Jonathan GeddesGlasgow and west reporter
Euan Robertson
Idlewild have returned with their first album in six years
Idlewild cut their teeth playing small pubs and tiny clubs around Scotland – now the indie rock veterans feel those venues need protected for generations to come.
Scores of venues have been forced to close in recent years, with some never recovering from revenue lost during the Covid shutdown in 2020.
“These venues become like community centres for music fans. They need to be protected the way a library would be, as they’re so important to culture,” says guitarist Rod Jones.
The group formed as students in Edinburgh in 1995 and have become one of the country’s most respected bands, with their 10th album released on Friday.
Both Rod and singer Roddy Woomble – speaking over a video call with the BBC – believe the record, their first in six years, is a fine representation of a three decade long career.
However such a lifespan would never have happened without finding places to play in their early days. That was harder to do in Edinburgh than Glasgow, where the group regularly gigged at the likes of legendary hangout Nice N’ Sleazy.
“You can’t have an interesting music scene without a hub where people can learn,” says Roddy.
“Glasgow has always had much more of that than Edinburgh, so we struggled to find a scene when we started out.
“We ended up playing a pub to get better, but how are you supposed to learn without gigs like that?”
The band earned a reputation for great live shows
Thirty years on and it is hard to find a venue Idlewild haven’t found themselves playing over the years.
That might have surprised people who saw the group during their early days making a chaotic racket, famously and vividly described by the NME as “the sound of a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs”.
However a more reflective and melodic sound emerged, with 2002 release The Remote Part making Idlewild known as much for poetic lyricism as much as punky energy.
In recent years the band – who despite line-up changes have always retained a core of Roddy, Rod and drummer Colin Newton – revisited the record for a series of shows playing it in full.
That decision wound up inspiring their future as well as celebrating the past.
“Those 20th anniversary concerts of The Remote Part helped us reset and refocus on what we wanted to do next,” explains Roddy.
“Anniversary shows always feel like you’re putting a spotlight on the past and I don’t like that until I’m actually doing them.
“I much prefer to focus on the now, normally. But then you do the gigs, and they’re absolutely brilliant because everyone is so excited to hear a record they love.”
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Idlewild in 1999 with a line-up including bassist Bob Fairfoull, who left the group in 2002
The year 2025 has been dominated by another example of nostalgia, in the shape of the Oasis reunion tour.
Idlewild were never part of the 90s Britpop movement the Gallaghers fuelled, taking inspiration from American alternative rock rather than anything close to home.
However both Roddy and Rod have watched the brothers’ reunion, and the emotion it generated among fans young and old, with interest.
“These concerts are cultural events and I’m really fascinated by it, because I lived through it,” explains Roddy.
“In the 90s we’d think of the 1960s as this cultural touchstone and now the 90s are being celebrated the same way.
“They’ve found a new generation and it feels different, because it’s not just drunk old folk singing along to Roll With It, it’s new fans too.
“It’s a powerful thing to see these generations united by it. It’s not to the extent of Oasis, but we have soundtracked some people’s lives too, and we have two generations [of fans] now.”
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The band’s new release suggests a prosperous future. Both Roddy and Rod feel the album combines elements from throughout the band’s career.
It results in a fitting reflection of the group, from the towering rock of opener Stay Out of Place to the quickfire pop of Like I Had Before and snappy indie on Writers of the Present Time.
“I think we have made the best version of ourselves, in an honest way,” says Rod, who also produced the record.
“It’s not what we thought it would be when we first started making this record, it took some different turns and we almost flexed the muscles of what the band can do at times.
“We’ve definitely overcooked things in the past. Quite often that was for the better but what was important to me this time was to be really focused.”
Idlewild UK tour
The group will shortly hit the road for a run of dates across the UK, concluding with December shows in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow.
Going on tour is a harder proposition for the band now, given they have other responsibilities with family life. They also live in different parts of the country, with Rod in Edinburgh and Roddy settled on the scenic isle of Iona.
But Roddy says live shows are always welcome, whether singing new or old material.
“When I sing When I Argue I See Shapes, that was written when I was 19 or 20. A lot of the audience were presumably the same age when they heard it, or younger, and it’s like you all shape-shift back to that age.
“That’s the cool thing about gigs, everyone becomes themselves when they were first hearing it again.
“Or maybe I’m just overthinking it!”
