Prince Edward Island hail from the nation's darkest fringes of Fife and Northumberland and lay down equally dark, very personal lyrics over the lighest melodies that could muster, writing about trawler-trash town love affairs, failing relationships and youth squandered. They've garnered widespread interest since winning the XFM Unsigned competition and recently played 4 tracks on BBC2's show Rapal.  Their debut EP, Lies To Tell Tourists, was released on BabyBoom Records, with a full LP to follow later this year.

THURSDAY 10TH JULY

HAR MAR SUPERSTAR (LIVE) AT SICK NOTE

After April's shenanigans Har Mar make a welcome return to sick note to get you all totally pumped for T in the Park weekend. Rad yo.

Hot stepping in the tracks of the smoothest operators like Stevie Wonder and R.Kelly, Har Mar's quick witted lyrics let loose sexy tales and soulful tributes. If you can imagine Beck getting down with Barry White and a drum machine, then you have only just begun to catch Har Mar's vibe.

In the words of Har Mar himself; " I hope my music makes people grind. If just a few more people realise that dry humping is a good thing, I'll have done my job."

www.myspace.com/harmarstar

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THURS 17^TH JULY

SELLOTAPE :: SWIMMER ONE :: FANGS

s/e/l/l/o/t/a/p/e/ are a four-piece band from Edinburgh: vocal / guitar / double bass / drums and other bits & bobs. Their style is a very unique kinda DIY ‘no wave' with influences from The Fall, X-Ray Spex, The B52s, Sonic Youth and the likes. With the new line-up, s/e/l/l/o/t/a/p/e have enhanced their set with a more thought-provoking experimental sound and killer performances, include making popcorn live on stage...not to mention Vikisellotape's hotpants...

"Sellotape the band do that Rough Trade circa 1978 Ladbroke Grove squat rock shamble. Making their live debut, they go hell for, um, leather with an energetic and unstudied bounce through the DIY post-punk messthetics handbook. Think Kleenex or The Delta Five, with an in-built ramshackleness tempered by a vocal style betraying a smidgen of Siouxsie Sioux..."  - Neil Cooper, The List
"Very Rough Trade... more Glasgow than Edinburgh!" - Stephen Pastel
"Edinburgh's answer to X-Ray Spex" - Vic Galloway

SWIMMER ONE
Swimmer One make pop music in a small attic room on the Scottish coastline. Their recently released debut album, The Regional Variations, was described by the Independent as "one of this year's finest freshman efforts" and by Plan B as "a bookish, codpiece disco treat."

Their records are made by Andrew Eaton and Hamish Brown.  Laura Cameron-Lewis recently joined the band for live performances.  A national newspaper review of Swimmer One's first London show as a trio compared

Andrew to Bryan Ferry, Laura to Debbie Harry, and Hamish to ‘a synth pop boffin as imagined by Charles Schulz'. Swimmer One are doing their best to live up to the hype.

"They give intelligence a good name and are more windswept than worthy.  Their music has the quirky intricacy of Belle & Sebastian and the soaring atmosphere of Blue Nile, and it is very, very good." - The Guardian.

"Swimmer One's brilliance should be shouted from the rooftops." - The List

FANGS
Hailing from Glasgow, New Wave's wettest dream Fangs strut, shout, sing, scream and riff their way through the red lights of Punk and Disco.  They hit Duty Free fresh from support slots with The Teenagers, The Presets and Justice to play their raw, solid, dirty dancefloor sound that draws influence from NYC's 70s new wave scene and London's 80s clubs.  Fangs were also just voted XFM & Levis "One's To Watch" for 2008.

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MONDAY 21st JULY/22nd JULY

KORA :: THE TIVOLI :: RED

New Zealanders Kora return to the Cab after their sell-out show last year.   Back home, their self-titled album stormed the charts, knocked the Foo Fighters off the top spot, went gold in the first week and eventually platinum.

Their spectacular live act, fusing roots, soul, techno, funk, metal and the haka, has already created havoc down under. Everyone who witnessed Kora's sell-out debut European performances at London KOKO and Cab Vol last year will testify that this act kick it live -  a kind of Maori Prodigy meets Bob Marley and The Wailers.

"This was music with extremely loud bass and even more attitude. With big beat, dub, reggae, breakbeat, house and rock influences that drove the crowd wild and no doubt the whole London Kiwi workforce down the next day" IDJ Magazine

www.myspace.com/koraroots

£8 PLUS BOOKING FEE

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THURS 24^TH JULY

THE KAYS LAVELLE :: MEURSAULT :: BARN OWL :: ROSS CLARK

Originally an acoustic 2- piece from Dundee, Scotland, The Kays Lavelle ", play wistful acoustica and have been described as "dark and beautiful."  They released debut EP I Can't Believe You're Here in June ‘06 and since then have had the good fortune to play shows with the likes of iLiKETRAiNS, Kid Harpoon, The Wave Pictures, Make Model, FOUND, Meursault, Chris Difford, Her Name Is Calla, Glissando and others. Influenced in no small part by the facial hair of The Band and the step to the side and chop technique adopted by Daniel Larusso in Karate Kid I, they ventured into the world of film with a documentary about the making of the EP which was released by award winning Scottish film maker Matty "MJ" Ross in July '07 - www.sleepysoul.co.uk
The Kays Lavelle are currently working on plans for an album,
www.thekayslavelle.com

