Inspiral Carpets @ O2 Academy Glasgow 04/12/2015

Normally Mumblings and Ramblings would include a review of a support act within the review of the main band at a show, but a legendary band like Inspiral Carpets are different and so it only seemed right to give them their own review.

Opening for Shed Seven at Glasgow’s O2 Academy, Inspiral Carpets took to the stage in a packed hall with a crowd who were clearly there to see them as well as the headliners. This felt more like a headline set than a support set in any ways. The band were greeted by shouts of ‘Mooo’ in reference to their logo and chants of ‘Boon Army’ for keyboardist Clint Boon.

Unlike many support bands who hold back their hits until later in the set Inspiral Carpets hit the ground running. ‘Joe’ and ‘You’re So Good For Me’ made for a high tempo start before two major hits are presented in the form of ‘This Is How It Feels’ and ‘She Comes In The Fall’. Rarely in any gig will you find yourself wondering if the night can get any better after only the fourth song of a support set.

The rest of the set is packed with hits with the other modern song being the brilliant ‘Let You Down’ from the band’s self-titled 2014 album. The song features a spoken word section by punk poet John Cooper Clark. JCC’s piece was played over the sound system while the band played the backing instrumental, a welcome surprise in the set.

The band concluded their set with ‘Saturn 5’, receiving a great reception from the crowd whose passion was matched by the band, particularly bassist Martyn Walsh. This was my first time seeing Inspiral Carpets indoors having seen them twice previously at festivals. This was by far the best of those performances given their own crowd and with frontman Stephen Holt in strong voice. They impressed so much as a support that I would recommend seeing them as a headliner.

Setlist:

Joe
You’re So Good For Me
This Is How It Feels
She Comes In The Fall
Two World Collide
I Want You
Find Out Why
Dragging Me Down
Directing Traffik
Let You Down
Saturn 5

Billy Bragg @ O2 ABC 03/12/2015

Last week one of Britain’s most outspoken singer songwriters took to the stage in Glasgow’s O2 ABC, the venue where I first saw Billy Bragg live in 2008. Unlike his last visit to Scotland two years ago, Bragg played solo tonight – joined only sporadically by pedal steed and guitar player CJ Hillman.

It doesn’t take long for him to take aim at his first target of the night, hipster beards, which Bragg classes as any beard without at least a tinge of grey. Whilst in the media he generally hits out at serious issues such as racism, fascism, the right wing and cynicism in his own shows he mixes these with some lighter topics like men never being as good at D.I.Y. as their fathers.

With no album to promote on this tour the crowd were treated to a greatest hits set starting with ‘A Lover Sings’ and delving back to Bragg’s earliest material with ‘To Have And To Have Not’. This all came after one of the most subdued, understated stage entrances you could picture. Lights dimmed slightly, no intro music, no announcement, just walking on with a mug of what one would assume was herbal tea. However, we are told that for this mini Scottish tour, Billy is in fact drinking Bovril for the first time on tour.

Only a few modern songs are included in the set with ‘Never Buy The Sun’, ‘Nobody Knows Nothing Anymore’ and ‘Handyman Blues’ all sounding every bit as good as the old classics. The highlight of the set was me was a fantastic version of ‘Sexuality’ performed with CJ Hillman. For the live version of this song the lyrics are changed to include probably the funniest line Billy Bragg has ever written:

“I had an uncle who once played for Red Star Belgrade,
He said some things are really best left unspoken,
I’ve left your auntie and I’ve run off with the postman”

The four song encore that follows the set is a treat with performer and audience really connecting during a powerful performance of ‘Between The Wars’ before the show came to its conclusion with the masterpiece ‘Waiting For The Great Leap Forward’ and the anthem ‘A New England’.

Whilst Billy Bragg may be known to some people now as being more involved in politics than in music, there’s no doubt his music continues to stand strong and he is one of the country’s finest showmen.

The Proclaimers @ Glasgow Royal Concert Hall 01/12/2015

At 24, I was visibly one of the youngest fans in the stunning Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on Tuesday as one of the country’s most iconic and finest ever bands took the stage in the form of Craig and Charlie Reid. The Proclaimers were the first proper band I ever saw, in Stirling about 12 or 13 years ago, and have only improved since then. Rare for a band of their age and status, this can be put down to a couple of factors.

