Stepping back in time tonight for Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.
Originally billed as her only UK headline show of 2026, the show expanded into a tour when her support slot with Sammy Hagar fell apart after his shows were downsized and rescheduled.
So what did we get?
The Meffs, a punk duo, provided support and made a lot of riff-heavy noise, filling half an hour. I didn't hate them as much as I thought I would. Their Prodigy cover was an interesting punk take on Breathe.
This was followed by an old-school rock'n'roll show. Very retro, with nothing too fancy, just Joan on vocals and guitar, along with her band: bassist, drummer, and guitarist, playing rock music for an hour and twenty. The big screen showed mostly abstract animations, but the sound was clear, her vocals strong within her range, and it wasn't so loud as to require earplugs (at least not in the front balcony).
Half the setlist was unfamiliar to me, but most of the songs were short. She played a number of covers from her past bands, as well as songs she liked. Everyone was here to hear her play the hits, though. The classics didn't disappoint.
At sixty-seven, Joan is still in fine form. A rock icon.
Setlist:
(Intro music 1) Let's Have a Party (Wanda Jackson song)
(Intro music 2) Rebel Girl (Bikini Kill song)
Victim of Circumstance
Cherry Bomb (The Runaways cover)
Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) (Gary Glitter cover)
You Drive Me Wild (The Runaways cover)
Change the World
(I'm Gonna) Run Away
Light of Day (Bruce Springsteen cover)
(Make the Music Go) Boom
Fake Friends
Androgynous (The Replacements cover)
Oh Woe Is Me
Lie to Me
Love Is Pain
Long Time
If You're Blue
Everyday People (Sly & the Family Stone cover)
I Love Rock 'n' Roll (The Arrows cover)
Crimson & Clover (Tommy James & the Shondells cover)
I Hate Myself for Loving You
Bad Reputation (Joan Jett song)
Outro Music: Rock And Roll is Here To Stay by Danny & The Juniors
Image of the setlist located on the mixing desk (#Robert Hutton)
"So you know, this show has been rescheduled from Saturday, 21 June 2025. If you’ve already got tickets, they’ll still be valid, so hang on to them; your ticket agent will be in touch to tell you more.
Craig Ferguson is a multiple GRAMMY-nominated, Peabody and Emmy Award-winning actor, writer, producer, director and comedian with a diverse career that encompasses film, television and the stage. Join him on his 'Pants on Fire' UK tour."
There's a reason John Mulaney can support 13 Vietnamese. His ticket prices were more than double that of Craig Ferguson, Cumbernauld's top international comedian (sorry, Stuart Mitchell). Okay, John brought two more comedians than Craig, but tonight Craig gave us our money's worth: an hour and a half of him telling stories, all of which were true, except for the parts which were not.
The preshow music was entirely by Talking Heads, from the album '77', tracks so obscure that Shazam found them too tricky to identify. To be fair, the audience was noisy, and the music wasn't, so the app didn't have much of a chance. It even failed to identify Psycho Killer.
It did recognise:
Don't Worry About the Government;
Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town;
Happy Day;
and No Compassion.
He came on pretending to play the bagpipes in a high-energy opening, marching about the stage, wiggling his ass and showing off his fake skills. When he cut the music, he explained why there wasn't a support act: they cost money. Why fork out for a less good comedian, when he could be less good himself and keep all the money?
But surely, Craig, you don't need the money? You live in America and have won numerous prestigious awards for your work.
Yes, this is true, but... look at it this way. He's playing a rescheduled date on a Sunday night in a former cinema in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. How well do we think his career is going?
He pulled out some special memories that only we would appreciate, like when his dad explained to him as a young lad, taking him for his first beer, that any woman smoking outside a pub was really a prostitute. He swore this as fact, despite the evidence to the contrary. "But, Dad, she's my Sunday School teacher".
