You may already know that The Last Big Weekend is a two day boutique festival organised by the East End Social that’s taking place in Richmond Park, close to Glasgow’s greyhound racing central, Shawfield Stadium. Saturday’s lineup is curated by Chemikal Underground while Numbers and Optimo have combined forces to curate the Sunday leg.
Mogwai, whose Rave Tapes is one of my very favourite albums released so far this year, are joined on Saturday by John Peel favourites The Wedding Present, former Creation signings Swervedriver and Edinburgh’s fast rising Young Fathers as well as Fuck Buttons, James Holden, The Twilight Sad, Holy Mountain and Honeyblood.
I can’t be there that day as I’m going along to a wedding, although I’d have really liked to see Mogwai headline and just about all of the other bands on the bill. Day Two, which promises to feature some of the very best local and international DJs together with some of the finest electronic music acts out there, isn’t so much my thing apart from the multi-talented ex-LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, who one day I’d like to see produce a new David Bowie album.
Anyway, on Sunday night I’m off to the Where You’re Meant To Be event, which bills itself as ‘A Musical Road Trip and Film from Aidan Moffat and Paul Fegan’ with the Barrowlands, I’m told, being transformed for the occasion into ‘a cabaret-style cinema venue’ with clips of the forthcoming Where You’re Meant To Be road movie/documentary being screened and anecdotes from Moffat, a natural raconteur if ever there was one, about the stories behind each clip. Of course there will also be songs and Aidan will be backed by James Graham of The Twilight Sad), Jenny Reeve of Bdy_Prts and Stevie Jones (El Hombre Trajeado).
Also performing on the night will be double-act Joe Aitken & Geordie Murison and Glaswegian singer Danny Couper. Should be a very interesting and entertaining evening.
Getting back to The Last Big Weekend – and yes, I was tempted to post a link to Arab Strap’s The First Big Weekend – I’ve started this post with the headliners from day one and I’m going to end with the band who’ll be opening the proceedings on Saturday afternoon, Glasgow based duo Honeyblood, who consist of vocalist and guitarist Stina Tweeddale and drummer Shona McVicar.
Over the past few years they’ve signed to Brighton indie Fat Cat Records, released an album produced by Peter Katis, played T in the Park and toured the States. They’ve been compared to The Breeders, Best Coast and PJ Harvey but I’d say they’re more like Strawberry Switchblade with a snarl (and without the polka-dots) or, and I’m maybe thinking more of Stina’s voice here, The Sundays.
Here’s the alt-country flavoured Bud from their self titled debut album which is definitely worth seeking out:
For more on The Last Big Weekend click here.
For more on Where You’re Meant To Be click here.
For more on Aidan Moffat click here.
& for more on Honeyblood click here.
Anonymous
Sep 02, 2014 @ 10:26:57
Understaffed and overpriced imo especially Saturday. Some top sounds tho.
JC
Aug 28, 2014 @ 22:25:05
i’ll certainly be at Richmond Park on Saturday…..the East End Social has been nothing short of sensational these past four months.
I’ll also be at the Barras on Sunday night. Was lucky enough to be in the audience when Aidan played there a few months back and am so looking forward to his return
For Malcontents Only
Aug 29, 2014 @ 21:45:42
Should be a memorable day on Saturday and yeah, the East End Social have did great things in the past few months. Gig of the year so far for me was the Nectarine No 9 & Casual Sex at Rutherglen Town Hall.
Charity Chic
Aug 28, 2014 @ 08:21:56
it is also a bit of a bugger when going to a wedding coincides with a gig or a footie match you would like to see(especially if it is your own!)
Charity Chic
Aug 27, 2014 @ 20:11:48
Impressed with Honeyblood – getting a lot of coverage including cover of Saturday’s Herald magazine
For Malcontents Only
Aug 28, 2014 @ 20:41:34
Impressed by the album and I’ve been meaning to post of them for a while. I think they’re on BBC Alba’s Rapal show next week btw although I don’t know the details.