The 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival begins on the August 5th 2011 and runs until August 29th. The Edinburgh Fringe festival is famous throughout the world for innovation in plays, comedy and art forms. Many performers go on to great national and international success. Serviced City Pads supply serviced apartment accommodation throughout Edinburgh and you can contact the reservations team on 0844 335 8866.What can visitors expect from this years Fringe Festival with 41,689 performances of 2,542 shows in 258 venues spread across the famous Scottish Capital of Edinburgh. Serviced City Pads apartments can also be booked online.

Edinburgh Fringe 2011 is compelling and must see event, reflections and experiences of artists, producers and companies from all over the world, and 2011 promises to be the biggest year yet. Launching the programme, Kath M Mainland, Chief Executive of the Festival Fringe Society said: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is still the choice for perfromers, producers, venues, artists and creators to come and tell their story; we are proud that at the Fringe is still the place to bring your work, with opportunities to amaze, enthral and excite audiences from both far and away and close to home. Serviced City Pads reservations team can be contacted on 0844 335 8866.
The Edinburgh Festival offers the greatest and widest range of choice across the world for events and the whole world proceeds to visit in large numbers for its variety and range of artforms from comedy and theatre to dance, rock, opera and cabaret, an art form that is appearing for the first time in its own category. Serviced City Pads.Highlights of the programme include the 25th anniversary of legendary Fringe Institution Late n Live, award winning companies, performers and productions returning to the Fringe and site specific work aplenty. Fringe First Award winning National Theatre of Scotland return after 2010’s Beautiful Burnout with David Greig’s The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart in the bar of Ghillie Dhu and The Wheel at the Trasverse. 2010 Award winner Bryony Kimmings is back as part of the Arts Council England. Serviced City Pads supply from one and two bedroom apartments to large Penthouse which will make your Edinburgh trip even more enjoyable.

Scotlands famous Lung Ha’s collaboration with Swedish Company Unga Klara bringing where life and stories are told from the perspective of children, this show will truly be amazing and excitment is mounting with tickets selling very well indeed. In the venue the Lounge room the actors turn the stage into your own home, Australian artists Stuart Bowden and Wil Greenway will charm your guests with a suitcase and more than a story or two.

The Edinburgh Playhouse is a former cinema in Edinburgh which now hosts touring musicals and music concerts. This summer the world famous ‘The Buddy Holly Story’ a juxebox musical visits the theatre on July 11 – 16. Serviced City Pads supply serviced apartment accommodation throughout Edinburgh, please contact the reservations team on 0844 335 8866.

Buddy Holly the musical was conceived by Londoner Laurie Mansfield, who pitched the idea to film producer Greg Smith and writer Alan Janes in 1988. Paul Elliot, a West End producer took on the project, and support from Paul McCartney ensured the show’s creation. Opening in 1989, the musical initially ran in London’s West End for over 12 years, and also a brief broadway production, with numerous subsequent tours and productions continuing to run around the world. Serviced City Pads.
Buddy Holly the musical in two acts with a book written in two acts with a book written by Alan Janes, and music and lyrics by a variety of songwriters. Based on the life and career of early rock and roller Buddy holly, the musical hews closer to Holly’s actual life story, the show mostly consists of songs of Holly and early other rockers. Serviced City Pads.

In Lubbock, Texas, 19 year old Buddy Holly is an up and coming country music singer. He and his two friends, Joe and Jerry want to experiment with the new and controversial style of music called rock n roll. They struggle for a time in Texas and then in Nashville, where producers want Buddy to record country and western music, ignoring Buddy’s pleas to ‘do it his way’. The escalating argument almost results in a fist fight between buddy and the Decca producer, thus ending Buddy’s Decca relationship. Hipockets Duncan, a local DJ and friend of Buddy’s, knowing that Buddy is frustrated, puts him in contact with an up and coming Producer who will let him play his music his way. Serviced City Pads.

