the station’s “greatest hit” from a shortlist of 100 tracks released over the past decade – since 6 Music’s conception back in 2002. Coldplay’s “Clocks” topped the official poll, leaving some tweeters a little disgruntled – and prompting some of us here at Nanu to consider what we would have done differently. The full list can be scrutinised here.

A Spotify playlist of our top choices, plus the three tracks mentioned most frequently, is available 

What do you think should have topped the list? Leave us a comment and let us know your thoughts.

 

ELYSE JAMIESON

Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes

Emotionally, “Take Me Out” was the very clear turning point in my life, but on musical merit and innovation I feel that “Seven Nation Army” has to take the crown. Unfortunately for the purposes of this article, I can’t really pinpoint why. The thumping bass? The punchy drums? The scratching vocals? Perhaps it’s the fact that Meg and Jack generally make so much noise for two such small humans? Most likely it’s because it’s the epitome of “angular”, my favourite mid-2000s indie rock journo adjective. It’s still jerky, it’s still loud, and it’s still interesting.

2. Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
3. Hey Ya! – OutKast
4. Juicebox – The Strokes
5. Rehab – Amy Winehouse

 

RICHARD HANRAHAN

I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor – Arctic Monkeys

An impossibly good list of tracks. Trying to choose the best had to come down to recognition: not because they are the best tracks, but because the biggest hits grab you by the balls and neglect to let go until you are bruised and your heart beats to that tune. Or is that relationships? I forget. Anyway – I chose to treat this as if I were at the best indie club night, and there really was only one track that I cannot get enough of, and that was the Arctic Monkeys. Remember in the old days when they gave their album away – record labels didn”t sit up and pay attention until the fans demanded they were big, and now they are probably the most influential British pop outfit since the Beatles. Bold claim, but they are such a talented group of lads it isn”t undeserved. They inhabit the natural rut of brilliant British song-writing so charmingly that you cannot get sick of hearing what they have to say (however much DJs tried by overplaying this song – it still makes me want to dance). What”s more, they have a voice that isn”t usually heard, and tell a story in 3 minutes without a single lyric feeling out of place. Plus, in a club I like a song you can”t realistically kiss to, but which still makes you want to try. The perfect anthem for every rock and roll relationship that started in a dirty basement somewhere.

2. Such Great Heights – The Postal Service
3. Crazy – Gnarls Barkley
4. No One Knows – Queens of the Stone Age
5. Galvanize – The Chemical Brothers

 

ALEX GUSHURST-MOORE

Love You Better – The Maccabees

Despite being initially overwhelmed by the task of whittling down a somewhat selective list of 100 songs to five, the BBC have succeeded in choosing a collection that really resonates with moments from the past decade of my life (old as I am), and picking out the key moments wasn”t at all hard once I”d been swallowed up a little. So, following a dawdle down memory lane, I finally came up with the five songs that each defined a mood for me. I toyed with Metronomy as my top song, it having been slipped onto my iPod by my brother before I went to live abroad and then listened to on repeat for quite some time (before he could get his mucky paws on my music again). However, foremost in my mind as I sit in my shambolic university kitchen is my most recent foray into academia, coloured completely by the discovery of The Maccabees. Now I know they”ve been around for aeons, but bear with me in my middle age as I jump on the bandwagon just as it”s hurtling out of the station. This song strikes a chord in particular, and if you do pardon the sentiment, reminds me always to be the person that smiles the most, laughs the hardest, and loves the best: what a precious lesson to be reminded of as I begin adult life.

2. Heartbreaker – Metronomy
3. Welcome to Jamrock – Damian Marley
4. Tessellate – alt-J
5. No One Knows – Queens of the Stone Age

 

FINLAY NIVEN

Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

If it wasn”t for Show Your Bones I may have never got into music the way I have. In 2006 I heard Maps for the first time and fell in love. I wanted more music like this and as luck would have it I was able to listen to the original Fever to Tell and brand new album Show Your Bones. Before this point in time I was only really interested in music that was released before I was born: David Bowie and The Beatles were on a pretty constant loop on my iPod. I pretty much ignored pop music being released at the time. The combination of the brilliant opening and strong vocals from Karen O make “Maps” very difficult to ignore. Though I didn”t think it at the time, it was by discovering the rest of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ material that then led me to seek out the other music that has shaped my taste since.

