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.

Nina Nesbitt, The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow. Friday 18th October, 2024.

 

A busy, wet Friday night in Glasgow meant me driving around the city centre looking for somewhere free to park, finding the only empty parking spaces reserved for the disabled. Frustratingly, there were places with single yellow lines, which would have been available except for the signs indicating parking was suspended. It was only after doing a couple of circuits that I noticed the dates on the signs had already passed, so I managed to stop on a street near the venue. 

I joined the queue waiting in the rain outside the venue, bodies pressed against the building to keep dry for those of us without umbrellas. The staff let us in early, and we formed two lines inside the venue in front of each of the doors. I joined the second queue, skipping further ahead than I had been outside. My smugness was punctured when the staff then only opened the other door, that line flowing in while we stood exasperated at being left behind. Eventually, the staff apologised and told us to go in too.

Not a good start, but I still managed to find a place near the front without any really tall people ahead of me. I had a clear view of the central microphone. Beside me on my left was a father with his young girl, who could only have been about fourteen. The bubbly redhead on my right was with her two friends. She must have taken about forty selfies of herself before thinking about including her friends. Oh, to be young and beautiful! Ahead of me, many of the crowd had tote bags and lanyards: the VIPs who had paid extra for a preshow meet and greet, and access to the soundcheck. 

The first support act was Kerr Mercer. A Glasgow lad, he sang mournful ballads akin to Lewis Capaldi, acknowledging his set was full of them. He played one cover, Paolo Nutini's Last Request, and did it justice. His confidence on stage was palpable, disclosing, although he hadn't yet released any material, he'd already headlined at King Tut's, SWG3 and St Luke's and was next due to play at The Garage. Not bad for a homegrown talent.

Next up was Inverness lassie Katie Gregson-MacLeod. Adept on the keyboards and guitar, she, too, played a set of personal songs about relationships and heartbreak. She admitted she would change the names when recording the songs, but she hadn't done so yet, so we were getting an exclusive dose of her reality. She'd used her phone to act as a timer so she didn't overrun her set. During her last song, she realised she hadn't switched off the alarm noise and had a fit of the giggles when it went off, sharing the joke with us by holding her phone to the microphone. "Dring, dring, dring". She, too, is coming back to Glasgow later in the year, but the show hasn't been announced officially yet, so she couldn't tell us about it.

Unusually, the father and daughter left their spot before Nina came on. I figured the young girl didn't want to find the Ladies on her own, so her dad went with her. Next, I saw two staff members rushing an unconscious small person horizontally backstage, the father right behind them. She must have fainted. Such a shame.

On Nina's last tour, I felt the show lacked balance, a series of ballads that sounded beautiful but didn't energise the audience. Fortunately, with Mountain Music (her new album), she has recognised this by writing a number of faster numbers, and this benefitted tonight's set. Her confidence has grown, too, and she talked more between numbers, explaining how the songs came to be and what they meant to her. 

I did wonder about the set dressing, specifically the backdrop. Three jumpers and one dress hung from coat hangers on the curtain. Had they run out of room in the dressing room, or had they got wet on the way into the gig and left there to drip dry? Their presence was never explained. 

The show wasn't as exciting as Seb Lowe the previous night, but music can serve different needs at different times. This was more about beautiful harmonies and personal lyrics. Despite being a self-confessed introvert, she knows how to engage with her audience. I enjoyed myself.

The merch stall was too busy to see anything, so I bypassed it and went home. Only later did I realise I'd also bought her CD along with the ticket. I'm now onto Ticketmaster to check if there is a way to still get it (not that I need it, given I can stream the album).   

Setlist

The Apple Tree

Pages

On The Run

Anger

Painkiller

Treachery

Hard Times

Big Things, Small Town (included an extra verse about Glasgow)

Mansion

Parachute

Encore:

What Will Make Me Great (Solo)

Alchemise

Last December (included extra verse)

The Best You Had

Caledonia

I'm Coming Home

Videos

Pages

Anger

Coming Home

Ticket Price via Ticketmaster.

1 Full Price Ticket £18.00
Nina Nesbitt - CD Album £11.00
Service Charge x1 £1.80
Order Processing Fees Handling Fee £1.35
Total £32.15

Lighting a candle
Nina's calming alternative to a stage pyro

Encore costume change 

Phone lighting to accompany Caledonia

Moon Music album cover

Stevie Nicks, "Live in Concert", OVO Hydro, Glasgow. Wednesday 23rd July, 2024.

I was in two minds about buying a ticket to this concert. They were so expensive, and I was only partly familiar with Stevie's back catalogue. Then Nina Nesbitt, an artist I adore, announced she would be the support act. I noticed a ticket for a seat near the front of Section 005 (front/middle) that was a standard (not Platinum) price. Still, I debated whether to go. I'd been off work with Covid. Would I be fit by the weekend? Would it be appropriate to attend? I decided it wasn't worth it. 

Then Stevie rescheduled.

Still, I hummed and hawed. That seat was gone, and I had no interest in paying a fortune for a seat in the Hydro gods. On the way back from Maid of Stone, I reviewed the setlist from her Manchester show and was impressed. I knew most of the songs. She was playing Fleetwood Mac numbers and covers as well as her own material. Ticketmaster also had a single seat five rows from the front...