A contract with pioneering record producer Norman Petty results in string of hits, including the 1957 hits ‘That’ll be the day’, and ‘Peggy Sue’. The group then appears at the Apollo theatre in Harlem where the theatre musicians were expecting a black group, resulting in The Crickters being the first white group to perform there, where they were enthusiastically received. Serviced City Pads.Following these successes, The Crickets begin to record in New York City, where Buddy meets and impulsively marries Puerto Rican record receptionist Maria Elena Santiago. After the break-up with The Cricketers, Buddy starts a solo career, leading to his hits being signed as one of the headliners on the 1959 ‘Winter Dance Party’. Fed up with the terrible weather and tired of travelling by tour bus, 22 year old Holly breaks a promise to his pregnant wife not to fly. Following a February 2, 1959 concerts depart on a small plane during a blizzard, a fateful decision that places them in musical history books in an unexpected and tragic way. Serviced City Pads.

The Serviced City Pads blog often tries to draw attention to cultural events that are under the radar – recent examples of this for Edinburgh include the Swamp Soccer World Championship and the Dead by Dawn horror film festival. However, this blog is devoted to an event that is probably not in any danger of being overlooked!

The award winning stage show We Will Rock You is coming to Edinburgh at the end of 2011. The Ben Elton penned epic will be performed at the Edinburgh Playhouse from the 29th November 2011 to the 7th January 2012. The show is set in a dystopian future where culture has become homogenized and life is bleak and dull. The people are looking for someone to save them – will it be the mysterious Galileo? Featuring some of Queen’s greatest songs (including “I Want to Break Free,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” and “Radio Gaga”) We Will Rock You is sure to be an amazing evening, particularly for those who are already well acquainted with the hits of one of the greatest bands that Britain has ever produced.

If you are looking to visit Edinburgh at the end of this year, whether to see the show, or just to see Edinburgh itself, you could always book a serviced apartment for your visit. Serviced apartments are becoming a more and more popular option for people travelling around the UK, whether they are families, groups of friends, or business travellers. At Serviced City Pads, we have a wide range of serviced apartments available through our apartment operators. There are studio or 1 bedroom apartments, ideal for couples or single travellers. Alternatively, there are 3 or even 4 bedroom apartments that can accommodate large groups of people also available. You can see for yourself the options available in Edinburgh by clicking here.

If you’re going to visit Edinburgh, why not contact Serviced City Pads and a member of our reservations team will be happy to see what options are available for you through our apartment operators? You can call us on 0844-335-8866 or enquire through our website.

Kings of Leon have announced their biggest ever Scottish gig. See it and stay in Edinburgh with Serviced City Pads.

Highly-acclaimed American rock band Kings of Leon are to play Murrayfield next June. This afternoon’s announcement that the family group will play at the home of Scottish Rugby – on Sunday 26 June 2011 – follows hard on the heels of confirmation that Bon Jovi will play at Murrayfield on Wednesday 22 June 2011.

The rocker family will play Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, on June 26 this year. It puts paid to rumours they were going to headline next year’s T in the Park. It also stops the grumbles from fans who were incensed the group didn’t include any Scottish dates in their December tour of the UK later this year.

The Murrayfield gig will see the group – singer Caleb Followill, his brothers Nathan, Jared and cousin Matthew – play at the home of rugby. The stadium has a capacity of 67,000 and the biggest Scots venue they had headlined before that had been Glasgow’s SECC in December 2008, although they also headlined T in the Park in 2009.

Our serviced apartments in Edinburgh offer a great alternative to hotels. The Edinburgh serviced accommodation we offer is value for money and will allow you the freedom that hotels can not. If you wish to come on a trip to Manchester then call our reservations team today on 08443358866. Serviced City Pads are the premier booking agency for serviced accommodation in Manchester and across the UK. Many of our apartments are available to book online. We can also offer you a personal booking service from a team with strong local knowledge

The band can’t wait to get back to Scotland and Caleb admitted they keep touring because he has been used to being on the road from birth. He said: “Immediately after my birth, my mom had a little suitcase and put it in between her legs in the footwell of the front seat and laid me in it. “From the word go I was always in the car, so touring was never going to be a problem.”

