'Summer's Gone', from Aberfeldy's debut album 'Young Forever', has been picked for a new diet coke commercial going out in the States. The first showing was at the Oscars and its now being shown during Amercian Pop Idol. See it here (middle clip, called 'Frames')

It makes up for weeks of swallowing dust and straining muscles stripping out our new home.

Aberfeldy headlined at The Garage as part of Celtic Connections and were in scintilating form enjoying a great reception from a Glasgow audience,spoiled for choice at what I thought was the best line-up and most vibrant Celtic Connections ever.

I'm so glad I caught the Tune Up tour gigs too, last month, Riley Briggs, Boo Hewerdine, Sophie Bancroft, Niki King, Geoff Martyn, David Scott, Emily Smith and Marc Pilley, all respected songwriters, came up with a fantastic range of great new songs, beautifully performed, a few of which can be found on www.youtube.com/jules2view



A few weeks ago I was dead chuffed to be invited to the Edinburgh City Chambers where the Lord Provost Lesley Hinds held a civic reception in honour of Shirley Manson, who was in great form and told me she can't wait to get back on the road with the new stuff she's been recording for her first solo album ...me too !!

Bruce.

October is a long time ago and In The City/Mexico/Paulo Nutini/Christmas/Hogmanay.....and thousands of square miles of ice have come and gone,and the world goes on at a suicidal pace.
It's a New Year and we (me and Aberfeldy)are going to be doing it all from home with all our emphasis on Scotland for the first few months of 2007........Burnsong/Celtic Connections/Tune-Up tour of the Highlands and Islands and new music(waxing lyrical) on a new Edinburgh record label....(watch the Aberfeldy web pages for details in the next week or two).
It's 300 years since we allowed our king to become king of England too and we've kicked ourselves ever since,but we never lost our identity and that shows most of all in our cultural activities which we take round the world in one form or another,but is best experienced here in Scotland.From The Shetland Isles to Dumfries old and new festivals of music,theatre,dance,film,literature and poetry are springing up all the time...too many to list but suffice it to say if you are interested ,you'll find them.
I should be writing an informative blog in the next week or two........in the meantime....make love not war...

An exciting weekend coming up as Aberfeldy fly out to Mexico on a trip organised by the British Council (www.aberfeldys.com) and I go on my regular trip to the home of the coolest music convention in England - In The City Manchester.

Live music is enjoying a bit of a boom and with new festivals springing up all over the U.K. it's a great time for artists and public alike. Although record sales are maybe slipping a bit,the insatiable appetite for music from music fans is stronger than ever....it's just how we get it that's changing and how we pay for it. New artists coming into the industry now have 'tools' that just did not exist to them a few year's ago and with MySpace and YouTube and artist's own websites they (the artists) have far more opportunities of doing their 'own thing' and reaching a very sophisticated world-wide audience without the inconvience of having to seek 'the record deal'. Some, if not most, artists will still take the conventional route and look for a cool record company to help them reach as many people as possible with their music and in my opinion the good record companies will always be around...and that is a good thing. I just believe that because of the changing world what we need is not 3 or 4 major companies controlling the global music market but thousands possibly millions of record labels where selling a few thousand records is profitable. Like minded labels would form alliances around the world where the 'bottom line' is the mutual love of music.

Publishers and collection societies are now in a position where they can really influence the future as income streams from music become more and more diverse and I look to them to unlock these streams that keep emerging (easier said than done).

Aberfeldy are taking part in Oxfam's nationwide fund-raising campaign on their return from Mexico, playing at their 'home from home' the Bongo Club Edinburgh on the 27th Oct.

The Scottish Arts Council and Regular Music are setting up a tour for Aberfeldy in April next year, as part of the Arts Council's excellent Tune Up series. This will take in Orkney and Skye as well as several other Scottish places the band have not played before.

Riley has been having fun making a tour video, you can see it on YouTube....watch for more film stuff from the Feldys over the next few months.

I'm off to pack my bag for Manchester.....maybe see you there !

Moved house.

Went on holiday to Loch Tay - butterflies, red squirrels, buzzards, mushrooms, and friends... a good time.

Missed most of the Festival this year but thoroughly enjoyed Gill Bowman at the Royal Oak, loved her song about not wanting her sons to be Prime Minister - you can see it on YouTube.

