James Yorkston & The Athletes
Undefined / Undefined
Born and raised in the Fife village of Kingsbarns - a make-your-own-entertainment kind of place - James has been following musical pursuits since the age of 8. He followed a girlfriend out of the village to settle in Edinburgh at the age of 17, inspired to see the world, and write songs, by his love of music like Madagascan guitarist D’Gary and folk singer Anne Briggs.
Six years ago he joined Edinburgh garage-punk band Huckleberry, then, three days later, also landed his first solo gig. “Someone came in to my friend’s record shop asking if they knew anybody who could support Bert Jansch and my mate said, Yeah, James’ll do it. I had a week to knock my songs into some sort of order. I was absolutely terrified.”
He fed the hard-core side of his soul with Huckleberry for a few years until the lure of his acoustic muse – and a fear of deafness – finally won out. He sent off two tapes of a song called ‘Moving Up Country, Roaring The Gospel’, one to John Peel, and one to John Martyn, seeking a support slot at an Edinburgh gig. Peel played the tape on air, which led to the Bad Jazz label releasing a single and Martyn offered James the support slot on his entire 30-date 2001 tour.
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