Music Previews by Carol Francis

Festival time arrives and bites us on the bum once more, as does the annual ritual of wading through hundreds of self-penned skits which shyly admit to artistic superiority in the hope that you'll part with your hard-earned moolah before obtaining a second opinion. Ah…which is where we come in. As far as the contemporary music side of the festival is concerned, the choice continues to diversify in adeeply gratifying way.

The big players and venues are supplied by T on the Fringe, featuring guaranteed mega entertainment from the likes of Pulp, Ian Brown, Semisonic, David Gray, and the homecoming Idlewild. Lesser knowns Martyn Bennett and Elliot Smith are certainly not billed just for the fun of it either. If you didn't catch them at the festival earlier, make a point of it this time around. Queen's Hall has a line up and a half; having spearheaded the Jazz and Blues Festival, it's followed it up with (amongst many others) swingin' Craig McMurdo, Dougie MacLean, and…ok…I have to admit to being rather intrigued by the Japanese Beatles! Plenty of others star acts to take your fancy here - as it's so hard getting through to the Box Office already I guess I'm not the only one to notice.

Planetpop (not part of the official Fringe, although certainly worth a mention here) boast a fine array of indie/underground acts, including Snow Patrol, Astrid, Radio Sweethearts and ballboy. Hats off and big respect to their bagging the wonderful, legendary John Otway too. For details of these and a host of other quality shows you can contact Fopp Records on 0131 220 0133 or preview material on MP3 at www.vitaminic.co.uk.

The pick of the homegrown talent (or at least resident in Edinburgh!) comes in the form of the delicious Holly Tomás at the Tron, the very sassy Ms Polly Phillips at the Pleasance, and our secret weapon, Neil Dixon (best compared to a reluctant Jeff Buckley) will be at Bar Fez in Queens Street.

For a taste of other local treats, try the Tron (Hunter Square), Canon's Gait (Royal Mile) on Wednesday nights and Castle Bar (Johnston Terrace) - frequent open mic opportunities for those who reckon they can do better, the tendency is towards original material. Other than that, anything goes! For trad folk music with a slant, you could do worse than hang out at the Guildford Arms or spectacular new venue Dynamic Earth.

Bongo Club have their usual frenetic collection of 'alternative' cabaret acts and spontaneous late-night lunacy, and to be a very sneaky and discerning punter, you can go preview most of these and more at the Ross Bandstand in Princes St Gardens from midday on. In other words, you have no excuse to have a crap time! My only wee gripe is that a great many of the musical acts featured are for just one or two nights only -and in fact the choice between Kate Rusby and Baby Bird was a lot tougher than you might imagine.

Another small downer is that the famous Spiegeltent is not making an appearance this year and will be sadly missed. Oh, I almost forgot to mention - there is more traditional Scottish and/or classical music on than you can shake a bow at.