WHEN Alan Cumming wrapped up his Sings Sappy Songs cabaret nights at Edinburgh’s Hub as part of 2016’s International Festival, he carried on the party with Club Cumming – a hedonistic mix of dancing, guest names and raucous games.
With his live band and a crate of records in tow, the actor-activist, right, returns to the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) for one night on August 25 when Club Cumming will be a joyful end to Light on the Shore, 16 nights of music held at Leith Theatre.
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Billed as Light on the Shore with Edinburgh Gin Seaside, this new strand celebrates the breadth and depth of music in Scotland, from punk to pop and folk to techno. It sees the return of a few other names previously associated with the EIF, such as King Creosote (Aug 9), who’ll dip into his extensive back catalogue as well as previewing material from his new record, the follow-up to the folky Fifer’s 2016 album Astronaut Meets Appleman.
And after touring the world with ninth album Every Country’s Sun, Mogwai play two consecutive nights at Leith Theatre (Aug 22 and 23).
Before, on August 10, there’s a night of colourful, up-to-the-minute pop from Scotland as Django Django – who met while studying at Edinburgh College of Art – get together with C Duncan and Free Love, the Glasgow cosmic disco duo formerly known as Happy Meals.
Six days later, Karine Polwart looks to the present and the past in Scottish Songbook (Aug 16), her follow-up to acclaimed theatre show Wind Resistance. Joined onstage by a six-piece band featuring Admiral Fallow’s Louis Abbott, Polwart will revisit centuries-old folk songs and personal favourites from Donovan to Frightened Rabbit.
A significant part of Light on the Shore is a series of specially curated nights from local promoters, and it’s fitting that the people behind multi-arts festival Hidden Door present the towering Jesus and Mary Chain on August 14. Hidden Door were key in reopening Leith Theatre to the public, and their night also features Honeyblood and Spinning Coin, two contemporary bands whose dreamy distortions owe a debt to the older East Kilbride noisemen.
Neu! Reekie!, the ever-fresh poetry and music collective headed by Michael Pedersen and Kevin Williamson, curate two Light on the Shore presentations, with their August 12 night featuring Edinburgh post-punks The Fire Engines, New York’s “one-woman protest machine” Lydia Lunch and Michael Rother, a founder of krautrock legends Neu!.
A similar blend of Scottish legends and icons from elsewhere perform on their August 17 night which features The Vaselines, The Pastels, Swedish electro poetess Molly Nilsson and Jamaican-born, Brixton-raised spoken word artist Linton Kwesi Johnson, one of the headliners at Neu! Reekie!’s counter cultural festival in Hull in June 2016.
Another element of the programme is a series of three concerts where groundbreaking albums by modern Scottish artists are reimagined by orchestras. The first takes place on August 11 where Anna Meredith performs Varmints, her 2016 Scottish Album of the Year-winning mix of contemporary classical and avant garde pop, in a specially expanded version for her band and the Southbank Sinfonia Orchestra.
On August 21 composer and violinist Greg Lawson and his GRIT Orchestra present a new orchestration of Bothy Culture, the second album by the late, great Martyn Bennett, while on August 23 Andre de Ridder conducts Berlin classical collective Stargaze in their large-scale interpretation of Hi Scores, the less known 1996 album by the ever mysterious, Pentland Hills-borne duo Boards of Canada.
Last interviewed (by email) in 2013, around the time of their Tomorrow’s Harvest LP, Marcus Eoin and Mike Sandison were said to be still living in Scotland. Last year they released a remix track by The Sexual Objects, the other band headed by The Fire Engines’s Davy Henderson. Fingers crossed that this special homage will somehow inspire them to treat us to new material.
All concerts at Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, various times and prices. Full listings and tickets at www.eif.co.uk#LightOnTheShore
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