And... had 2 days at the Electric Picnic festival in Ireland with Aberfeldy, the Blue Nile and Mark Mackie of Regular Music. It was a great festival with a really good vibe, a fantastic sense of community, great location, great food, and really great music.

Aberfeldy have had some blistering sets on their tour and having seen them in Perth, Manchester, Ireland and London the gigs in Edinburgh tonight and Glasgow tomorrow should not be missed! Coming up over the next few weeks for Aberfeldy are trips to Dundee, Wigtown and Mexico City.

Aberfeldy - Perth, Sept 1, 2006.        Photo: Julia Nicolle

I've been invited to talk once more on a panel at In The City, England's most influential music conference, where of course like all good conferences the best part is the live music which is all over the city centre over 3 days in October... maybe see you there?

Mushrooms, Loch Tay - Aug 26, 2006.        Photo: Julia Nicolle

Moving house is very traumatic but having to sell my 2 favourite paintings (John Bellany's wonderful 'Self Portrait with Owl Mask' which I bought from John in the mid-1970s, and his 'Self Portrait with Cat' bought a few years later at auction)is a real wrench but the new walls will not take such big pictures... c'est la vie. Alas, I shall be watching them go under the hammer at Lyon & Turnbull's contemporary and modern art sale on 1 September.

The Festival is now in full swing and I just love Edinburgh at this time of year. I don't know if we'll manage to get to as much as usual but, as always, the streets themselves make the whole town seem like the most colourful stage full of thousands of extras.

Aberfeldy are having a break just now, recharging their energy cells for their UK tour in September. The Word magazine have chosen 'Hypnotised' for the front cover CD in the September issue, out in the next week. I like The Word.

Until next time... au revoir.

It's been a phenomenally busy and exciting time since I last wrote a blog at the beginning of the Aberfeldy tour with The Beautiful South. They were the best hosts imaginable and the tour ended on a beautiful high in Liverpool some weeks ago.

It's been non-stop for Aberfeldy since then with trips to France (Eurokenes Festival), Oxford (Cornbury Festival), Isle of Skye (Festival) and as guests of James Blunt in Belfast, Berlin, Stirling and Weil am Rhein in Germany.

In between all that was a wonderful surreal coach trip to Aberfeldy the town, where after a visit to the local Aberfeldy Distillery the band played a blistering set in the Town Hall.

Do Whatever Turns You On has now been released to some great reviews and elicited live radio sessions for Vic Galloway, Mark Radcliffe, Tom Robinson and Jim Gellately. And, there is no let up in the hectic schedule with more radio sessions, festival gigs in Gateshead and Ireland and a UK-wide album tour in September.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been listening to lots of music (Neil Young,Flaming Lips,Primal Scream...) and watching a bit of TV, including T in the Park highlights, Primal Scream being the highlight for me. They also featured in the amazing documentary about the Glastonbury festival, shown over the weekend.
The Edinburgh Festival begins in a couple of weeks and the city is already full of tourists with many more to come....I love it.It's like the whole world comes to visit to play or perform or watch and listen...come and try it!

Travel has become an obsession in the last few weeks as J. and I have travelled up and down the length of Scotland following Aberfeldy. The gigs last week in Dunfermline, Stirling, Aberdeen and Inverness turned out to be a brilliant start to several months of touring for Aberfeldy. I, of course, loved all the gigs and Inverness was particularly memorable as a posse of girls displayed the lyrics to Tom Weir on their T-shirts (see pic).


The Beautiful South started the next night in Glasgow, and what a contrast it was from the homeliness of the band's own dates to playing in front of a packed Carling Academy crowd as the opening act. The band went down really well to an unsuspecting audience and the same again the following night in Newcastle.

I'll be dipping in and out of the rest of the tour but keeping in touch with Rough Trade as the excitement builds for the imminent release of the new album "Do Whatever Turns You On", which is being released on the 3rd of July. Before that however,"Hypnotised", the first single from the album is being released on the 26th of June. Watch out for the video.

The week before last I spent two amazing days in Aberdeen at 'Go North', Scotland's innovative annual music convention. Apart from talking on a panel about artist management my time was spent watching lots of great bands and solo artists. The pick of the bunch for me were 'Attic Lights' a band oozing great tunes and wonderful harmonies and 'Stanley' who were the most original act I saw over the two days. The man's voice and again great melodies made for a splendid climax to my time in Aberdeen.

I'm off to catch the bus now - speak again soon.