Craig has perfected the buffering head-wobble/rictus-grin expression to punctuate anything he's said that's slightly dodgy. He admits he's not always been on the right side of right. In 2017, he recorded his Tickle Fight special in July, but by the time it aired in December, the whole world had changed because of #MeToo. Suddenly, using "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?" by The Cramps as your intro and outro music didn't seem like such a wise choice.
He's also not proud of himself for his repeated use of the palm plant over his face to represent the cumshot ending of every porn film. He knows it's wrong, but it makes people laugh, and that's his job.
He remarked early on that he would be using a "reverse callback" using the word "Ting", explaining that the word would appear in a joke later on in the show. I found that a clever spin on a commonly used comedy convention.
He told us tales of offloading a $300 classic car to Jay Leno as a present when the host finished up on The Tonight Show, only for Jay to speak to the top people at Ford, who souped up the car so much that it became the most expensive car the company had ever made.
Craig bought a haunted castle in Ayrshire because the price was about the same as a small apartment in the Hollywood Hills. He lived there for a few years but sold it when he realised the amount he was paying Scottish Power to heat it would fund a large apartment in the Hollywood Hills.
There were other stories, but I'm struggling to recall them now. I think that's because he often veered off on tangents, which were probably scripted, but came across as spontaneous.
He finished on a joke, a simple one: setup/punchline, one of the first he ever heard. It was one of Bernard Manning's, so I won't repeat it here (because I can't remember it). Then he left the stage to the sound of The Cramps. What a cheeky boy!
As the night progressed, the woman on my left (who had one helluva barking cough) became more vocal, answering Craig's questions at a conversational, not heckling, level, often expressing agreement or chuckling as she repeated his punchline to herself. She hadn't been drinking and seemed normal in every other way. She was with her husband. It must be nice to engage with a comedian on such a deep level, where you think they are talking only to you. Maybe I just wasn't listening properly. I can't even remember the last joke Craig told.
Full Price Ticket: £32.50 x 2 = £65.00 Service Fee: £4.40 x 2 = £8.80 Venue Facility Fee: £1.75 x 2 = £3.50 Handling Fee £2.85
This event was supposed to take place at the Hydro, but poor ticket sales put the kibosh on that, so the show was transferred to the O2 Academy instead (they also added a second show at St Luke's the previous night). Our new seating location was in the back row of the front balcony, on the aisle. There were still a few empty seats, but not that many (possibly some had been reserved for guests).
I was not expecting the first act, unaware that there were two support bands. Spiritual Cramp were LOUD, playing what I'd describe as American punk, and quickly reminded me to insert my protective earplugs. Their sound reminded me of The Hives, so they were a good complement to the main act.
Yard Act were 'different'. Their frontman had the bravado of Jarvis Cocker and the lyrical speed of a rapper, reminding me of Seb Lowe in that respect, though the band sounded more like early Arctic Monkeys (as Des pointed out). I couldn't make out much of their song lyrics, but they had the confidence to own the stage in front of a Hives crowd. Not my thing, though.
The Hives were immense. With a set backdrop adorned with five giant spheres, spelling H-I-V-E-S (the drum kit adding in the T-H-E), the stage resembled a 60s American music show, with raised cylindrical levels for the drums and bass. Dressed in their usual costumes, braiding illuminated, they blasted through their setlist, with the usual pauses for the singer to whip up the crowd with his unique style of banter. I wasn't feeling great, medicated, but still suffering from the early symptoms of a cold, and even I found myself rocking back and forward in my seat. The energy in the room was terrific, with so many kids downstairs bouncing and moshing (my time doing that is long gone).
Fortunately, punters standing on the balcony level were rare, so my view was consistently good, though the dome of a bald man in front of me does crop up in my photos. During the second number, a bloke the width of an American fridge-freezer got up to dance, but he only lasted one song, as the girl behind him gave him both barrels about how selfish he was. I did notice lots of people heading to the bar/toilet during the show, not just from our row, and there was a large exodus home before the encore. Trains and buses to catch, no doubt. The band played on till exactly 11 pm.
