Strike up the band

Flying Matchstick Men Riverside Club, Glasgow, 11 November

"WE'VE LOST track of all the gigs we've played," says Graham Peel, Flying Matchstick Men's fidgety but charming 22-year-old frontman. "We play more than we rehearse." This is easy to believe. They may jokingly describe themselves as "the most unreliable band in the world", but rarely does a week pass without Glasgow's most hard-working group showing up at a club night, launch party or other gig somewhere in Scotland. Given how entertaining their chaotic blend of punk and electropop is, and given how their profile has risen this year - recent months have included a Belle and Sebastian support slot and their T in the Park debut - it was surely only a matter of time before they got noticed. And now they have. Just last month they signed a deal with One records, the Sony offshoot that looks after El Presidente, one of this year's Scottish success stories. Their first single is due in January.

If you haven't caught the Matchstick Men yet, next week provides an ideal opportunity. As part of the Glasgay! festival, the band are guests of honour at Glasgow's gay (but very heterosexual-friendly) club night, Utter Gutter. It's a bit of an experiment - using a laptop computer, all the songs will be melded together to create an experience closer to a DJ set than a pop gig. It could, they warn, go a bit wrong. At a show the night before we meet, "our laptop all of a sudden just went wrruuuuggg. We think it was high on pills because we'd been putting so much techno into it." Luckily the band are charismatic enough that such mishaps rarely prove an obstacle.

For Peel, the Glasgay! gig is a coming out of sorts. "My mum's mortified," he laughs. "She's a deputy head in a Catholic school and says thing like, 'what if those kids find out you're gay? What'll happen to me?' I'm like, 'Mum, I don't think it really matters.' I came out to her once and she said, 'you're not gay, you're just eccentric, you're just doing this to show off'. Eventually I just went, 'Mum I'm not just eccentric. I'm going out with a cello player." All this is said without malice, although Peel's glee at this little act of rebellion is written all over his face. "In the article can you just say, 'Graham's mum's amazing,' then she'll buy it," he adds with a grin. "Say, 'Graham, straight singer, is doing Glasgay! but doesn't like it.' "

If Peel's mother is unhappy about Glasgay!, she's probably even less happy about Fireworks, the club night he co-runs at the city's Barfly venue. "It's brilliant," he enthuses. "We've basically turned Barfly into a gay club. It's really popular now." That said, I suspect Peel would hate it if people tried to define him by his sexuality - his band's ambitions, and appeal, are already far broader than that. "We like confusing people, to the point where they're crying," he laughs. "If you're a musician you should be open to everything."

One Records, he tells me, have politely hinted that the band might sell more records if they wrote more conventional songs with regular verses and choruses, but Flying Matchstick Men are having none of it. "We kind of think it's worth taking a risk. I'm not saying we're a revolutionary band, but I don't see the point in doing music to please other people. I think other people should be pleased by us."

And, he points out, plenty are. "We've got girls who are into Christina Aguilera who are into our gigs," he beams, delighted at the implication that a Glasgow indie band can cross over to a teenage "pop" audience. "I always think bands are jealous of pop music, either because they can't write it or because they don't have the power that it has. But everyone's favourite song is a pop song because it'll remind you of a time in your life." At T in the Park, meanwhile, "there were lots of topless neds dancing. If we can appeal to topless neds that's all I ever wanted." By next year, you feel, all kinds of things could be possible.

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The Constant Gardener General release from Friday

JOHN Le Carr's bestselling novel is brought to the big screen by a cinematic dream team: Fernando (City of God) Meirelles is the director; Rachel Weisz plays Tessa Quayle, an activist who is found murdered in a remote part of northern Kenya; and Ralph Fiennes co-stars as her husband Justin, a mild-mannered official at the British High Commission in Nairobi who sets out to find out why she was killed.

Sound Various venues, Aberdeenshire, 7-27 November

THE North-East of Scotland's new contemporary music festival begins this week, encompassing everything from classical to pop. Highlights include the premiere of a new composition by Sally Beamish and a concert featuring Evelyn Glennie and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Visit www.sound-scotland.co.uk

Spectrum Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, tomorrow

MINI festival showcasing the cream of Edinburgh's homegrown bands, DJs, and other artistic talent, including Hooverfish, Mangomad and ska ten-piece Bombskare.

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Sinead O'Connor Barrowland, Glasgow, tomorrow

IRELAND's most unpredictable songstress (left) showcases her new album, Throw Down Your Arms, which is infused with the sounds of Jamaica.

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Birmingham Royal Ballet Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 8-12 November

DANCERS from the Birmingham Royal Ballet begin a five-day mini-residency at the Festival Theatre this week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday they perform a triple bill of Kenneth MacMillan's Solitaire, Ninette de Valois's Checkmate and John Cranko's The Lady and the Fool. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday they give us Hobson's Choice, the acclaimed "English ballet", set in a Salford shoe shop and created by the company's director, David Bintley.

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Topping and Butch The Stand, Glasgow, 9 November

THE Edinburgh Festival Fringe favourites bring their innuendo-laden songs to Glasgow as part of Glasgay!

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