I logged onto the website whilst travelling in the car. After nearly an hour and five timeouts later, I still didn't have it. I didn't know if my new credit card had been blocked, the internet signal was playing up or if I was mistyping some digits with my pudgy fingers. It kept saying I'd forgotten to enter something. Then I noticed the ticket numbers going back up again, so I figured there was a problem with the website. I tried the app, and this time, I was successful. I finally was in. 

Anyway, that's the origin story. What about the gig?

I arrived early enough to catch Nina's set. There was little fanfare to announce her arrival on stage. The massive screen at the rear of the stage displayed the cover image of her new album, Mansions, with information about its release date (and a QR code, which I didn't try to scan). Her band consisted of two blokes who wandered on, picked up their instruments and started playing, with Nina joining them shortly afterwards. Attendees were trickling in, with lots of seats still empty, so it felt like she was performing before the gig had started. 

Her voice was magical. Although this was new material, I knew it well enough to mouth the lyrics, willing the audience to join in. She played exactly the same set as the other tour shows but then announced she playing one more song because it was her home town. She closed the set with an acoustic version of Dougie MacLean's Caledonia.  It was slightly disappointing that she didn't have a full band with her, so I guess I'll need to catch her on tour later in the year. 

I'm Coming Home

Nina Nesbitt Setlist

Pages

big things, small town

Mansion

I'm Coming Home

Parachute

Anger

I had no preconceptions about Stevie Nicks prior to this gig. I hadn't watched any interviews or YouTube footage of recent concerts, so didn't know what to expect. I knew what she was going to play but not how it was going to sound.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Stevie Nicks comes across as that chatty gran who just happened to be a massive rockstar last century. She's got stories aplenty, and she's going to tell them to you at length, incorporating every tiny detail she can remember, whether it is necessary or not. She'll also bring out her Seventies wardrobe, spinning around in all the pretty capes that she accrued. Ordinarily, you might ask yourself, 'Do I have the patience for this?" Then she sings, and you realise this lady still has quite a set of pipes. She confesses she does her forty minutes of vocal exercises every day, and you realise she's not talking about her jaw-flapping anecdotes. Her voice may be deeper than it was, but it is strong, and it can hit all the notes. She has backing singers, but she doesn't need them to support her. She admits at her age, her mobility might be worse than it was, but she gets there. Best of all, her fiery spirit and determination are very much alive. She is going to put on a show for everyone to love, and no one will tell her otherwise. 

It could have been a nostalgic car crash, relying on the goodwill of the audience, but it wasn't. It was seriously good. Her band was tight, the sound excellent, her vocals clear, and the visuals suitably appropriate (if that's an expression). Whether it was worth the hefty ticket price, I'm not sure. I'd have happily paid half what I did and been content. But when the artist has been around for over half a century and is still this talented, you can justify the expense. Who knows when or if she'll return.   

I was surprised to see so many young people in the audience. Most wouldn't even have been born in Stevie's heyday. The mix between young and old was fairly even. Beside me on my left sat two ladies in their sixties (later introducing themselves as Margaret and Jean). Their whoops as Stevie arrived on stage were louder than anything I experienced at Maid Of Stone (bar Massive Waggons). Margaret liked to dance along to the music while shooting videos on her phone, with the camera light illuminating the rows in front. She left to go to the bar twice, each time returning with a tray of four alcoholic spirits. On the second return, Jean exclaimed, "You bought FOUR", as if they couldn't drink that much. Of course, they could. They enjoyed themselves immensely. Afterwards, she apologised for encroaching on my space, but I didn't mind... that much. 

After the show, as the crowds navigated the big red tube that crosses over the Clydeside Expressway, the busker at the near end played Edge of Seventeen, accompanied by a chorus of females who belted out the words. That would have been a nice finale to the night had it not been topped by the busker at the other end, who was strumming the familiar F1 riff of The Chain as we exited the bridge. Corker!

A great night. 

I'll share a final thought that occurred to me during the show. I'm not proud of it. Watching the big screen, I suddenly noticed that Stevie resembled a man in drag, that man being an aged Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. (The clue's in her name: Stevie). It's just as well that society encourages these things nowadays (not the serial killer part).    

Setlist 

Intro music - Runnin' Down A Dream (Tom Petty song)

Outside the Rain

Dreams (Fleetwood Mac song)

If Anyone Falls

Stop Draggin' My Heart Around

For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield cover)

Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac song)

Wild Heart

Bella Donna

Stand Back

Free Fallin' (Tom Petty cover)

Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac song)

Leather and Lace (with Steve Real)

Edge of Seventeen

Encore:

Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac song)

Landslide (Fleetwood Mac song)

Outro music

(Song played from tape) Got a Hold on Me (Christine McVie song)

Ticket Price: Full Price Ticket 

Face Value £185.00 

Service Charge £25

Facility Charge £1.70 

Handling Fee £2.00 

Total £213.70 

 

Gypsy

FreeFallin

Edge of Seventeen

Clean up team to row C please

Duetting with her vocal coach, Steve Real