Skip to main content

IT was more than 27 years ago that I played my first gig with The Battlefield Band at The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh as part of the Fringe Festival. I had turned 17 and become a full-time professional musician. I remember the feeling of walking on to The Queen’s Hall stage for the first time like it was yesterday – it looked and felt absolutely enormous back then, and a tad frightening.

All these years later The Queen’s Hall doesn’t feel nearly as huge. In fact, it feels quite the opposite, even when it’s packed full to the brim with 850 people.

More often than not the atmosphere in the place is similar to playing music in a pal’s front room, a very rare thing for a concert hall of this stature and size.

That’s one of the reasons why The Queen’s Hall holds such a special place in my heart. So special that when I was asked to curate Southside Of The Tracks – a show to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the hall – I jumped at the chance.

After all, It’s not very often that you get to pick some of your favourite musicians for a house band and then... read the rest of the article in The National here.