While a few of my friends nipped along to the Barrowland to sample some old school Big Country and The Skids, I instead plumped for something quieter at Paisley Town Hall. I was a bit surprised to get parked so easily close to the venue until I discovered the gig wasn't in the main hall but instead upstairs in one of the smaller rooms. It wasn't the kind of gig to take pictures so I'll do my best to describe it. The ambience in the Alexander Wilson Suite was cosy but refined. Seats in rows of six on either side of the long room provided a capacity for around two hundred people. Most were taken up by a mainly mature audience with only a few empty ones near the back. The cold night was kept at bay by grilled radiators inset in the walls distributing warm air to the room. Dangling from the ornate ceiling, massive brass chandeliers conjured an image of mutant-legged spiders holding up dim, electric candles, some of which weren't lit, casting a soft glow on the audience below. Two spotlights, one on either side of the slightly raised stage, were accompanied by a couple of coloured uplighters, providing a pink tinge on the back wall and, as the musicians moved forward or back, creating bluey shadows, which stretched and shrank behind them. Guitarist Lyle Watt was tonight's support act playing around twenty minutes of his instrumental compositions. He's a highly talented plucker, good enough for me to pop to the merch table to purchase his CD EP. When it was time for Ross Wilson, aka Blue Rose Code, to take the stage he kept it simple, with just him and two band members on stage, the aforementioned Lyle on guitar and someone called Andy on keyboards. All three were bearded and in jumpers, Ross wearing a ribbed brown affair with a round neckline. Ross's hair was short and shaved, the others long but tied back. Ross played acoustic guitar too and the sound generated by the band was beautiful and clear. The musicianship from all three was exquisite and tight and my only complaint would be that some of Ross' chat between songs was too conversational and a bit unclear at times. Talk into the mike, mate. Unusually for a Paisley crowd on a Friday night, the audience was respectful and quiet, with only a few making excuses to visit the bar or toilet. At the end, the band got a standing ovation. For those of you not versed in BRC's music, I would describe it as music to encapsulate the spirit of waking from a cosy night's sleep on a sunny Sunday morning with a view outside of a Scottish beach, the Atlantic waves gently lap against the shore. In the press, it's been described as 'Caledonia Soul'. It's certainly more than just folk music. Even if I didn't end up rocking 'Into the Valley' tonight 'In a Big Country', I got to enjoy a cultured evening of beautiful, lyrical Scottish music. Cheers, Ross. (He was much better tonight than the last time I saw him, at Saint Lukes).
Icon. Legend. Amazing gig. When you're Paul McCartney, you can get the most talented musicians to play in your band. They need to be the best to match your ability. Tick. When you're Paul McCartney, you can get Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp to perform sign language to the lyrics of one of your songs (on video). Tick. When you're Paul McCartney, you can get a room full of proper stars to dance on video to another one of your songs. Tick. When you're Paul McCartney, your Japanese fans will fly all the way to Glasgow to see you perform (and sit in the best seats). Saiko.Tick. Because you're Paul McCartney, you can play the bass, the piano, the electric guitar, the acoustic guitar, the mandolin and the lute and play them brilliantly for nearly three hours without even needing to sip a bottled water. At seventy-six, you've been doing it so long, you know how it's done. And you can remember your lyrics without needing a crib sheet. Tick. When you're Paul McCartney, you can surprise the shit out of the audience with a loud explosion with fire, smoke and pyros during "Live and Let Die". Boom. I loved this gig. The audience was multigenerational, from eight to eighty, and everyone enjoyed it. We felt included. The whole of the downstairs stood and danced for the entire show, a lot of them bringing signs they'd made for Paul to read out. He played forty songs and hardly broke a sweat. On a personal level, It was fun to see the Paisley Grammar School choir accompanying him on "Wonderful Christmastime". I wouldn't have called myself a Macca fan before tonight but this gig made my top 3 for 2018, pushing Steve Martin down to four (the others being Billy Joel at MSG and Queen at Glasgow Green). Age is no barrier when you're Paul McCartney.
Setlist
A Hard Day's Night (The Beatles song) Junior's Farm (Wings song) Can't Buy Me Love (The Beatles song) Letting Go (Wings song) Who Cares Got to Get You Into My Life (The Beatles song) Come On to Me Let Me Roll It (Wings song) (followed by "Foxy Lady" jam) I've Got a Feeling (The Beatles song) Let 'Em In (Wings song) My Valentine Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five (Wings song) Maybe I'm Amazed We Can Work It Out (The Beatles song) In Spite of All the Danger (The Quarrymen song) From Me to You (The Beatles song) Dance Tonight Love Me Do (The Beatles song) Blackbird (The Beatles song) Here Today Queenie Eye Lady Madonna (The Beatles song) Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles song) Fuh You Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (The Beatles song) Something (The Beatles song) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (The Beatles song) Band on the Run (Wings song) Back in the U.S.S.R. (The Beatles song) Let It Be (The Beatles song) Live and Let Die (Wings song) Hey Jude (The Beatles song)
Encore:
Birthday (The Beatles song) Wonderful Christmastime (with Paisley Grammar School Choir) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (The Beatles song) Helter Skelter (The Beatles song) Golden Slumbers (The Beatles song) Carry That Weight (The Beatles song) The End (The Beatles song)
The audience was predominantly male, bald, fat and bespectacled, much like Fish (and myself). Nowadays, the pot-bellied rocker uses a lyric folder to remember all the words he wrote all those years ago and his voice is past its best but he's still a great frontman, with the banter and presence of a seasoned barroom stool sitter. The crowd was rowdy but he shut down the calls for 'Grendel' and 'Gies a bun' with humour and aplomb, not letting them get the better of him. He had tales to tell and wasn't going to be interrupted. This tour was sold as playing Clutching At Straws in its entirety for the first time, plus tracks from the new album 'Weltschmerz' due next year. Breaking up the classic album worked well, mixing in the old with the new. This was my first listen to his new stuff and it sounded a bit like his old stuff, just with different lyrics. Not a lot of variation - there was slow, there was angry, there was waltz, yes, waltz. This tour's gimmick was to ask the audience to dance with each other for 15 seconds during a song called the Trondheim Waltz, grabbing a stranger and whirling round in three time. I cringed as lots of men in black T-shirts obeyed their master and danced with each other. Not me. The show wasn't a sell-out. The balcony was empty but downstairs was fairly packed. As usual, someone got on my goat, this time a tall, drunk and expressive gentleman who pushed in front of me with his pint then stood blocking my view. Fortunately, he wanted to get closer to the front so he lasted only a couple of songs before moving forward again. Later, a weeble wobbled in front of me as he struggled to bear his own weight, resorting to shifting from side to side blocking me when on his right. A few loud thunder claps from me near his ear, which to be fair was right in front of me, was all the persuasion he needed to shift over. As a live artist, Fish is nearing his 'use by' date. His back is gubbed, his knees are gone and his voice has minimal range. The backing singer carried a lot of the tunes but I still enjoyed it, especially the encore with Tux On and Incommunicado. It just wasn't anywhere near as special as a Marillion Christmas gig at the Playhouse or Barrowland. Support was from Doris Brendel and her band. She also sang backing vocals with Fish. Her voice isn't the best either. I probably won't be seeking out her albums. Setlist Slàinte Mhath (Marillion song) Man With A Stick Hotel Hobbies (Marillion song) Warm Wet Circles (Marillion song) That Time of the Night (The Short Straw) (Marillion song) Little Man What Now Torch Song (Marillion song) White Russian (Marillion song) Just for the Record (Marillion song) C Song Going Under (Marillion song) Sugar Mice (Marillion song) Waverley Steps The Last Straw (Marillion song) Encore: Tux On (Marillion song) Incommunicado (Marillion song)