2. Such Great Heights – The Postal Service
3. Golden Skans – Klaxons
4. Fix Up, Look Sharp – Dizzee Rascal
5. Midnight City – M83

 

SAM BRADLEY

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes

Unlike the actual island – an idyllic destination in the Aegean Sea – “Mykonos” is not a favourite of the gay clubbing scene*. Instead, it”s one of Fleet Foxes” finest tracks – beautiful, delicate and hypnotic. With its gorgeous harmonies and folk rock melodies, it is perfectly representative of the band”s catalogue as a whole.

*Of course, there may be DJs on Mykonos that are massive Fleet Foxes.

2. Hometown Glory – Adele
3. Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
4. Sophia – Laura Marling
5. All My Life – Foo Fighters

 

ANGUS NIVEN

Such Great Heights – The Postal Service

This was super difficult. Narrowing down lists has always been something I struggle with, at its most conceptual level. This particular list really irked me: how can you reduce 100 of the greatest songs which you grew up with and categorically love to five and eventually choose one? Well I did it with difficulty and short lists (three to be precise: “Short List”, “Shorter List” and “Shortest List”). This brutal, wine-soaked process lead to the list you see and “Such Great Heights” on top. I love this track. I listen to it every time I get a new pair of headphones with all the boopa doopa and whatnot. The track has remained high on my agenda of things I want my ears to hear on a regular basis and so it tops this list which I previously thought to be insurmountable. The rest of the tracks are good, great even, but “Such Great Heights” is incrementally better due to the aforementioned boopa doopas and headphone commitments.

2. Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3. Chicago – Sufjan Stevens
4. Midnight City – M83
5. Time to Pretend – MGMT

Edinburgh In Apps

best-iphone-applications

A smartphone is no longer simply for the tech-savvy and social network obsessed. An argument in the pub can be settled instantly with Google, there’s no excuse not to reply to your emails and if you’re bored, there’s always another round of Fruit Ninja to play – it’s a surprise when you meet someone who isn’t using one. These Edinburgh-specific smartphone apps make day-to-day life in Scotland’s capital much easier – and what’s more, they’re all free!

Travel

Edinbus
Gordon Christie

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The classic Edinburgh-based app, Edinbus is a free service which tells you which routes Lothian Buses take, where they stop, and when the next ones are arriving. It also allows you to save stops for quick future reference, and provides information about any disruptions. This is an essential app for any Edinburgh citizen.

City Cabs (Edinburgh) Ltd
Cordic Ltd

City Cabs Edinburgh

For when the buses stop running (or you’re carrying something really heavy!). Choose the date and time, as well as a larger vehicle if necessary, and search for pick-up and drop-off points using GPS. The app also allows you to set up an account which you can use to pay for your taxi rather than having to take a quick stop by a cash machine, adding pennies to the meter. You can then track the taxi as it makes its way to you.

EDI Airport
Edinburgh Airport Ltd

Edi Airport

When you need to escape from the city, this app will be there for you. Allowing you to keep an eye on both arrivals and departures, you can also input your flight number and track its progress. The app gives information about transfers to and from the airport, car parking (including booking), as well as details of the amenities available at the airport – in handy map format.

EDUCATION

U@Ed
oMbiel Limited

U@Ed

If you’re a student at the University of Edinburgh, this app will be a great help to you. You can use it to view WebCT, and keep up to date with your courses when you’re out and about. There are campus maps available, useful if you are new to the uni (or have a tutorial somewhere you’ve never heard of). Possibly most importantly, the app links to the library and you can check PC availability as well as viewing your library account information. A good student companion.

