Young Fathers

Young Fathers

An excellent hip hop band who really got the crowd moving. Hope to hear more from them soon.

http://www.myspace.com/youngfathers

ESPERANZA

ESPERANZA

BIF has always liked giving us a Ska band - past artists have included Neville Staples , the Beat and the Skatalites . Glasgow's own Esperanza have toured with likes of Bad Manners and Toots and the Maytals. I swea to god that the weather actually improved when they released teir ska-soaked act upon us. Their own compositions were mixed in with ska classics such as Monkey Man , Rudi A Message To You as well as a stomping cover of the Clash classic Wrong Em Boyo. Good stuff indeed.

http://www.myspace.com/esperanzaska

THE RAY SUMMERS

What can I say ? This lot were fantastic . Even though I recognised certain band members from last year's Ross Fairweather and the Billy Shears , their sound was distinctive , and I reckon this band are ging to break past the local circuit- they truly deserve a wider audience . As a Falkirk band they had a lot of local support , and it looked like they drew one of the biggest audiences all day .

http://www.myspace.com/theraysummers

BIG IN FALKIRK- Part 1 (Saturday)

Yesterday I made the short journey along the M9 , to the 10th annual Big In Falkirk . Previous headlining acts have included the Human League , 10cc, The Levellers , The Stranglers and Bob Geldof amongst others . The festival has a habit of showcasing bands who then hit the big time just afer playing (Snow Parol, Sandi Thom , Orson , McFly , Amy MacDonald , et al.) . This years line up is admittedly not the best at first sight , but here are my views on a few of the bands that played on Saturday:

BELGIAN BEER BALLS-UP

BELGIAN BEER

I consider myelf to be a somehwat discerning beer drinker , with a rather fine palate .... or in other words a beer snob . That might help you to undestand the panic that came over me last night when I settled down to drink a glss of Hoegaarden wheat beer (one of my favourite Belgian beers) and was unable to locate the respective glass . A point of note , if you're unaware , is that most Belgian beers are served in their own distinctive glass , so to not be able to find my glass was a complete and utter disaster . And I could not contemplate resorting to drinking it out of the bottle - the ultimate sacrilege . In the end , I drank it out of a bog-standard beer glass. The taste was there , but alas the quality was not.

AAhh , the Schytts......Schytt by name , schytt by everything. Wonder what they're doing these days ?

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schytts (assuming you understand Svensk)

Found this guy on the internet . For god's sake what were his parents thinking when they named him William ? And worst of all he's gone and shortened it to Willie . How does he cope ? Every day must be a compendium of misery as people start sniggering when he gives out his name.