Ten comedians on their love for specific styles

Here are ten comedians heading to the Edinburgh Fringe to wax lyrical about their musical tastes...

1. Britpop Hour with Marc Burrows

OK, so Oasis – or their promoters – are bastards for putting their Edinburgh reunion tour dates in the middle of the Fringe, making insane accommodation costs even more ridiculous. But they and the rest of the Britpop generation make some cracking songs – and music journalist Marc Burrows, pictured, is mad for it in a show marking 30 years since the Blur vs Oasis chart war. Plus he’s doing a Britpop Disco at Underbelly Colgate on Sunday nights.

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 6.10pm

2. Andrew O’Neill’s History of Punk

He’s done metal, now indie comedy star and occultist Andrew O’Neill is taking on another of their favourite genres, from The Stooges to Pussy Riot, Amebix to X-Ray Spex in a venue that’s no stranger to a crashing guitar riff.

Bannermans, 11.30pm, not Mondays or Tuesdays

3. Aerosmith to ZZ Top: The A to Z of Hair Metal with Steve McLean 

What can we tell you that the title doesn’t? The comic returns with his look at the 1980s scene where the grass was green and the girls were pretty… 

PBH Free Fringe @ Slow Progress Cafe and Records, 4pm

4. Aidan Jones 

Enough guitars, now for a touch of class!  Colombian-Australian comedian Aidan Jones grew up playing classical piano and has two shows at this year’s Fringe based around classical music. In Chopin’s Nocturne, this ‘bald, Australian dickhead with a beard’ takes audiences through the piece, cracking jokes as he does.

Summerhall, 10.20am

And in Orlando Gibbons he takes up his  great-grandfather’s quest to investigate the link between his family and the Renaissance-era keyboardist of the title. Gibbons was the foremost composer in England of his day, with a career cut short by his untimely death in 1625.

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 5.45pm

5. The History Of Electronic Music

Canadian DJ Vinney White promises a rush of rave nostalgia as he uses a sampler to look at the most-stolen sample and ask who's Roland, maker of all those synthesisers. 

Just the Tonic at The Caves, 6pm, July 31 to August 11 only

6. Rob Kemp: Beatlesjuice

Yes, we’re counting ‘Beatles’ as a genre! Tom Lehrer and Elton John, too, in a minute.  Rob Kemp had a huge cult smash on the Fringe in 2017 with his late-night offering The Elvis Dead, in which he retold the story of The Evil Dead 2 with the songs of Elvis Presley. At the end, he did a throwaway joke that his next mashup should be Beatlesjuce... and he jokes: ‘ It appears that saying it over and over has summoned this into being’. It’s just a work in progress this year, but it’s an exciting prospect..

Hoots @ The Apex, 10.50pm, from August 10

7. Alastair Clark: On The Record

Not quite genre-specific, but there’s definitely a certain type of music fan who would only ever buy it on vinyl from an independent record shop. This is for them, as comedian Alastair Clark spent a decade working in such an establishment and her talks about the stark reality of living the dream. And of course it’s being staged in one of Edinburgh’s record stores…

PBH's Free Fringe @ Slow Progress Cafe and Records, 1.30pm

8. Mitch Benn: The Lehrer Effect

Mitch Benn, the former musical stalwart of Radio 4’s The Now Show, says he owes his career to satirical songwriting legend Tom Lehrer, after hearing his work as a teenager. Now 97, Lehrer started writing music while a maths undergraduate at Harvard in the 1940s,  with his lyrics distinctive for their bleak humour. Although he perfumed just 109 shows and wrote 37 songs over 20 years, his influence remains strong, as Benn proves here.

Underbelly, Bristo Square, 4pm

9. 8 Ways to Break a Glass (With an American Opera Singer)

Opera now, with Steph DePrez, a Berlin-based American soprano and comedian. Her cabaret and storytelling show also takes in musical theatre and isn’t quite as highbrow as most opera,  with ‘boobs and blowjobs on the agenda as well as Beethoven.

Laughing Horse @ Dragonfly, 7pm

10. Jess Robinson: Your Song

Musical impressionist extraordinaire Jess Robinson – a Fringe favourite and cast member on Radio 4’s Dead Ringers –  pays tribute to Elton John in the only way she knows how – reimagining his greatest hits as if performed by an array of other musical stars, sometimes dozens of them on the same track.

Assembly George Square, 6.05pm

Published: 16 Jul 2025