MEURSAULT

"Two gigs in the past few weeks have bowled me over. One was by a folky quartet who made a thrilling, life-affirming racket with ukuleles, banjos and a wooden crate, and reminded me of Neil Young and REM. The other one was by a man who conjured haunting, distorted electronica using little more than a laptop, his voice and a loop pedal, and reminded me of Thom Yorke of Radiohead's solo experiments.  The odd thing was, they were the same band. Meursault, a loose collective of musicians headed by Edinburgh singer-songwriter Neil Pennycook, are one of the most enticing, yet hard to pin down, groups to emerge from the capital in some time..  What holds the two extremes of Meursault together is Pennycook's beautiful songs and instantly recognisable voice, an impassioned, heartwrenching howl that can invest even the most straightforward of phrases with a sense of urgency. Potentially he is Edinburgh's answer to Mark Eitzel of American Music Club... or if he chooses to make pop records, Robert Smith of The Cure. One album into their career, Meursault sound like they could go in all sorts of exciting directions.  Currently, it's enough that they stand out a mile from the identikit indie guitar bands that inhabit Scotland's stages much of the time. Who else is making melancholy electronica with banjos and ukuleles? It's a struggle even to know what to call this odd, inspiring little subgenre - ukulectronica?" - Andrew Eaton, Arts Editor, The Scotsman.

"Clasping together starry-eyed electronica with cotton-picking wreaths of banjo plucks and ukulele strums, their debut album Pissing On Bonfire/Kissing With Tongues is an unassuming triumph of glum-pussed Scottish charm that cradles its knees like a sombrely-lit fusion of Postal Service and King Creosote. Frontman Neil Pennycook's piping rasp is the cornerstone of this resplendent quartet - incoherent, insatiable and entirely indomitable - yet, so deep are the surrounding caveats of sensor-tingling phonics, it takes myriad spins to uncover his voluptuous drawl." - Drowned In Sound 

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FRI 25^TH JULY

FUTURISTIC RETRO CHAMPS :: THE FOUNDLING WHEEL

FUTURISTIC RETRO CHAMPS 

Futuristic Retro Champs are no ordinary indie pop outfit, with a sound developed by founder Carla Easton whilst she was living in a pink shack in Lithuania with delicate chanteuse Sita Pieracinni in tow.  Along with obliging guitarist and drum machine maestro Harry Weeks, Carla sculpted her idea of perfect pop music influenced by the likes of The Polyphonic Spree, The Vaselines, The Go Team and Architecture in Helsinki as well as her vast collection of Northern Soul, 80's pop and 90's dance 7"s.  The sound created is one of pure pop resplendent with catchy hook-laden choruses, summery melodies and beats to make your feet move. Such is the emphasis on fun and inclusion in their ethos, that Dan O'Neill joined the band almost by accident, showing up randomly at a practice at Harry's flat with his trumpet. His blasting brass melodies, coupled with a penchant for ‘extravagant' dress and ‘exuberant' dancing, add that extra showbiz touch to the Retro Champs.  Bassist Ceal Stamp joined the band in late 2007.  Live, they are an engaging and energetic ball of fun and their whirlwind live show has attracted praise and attention from fans, press and musical peers along the way, notably Northern Irish duo Oppenheimer. They have also played with among others Glasvegas, Bearsuit, To My Boy, Friendly Fires, Bombay Bicycle Club and Kate Nash.

"Their sound is that of the wistful pop of Belle and Sebastian super-charged by a processed-beats driven turbo dance thing a la Bis...4/5" -  THE LIST
"Gorgeous summer pop melodies with a sub current of ominous electro-riffing and turbo beats...4/5" -  THE SKINNY

THE FOUNDLING WHEEL

The Foundling Wheel is a solo project from ex-drummer Ted Koterwas:  "I like noisy, broken-sounding things. I like things that are highly structured, but fall apart and puzzles that don't fit together perfectly. I like small bits of pretty things in the middle of ugly things, and ugly things in the middle of pretty things. A foundling wheel is a medieval device in old churches, where parents who could not care for their babies anymore could anonymously give them away to the church. its deeply tragic, and at the same time responsible and noble and poetic."

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SAT 26^TH JULY

THE DEBUTS :: GRAYSTAR :: THE COMMON EMPIRE

The Debuts are a brand-spanking new four-piece based in Edinburgh.  With their keyboard-led indie-rock anthems, they have already racked up support slots with Hard-Fi, Ocean Colour Scene, The Dykeenies, Delays and Cosmic Rough Riders, securing their place as one of Scotland's most promising unsigned bands.

"I'll probably get to know The Debuts E.P better than the new Killers record!"  - Vic Galloway, BBC Radio 1

"Glorious... Mogwai-does-Queen."  - The List

"Scotland's most promising unsigned band... The next big British band "  - Edinburgh Evening News

"Fantastic slab of electro-tinged indie rock... Gary Numan meets Franz." - Jim Gellatly, XFM Scotland  www.thedebuts.com

GRAYSTAR
Graystar has created an EP of beautifully poignant songs that gently etches its way into your heart". - The Skinny
"Beautiful songs". - BBC Scotland
"It's a privilege to come across this band which looks good, plays well and performs highly original songs." - BBC Merseyside
"A collection of fresh anthemic indie turns from this Liverpool/Edinburgh quintet." - The List
"A depth of songwriting that is overlooked by a lot of bands these days, the quality of the songwriting is what really shines through."  - Is This Music

THE COMMON EMPIRE
Dumfries band The Common Empire have gone from strength to strength after they earned a 45 minute slot at the Wickerman festival last year as winners of the South of Scotland battle of the bands.  Their sound has an emphasis on all things Indie Rock N Roll, inspired by Oasis, The View, The Libertines.

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