The band will perform in five UK venues next summer, including a return to London’s Hyde Park, the scene of last year’s triumphant headline performance to 65,000 fans. They will also play shows in Coventry, Sunderland and Manchester. They reached No1 in the UK album charts with fifth album Come Around Sundown which became their third consecutive album to debut at No1. It also took the biggest week one sales of the year and the biggest ever first week digital sales. The Followills, who release new single Pyro on December 6, were in London this week and played seven tracks f rom their latest album, including current hit Radioactive.

The band had a few teething problems early on as they struggled to kick off new track Mary, with singer Caleb later telling the crowd: We are doing some songs we have never played before and we are playing some we haven’t played in a long time, so bear with us.

We’re sure they’ll be better rehearsed in time for Murrayfield.

If you or anybody you know is coming to Edinburgh then try staying in one of our serviced apartments. They are more comfortable and more spacious than a hotel room, allowing you and your friends a place to relax and cater for yourselves. Serviced City Pads have apartments throughout the UK. One of our Edinburgh apartments could be exactly what you’re looking for. Get in touch and see what we can find for your visit to Edinburgh. You can send us an email or you can call 08443358866 to talk to one of our reservations team who will be happy to help you find an apartment.

One of the highlights of the Celtic annual calendar is the Edinburgh Society Annual Ball, held at Teviot Row on Saturday 26th February. It claims to hold the largest Ceilidh in the Scotland, Ceilidh historically facilitated courting and prospects of marriage for young people and, although discos and nightclubs have displaced ceilidhs to a considerable extent, they are still important popular social outlet in rural parts of Scotland and Ireland. Music at Ceilidhs is provided by an assortment of fiddle, flute, tin whistle, accordion, bodhran and in more recent times also drums and electric bass guitar. The music is cheerful andf lively, and the basic music steps can be learned easily; a short instructional session is often provided for new dancers before the start of the dance itself. About half of the dances in the modern Scottish Ceilidh are couple dances performed in a ring. These can be performed by fixed couples or in a more social progressive manner, with the lady moving to the next gentleman in the ring at or near the end of each repetition of steps. Step dancing is another form of dancing performed at Ceiledhs, the form that was popularised in the 1990’s by Riverdance ensenble. Many Scottish ceiledhs intersperse dancing with DJ playing disco music in order to broaden the appeal of the evenings entertainment.Serviced City Pads supply Corporate Accommodation in Edinburgh.
The Royal Scots Club have another Edinburgh popular event on St Patricks day 17th March, Patrick is known to have been born in Roman Britain in the 4th century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father and grandfather were deacons in the Church. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive in Ireland as a Slave. It is believed he was held somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, possibly Mayo, but the exact location is unknown. According to his confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain. Serviced City Pads supply Leisure accommodation throughout Edinburgh, you can contact the reservations team on 0844 335 8866.
Upon returning he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest. Patrick was called back to Ireland as a Bishop to Christianise the Irish, he used the symbol of a Shamrock to explain the Christian doctrine of the Trinity to the Irish and after 30 years of evangelism, he diead in March 17 461, Patrick is seen as the principle champion of Irish Christianity. Serviced City Pads supply serviced apartment accommodation in Edinburgh City Centre.Many Irish settlers moved to Scotland and continued to celebrate St Patricks day in their new land, St Patricks day feast was placed universally calendar and thus Saint Patricks became a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland. Serviced City Pads supply short and long stay serviced apartments throughout Edinburgh, apartments can either be booked online or through the reservations team.

Each year Edinburgh is host to arguably the world’s biggest and best New Year celebrations. If you want to make your New Year one to remember then Serviced City Pads can help. We have a fantastic range of Edinburgh apartments in great locations to allow you to explore this historic city as well as getting involved in Hogmanay.

Stay in one of our serviced apartments and immerse yourself in this world renowned event. Opening with a spectacular torchlight procession creating a river of fire from the historic Royal Mile to the Son et Lumiére and with a fireworks finale on Calton Hill this is certainly not something to be missed. Call a member of our reservations team on 0844 335 8866 and we will be happy to help make your New Year’s party your best yet.

