Amy: “We loved the spirit of NPL and were definitely aiming to recreate something of the atmosphere of their nights at the Woody, but I also grew up in Sheffield where Offbeat was very much a formative influence for me. I was certainly inspired by their night more than anything else when I was cooking up plans for a putative indiepop night in Edinburgh.”
Arguably the venue layout at The Woodside offered the most warming part of any NPL, but with Edinburgh being outweighed by Masonic Halls instead of Social Clubs, the ECA’s Wee Red Bar and their Chesterfield suites surely offer a decent substitute?
Kieran: We haven’t found any social clubs in Edinburgh that’d have us yet!
Whilst most club nights exhaust themselves with a weekly residency or run out of ideas with a monthly night, Unpop is only approaching it’s sixth turnout in almost 18 months – choosing effective times of the year, such as the impending ‘Anti-Valentines Day’ night, to get the dancefloor sticky. They face no problems with any lack of consistency, however:
Kieran: It makes it more of an event, but if it does focus things, it’s only very slightly. We’re all kind of disorganised by nature and a lot of the prep (tape making, thinking about tunes you’re going to play, flyering/pestering people) starts a week or two before. The post-mortem period, however, lasts a long ass time! The love of the people of Edinburgh, one and all, is reward enough for us.
With a distinct lack of truely ‘indie-pop’ nights on the UK radar, Unpop’s Capital work has stood out – recently culminating their 1st Birthday celebrations in DJ’ing the Friday of Edinburgh Popfest late October.
This time around, Paul Richards from London towns’ monthly post-pop Scared to Dance club night come up the M1 to show how the other Captial how it’s done:
Kieran: Paul contacted us and asked if he could play some tunes and we said yes. He seems like a nice guy. Some mates of mine who live in London speak very highly of his club night, so I’m looking forward to a really awesome set.
With the guys moving onwards and upwards in the Twee Monarchy, an invite has been extended for a DJ set of their own at the annual C86 pilgrimage at the fifth Indietracks festival in England:
Amy: I’ve been going along to Indietracks ever since the first event in April 2007 and to be honest, in some ways I consider it my spiritual home. I’m planning on just playing all the things I know I’d want to dance to when slightly tipsy. At a Railway museum. In Derbyshire. after spending all day watching my favourite indiepop bands. And playing on steam trains with my friends.
Plus requests, obviously.
From student unions to DJ’ing at festivals, where will the Unpop pin badge roll next?
Kieran: I guess the next stop is the O2, right? I definitely see Unpop moving in a sort of Chemical Brothers-esque direction…
Surely they need to work up to the levels of unlikely Godfather of Indiepop DJ’s, BBC Football Pundit Pat Nevin, first?
Adam: I was damn impressed by Pat Nevins storming set at Belle and Sebastian ATP!
Kieran: If we could coax him off the radio, that’d be lovely. Monochrome Set’s Jacob’s Ladder goes out to him on February 11th!