Band show the golden touch with Razorlight gig signing

THEY are a small Capital band struggling to afford their own tour van, but their fortunes may be about to change after Razorlight agreed to headline their festival.

Leith-based foursome 10:04s today announced that the pop-rock chart-toppers will star at Haddow Fest, a multi-venue weekender being held this April with an expected total audience of 10,000 revellers.

The highly acclaimed outfit, re-emerging after a prolonged spell out of the spotlight, will be making their comeback at the two-day bash and will perform in the Corn Exchange with support from the 10:04s.

The announcement represents quite a coup for the band and their management team, who had only minimal funds to realise their lofty ambitions at this year's festival.

Razorlight put pen to paper after private investors stumped up the cash to bring them to Haddow Fest. The festival itself is billed as similar to the Camden Crawl and is named after the 10:04s popular drummer Paul Haddow.

Acts perform at venues across the city which this year also includes the Liquid Room, Bongo Club, Caves, Electric Circus and HMV Picture House.

The ethos behind the festival - headlined by Idlewild when it debuted in 2010 - is to launch aspiring Edinburgh musicians by interweaving established acts with young local talent.

The band also hope to reposition Edinburgh as a mecca for live music following years of being overshadowed by Glasgow.

"The idea behind the festival is to combine more than 40 of the best upcoming bands in Scotland, coupled with the draw of well-known names," said 10:04s singer Steven Bolton, 27.

"We are by no means a big corporate festival; we're just four lads from Leith who came up with the idea last year. We ran it and were lucky enough to get Idlewild to play.

"This year, Haddow Fest has kicked on and, because it's escalated, we have been able to attract a higher calibre of act.

"This year we have Razorlight, Twisted Wheel, Dykeenies, Broken Records and a few other exciting bands in the pipeline that we can't yet announce until they are confirmed.

"We've been told it's a comeback gig for Razorlight after a couple of years' break. They have nothing booked before that so it looks like it will be their comeback. They are one of the biggest bands in Britain so having them at only our second-ever festival is really exciting.

"We made inquiries about different bands and when you see the figures they want it's startling. We can't even buy our own van at the minute! Luckily, outside investors came in to pay their fee."

The 10:04s have been making noises in the Scottish music scene since springing on to the circuit two years ago, but the band never dreamed such opportunities would present themselves so early.

"Getting to do things like this on this scale is not where we expected to be at this stage," said Steven. "We were fortunate we had a foothold in Edinburgh and know a lot of top bands across Edinburgh and Scotland, which helped the festival, but we didn't think for a second we would be at this level so quickly."

He added: "There's nothing like this in Edinburgh. We are trying to do something for Edinburgh and for the bands.

"For years Glasgow has had the better music scene and it's been a long time since Edinburgh has had that buzz.

"Pushing the Edinburgh scene is what it's all about. We want punters to come see the big bands but also come out during the day to support Edinburgh bands."

Haddow Fest swings into action on April 2 and 3. Tickets can be bought from Tickets Scotland, Ticket Web, Gigantic, See Tickets and the Edinburgh Corn Exchange.