• Latest
  • Events
  • Music
  • Video
  • Performance
  • Music + Memory Project
  • About
  • Contact
Menu

andy catlin

photography • marketing • communications
  • Latest
  • Events
  • Music
  • Video
  • Performance
  • Music + Memory Project
  • About
  • Contact

Music + Memory: A Personal Photography Project

Music, words and photos are important things in my life. This ongoing project is a way of trying to show the special memories that  specific music has for me and talking a little bit about them. I'll also try to make a photo that captures some of what they make me feel.


Latest Instagram Posts from @andycatlincom

Some of @edinburghzoo residents regretting their evolutionary wardrobe choices in the Scottish sunshine with dreams of Factor 50 for the Sloth Bear, Pallas's Cat, Crowned Lemur and Scottish Wildcat.
Great morning taking photos of Dr Brendon Ferrier at @edinburghnapier and learning about their work with the @lostshore Surf Lab 🏄
Wild afternoon on River Usk watching frisky Beautiful Demoiselles making baby Beautiful Demoiselles with epic aerial battles and strong yoga postures 😯
Real estate showdown with 7-spot ladybird vs flesh fly (with props to @ash_whiffin for I.D. 👏)
Quality night of top class songwriting from @hannahjuanita_thehardliner + @the_mosewilson + @elsiemacdonaldmusic at @sneakypetesclub 👏 Photo album > https://andycatlin.myportfolio.com/hannah-juanita-elsie-macdonald-14-july-2025
•
•
#edi
Sublime concert tonight from @prisma_mexico + @surfacepressure with @other_lands_ at @thevoodoorooms celebrating the release of their beautiful new album 'Songs for the Mist Forest’ on @blackford_hill_audio 👏👏👏
Joyful week documenting @edinburghnapier graduations with a perfect mix of happy faces, family support and not-so-Scottish sunshine 😎
Dreich day didn't dampen the 50th Anniversary celebrations at @nationalmuseumsscotland National Museum of Flight with the Kite Club of Scotland bringing the aerial colours 🌈
Only do wedding photography for pals and it was 100% joy being around to document Michelle & Cristian's big bilingual day ❤️ (with bonus points for using my coo whispering skills to lure this young 'un into the party)
Grateful to the team from the Future Leaders Fellowship Development Network for letting me try to turn their group photo into album art 😀
Another excellent Book(ish) event at @nationalgalleriesscot with Tessa Ewart from Collections & Research team introducing up-close experiences including Dali's cheeky 'Invisible Straight from Nature', Douglas' gorgeous 'Within the Bloom', Cadell'
More photography fun today at the @nationalmuseumsscotland National Museum of Flight documenting the Mckinney family's visit with the team from @goeastlothian ✈️
•
•
#eastlothian #scotland #flight #nationalmuseumofflight #museum #nationalmu
Impassioned and articulate Music and Words from the Trans Imaginary from @cn.lester tonight at @edinburghuniversity with support from @lighthousebks 👏🏳️‍⚧️👏 Photo album > https://andycatlin.myportfolio.com/cn-lester-25-june-2025
Ace start to the working week documenting @dunedinconsortscot learning and participation work in primary schools 👏 Find out more at https://www.dunedin-consort.org.uk/learning-and-participation/schools-workshops/
How Friday Ends: second resistance lesson of the day with @strangetownco and their performance of Eleanor McMahon's "The Stars and After" at @traversetheatre which serendipitously echoed @garyyounge earlier talk with the play showing young
How Friday Starts: first resistance lesson of the day with a rich and thoughtful lecture from @garyyounge at @nationalgalleriesscot for the opening of the 'Resistance' exhibition which shows how protest shaped Britain and photography shaped protest.
How Thursday Ends: Day 2 of @strangetownco visit to @traversetheatre with 'In the Cult of Work' performed by the Tuesday 14-18s group, written by Daniel Orejon and directed by Catherine Ward-Stoddart.
•
•
#edinburgh #scotland #theatre #yout
How Thursday Starts: fascinating time documenting GovCamp Scotland, a day of quality discussions at @uoe_efi on how to get better outcomes for users of public services including health, arts, libraries, military, voluntary and academic sectors 👍

Mark Eitzel - Songs of Love Live

December 03, 2015

WHAT Mark Eitzel “Songs of Love Live”
WHEN The Borderline, London - 17 January 1991

This was the first time I'd see Mark Eitzel live and I had no idea about the legend that would grow around this gig. It's one of the very few times I can say ‘I was there’ and even rarer to say that the experience was as good as its mythic status. 

The Borderline is the essence of a music venue - 200 people in a dark room with a small stage, a working bar and no frills. You can find an endless supply of them around the world. This one’s timely policy of programming alt-country/Americana in the early 1990s and the Central London location got it into the habit of hosting legends like R.E.M. (as Bingo Hand Job) and Crowded House. Right place, right time. 

It was a strange day. That afternoon I'd seen Carter USM start a minor riot in the HMV on Oxford Street and now was about to see a guy who was already had a cult-like aura growing around him. A lot has been written about the gig by better writers than me and there’s no point in repeating it here (the liner notes by Andrew Smith nail it and there’s an interesting description of how the recording came to pass in Sean Body’s book “Wish the World Away”). It was a raw, harrowing confessional that became part therapy session, part high wire act. He just let it all hang out. There was tears, there was laughter, but mainly there were just desperate, desperate tears. If you start songs with lines like “The hospital wouldn’t admit you” or “When no one cares for you, you’re made of straw”, you kinda know there’s little chance of an emotional U turn. 

So, 20 years on, why is this a great recording that’s worth listening to and not just voyeuristic rubbernecking of one man’s public breakdown? It’s difficult to quantify but I think you can still feel/hear something very powerful between the artist and the audience. There’s no background chatter, no mobiles, no heckling. There is reverence. There is trust. There is compassion.

Mark Eitzel and American Music Club definitely did not become pop legends, regardless of how many of their gigs I travelled to see them play. You’d think that the big label money and blanket critical praise of The Greatest Living Songwriter should have turned them into mega stars but sometimes that peg isn’t going to fit that hole (NB my spell check is hellbent on turning ‘Eitzel’ into ‘Outsell’… oh, the irony). Then - as now - they seem to be a cult interest. I last saw Mark Eitzel live in October 2013 in another blacked-out room with about 200 people. I keep seeing him because it's based on habit, community, history, faith, heart. I go there because that’s where I go.

Tags: Mark Eitzel, Songs Of Love Live, The Borderline, American Music Club
← Albums of the Year 2015My Bloody Valentine - Glider EP →
Back to Top

email hello@andycatlin.com • instagram @andycatlincom

bluesky andycatlin.bsky.social • mastodon @andycatlincom