The first of these is their current backing band consisting of Zac Ware on lead guitar, Garry John Kane on bass, Stevie Christie on keyboards and Clive Jenner on drums. An impressively tight and well formed live unit, these four give the Reid brothers the opportunity to perform great versions of songs from throughout their career despite their changes in style over time.

The crisp, sharp sound of Zac Ware’s guitar has been one of the key sounds of recent Proclaimers records and has been one of my favourite parts of their live sound in the last decade. Having also seen Zac play in a cover band The Souvenirs years ago in Glasgow, I have high praise for his guitar playing.

Often with bands like The Proclaimers the backing band might stand at the back simply doing their job but in this case Garry John Kane wears a smile on his face whenever he’s not singing along with the fans, as he stands between the brothers in the middle of the stage – very rare for a bassist. Stevie Christie similarly grins at and gives thumbs up to the crowd throughout the set. These small touches help to connect the band to the crowd, particularly those of us down the front.

However, the biggest part of the The Proclaimers’ success has always been, and continues to be, the fact that they are the finest songwriters in Scotland. They mix old classics with newer songs in order to keep the crowd happy. Its very noticeable that many in the crowd only know the old songs and do not recognise modern album tracks. However, I was delighted when they played the likes of ‘The Long Haul’, ‘Rainbows And Happy Regrets’ and three songs from my favourite record of theirs, ‘Born Innocent’.

One argument that I would make which would be sure to controversial among fans is that The Proclaimers are better now than they have ever been. When selecting an album to listen to, I would pick ‘Born Innocent’ or ‘Like Comedy’ over ‘Sunshine On Leith’ or ‘This Is The Story’.

On this note, it was nice to see them end with a modern song in the shape of ‘Life With You’ rather than one of their older hits. The massive crowd reaction that greeted this showed their ability to appeal to the masses has not waned over the years, given the chance to showcase it.

All of the bands’ songs sound great with the perfect acoustics of the Concert Hall, one of Glasgow’s classiest venues. Rolling through 24 songs in an hour and a half, The Proclaimers are a top live band and look unlikely to be challenged by any other Scottish band any time soon in my mind.

Courteeners @ Glasgow O2 Academy 29/11/2015

You would never guess it was a wet Sunday night as the Courteeners took to the stage at Glasgow’s Academy with the crowd erupting. This was quite simply one of the wildest and most “up for it” crowds I’ve seen at a gig in a long time, with the whole crowd reaching back as far as the balcony moving as one and bouncing. Frontman Liam Fray once again declared Glasgow to be the band’s second home and was visibly delighted with the audience.

To keep an audience this expectant in check you have to be a pretty excellent band and luckily Courteeners are just that, certainly one of the finest of their generation along with The Enemy.

Kicking off with regular opener of the last few years ‘Are You In Love With A Notion?’ there is no holding back from either the band or the crowd with instant pandemonium breaking loose and continuing straight through to ‘Cavorting’. Next up was a surprise from ‘St. Jude’ in the shape of ‘Kings of the New Road’, one of the less aired songs from this album.

This set the tone for the night with the biggest Courteeners hits mixed with some particularly pleasing rarer songs for the big fans. Personal highlights included ‘Will It Be This Way Forever?’, ‘Beautiful Head’ and ‘Sycophant’. For me, I would happy if they came out and played the whole album of ‘Falcon’ but I happily made do with the three tracks they played on the night, with the soaring ‘Take Over The World’ making up this trio.

Liam Fray told the crowd he had a cold which was affecting his voice, which seemed to hold the band back for a brief period when Fray allowed the crowd to sing much of ‘Lose Control’ and ‘Bide Your Time’ but he soon bounced back and carried on. He even managed to play his traditional acoustic section mid-set with the rare ‘Let Your Guard Down’ rolled out with two ‘St. Jude’ hits.

The final run in saw the loudest reactions of the night as the band finished, as ever, with their two biggest hits ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ then ‘What Took You So Long?’ featuring the standard segment of ‘Tomorrow’ by James.

A triumphant ‘homecoming’ for the Manchester band, who love Glasgow so much they will return to play again in two weeks.