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Randan Discotheque Feb 2006 Edinburgh: Out on the Tiles CRAIG COULTHARD'S RANDAN DISCO PARTIES ARE GIVING EDINBURGH SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT. With Scotland recently being awarded the dubious accolade of having the second highest Homicide rate in Europe, out-slaughtering non-EU countries such as Uruguay and Uzbekistan in the process, one could be forgiven for having the impression that all is not well north of the border. However, despite the cruel press his country may have received of late, Edinburgh-based artist Craig Coulthard is using his songs to drive home the finer aspects of all things Caledonian through the gentler means of song. Randan Discotheque, held in the dinky surroundings of Edinburgh College of Art's Wee Red Bar, played host to slide shows of Scottish heraldry and projections of skeleton gangs dancing to accordions, alongside the young Scotsman's harmonious crooning. Better known for having his art exhibited as part of the New Work Scotland Programme at the Collective Gallery, Coulthard was looking for a name with which to release the songs he had been working on for over ten years. He was inspired by a trip to Lake Como in Italy , where he stumbled across an abandoned building with a defunct light-box reading “Randan Discotheque Music Nightclub”. “I'd heard the word ‘randan' a lot from relatives, as well as in some old folk songs. ‘Out on the randan' is a bit like saying ‘out on the tiles'. I like to think that my music has a certain Scottishness to it without being backwards, and so the old randan music and modern disco worked well”. With Randan Discotheque, Coulthard also took the opportunity to circulate a fanzine called Babliography which contains the life stories of figures like suffragette pioneer Flora Drummond, and Scots-American playboy james Gordon-Bennett, albeit with some entertaining twists. “The Babliographies contain a mixture of fact and fiction, but its hard to tell which is which, as is the case with a lot of ‘fact' these days.” Ultimately, Craig Coulthard's antics prove that in Scotland , at least, the guitar is still mightier than the sword. MILES JOHNSON
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Big Toe's Hi-Fi The Egg Red Alert Randan Discotheque Roots Manoeuvres (Big Toe) MANGOMAD The Egg SL Records Xmas Party Sputniks Down Mouthmoth Records Night Phil Niblock Phil Niblock Keb Darge The Proclaimers
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