A BIG cheer went up from the crowd, and a member of Attic Lights took his chance to dedicate the next song to his mother from the Waverley Stage. It wasn't his band the chilly but alcohol-warmed crowd were making noise for, though, but the early vol
ley of test fireworks going up in the air above the Castle.
This all kind of demonstrates how the music takes second place to the general spectacle and revelry of Edinburgh's Hogmanay – even when Glasvegas's James Allan played a song for his mum later on, it was a personal touch rather than anything the crowd could actually hear.
Bearing in mind last year's gloomy predictions that this event was either doomed or due a few dramatic cutbacks, it's worth noting that absolutely everything about this year's Street Party and Concert in the Gardens felt like a success.
A wintery chill in the air was all the revellers had to contend with, in lieu of previous years' dangerously high winds and pouring rain, while the bands were so well chosen as to offer something for almost everyone.
Glaswegian indie-poppers Attic Lights and Edinburgh's much-loved folk rockers Broken Records provided local kudos, while Paolo Nutini – on the main stage in Princes Street Gardens first to allow plenty of time for his journey across to perform in Glasgow's George Square – offered something aimed a little more towards all the parents there with their families.
The second act appearing in the Gardens, on the other hand, were for those party-goers who are probably still up now. They're a pop band as much as they're a dance music outfit, but St Albans band Friendly Fires provide for fans of either genre.
Their biggest hit is quite possibly the best song of the year, the charming and epically romantic Paris, and it sits precisely amidst their catalogue of club-ready party tracks (Ex-Lover, On Board) and light, infectious pop tracks (Jump in the Pool). To put them on a stage of this size, while their star is still relatively low on the rise, was an act of good faith from the event's organisers, and it's one which the band repaid completely.
The next time Friendly Fires will be seen in Scotland is on the NME Awards tour at the end of this month, and the projected headliners of that show also put in an appearance here.
That it was on the lesser-sized Waverley Stage was strange, but then everyone probably expects Glasvegas to make it to the status of undisputed Hogmanay headliners very soon. Not that the Glaswegian quartet seem a particularly celebratory band, with songs about absentee fathers and knife crime, but there's something about their bleary-eyed, half-hungover sonic fuzz and rowdy, singalong paeans to childhood scraps (Go Square Go) and familial divisions (Daddy's Gone) which chimes perfectly with a Scottish celebration.
When Allan unveiled special guest Carl Barat, ex of the Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things, as his co-vocalist on a haunting version of We'll Meet Again, the night was already theirs. Groove Armada's fun but frivolous post-bells house-funk in the Gardens just couldn't match such emotional depths.
The full article contains 559 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
