Rag'n'Bone Man named as Edinburgh Hogmanay headliner

Rag 'n' Bone man on stage.Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

New event producers Underbelly have revealed that the 32-year-old soul, blues and hip hop star will appear before and after midnight at the flagship Concert in the Gardens.

He has been booked to top the bill after wowing crowds at Glastonbury, Bestival, the Isle of Wight Festival and T in the Park organiser DF Concerts’ new TRNSMT event in Glasgow.

The 10,000 tickets for Rag’n’Bone Man’s show, which will be the centrepiece of the 25th birthday celebrations for the Hogmanay festivities, will go on sale on Tuesday.

The star, real name Rory Graham, is the first major musical act to be confirmed for this year’s revamped celebrations, which will start two hours earlier than normal on Princes Street and include an extended fireworks display above the castle at midnight.

Underbelly has vowed to shake-up Britain’s biggest Hogmanay celebrations as part of a drive to fend off competition with rival new year events around the world. The firm’s directors, Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood, have taken on Scotland’s flagship Hogmanay event 17 years after staging their first Fringe shows in the Cowgate.

Rag’n’Bone Man, who shot to fame with his first single Human last summer, released his debut album of the same name in February and was named both the best British breakthrough and the Critics Choice awards at the Brits the same month.

Human has become the decade’s fastest-selling debut album so far by a British male, selling over 750,000 copies in the UK. The single Human has been No 1 on iTunes in over 40 countries, selling nearly four million copies in the process.

Rag’n’Bone Man, who will be appearing in Edinburgh weeks after two sold-out shows at the O2 Academy in Glasgow, will be following in the footsteps of Primal Scream, Biffy Clyro, Simple Minds, Madness, Groove Armada, Kasabian, KT Tunstall, Blondie and Calvin Harris in headlining the city’s Hogmanay celebrations.

He said: “I’m excited to be breaking the new year in with the Scots at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay.”

Bartlam and Wood said: “We’re delighted to have one of the UK’s most exciting new artists headlining Edinburgh’s Hogmanay in our first year of producing the event. This has been Rag’n’Bone Man’s year, so where better to end it than at the mother of all New Year celebrations in Edinburgh.”

Underbelly has pledged that Edinburgh’s Hogmanay will be “recreated, refreshed and re-energised” in their 25th year.