Edge Festival 2010: The Liquid Room
Swooping in with eclectic style, one of Auld Reekie's most treasured live venues returns freshly refurbished just in time for this year's Edge.
First up are Oxford brother conglomerate Stornoway (5 Aug), whose Celtic-tinged melodic pop will no doubt gently ease in proceedings.
Neil Hannon’s amorphous troupe The Divine Comedy will add a dollop of glitz (6 Aug), humour and, no doubt, their classic anthem National Express along with material from their tenth, yes tenth, album.
Fellow veterans Feeder return with a clutch of new songs from new album, Renegades, as well as a string of party-in-a-can hits on 17 Aug.
Stepping out of the mighty Beta Band shadow, Steve Mason drops by on 18 Aug to play from his heartfelt new solo offering Boys Outside.
Battle rap champion and former Mike Skinner protégé Professor Green will be banging out his chart-conquering, INXS-sampling hit I Need You Tonight and you can bet on cuts from his dazzling second new LP Alive Till I'm Dead come 20 Aug.
Local indie-rock heroes We Were Promised Jetpacks will also be, ahem, launching into their forthcoming second album on 21 Aug. See our interview with bassist Sean Smith.
We’re assuming it’s not his real middle name, but when Eli Paperboy Reed trumpets into Edge (23 Aug) with his authentic take on Chicago soul, there’s unlikely to be a pair of hips left unswayed or quiff left unruffled.
Comedy rappers Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip are best known for their spoken word diatribe Thou Shalt Always Kill but recent single Get Better proves they aren’t ready to be consigned as novelty one-hit wonders. The proof will be in the pudding on 24 Aug.
What can we expect from Mark Lanegan (26 Aug), the laconic, soulful voice associated with Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, Soulsavers and The Gutter Twins, amongst many others? Greatness, that’s what.
Finally, one of Edinburgh’s most exciting young bands in some time, Broken Records, return for a fitting homecoming gig (28 Aug), having bunkered down to record their second album in recent months. After dropping their splendid debut last year, things have only gotten better for the burgeoning sextet and their live shows are clear evidence of why.