(Saturday)
Idlewild, named after the quiet meeting place in Anne of Green Gables, formed in December 1995 in Edinburgh, Scotland when a 19 year-old Roddy Woomble met drummer Colin Newton at a party. The two discovered that they had much in common, including similar musical interests and record collections. By the end of the night, they had discussed forming a band together.
The first single from the album, “You Held the World in Your Arms”, became ‘A-listed’ on Radio One and entered the UK Singles Chart at number nine, marking the band’s biggest hit to date. A UK tour followed with Ikara Colt supporting and a second single, “American English”, was released. On release, The Remote Part entered the album charts at number three, and was considered a record of considerable depth, as well as one of the most melodic records of the year. The album went gold in the UK and a third single, “Live in a Hiding Place”, was released as the band embarked upon a four-month European tour in September, which included supporting dates with Coldplay.
In December 2008 and 6 albums later the band played five shows at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, playing each of their studio albums in full. Roddy Woomble noted that the band “are going to try to play every track [they’ve] ever written – including B-sides – which has to be more than 100 songs. And then they decided to take a haitus – who knows when we would see them back together again?
In September 2013, rumors of a reunion began as the band posted a photo on their official Facebook page with the caption “What’s going on here…?” Woomble, Jones and Newton were tagged in the photo of a recording/rehearsal studio. On 5 November, Roddy Woomble confirmed that the band are in the process of writing a new album, stating: “I have been getting asked about this a lot recently, and it is no secret that Idlewild are making a new album (There are some photographs of a recent writing session in a Hebridean cabin up on the Idlewild facebook page) it is being written and recorded slowly and intermittently, and I have no idea when it’ll be done. Not for a while. I’m just enjoying the process. It is always great to work with Rod and Colin, we have been making up songs together since 1995 – not far off 20 years!
…and now they’re coming to Purbeck!!
Website: www.idlewild.co.uk