Street parties and carnivals mean you could be forgiven for mistaking this event more for Rio in the summer than Scotland in the winter but the vibrant and dynamic atmosphere is one which attracts visitors from every corner of the globe. Keep in the spirit of the occasion and stay in one of our serviced apartments. These Edinburgh apartments offer unique accommodation which goes hand in hand with the programme of music, dance, literature, art, concerts and sporting events not to be found anywhere else in the world. Make the trip with the help of Serviced City Pads and you won’t regret it.

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay once again welcomes the very best in music and art throughout the festival with appearances this year from Biffy Clyro, KT Tunstall, The Coral, The Charlatans and Billy Bragg to name but a few. Enjoy this stellar line-up with Serviced City Pads. We can provide you with serviced apartments in Edinburgh which cater to your needs and requirements. Whatever you reason for travelling, we are able to help.

Keep the party going well into 2011. Call Serviced City Pads today on 0844 335 8866.

Serviced City Pads book serviced apartments within Edinburgh, please contact the serviced apartment team on 0844 335 8866.
Edinburgh is promising sparkle galore today with the unveiling of spectacular Christmas plans for the city centre, backed by the Capitals biggest winter marketing drive ever.

Edinburgh is the best city in Britain for a Christmas break. Scotlands Capital is stunningly beautiful for the rest of the year too but at Christmas, it becomes truly magical experience, the heart of Edinburghs winter festival and here’s why.

Christmas shopping, winter family fun and lots of other activities take place in a sparkling Edinburgh city centre. Hardly any other city on the world has the ability to bring excellent shopping and the magic of Christmas so close together, and at the centre of Edinburghs capital as well. Events and festive Christmas celebrations take place throughout the city from Princess Street itself with the Gardens, the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle in the Old Town to George Street in the New Town.

The winter festival in Edinburgh lasts for more than a month, starting with the Christmas lights switch on in late November, followed by Christmas time in fairytale-like Edinburgh, and finally, finishing off with the Hogmanay 4-day long celebrations.Serviced City Pads.

There’s no doubt  that the best thing about Christmas in Edinburgh is the Winter Wonderland, a mix of fairground rides, Ferris Wheel, outdoor Ice Rink, hot food stands, Christmas Fair and traditional German Christmas market. These are still open for visitors for nearly 4 weeks.

Other Christmas events include the Santa Run, Edinburgh’s attempt at breaking the record for the largest gathering of Santas, the Reindeer Gardens in West Princess Street Gardens and carol concerts theoughout Scotlands Capital. Serviced City Pads.
Our Iconic Torchlight procession remains the favourite with Hogmanay festisval goers of all ages. The event created a dramatic ‘river of fire’ throught the city, form the Royal Mile to Carlton Hill.

The procession, which has been a record crowd of around 25,000 in attendance, was led off from the City Chambers by the Up Helly Aa Vikings and massed pipes and drums. A trail was blazed through the centre of Edinburgh, down the Mound, along Princess Street and into Waterloo Place on its way to Carlton Hill. The culmination of the process on Carlton Hill saw lighting of fire scultures along with music and other performers.

The evening concluded with a sensational fireworks display that wowed the crowd and sent everyone on their way for the remaining Hogmanay festivities to come.

Our brand new spectacular event, Boogie wonderland is set to be the funkiest gig in town and will give partygoers the perfect chance to dust off those platforms and get dressed up to the nines. A full-on tribute to the seventies hosted by the boogieman himself, organisers are calling for ticket holders to dig out those shiny catsuits, don those flairs and chessy moustaches and groove under the glitter ball to a truly Top opf the Pops, seventies soundtrack featuring a whole cast of retro tribute bands. Serviced City Pads supply Serviced Apartments throughout Edinburgh, please contact the reservations team on 0844 335 8866.

