DANNY ROBINS' INDIE TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE SCOTTISH ISLANDS

I may still be in Edinburgh, but for this week's Indie Travel Guide we're venturing out on a whistle-stop tour to explore some of the indie stuff happening around the Scotland islands.

The Scottish Islands - the land that Indie forgot?

I saw the Orkney Islands referred to in an NME review as 'the land that indie forgot' - very unfair I'm sure - but there are very few bands who will extend their tour to take in the more remote parts of Scotland, and, as it's a long old hike to Glasgow, a lot of people living on the islands might grow up seeing very few if any indie gigs. The Bees did play on Orkney a few years back and Echo and the Bunnymen once did a tour of the Outer Hebridies - the route map of the tour was in the shape of a rabbit's head on the insistence of their then manager Bill Drummond (off of the KLF).

It'd be nice to see a few more bands straying up this way though - it's beautiful and you've got people hungry for indie not jaded by band overload like in a lot of UK cities.

The Hebridies

The Hebridies are off the west coast of Scotland and are divided into two groups - Inner Hebridies and Outer Hebridies.

The Hebridies are where they filmed the reality TV series Castaway and it's also where the classic Film Whisky Galore was filmed. It's pretty darn remote.

The islands biggest claim to indie fame perhaps is that the band Stornoway are named after a town on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Henbridies. They actually played a gig there earlier this year. It isn't the most rock n roll place. The Sunday Sabbath day is still very much observed. Until last summer there were no ferry services to or from the island on Sundays, there are no Sunday newspapers and all the shops are shut.

There is a big Celtic music festival on the Isle of Lewis every July. Runrig headlined this year. They have some fairly well known bands and singers - Imelda May, Afro Celt Sound System...

Orkney Islands - Fun for 'Ferry Loupers'...

There are 70 islands, of which 20 are occupied. There are various ferries going across. You can take the ferry from Aberdeen to Kirkwall, the largest town on the largest island - which is known by locals as 'the mainland' - not to be confused with Scotland which is 'Scotland'.

If you live on the island, you're an Orcadian, which sounds quite brilliantly like something from Lord of the Rings. If you're just visiting, you're a 'ferry louper'.

There's only one record shop - Grooves. I don't think it's got the hugest range but they will order things in.

Of course, Orkney, so cruelly labelled by NME, now has its own certifiable indie hero - Erland Cooper from Erland and the Carnival.

A club called Fusion is the main place to go out. It's in Kirkwall. Bands play here - it's where the Bees came when they played a few years back.

Shetland Islands - Viking traditions...

To the North East of Orkney lie the Shetland Islands, another archipelago. Both Orkney and Shetland have had a big Scandinavian influence over the centuries as the islands changed hands between the Norwegians and the Scots. Traditional music here is a mixture of ancient Norwegian folk music and Scots jigs. You'll still find traditional music alive and well on all the islands and you'll hear it more than Indie.

This tradition of Norse culture comes brilliantly to life in the winter with the Up Helly Aa festivals where people dress up as Vikings and burn a replica long ship.

You can see the Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, the main town in Shetland on the last Tuesday of January every year.It looks great, there's a torchlit procession, the burning of the ship and then dancing and drinking all night.

The Shetland Islands see a few more Indie gigs than some of the other remote places in Scotland. Over the years they've had the likes of Pulp, Ian Brown, Franz Ferdinand and even, back in the day, the Smiths.

The Faroe Islands - Scandis not Scots...

They're not Scottish of course, indeed, they are officially Danish, but they're close enough to include in this guide. Perhaps most famous for being that football team that everybody always beats by lots of goals in qualifying matches, their entire population wouldn't fill most Premier League stadiums but the Faroes do actually have a burgeoning music scene.

Boys In a Band - a local indie band won the Global Battle of the Bands, pocketed $100,000 and then did 24 gigs in 24 hours around the islands, they describe their music as 'Bob Dylan on amphetamine' and their influences as "Dylan, White Stripes and Boris Yeltsin".

Teitur Lassen, a singer songwriter, is probably the best known singer to come out of the Faroes. He's had a fair bit of international recognition and has toured around Europe and the States.

I read an interview with a Faroese singer songwriter, where he was saying that they have a microcosm of the music business on the Faroes - they have the music community, the gigs, the radio stations, the press, the festivals and the audience but because it's all happening in a country of 48,000 people, it's all much more intimate. So, he was saying, if you did a tuba album in your toilet it would probably get reviewed in the national newspaper.

And, the Faroes do have their own music festival, which sounds great. The G! Festival is held every year in the tiny fishing village of Gøta. It's so popular now that one fifth of the Faroe Islands population go there and it's started attracting people from overseas. If you're a festival aficionado in search of a new experience, this could be it.

Expect the sea as a backdrop, turf roof houses all about, seagulls overhead. A DJ stage in a burned out fish-drying shack, a backstage area in a 19th century schooner and near 24 hour sunlight. And, if you fancy it you can nip in to one of the saunas on the beach.

The acts are a mix of the growing local music scene and bands from other Scandinavian countries.

Unfortunately, you've missed it for this year as it's in July, but why not investigate it for 2011.

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