City rock fest goes Live with latest offering of talent

A ROCK festival showcasing the finest unsigned bands in Scotland takes centre stage tomorrow with organisers aiming to build the city’s reputation as a live music hotspot.

EH1 Live will feature more than 40 underground acts performing across five central 
venues and all available to see for the price of an £18 ticket.

Now in its second year, the debut festival attracted more than 1000 revellers, but organisers are hoping to more than double that figure at this year’s beefed-up event.

The aim is to give bedroom bands and up-and-coming talents a springboard into the limelight, as well as exposure and progress in the music industry.

A spokesperson for EH1 Live said: “With whispers claiming that Edinburgh’s music scene is far inferior to its neighbour Glasgow’s, EH1 Live provides the perfect platform to put these doubts to bed.”

Dozens of gigs will be held in Bannermans, Cabaret Voltaire, Liquid Room, Electric Circus, and Whistlebinkies as part of the day and night festival.

One of the headline acts, The OK Social Club, were offered a recording contract in the wake of their performance at last year’s inaugural event, with many other acts fresh off the 
T in the Park T-Break stage.

Other popular groups appearing on the bill include The Phantom Band, The Lysergic Suite, Modern Faces, The Stagger Rats, Tommy Reilly, The Lafontaine’s, Vigo Thieves, Make Sparks and Hip Parade.

Kirsty Leonard, marketing manager for EH1 Live, said the festival aimed to boost the fortunes of emerging bands by promoting them collectively under one banner.

“This is the second year we have run EH1 Live and it’s coming back because we really want to keep promoting unsigned music,” she said.

“Edinburgh does have smaller gigs that are happening but there is not one big festival promoting this music. Having a festival like this, with bands under one roof, means it is likely they will be noticed.

“We have bands coming from Glasgow and Aberdeen who will get exposure here in Edinburgh.”

Founded by Ben Short, who used to run regular gigs at Electric Circus, EH1 Live grew out of a desire to give the Capital’s flagging live music scene a shot in the arm.

“Ben got together with a group of his friends and thought ‘we could do this on a bigger stage,’” Kirsty said.

“The Edinburgh music scene is not as big as it could be,” said Kirsty. “This is trying to show that actually we have a lot of great bands.”

Tickets can be purchased from Ticket Scotland, Ticket Web and Ripping Records.

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