The Old Town of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings. Serviced City Pads reservation team on 0844 335 8866.One end is closed by the castle and the main artery, the Royal Mile, actually made up of several distinct streets, leads away from it, down the now-ruined Holyrood Abbey. Narrow closes (alleyways), often no more than a few feet wide, lead downhill on either side of the main spine in a herringbone pattern. Large squares mark the location of markets or surrond major public buildings such as in front of the Tron Kirk, and surrounding St Giles Cathedral and the supreme courts.Short and long stay accommodation in Edinburgh through Serviced City Pads.Other notable places inlcude the Scottish Parliament Building, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, the Royal Museum of Scotland, Surgeons Hall, the University of Edinburgh, and numerous underground streets and vaults, relics of previous phases of contruction. The street layout, typical of old quarters of many northern European cities, is made especially picturesque in Edinburgh, where the castle on top of a rocky crag, the remnants of an extinct volcano, and the main street runs down the creast of the ridge from it.

The topography for the city is known as ‘crag and tail’ and was created during the last ice age when receding glaciers scored across the land pushing soft soil aside being split by harder crags of volcanic rock. The hilltop crag was the earliest part of the city to be develop, becoming fortified and eventually developing into the current Edinburgh Castle. The rest of the city grew slowly down the tail of land from Castle Rock. This was an easily defended spot with marshland on the south and a loch on the North. Access up the main road to the settlement was therefore restricted by means of various gates and a City Wall, of which only fragmentary sections remain.Serviced Apartments in Edinburgh through Serviced City Pads.Due to the space restrictions imposed by the narrowness of the ‘tail’ the Old Town became home to some of the earliest ‘high rise’ residential buildings. Multi-story dwelling were the norm from the 16th century onwards. During the 18th century the Old Town has a population of about 80,000 residents. However, in more modern times it had declined dramatically to just 4,000 residents. There are currently approximatley 20,000 residents in various parts of the Old Town. As the population was for a long time reluctant to build outside the defensive wall, the need for housing grew and hence the buildings became higher and higher. Tragically, many of these buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1824; the rebuilding of these on the original foundations led to changes in the ground level and the creation of many passages and vaults under the Old Town.

On December 7, 2002 another major fire in the Old Town engulfed part of Cowgate. It destroyed the famous comedy club,The Guilded Balloon, and much of the Informatics Department of thr University of Edinburgh, including the comprehensive A1 Library.Serviced City Pads.

Since 1861 when the society was only 6 weeks old, the EPS has had an annual open exhibition. It is one of the most highly regarded international exhibitions in the UK, typically attracting over 3000 entries from all around the world. Unlike some exhibitions, they only accept what can be displayed, around 200-220 prints, which makes it highly competitive to gain acceptences. Serviced City Pads supply apartments throughout Edinburgh.

This trend goes some way towards explaining why the consistently excellent entry for the Edinburgh Photographic Society’s international exhibition, which only accepts prints, is down for the fourth year in a row – its 1,755 entries being just over half of the 3,477 it attracted in 2006.

One of the most arresting images is the sensitively composed, superbly lit Gypsie Girl by Andrea Martini of Italy, which won one of the three Federation Internationale be l’Art Photographique (Fiap) gold medals. Surrounded by a stack of rough-looking broom heads the crouching girl is pictured with her arms wrapped protectively around her naked figure, doe-eyed look on her grubby face. Selector Judy Boyle said ‘The lighting focuses the viewers eye on the main subject, which makes this a first-class environmental portrait’. Serviced City Pads short and long stay reservations team can be contacted on 0844 335 8866.
Among an excellent selection of animal shots, the brilliantly captured Great Gey Owl by Mick Durham of Scotland was highly commended. Picked out against a white backdrop, the owl, looking like an aeroplane about to take off, stares full on at the viewer, its penetrating black pupils in its yellow eyes at the centre of a stunning splayed-winged form.

Durham’s similarly razor-sharp Brown Hare in Morning Dew is so close up you feel you could almost touch the fleet-footed animal, which is picked out amid the long, droplet covered glass, yellow buttercups and the smudged whites and pinks of daisies. Apartment accommodation in Edinburgh through Serviced City Pads.A contrasting soft focus lends an ethereal quality to English photographers Peter Ree’s Venice Dawn – a painterly portrait of Italy’s lagoon city, seen in a misty haze. Awarding it Fiap robbon, selector Steven Le Provost said it has ‘bags of atmosphere’.