Edinburgh Libraries
SOLUS UK Ltd

Edinburgh Libraries

With the Edinburgh Libraries app, you can find the location of your nearest local

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library as well as discover events being held in libraries around the city. A registered library member can log in, check what’s in stock, and renew books associated with their account. There’s even a library based blog to keep up with!

FUN

Edinburgh Zoo
Edinburgh Zoo

Edinburgh Zoo

Everyone loves pictures of cute animals, right? This app has got them all, from the aardwolf to the white-faced saki monkey. You can learn about them, and then find out where they’re located in the zoo, ready to scout them out on your next visit. There’s also a visitor guide, the opportunity to support the zoo and a special ‘Panda News’ button. The perfect guide to a fun day out for families and groups of friends alike.

Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh
MMT Digital

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There are lots of different tour guide apps available, perfect for a visitor to the city – but for a resident, Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh provides something a little bit different. See the capital through the eyes of Rankin and his famous detective, Rebus. A map highlights the key locations featured in his crime novels, as well as offering tours of the Old Town, Royal Mile, New Town and the Water of Leith. If you feel like doing a little exploring, this is the way to do it.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Kotikan Limited

Fringe Festival

A little bit out of date for this year, admittedly, but good to get prepared for next August. This app allows you to plan ahead for your next show – sorted by venue, time or genre – and book tickets on the move. A calendar function keeps track of tickets booked through the app so you’re never in danger of missing a show. Half Price Hut tickets are also available through the app, meaning you don’t have to go all the way to Assembly to get your discounts.

Christmas Playlist Battle: Elyse

the-ronettes-01

Over the next two weeks the Nanu contributors will be releasing a series of five track playlists of Christmas music. After they have all been released there will be a chance to vote on your favourite as well as the Nanu Nanu Ultimate Christmas Playlist, released just in time  for your journey home. 

Track 1: Jona Lewie – Stop the Cavalry

Track 2: Eartha Kitt – Santa Baby

Track 3: Sleigh Ride – The Ronettes

Track 4: Irving Berlin & Bing Crosby – White Christmas

Track 5: Wizzard – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

Nanu How To: Secret Santa

christmas-presents (1)

Is money a little tight this Christmas? Are you running out of time to buy sackloads of presents? Do you simply have too many friends? Then a Secret Santa could just be the thing for you! I have organised and taken part in many “secret” festive gift-giving activities over the years, and have come up with this handy, step-by-step guide to carrying out a Secret Santa to rival the actual Lapland-based operation.  

  YOU WILL NEED: 4 – 40 people Any less, there’s no element of surprise; any more, it becomes a little unruly.   Pieces of paper with all your Santa-ees names on them If you can write them all on sticky labels (that still have the backing attached, of course), all the better. They can then double as the present label and there’s no risk of handwriting giving someone away.   A hat, box, bag, bowl etc from which to draw the names There are two ways to do this:

  1. Make everyone pick names at once. Getting people to gather all in the one place at the same time can be logistically tricky. However, it means that everyone is ready to go and saves you the job of chasing people up (never fun).
  2. Leave the hat/box/bag/bowl/etc somewhere where everyone has access to it with a big sign explaining the Secret Santa procedure. This is generally more convenient for everyone but the organiser, who will inevitably have to send a few “so… the secret santa…” texts. Also cannot guarantee that people won’t look at the name labels left in the hat/box/bag/bowl/etc. Risky.

I personally recommend Option 1 for groups of 10 or fewer people, and Option 2 for larger parties.  

