Leader comment: Darlingheart's dreams were the dreams of many

How many bands have experienced the extraordinary thrill of hitting upon that first great tune, playing it over and over, genuinely believing it would take them to the big time?

Darlingheart in their heyday

Darlingheart got far closer than most – touring with Radiohead, Blur and The Cranberries – but their first album sold poorly, leaving the Kirkcaldy group with little but broken dreams and debt.

Lead singer Cora Bissett’s discovery of newspaper clippings about the band kept by her late father and her extensive diaries have helped her turn the experience into a play, What Girls Are Made Of, that will debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

For anyone who has ever dreamed the life – rather than lived the dream – or cut loose on an electric guitar in a dank rehearsal room or garage, or rocked out in front of the bathroom mirror, only to fall by the wayside, distracted by a sensible career or life or dissuaded by a genuine lack of talent, it could be a cathartic experience.

For Darlingheart must surely be the greatest of them all. The best of those countless nearly bands.