Robert James "Bob" Fairfoull (born 6 August 1976) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

musician. He was the

bass guitarist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low bra ...

for the Scottish rock band Idlewild. He attended Portobello High School in Edinburgh between 1992–96 and was in the same class as Paul Thomson, the drummer from the band Franz Ferdinand. Roddy Woomble - a friend of Fairfoull and Idlewild's lead singer - asked Fairfoull to join in February 1997 following the departure of Phil Scanlon. His appearance and attitude are classically

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

and his typical on-stage antics consist of head-banging and jumping around. Fairfoull became increasingly distant from the band in 2002, often going drinking on his own after shows and sitting separately on their tour bus. On 29 September 2002 he left the band following a show in Amsterdam in "a rain of misdirected punches". After leaving Idlewild, Fairfoull joined the band

Degrassi ''Degrassi'' is a Canadian teen drama television franchise created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler, that follows the lives of youths attending the eponymous secondary school in Toronto. Each entry since 1987 has taken place in the same contin ...

, having been friends with its members for the past six years and feeling that their music possessed the rock edge that Idlewild had lost. He has had various other projects on the go, along with Degrassi, and has played in Edinburgh with the band Paper Beats Rock, who have supported

Blood Red Shoes Blood Red Shoes are an English alternative rock duo from Brighton consisting of and Steven Ansell. They have released six full-length albums, '' Box of Secrets'' (2008), '' Fire Like This'' (2010), '' In Time to Voices'' (2012), '' Blood Red Sho ...

. In 2009, when asked if the members of Idlewild remain friends with Fairfoull, Rod Jones stated that "there are no bad feelings between any of us and we have all seen Bob a few times over the last few years and remain on good terms." For his part, Fairfoull did not begrudge the band for carrying on without him and approved of being replaced by his good friend Gavin Fox, though he did remark, "It felt a bit like if you left your wife, and a week later she started shagging your brother." Fifteen years after leaving the band, Fairfoull joined Idlewild onstage as a surprise guest to play several songs at shows marking the 15th anniversary of the album ''

The Remote Part ''The Remote Part'' is the third studio album by Scottish rock band Idlewild, released on 15 July 2002 by Parlophone. As they were becoming increasingly aware of their label's interest in them and their demos, the band's musical direction was bei ...

'' in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairfoull, Bob 1976 births Living people Scottish bass guitarists 21st-century British bass guitarists