Roddy Woomble's Biography
Roddy Woomble was born in Ayrshire in 1976. During his childhood he and his family moved about frequently, living in France, England, and America before settling in the Scottish coastal town of Carnoustie, where Roddy spent his teenage years before moving, at eighteen in 1995 to Edinburgh to study Photography. After spells living in London and New York city, Roddy currently lives in Glasgow. It was at University in Edinburgh that Roddy met Colin Newton and Rod Jones and formed the group Idlewild. The band have gone on to record and release six acclaimed albums and two compilations, Two of these albums debuted in the UK top ten. They have released twelve UK top forty singles and have toured throughout the world, as a headline act, and also as support to REM, U2 and the Rolling Stones amongst others. For more information about idlewild visit www.idlewild.co.uk. They are currently working on their seventh LP expected for release sometime in 2009. in 2006 Roddy released his debut solo album 'My secret is my silence'. The record featured Rod Jones from Idlewild, Ailidh lennon and David Gow from Sons and daughters, and accalimed folk musicians Andy Cutting, Kate Rusby,Ian Carr and Karine Polwart. It was Produced by John McCusker. The album featured in many 'best of the year' polls, and spent several weeks at number 1 in the UK folk charts. The album was released in the US a year later on the 7-10 label. Other musical involvement:
- duetted with folk singer kate Rusby on her album 'the girl who couldn't fly'. the song they sing 'no names' was nominated for song of the year at the 2006 radio 2 folk awards.
- was the initial force and organiser of the 'Ballads of the Book' album. A collaboration between Scottish poets and writers, and scottish singers and bands. The album was released in march 2007 on the Chemikal Underground label.
- was a part of the 2007 Burnsong songhouse project along side Teenage fanclub's Norman Blake, and Midge Ure amongst others.
- He is a part of John McCusker's 'Under one sky' project, involving musicains from England and Scotland who performed at the cambridge folk festival in 2007.
Roddy is also a writer and contributer to several Scottish publications. From 2004-2006 he wrote a monthly column for the list magazine, as well as contributing restaurant reviews to their eating&drinking guide. He has written several pieces over the years for the sunday herald newspaper, and in March 2008 started writing a weekly column for the magazine section. In October 2008 he also began writing a monthly column for the outdoor pursuits magazine 'TGO', his column, titled 'Woomble's way' is all about his rambles around scotland and beyond. He has also posted a regular and popular web diary since 1999 on the idlewild website (and now this site!). he has made spoken apperances at the Edinburgh book festival, the 'Aye write' book festival in glasgow , and the 'word' book festival in aberdeen. aside from all this, he likes to read and paint, and is a keen hill walker and supporter of Scotland's wild places.
