With Dionne Warwick, Hamish Hawk, Simple Minds and more playing Edinburgh, the city is alive and kicking again – Susan Dalgety

There is nothing like the thrill of a live music event, even if the performer is now of pensionable age and you first saw them when they were spikey twenty-somethings.

Dionne Warwick is coming to perform live in Edinburgh (Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

But the pandemic put a temporary stop to my gig-going days. I had planned to see Elvis Costello at the Usher Hall on March 10, 2020, but took cold feet at the last minute. I didn’t fancy being stuck in the middle of hundreds of old blokes croaking out Oliver’s Army with a dangerous virus swirling round.

So I was very excited that my first gig since lockdown was going to be Elvis Costello, but it seems football has scuppered my comeback concert.

The lifelong Liverpool fan has called off his “In Conversation” event at the Caves this coming Saturday, as it clashes with his beloved team’s appearance in the Uefa Champion’s League final against Real Madrid.

I don’t know for sure that he will be cheering on the Reds from a VIP box in the Stade de France, Paris, but even if he is just watching the match on a big screen somewhere, I hope his team wins. And I have tickets to see him next month in Bath, so third time lucky.

One of the luckiest people in Edinburgh just now is Stuart Niven from Leith. The learning and development consultant has just landed a gig as the city’s first music writer in residence, to chart the live music scene as it emerges from a two-year hiatus.

He won a competition sponsored by the Forever Edinburgh and Edinburgh Music Lovers campaigns, and says he is looking forward to his new role. “I was grinning from ear to ear when I found out,” he said.

There are lots of exciting acts heading to Edinburgh this year, from the magnificent Mavis Staples and Dionne Warwick, who are gracing the Usher Hall with their brilliance, to Edinburgh’s own star in the making, Hamish Hawk, who will put in an appearance at the Caves tonight.

And what more could an old rocker ask for than Simple Minds in Princes Street Gardens in August? The city is going to be alive and kicking this summer, and luckily Stuart will be on hand to record it.