  A budget £5 – Big Groups You might get your best pal, or you might get Tony from HR who you think you maybe once cc’d into an email. In these situations, I stick by a Jay-Z inspired motto of LOW MONEY, LOW PROBLEMS. Expectations in a £5 Secret Santa are rock bottom: joke gifts are the norm and a real present is an unexpected delight. Anything better than a Boots bath bomb will suffice. Top Tip: Never, EVER buy anyone a bath bomb.   £10 – Extended Friend Groups Breathe a sigh of relief here – you no longer have to buy all your pals presents! For the most part you should know what everyone is in to (unless someone’s relatively new boyfriend/girlfriend is unexpectedly included out of politeness. Those rules are simple: don’t buy them a bath bomb. In all seriousness, unless they are teetotal, the best option there is probably a nice bottle of wine). The budget isn’t high enough for anything outstanding/from Urban Outfitters, so it’s time to get creative and create tangential links between hobbies and your chosen presents. Top Tip: For the most part, a few smaller things looks more impressive than one big thing: add a nail varnish or a couple of pin badges to the main part of the present and it instantly seems more fulfilling.   £20+ – Close Friends/Flatmates/Family/Cult Members Bringing out the big guns with a £20+ budget suggests you really mean business. I recommend a 2-good-present-to-1-small-comedy-present ratio within your budgetary framework. This is not the

time to be generic, either – if you’re willing to spend that much on someone, you must know and like them at least a little bit. Therefore, in-jokes should take pride of place within your wrapping, and functional presents should be banned. Top Tip: Learn a (rare) lesson from Love Actually’s Mia and treat your recipient to something they want, not something they need.   An end in sight Pick a date on which to exchange your gifts, ideally no earlier than the 20th December to allow maximum purchasing time. It’s a nice excuse to have a big Christmas dinner or movie night. With any luck, everyone will be delighted with their gift(s), and you’ll have saved a pretty penny.

Happy Secret Santa-ing!

Franz Ferdinand @ Mono’s 10th Birthday Party

Mono Glasgow

General public reaction to my excitable “I went to see Franz Ferdinand on Friday night!” squeals has been a mixed bag of jealous delight and the slightly more dismissive “huh – I didn’t know they were still on the go”. So long has it been since their third album, Tonight, released way back in 2009 that unless you happened to catch them at one of their festival appearances this summer, they probably had fallen right off the radar.

Artsy café/bar/venue/record shop Mono was host to the band’s first gig in their home town for four years, with a small audience full of friends, fans and other arty Glasgow types keen to wish Mono a happy birthday. Other artists on the bill wowed in their own ways: getting the night started, Muscles of Joy are a wonderfully quirky all-female band, each of whom played a whole variety of unusual instruments. On the other hand, demonstrating the wide variety of music that Mono supports, RM Hubbert is a fantastic Glaswegian guitarist and emotive songwriter who has worked with the likes of Aidan Moffat and Alex Kapranos. His sense of humour equally did not disappoint.

Muscles of Joy

Muscles of Joy at Mono, Glasgow 16/11/12

As headliners, Franz Ferdinand flew straight into ‘Take Me Out’ with as much exuberance and energy as they displayed during their early performances. All the biggest hits were ticked off – ‘

Matinée’, ‘Do You Want To’, ‘Ulysses’ – along with a couple of other classics, including debut single B-side ‘Shopping for Blood’. A rock steady cover of Dr Feelgood’s ‘Roxette’ went down well with the crowd. Throughout, the band really appeared to be enjoying themselves, making the gig all the more satisfying for the punters.

Franz Ferdinand @ Mono

Franz Ferdinand at Mono, Glasgow 16/11/12

Among these well-known tunes, Franz Ferdinand played a few new songs, which seemed to hint at a step away from the heavier synth that dominated Tonight and back towards their guitar-driven debut album – let’s take a moment to absorb this and then breathe a collective sigh of relief. ‘Stand in the Horizon' was

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a particular favourite although ‘I’ll Never Get Your Bullet Out of My Head’ was also a force to be reckoned with.

Back in 2002, Franz Ferdinand formed with the aim of making guitar music that “girls could dance to”. Ten years later, they’re still writing great songs and if their, albeit far too short, set on Friday was anything to go by, the girls are most certainly still dancing.

(… and happy tenth birthday to Mono, the kind of inclusive, independent venue that every city

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needs – Scotland’s music scene wouldn’t be the same without you xoxo)

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