Welsh lo-fi pop artist Eilir Pierce premieres Half-Time at the Edinburgh Fringe: an off-kilter synth-pop cabaret about ambition, ageing and starting again, featuring on-screen appearances from Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap as The Coach and Mercury Prize-nominated Welsh-Cornish artist Gwenno as Lady d’Orange.
In Half-Time, Pierce plays a heightened version of himself: a middle-aged would-be pop star whose list of
unfinished ambitions has become impossible to manage. When things get too much, he finds himself in a strange, low-league football changing room somewhere between a panic attack, a dream and the afterlife.
There, The Coach tells him to change tactics and return to the second half. But Lady d’Orange, played on screen
by Gwenno, offers a more tempting possibility: go back to the first half, play it again, and this time get it right.
Aidan Moffat appears on screen as The Coach, a tough-love figure who urges Pierce to stop looking backwards
and get back out for the second half. The music has been developed with Glasgow producer Gavin Thomson,
whose work includes collaborations with Stephen Pastel and artists from the city’s independent music scene.
The wider project also features Scottish collaborators including Carla J Easton, Paul Kelly of The Martial Arts,
Dave Erskine Tunstall of The Langan Band, Jack Ellin of The Mary Column and The Glad Community Choir.
Pierce has been making music since his teenage years, building a large catalogue of lo-fi pop recordings, tapes,
CDs and self-released albums. His 2008 release Degawdawns collected 100 songs from his first decade of
recording. After 39 albums, he has changed gear. Half-Time is his most ambitious project yet: part live gig, part
cabaret, part music-theatre breakdown – and a musical for people who do not necessarily like musicals.
The Scottish connection runs through the project. Since moving from Wales to Glasgow, Pierce has been writing,
recording and performing new material across the city, including shows at The Glad Cafe. The Fringe run
premieres a new version of the show, shaped through recent Glasgow performances and built around a newly
recorded synth-pop album made in Scotland.
Pierce says: “I moved to Glasgow because I felt that if I didn’t make this now, I might never make it. Half-Time is about the ridiculous but very real feeling that you’re running out of time to become the person you promised yourself you would be. Having Aidan Moffat appear as my celestial Coach feels like the most Scottish form of spiritual guidance imaginable.”
“I’ve made 39 albums, but a lot of them were collections of songs recorded on tapes, CDs and home setups since
I was a teenager. With Half-Time, I’ve changed gear. This is my boldest attempt to make it as a pop star – or at
least as a cabaret star at the Fringe.”
Half-Time is a show about unfinished dreams, pop ambition and the hope that the second half might still be the
one where everything changes. The Fringe run follows the release of Do-List, Pierce’s first official single after more than 30 years of music-making. Released on 10 July, the single has already received early coverage from BBC Wales, Fame Magazine and Nation.Cymru.
Fringe tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/half-time
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