Edinburgh Festival: Side View: John Otway and Richard Holgarth in conversation
Otway (above): If I made records that sold, we wouldn't have had to play three times a week for 17 years. Edinburgh is restful by comparison. This year we're spending our free time in the pub. We play at the Gilded Balloon in Cowgate, stay in a hostel in Cowgate and at all other times are at Bannerman's pub in Cowgate. We never leave this street.
Holgarth: If we wrote a festival anthem, it would be about posing.
O: Everybody in the bar looks over their shoulders to see if there's someone better to talk to.
H: We'd call the song, 'Talking Straight Through Your Head'.
O: I enjoy posing. It's how I make my living. I often make a prat of myself on stage. I get desperate in front of a quiet audience and throw myself off speakers.
H: He humiliates me, too. He makes me play heavy metal guitar solos, which I loathe, and unplugs me if they get good.
O: Sometimes we play badly on purpose. An audience likes to laugh at people.
At the Gilded Balloon until 23 Aug (Booking: 031-226 2151)
(Photograph omitted)
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies