Blake, Butler & Grant – new opening support artists

Sugartown have unfortunately had to pull out of their opening support slot with Blake, Butler & Grant on Thur (16th) and Friday (17th) at FRETS. John Douglas will be support on both concerts and we are pleased to announce on Thurs the opening support is RAVELOE, with KIDD opening the concert on Friday night – here’s some further information.

RAVELOE is the project of Glasgow songwriter Kim Grant, she found the moniker within the pages of the book Silas Marner, which is about a reclusive weaver who lives in a town called Raveloe. Grant identified with the idea of being a weaver of words and music and the concept of creating a fictional world to tell stories within. Being inspired by magical-realism, folk and indie rock, Raveloe is a fusion of sounds filled with rich images exploring themes of temporality, duality, nature, pain and love. Growing up in the industrial town of Motherwell and now living in Glasgow the juxtaposition of urban life and the natural environment are entwined in the songs as is the magic and the mundane.

Self Proclaimed Cupboard-Pop pioneer KiDD has been ever present in the Scottish music scene since 2002 contributing to somewhere in the region of 60 albums as a drummer, guitarist, bass player and vocalist. Euros Childs, Gulp, The BMX Bandits, The Pearlfishers, Jonny, Linden and St Deluxe are but a few groups who have enlisted his duties on their records as well as out on the road.

He has also released a string of records as a co-writer with Glasgow Favourites The Wellgreen with his partner in rhyme Marco Rea, and with Joe Kane under the name Dr Cosmo’s Tape Lab. In 2014 he co-wrote an album with Welsh Home-Fi Pop writer extraordinaire Ash Cooke (better known as Pulco) via email and released it under the name Poundstore Riot to critical acclaim.

2016 saw a collaboration with long time friend and ultra-romantic pop stalwart Duglas T Stewart which resulted in the 2017 BMX Bandits album ‘Forever’, recorded for the most part within the confines of the cupboard studio and released on Elefant Records .

In between times, KiDD has written and released seven of his own albums, and three e.p’s, all in his cupboard where he can be found wrestling with casio keyboards, cheap guitar pedals and an array of percussion.

His last ‘official’ release titled ‘Where Are The Strange People?’ was picked up by Spanish label Pretty Olivia Records and released on vinyl in 2017, garnering rave reviews from all writers enthusiastic of the DIY music scene.

2019 saw the release of his 7th studio album “Chance Weekend”, a collection of songs inspired in part by Brian Eno’s ‘Oblique Strategies‘, Luke Rhinehart’s ‘The Dice Man‘ and various methods of making music by chance honed over the years of being a community music practitioner.  Like all KiDD releases, it is available digitally, with now only a handful of very limited edition hand stamped and dymo labelled CD left. 

KiDD has undertaken a different approach altogether in recent times.  Abandoning the traditional practice of making and releasing a collection of songs in album format, KiDD is opting to write, record and release one new piece of music every week for a whole year.

We are also pleased to announce that James Yorkston will be performing at FRETS on Fri 21st April, you heard it here first. Ticket details soon.