Aberfeldy

Above: Lineup clockwise from left - McIntosh, McFadyen, Barrie, Murray Briggs, Riley Briggs

Aberfeldy are a band formed by singer songwriter Riley Briggs in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2002. The band are named after the Scottish town.

In 2003, Aberfeldy recorded 14 songs with producer Jim Sutherland at his studio above Edinburgh's Bongo Club, using only one microphone and no overdubbing. The resulting tracks were licensed to Rough Trade Records and released in 2004 as the album Young Forever. The single "Heliopolis by Night" was NME's single of the week on release, and the follow up "Love is an Arrow" was featured by Lorraine Kelly on GMTV's Kelly Plays Pop section. The animated video, by Chris Waitt, was nominated for an MTV award for best animated video, but lost out to the Gorillaz. The record sold out in less than a week, due to not enough copies being pressed. It reached no. 60 in the UK charts.

As well as touring throughout the UK, Aberfeldy have supported R.E.M. at their Loch Lomond gig, and Blondie and the Scissor Sisters at Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations (2004), and played at T in the Park (2005). They performed at the 2005 and 2006 South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas.

Several Aberfeldy songs were used in the soundtrack of Gamerz [1], a Scottish comedy film, while the song "Summer's Gone" was used in Argentina to advertise Quilmes beer.

Drummer Ian Stoddart (one time member of Win) departed in late 2005 and was replaced by Murray Briggs, formerly of the Anarcho/street punk band Oi Polloi.

Keyboard player and backing singer Ruth Barrie has also made documentary films. Gold Fever was a musical documentary about gold panning in Scotland, with music and performances from Aberfeldy and narration by Sandy Wright, whose song "Tom Weir", about the iconic Scottish climber, author and broadcaster, was covered as the b-side to the band's "Love is an arrow" single. Ruth's other films included the 2004 documentary One true Path, a look at Muslim culture in Scotland and the short film Chicken and Egg?, with music by Aberfeldy.

Aberfeldy toured the UK in May/June 2006. For part of that tour they supported The Beautiful South, picking up many new fans on the way. A well received 2nd album Do Whatever Turns You On, produced by Calum Malcolm, was released by Rough Trade on July 03, 2006. During June and July 2006 the band supported James Blunt for four of his UK and European tour dates. The band also had festival dates and an extensive headline tour in Autumn 2006, as well as supporting Paolo Nutini on his UK tour.

In October '06 the band were invited to play at the Cervantino festival in Guanajuato, Mexico; the concert was seen live by over 10,000 people and broadcast on radio and tv. At the same time, Rough Trade announced they no longer wished to work with the band, 12 weeks after the 2nd album's limited (UK & Australia only) release.

Two months later, "Summer's Gone", from Aberfeldy's first album Young Forever was used for a Diet Coke commercial in the USA and Canada. The advertisement first went out during the 2007 Oscars and was also played during American Idol. It is currently showing at cinemas, during the trailers before Transformers - The Movie in parts of the USA.

Aberfeldy toured Scotland in April and May as part of the Scottish Arts Council's Tune-Up Tour [2]. Following this tour Ruth and Sarah left the band.

Aberfeldy are currently working on their third album and have played several successful open air gigs with Chris Bradley, Vicky Gray and Bree Wright joining the line-up.

Members

• Riley Briggs - songwriting, vocals, guitar, organ
• Murray Briggs - drums
• Ken McIntosh - bass

Discography

• Vegetarian Restaurant (7" single), June 2004
• Young Forever, August 2004
• Heliopolis By Night (single), September 2004
• Love is an Arrow (single), 14 February 2005
• Summer's Gone (7" single), 17 October 2005
• Hypnotised (single), 26 June 2006, UK #177
• Do Whatever Turns You On (album), 3 July 2006

External links

• Subculture Magazine's review of "Do Whatever Turns You On"
• Myspace site with sample tracks and tour dates
• Aberfeldy SXSW 2006 listing
• nemis (New Music In Scotland) listing
• Riley Briggs is a participant in burnsong
• Sarah McFadyen

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