The Men They Couldn't Hang

The Men They Couldn't Hang play La Belle Angèle on Friday 13 November, a headline show in Edinburgh Old Town. They're a band that's been around for forty years, and this is one of those gigs that works as well if you've followed them since the start as it does if you're just coming to them now.

They formed in 1984 out of the Shepherd's Bush squatting and busking scene, and their first show was supporting Poguemahone at Camden's Electric Ballroom that Easter. From there they built a national following around an uproarious, engaging style and songs that stayed close to the present. Over four decades they've toured Europe, Canada, the USA, Iceland, Australia, Japan, Egypt and Estonia, and played festivals like Glastonbury, Roskilde, Reading, Pink Pop and Cambridge Folk, sharing stages with David Bowie, Van Morrison, Bo Diddley, The Smiths, Elvis Costello and the Oyster Band.

Their recordings run from the definitive version of the anti-war classic 'Green Fields of France' to the anti-fascist anthem 'Ghosts of Cable Street', and the epic historical ballads 'Ironmasters' and 'The Colours'. More recent albums The Defiant (2014) and Cockahoop (2018) brought them back into prominence. They were devastated by the death of founder Stefan Cush during lockdown, but they've kept writing, recording and playing live.

The show is at La Belle Angèle, 11 Hastie's Close, Cowgate, EH1 1JD, from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM.