Nina Nesbitt "Clyde Chorus" at The Pearce Institute, Govan, Glasgow. Saturday 31st May 2025

Glasgow is celebrating 850 years with a series of events across the city, including this one at The Pearce Institute in Govan. Somewhat unusually, it was an afternoon show with daylight streaming through the hall's windows. Additionally, there was no alcohol available at the venue, which I found pleasantly refreshing, although it may not have been in keeping with Glasgow's historic culture.  

The doors opened at 3 pm, so I arrived a bit before that and joined the queue outside. The intermittent drizzly showers worsened whenever I took out my phone to read on the Kindle app, bubbles of raindrops interfering with the text on the screen. I put the phone away and kept my head down until it was time to go in. 

As you can see from the graphic above, each of the three artists was scheduled for thirty minutes of stage time. I didn't know this when I booked the ticket, but it wasn't worth getting annoyed, as the ticket price was so cheap. Thirty minutes of Nina Live for just over a tenner is still well worth it.

All the acts had British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters on stage with them during the performance, two women sharing the duties between them.

The first act, Ili (pronounced illy), sang songs about bad boyfriends and being tongue-tied. She's young, but her voice was great, despite having a viral infection (not a good time to be standing down the front). Afterwards, she joined the audience for selfies and chatted with her fans. I didn't bother. My asking for a selfie would have looked creepy.

Next up was Kerr Mercer, a Glasgow singer who has been performing for about two years and has built up quite a following despite not releasing any recordings on digital music platforms. He confessed that he had recently uploaded a teaser of his work to Spotify and had clocked up half a million streams in just two weeks. His style is trendy at the moment, soul-baring and mournful, playing slow songs with lyrics that his fans can recite back to him, even though I have difficulty making out the words. He was accompanied on guitar by his friend Adam Frame (at least, that's how it sounded). 

Kerr isn't really my cup of tea, as my Glasgow Gran would have said. Afterwards, he too greeted his fans, with a long line of girls queuing for that all-important selfie with him. Again, I didn't bother.

Then, we got Nina, dressed in a long skirt and a sleeveless black top. She played five songs for us, with plenty of chat in between. I recorded the entire set, but occasionally forgot to look at the screen, so I managed to trim off the top of her head from time to time. 

I was surprised by how sparse the crowd was. The venue can accommodate around 300 people, but only about a third of that number was present. When I first attempted to purchase a ticket, the website displayed 'Sold Out'. I thought I'd been lucky last week when I bought my ticket, thinking I'd snagged a late production release ticket. Obviously not. Given that she previously sold out The Old Fruitmarket, the low attendance must have been due to either poor publicity or the matinee timing. I doubt it was because people didn't want to miss the Doctor Who season finale. 

They missed an excellent performance, despite Nina complaining of a raspy throat. 

Setlist

Pages

Mansions

Parachute

Painkiller

I'm Coming Home

Nina didn't join the crowd after the show, as we were all ushered out of the hall so they could get ready for The Supernaturals' show at seven o'clock. I didn't even get a chance to nab a setlist from the stage as they were all removed by the crew. A few other Nina fans were also disappointed by this.

Never mind. It was still worth the trip to hear her wonderful voice. 

Ticket Price: £8.50 Plus £2.20 booking fee = £10.70 from TicketWeb.

Nick Mohammed is Mr Swallow in Show Pony, Theatre Royal, Glasgow. Sunday 25th May, 2025

When this tour was announced, I decided against attending because I didn't find Mr Swallow's appearances on 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown funny. Then, I was offered a free ticket (cheers, Bob). The week of the gig, when my wife heard the show included magic, she decided she wanted to go, too, so I had to buy her a ticket. I managed to find her a single seat with a good view in the Grand Circle.

In a neat quirk of fate, Liam Withnail was the support act, which explained his absence from the Comedy Roadshow lineup the night before. I knew little about him, but I was looking forward to seeing him.

The proximity of our seats to the stage (and the stairs to the stage) made me feel uncomfortable. I knew Mr Swallow would need assistants from the audience for his magic tricks, and, this close, I knew I wasn't safe from being the target of crowd work. The copious legroom did not redress this nervousness. My wife was most amused by the picture of our view (see above).

Fuck!

I couldn't even relax during the pre-show music or sustain a conversation, such were my nerves. My ticket-providing friend agreed he would take one for the team should the situation arise, fall on the proverbial sword prop, as it were. 

The show began with Mr Swallow, dressed casually in a cardigan, going over his professional history while getting the audience to mix up a Rubik's cube. He then asked for a volunteer, someone who had never completed the puzzle before, to come up onto the stage so he could help them achieve this goal. To make matters harder, the woman in question, let's call her Diana, would finish the puzzle facing the audience, with her hands behind her back. Bob spotted how the trick was achieved, thanks to his viewing angle, so close to the side of the stage.

Liam Withnail was a revelation. An Essex comedian and former teacher living in Glasgow, he owned the stage with a confident set about stopping drinking and the bad symptoms of his ulcerative colitis, finishing on a well-received joke about an experience at airport security. 

After the interval, Mr Swallow returned, this time in a gold-sequinned jacket, to tell us about his interview with the BB, ahem, television network about getting his own sitcom. His humour is silly but slick, detailed, and terribly funny. He uses the screen to visualise his points (age ratings on Lego, Bafta show press reviews), and he is never afraid to make Mr Swallow appear as a fool while also being clever, demonstrating deft physical skills and magic tricks.

As a character act, Mr Swallow is quite a revelation. He can tell the exact number of cards that have been cut from a deck by their weight. He can tell who is lying and telling the truth from their voice. He can flip up his shoe and catch it. 

The finale tied together the many disparate elements of the show to bring about a satisfying conclusion. His material might not work well in short form on TV, but it was wonderful to witness in person. Charming, witty, clever, and funny, a super evening's entertainment, I loved it.   

 

The Big Comedy Roadshow, Barrfields Theatre, Largs. Saturday 24th May 2025

When the best thing about a night out is the drive home, you know you've not had a good time.

I had such high hopes for this show. It featured a couple of established local acts, two others with high-profile TV experience, and a superb upcoming comedian. Even with Liam Withnail dropping out, Chris Forbes should have been a good replacement. 

A quick check of ticket availability the day before showed 50+ still available. Fifty tickets wouldn't be much of a gap, though, given the room capacity was 440. 

The portents were not good, though. When I arrived at the venue, I found plenty of parking spaces available. Inside, the front-of-house staff announced that the ticketed reserved seating had been suspended as they had had to rearrange the room into tables. The intention was to give the place a club vibe, but this was going to be difficult given the critically low sales. There were maybe only fifty punters in attendance.  

The staff wanted us to fill up the front trestle tables first, but we ignored that suggestion, leaving the latecomers and the Gen-Zs to sit there. The way the seats had been arranged perpendicularly to the stage felt too much like a work conference, with half the room sitting with their backs to the speaker, in this case, the comedian. It might work for bingo, but not for comedy.  

Chris Forbes kicked off the evening as host, conducting some low-key audience work to establish where people were from (local mainly, with a few from England and one from Wales). The interactions were warm but rarely comedic. I don't know if he used any prepared material before he brought on Raymond Mearns.

Raymond is an established comic who is more intelligent than he appears to be, not that it shows often. He ploughed through his material about young people not talking to one another, likely leading to an extinction-level crisis, despite the lukewarm reaction from the crowd. He did okay in the circumstances.

Desiree Burch was up next. The inaccuracies in her material killed my enjoyment of it: Pointless contestants cannot win only £800—the prize money starts at £1000. She should know this as she was Xander's sidekick for ten shows. She complained about how thick Blankety Blank contestants are, then told a story about this one girl who struggled to come up with a famous Scotsman, despite hints from the celebrities. The problem here was Rod "Do You Think I'm Sexy?" Stewart is not Scottish. So, who's the idiot? Her suggestion that the success of ABBA Voyage was due to the band being dead finished me off (not in a sex act way). She rescued it a bit at the end with her bald, bearded Greek boyfriend material, but it was too little, too late. I felt she was not gig-fit. She spoke fast but stumbled occasionally over the words. 

Jin Hao Li didn't have that problem. His delivery is deliberately slow. His material is brilliant, full of comical misdirection, so even though I was familiar with the routines and could recite the lines as he spoke them, I still enjoyed his performance. He giggled more than usual, which was odd for him, as he's usually so controlled. 

The headliner, Jayde Adams, died on her arse. Her act was flabby with very few jokes. Instead, she went on and on about being on Strictly (it was 2022), going viral and being ever so popular. She berated us for not laughing at her 'good' jokes, complained that she hadn't done much standup because she'd been too busy with her successful career, then read out a prepared speech about the patriarchy trying to control women with body shaming and that by owning her fatness, she had become immune to their powers. The best bit was the background music, the young lesbian from the Gen Z table played (Luke Skywalker's theme from Star Wars: A New Hope) to accompany the speech. 

I was especially disappointed in Jayde, because I'd heard she could be so good. 

The Gilded Balloon branded the previous tour as the Big Fab Comedy Show. They definitely were right to lose the Fab tonight.

Ticket Price  2 x £23 plus Booking Fee £3.58 = £49.58 from Ticket Source Ltd

The original tour graphic

The Book Of Mormon, King's Theatre, Glasgow Matinee Friday 23rd May 2025

 

I went into this show blind, and Hallelujah, I have now seen the light. This show totally dismissed any apprehension I had that touring productions were weaker than the West End runs. The choreography, acting, and singing were top-notch, the stagecraft smooth, and the humour appropriately vulgar. I won't forget General Butt Fucking Naked or Maggots in my Scrotum for a long time. Jeez, the main characters even had fulfilling story arcs. The script is so sharp. The audience loved one particular script adjustment for the Scottish run. Elder Cunningham, who had been comically misnaming Nabulungi throughout the show, called her Nicola Sturgeon, cheekily side-glancing at the audience. 

I wholeheartedly loved this musical. 

Ticket Price: £50 x 2 plus booking fee £3.95 = £103.95 from ATG Tickets

Mark Normand "Ya Don't Say" UK Tour, O2 Academy Glasgow Friday 16th May 2025

I could have been at Kylie tonight, but I went to see this guy instead. I'm not sure why an unfamiliar New York comedian took preference, but there you go.

The acoustics in the 02 Academy suck for comedians. The sound booms, killing any comic intimacy. Not that support act Doug Key required that, with his material mainly focusing on his sexual exploits and their consequences. He struggled to warm up the audience with jokes about the birth of his son, breastfeeding, lube and dildoes. I liked one gag in his routine concerning first-date sex with a porn star, a neat call back relating her sexual kink and her apartment, but the rest left me cold. I had no desire to buy one of his stickers after the show.

Before the show, I knew little about Mark Normand. I'd watched twenty minutes of his standup on YouTube and figured he knew his stuff. He had some great lines, making funny connections on relatable topics. The blurb compared him to Jerry Seinfeld, but he's not. Yes, his material is beautifully written and well delivered, but I don't see Jerry making as many jokes about religions, trans people, and women. Mark's not a shock comedian in the style of, say, the excellent Doug Stanhope, but he mines a vein of comedy that's on the safe side of that border. Things 'Ya Don't Say' sums him up well.  

His audience was predominantly young and male. My wife likened them to the Andrew Tate crowd, guffawing too loudly at the jokes about women, not comprehending they were spoken in jest. I noticed many of them had drunk a skinful before and during the show, not least because of the frequency with which they required the rest of the row to stand up to let them out to the toilet. The skinful also showed in other ways, such as their back fat bulging above the waist of their white t-shirts, with their slight beer bellies presenting like the signs of early pregnancy (I can say this as I'm from the demographic whose stomach gives the appearance of carrying twins, Ben and Jerry, thanks to a lifetime of sugar abuse - how I'm not dead is a miracle of modern medicine). I got a bit pissed off with so many of them holding up their cameras to snap pictures during the show. The staff did nothing to stop this, which was irritating. 

On the night, Mark did well to hold the Friday night crowd's attention, generating frequent laughs, but he ended oddly, stumbling around for jokes on recent topical subjects. As such, he didn't close strong, so when his support act returned to get the audience to cheer for him, it felt like Mark was being rescued. Not a good way to end the show.     

On balance, I would have preferred Kylie.   

Ticket Price: 2 Full Price Tickets  £37.50 x2 £75.00

Per Item Fees £5.10 (Service Charge Full Price Ticket) x2

£1.75 (Facility Charge Full Price Ticket) x2 £13.70

Order Processing Fees Handling Fee (£2.85) £2.85

Total £91.55 from Ticketmaster

GUN "Hombres Acoustic Tour", Matinee Show. Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine. 2pm Sunday 11th May 2025

On a warm but overcast afternoon, I made my way down to Irvine to see my favourite band perform an acoustic set at the Harbour Arts Centre. There was loads of free parking nearby, and I was one of the first to get in. I chose to sit in the second row (I'm not sure why—shyness, perhaps). The view was still great, as it is an intimate venue with seating on three sides. 

Image cribbed from the Freckfest FB page

The support act was Pistol Daisys, performing as a trio with backing tracks enhancing the music. They sounded okay, with good harmonies between the two girls, who both played guitar and took turns on lead vocals. One song was inspired by seeing someone finding pleasure in a public park, while another was about getting dumped by phone while performing at a French music festival.  

The first surprise when GUN appeared was that Paul wasn't on drums, instead drafting in a young lad called Rory (spelling?). To make up for that disappointment, though, we also got both Andy and Ruaraidh to complete the five-piece band (the pair were absent on some of the other dates). 

With it being a matinee performance, the atmosphere was relaxed. When punters wandered off to the bar or toilets, Dante would poke fun at them. The banter between the two GUN brothers was classic. At one point, they became distracted from their affectionate bickering by the conversation of the other two (about Dante's bass guitar not being as good as Andy's), much to Dante's mock annoyance. Joolz would often ramble on before songs, telling us how lovely they were, much to Dante's exasperation.  At another time, I thought we were going to get a JD Vance/ Zelensky situation when Jools insisted that Dante thank the audience for coming. He refused, saying he'd speak to us all individually in private after the show, not from the stage. I loved that they were excited about playing twice on the same day because it meant they got their tea there.

The sound in the Harbour Arts Centre was excellent (except when Dante accidentally turned off his mic and thought it was broken). It was an enjoyable gig. I didn't take too many pictures and only one video, preferring to experience the gig in the moment.

I would happily have done it all again (if I'd had a ticket for the evening show). I didn't wait to speak to the band at the merch stall afterwards (they hadn't appeared yet as I left, and there was quite a crowd); instead, I headed to Vanilla Joes for an ice cream before heading home (two scoops, one of real Italian pistachio and one of white chocolate cookie dough, if you must know). Yummy, but it melted quicker than I could lick. That'll be the jeans going in the wash. 

Ticket Price: £27.50 Face value plus £2.75 fees = £30.25 from Gigantic (the barcode wouldn't scan but 

Steal Your Fire

Thank you to the gentleman 
who let me take a picture of the setlist

Bonfest, Main Festival Site, Kirriemuir. Saturday 3rd May, 2025

I can't say I've truly experienced Bonfest because I never made it as far as Kirriemuir, stopping to park at the festival site and not exploring beyond (I've still not seen the Bon Scott statue - another time, perhaps). This was mainly due to timing. I couldn't leave the house before lunch and couldn't check into my hotel room until 3 pm. My incentive to attend, though, was not to see the many AC/DC tribute acts but to catch The Hot Damn! and These Wicked Rivers (Girlschool being an added bonus).

Parking at the event was straightforward. I drove down a massive grass field and was directed to a parking space by an attendant. He then informed me the main site wasn't open until 5 p.m. and that I'd missed the now-closed ticket office in town. I could catch the free happy bus into Kirriemuir if I wanted, but all the pubs would be rammed. I decided to hang around.

Clutching my ticket printout, I wandered down the car park field for a reconnaissance. The campsite tents were on the right, and beyond them, lines of camper vans. On the left stood a large white tent, with food vans, a seating area and a line of toilet cubicles in the gap. The massive arena tent dominated the back.

Main Arena tent and benches

The fencing beside the food vendors was open, so I wandered in, with no security around to stop me. The Hot Damn! were playing their soundcheck in the arena tent so I ordered a bratwurst and sat at a bench to listen (the arena tent was officially closed). As I lifted the sub roll from the card container, the paper napkin it rested upon went flying, such was the strength of the freezing wind blowing through the festival. I was so glad I'd decided to wear extra layers, despite the weather back home not requiring them.