One of the most natural-looking images is of a thick-armed man, crouching on one knee amid the straw of a farm shed, being kissed by a gorgeously golden-coloured sheep. The Kiss, David Wheeler of England, which was awarded a Fiap ribbon, has a warm, earthy feeling.

Forty three per cent of the entries were mono, with arguably the best being the seemingly casually composed Fiap gold-medal winning Bike Rack, by Alan Brown of England. In it, a bicycle leaning on a street sign forms th focal point of a snowy landscape, with nine black slabs evenly spaced out behind it, and a flat-roofed, academic-looking building and trees half-obscured in a whitened background. It is simple but stunning.Serviced City Pads supply apartments in Edinburgh.

Finally a photograph which captures the innocent excitement of youth amid the contrasting warmth of a sandscape. In He Tripped and Fell Down, by Tak Cheong Pun of Macao, five youngsters charge down a rich ochre sand dune, with another falling headfirst downhill – big splodges behind them and long shadows in front. The image is energetic and playful – full of joy and life.

The Edinburgh Festival has started and here are some of the best shows to see. Serviced City Pads supply serviced apartment accommodation throughout Edinburgh please contact the reservations team on 0844 335 8866.

Our Share of Tomorrow

A girl arrives on a quay looking for the man that loved her mother 15 years ago and never stopped waiting. Her mother is dead and she is there to tell him that he is her father. Intriguingly, she is accompanied by a recently befriended and much older soldier, who aggressively protects her welfare.

What unfolds is a resonant, melancholic exploration of love and grief, that shines not so much in the twists of the plot itself – this is not about ‘what happens next’ – but rather in the details of the characters’ interaction. Artful, intuitive performances convey the nuances of angst and affection with geniune depth and manage to pick out the sentiment behind dialogue that, at times, might otherwise seem rather obscure.

Finely tuned without becoming stilted, this production by Real Circumstance is a touching and sincere portrait of emotional landscapes and the shifting, complex identities of girl and woman, father and daughter, friend and lover.Fully realised characters provide insight into a narrative that could have floundered in less skilled hands and deliver to the stage a polished, streamlined piece of theatre.

Jarred Christmas – Personal set from personable stand-up

With a name like Christmas, it’s a no-brainer that this Kiwi had grown up defending himself. And defend himself he does, about his pechant for dance, Michael Jackson fandom and less than svelte physique. The jokes came quickly and easily, and Christmas mix of the off  hand comment and the tightly crafted joke is a hilarious combination. He struts his sweaty stuff with suprising dexterity when lampooning his dance lessons, but late comers beware:he will unshamedly bare his chest at you.Serviced City Pads supply short and long stay serviced apartments.Christmas is a likeable guy with a quick mind and talent for easy but never obvious jokes, and the audience laughed along as he shared his temptation at the birth certificate registrars office and roared at his recollection of a brief brush with infamy from an appearance on Big Brothers Big Mouth. His comedy isn’t observational, but personal, and the laughs come from familiarity with the situations he describes, though not everyone is a comedian struggling to fill out government forms. Christmas is robustly funny, his delivery confident and his show not to be missed.

Bridget Christine – Dabbling around the unhinged fringes of stand-up.

Bridget Christine openly admits that her act may not be the most commercially viable around. But you can’t help but feel the Fringe would be a bit more interesting of other performers were willing to forsake financial security and the welfare of the toddler to open a stand-up show dressed as an ant with goggles. For a piece of performance theatre, it not only provides an interesting, angered take on public and critical perceptions of the role of women in comedy, bit also allows us to laugh at ant-based puns.Serviced City Pads.

As a comedy tactic, it’s triumphant. Her less etymological material isn’t quite so certain in it’s brilliance, but the stories are as dark, farcical and referential as you’s expect from anyone who spends enough time Stewart Lee. Especially satisfying are the references to the couples cat, Boo Boo, which blur the lines of daydream and reality, as an audience begins to question this womans sanity. It’s how a proper fringe show should be. Serviced City Pads supply short and long stay serviced apartments.