Sort of?  Yeah, only sort of.  Back in March last year, having just been signed to 4AD, Broken Records put on a small gig in the Bedlam Theatre in Edinburgh.  The place only holds about ninety people or so, and they barely advertised it, so it really did just end up being a chance for them to celebrate their record deal and the imminent release of their debut album with a small group of their friends, family and local fans.

The band invited us to film the show, and we edited together a load of live videos and Kas, their sound guy, mixed the audio and the whole lot went up around the release of Until the Earth Begins to Part last year.

One song which didn’t, however, was this one: an early version of A Darkness Rises Up. This song had only just been written back then and the encore at the Bedlam Theatre is the first time they ever performed it, so it was far from finished and had very different lyrics to the version which finally made it onto their second album Let Me Come Home.

Now that album’s been out for a while, however, I asked the band about this video and they agreed that there was no harm in letting people see it – provided it was clear that this version of the song was an early, unfinished version of what people will recognise from Let Me Come Home.  So there, I think I’ve made it clear.

This is a series of videos of Broken Records’ amazing live show at the Bedlam Theatre on Saturday, 28th March 2009.  You can use the widget above to watch everything and browse amongst the videos.  They are pretty good quality, so pop them up to full screen if you like – if you hit play and just leave it alone it will play through all of them sequentially.  Alternatively, you can just scroll down and watch everything there.  There are twelve songs in total including, at the very end, the interview video as well, where Jamie and I had a bit of chat after the gig.

Big thanks must go to Mrs. Toad, who operated camera two all evening.  Camera two sounds a bit junior, but actually she is the one who got all the interesting shots, while I do all the safe stuff so we have something to fall back on when she’s moving around.  Nic Rue, who can be found at nicrue.carbonmade.com, took all the phenomenal still shots I used as the title pages for these videos.  Broken Records’ sound guy Kas mixed all the sound, and the reason these videos look so good is because his friend Colin McCallum did all the lighting, which made a massive difference.

Broken Records’ debut album Until the Earth Begins to Part is out now, and it’s brilliant.  Their stuff can be bought from recordstore.co.uk here, and their upcoming live dates can be found on the band’s website.  Enjoy these videos – they should give you some idea just how good this band are live, and why everyone in Edinburgh was so excited when they first emerged on the DIY gig scene in town just over two years ago.  They’re on tour now, actually, so you really should catch them if you get the chance. Read the rest of this entry »

Broken Records may play bigger, better, sweatier gigs than this in the future – in fact I’d be fucking amazed if they don’t – but I am not sure they’ll play many more special to their grass-roots fans.  There is a real sense of goodwill about the band at the moment – they’ve signed to one of the best indie labels in the world, they’ve just finished their debut album, the hard slog of the festival season is yet to take hold, so it felt to me like band and fans alike were able to take a moment just just enjoy the current circumstances.  Although, as their lead singer and main songwriter Jamie said to me in a brief aftershow interview, the real work is only just beginning.

The sense  of occasion was hugely helped by the amazingly atmospheric surroundings of the Bedlam Theatre, so nice that Broken Records were happy to run the show at a loss, just to make for a special gig.  It worked.  The photos which decorate this review were taken by Nic Rue, one of Edinburgh’s most talented photographers.  I may not be a professional judge, but how she remains an amateur at this is beyond me.  Her set of pictures from this gig can be found on Flickr, here, and is truly exceptional.  But if you look at the rest of her work you’ll see that it’s no one-off.  She really, really is that good. Read the rest of this entry »