After I finished my food, I explored the rest of the area, peeking into the beer tent, which was still being set up, and then into the merch hall, where drink tokens could be purchased for £5 a pop. I showed the guy behind the counter my ticket printout and was told they weren't ready yet, but to hang around. A second steward then politely told me I needed to leave as I didn't have a wristband. I went to exit the way I came in, only to discover the fence had been put back in place. I was trapped inside, so I had to find yet another security person to let me out. I realise this makes it sound like the organisation was poor, but it wasn't. My innocent exploration highlighted a glitch in their setup. The open fence should have had a security person present to prevent me from wandering in. 

Anyway, I waited outside for another ten minutes, had my ticket scanned, and received a wristband and a free merch patch. I bought a programme and messaged an old school pal, whom I knew was also attending the fest, to see if we could meet up. 

High Voltage, an AC/DC tribute act, started up in the VIP tent. I hadn't paid for VIP, but I didn't need to, as they were so loud they could be easily heard from the food area. Shortly before 5 p.m., I spotted others heading into the main arena, so I joined them, managing to snag a position at the front on the right. Away from the sun, the place was freezing.

The Hot Damn! were superb, despite how cold it was. The set they played was similar to the one they played supporting These Wicked Rivers, including the Merch Song to the tune of Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz? I love the energy, attitude and party atmosphere the girls create for their shows. I was surprised by how small the crowd was to start, not realising how many fans were not yet on site.

After this, I finally got to see These Wicked Rivers, having missed them twice: the first time, after they called off for Maid of Stone; and then after my pal took ill before their 10th Birthday Bash. This time, I wasn't disappointed. I knew most of the songs and enjoyed their stage presence and powerful performance. Early on in the set, the singer faceplanted the stage, tripping over a cable. I thought the way he fell was odd, like a felled tree. He had to be helped up by a roadie. Only later, when I spotted him heading for the merch tent, did I realise he had mobility issues. 

Having seen the two bands I most wanted to catch, I made my way out of the tent to find my school pal. I messaged him asking for a whereabouts update, and while I waited for his reply, I nipped back to my car for a snack and the opportunity to warm up. Getting his message, we finally met up for the first time in nearly thirty years. After a few failed attempts, his wife managed to capture the moment for posterity. 

We missed the start of Girlschool's set as we were still chatting, but what I saw was good. The music felt a bit retro, especially the Motorhead cover, but I enjoyed their set. I was nowhere near the front and got to see just how drunk many of the attendees were, blissfully staggering to and from the tent. 

I did my best to enjoy the day's final act, Sin City, but left after about half an hour, saying goodbye to Kev on the way out. Sin City played songs I liked, but it felt a bit too 'pantomime', with 'Bon' in a frightful wig and a plump 'Angus' in a bright red school uniform, replete with devil horn cap. 

I drove back to the hotel as dusk fell. Little did I realise how tired I was and how little sleep I would get at the Premier Inn, thanks to the repeated clunking of a busy internal security door. I won't go into too much detail about the post-breakfast spicy diarrhoea episode that nearly derailed my journey home, other than to say it felt like someone was operating a bicycle pump on my intestines, persistent but growing weaker with every subsequent squirt.     

The Hot Damn! Setlist (As far as I can remember).

Fizz Buzz Crash
Dance Around
About Last Night
Jukebox on the Radio
Live Laugh Love
Loud and Clear
Merch Song
Going Down
I Didn't Like You Anyway

These Wicked Rivers Setlist (not sure if I've missed any or the order they were played in)

Force of Nature

Shine On

Evergreen

When the War Is Won

Old Willow Tree

Black Gold

Horse To Water

Don't Pray For Me

Dance Around

I Didn't Like You Anyway

Old Willow Tree     

The Riverboat Man

Don't Pray For Me

 

The view before the show

Someone used a selfie stick to film up close and personal.

These Wicked Rivers

Girlschool

Sin City

 

Ticket Price:
BONFEST 2025 - Saturday Single Ticket (FOR MAIN ARENA AND TOWN HALL)
£45.00 GBP
Service charge
£5.24 GBP 
Total £50.24 GBP from Universe (a Ticketmaster company)