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)