Another triumph for The Hives.
Setlist Enough is Enough Walk Idiot Walk Rigor Mortis Radio Paint a Picture Main Offender Born a Rebel Stick Up Bogus Operandi Hate to Say I Told You So O.C.D.O.D. I'm Alive Here We Go Again Countdown to Shutdown Come On! Tick Tick Boom (With band introductions and Pelle in the crowd)
Encore: Legalize Living Bigger Hole to Fill The Hives Forever Forever The Hives
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
When I retired, I didn't expect to feel like a pensioner quite so quickly (especially as my pension is not due for another decade). My knees ache, I pull muscles easily, and I sometimes need a nap. My crankiness mid-afternoon today went off the chart when, on the drive home from Mokka Jaks (who mucked up my order twice), a man in an open-top convertible decided he had right of way on the narrow road, contrary to the street signs, because his car was more expensive than mine. The way I felt after he brushed off my expletive-filled overreaction with an eye roll made me realise today needed to be a nap day.
It's just as well I did go back to bed because I ended up out cold for over an hour and felt a great deal better for it afterwards. I don't think I could have coped with this gig without that sleep.
Traffic was a bitch on the way there, with both a four-way temporary traffic light system at the junction of Broomlands Street and Maxwellton Street and heavy Rangers traffic on the M8. I managed to arrive before the doors opened and, once inside, found a great spot to watch the gig behind the accessibility seats in the first seated area. I could have gone down the front, as at this point, it was only one person deep at the barrier, but I remembered my achey bones. Let the young uns claim this space.
The support act So Good was striking. Consisting of three blokes in white boiler suits and pink balaclavas, a lead singer, and two backing singers/dancers, they commanded the stage with their energetic performance. I'd never heard of them before but would search them out again if they were ever to return.
Setlist
Inheritance
Hate
I Hate It Here
Hot
If I Had A
Industry Plant
1994
I Rewrote The F**king Bible
I Will Love You
I Rewrote The F**king Bible
As a prelude to the main act, the PA played New Rose by The Damned, signalling the direction Skunk Anansie are moving in nowadays. Touring again as a four-piece, they present their punk rock credentials firmly to the fore. Prepare to mosh.
The stage is decorated with spikes reminiscent of Skin's costume on the previous tour. Tonight, she's dressed in an oversized bomber jacket and cargo pants. The lighting initially is oppressive, keeping the band in shadow with flashing and pulsating lights. It's a rousing start to the proceedings.
This Means War
The fierce mood continues with Charlie Big Potato and Because of You before moving on to a new song, An Artist is An Artist. By the time we reach God Only Knows You, Skin gets a round of applause for an impassioned speech opposing so-called Christians who spread hate for marginalised groups. The fire is still alive in her heart and soul.
The gig highlight for me was when Skin jumped into the crowd during I Can Dream, making her way to the back of the hall before crowd-surfing her way to the stage again. She's older than me and still behaving like a teenager. What a gal!
They indeed tear the place up with the rest of their set, ending, unusually, with another new number only released two days ago.
For a band that's been around this long, I expected the audience to be older, but this one was mixed in terms of age, gender, and sexuality. The setlist contained tracks from all eras of their career, heavily expressing their punk rock credentials. I hate to admit it, but I think I preferred their last tour, where there was a backing singer who played a larger role in complementing Skin's vocals (I'm not suggesting that Skin's vocals were anything less than perfect). However, the band has moved on from that era, even if I haven't. I was so glad I didn't go down the front, given how lively it got.
Maybe I'm getting too old for this, or I just need more naps. I did enjoy it, though.
Afterwards, it was nice catching up with some old school friends, Colin and Kirsteen. I hope she doesn't mind that I pinched her photo.
Rare photographic evidence of the Anonymous Punter, with Colin and Kirsteen.
Ticket Price (From GigsAndTours.com)
1 x Stalls Standing £42.85 Including booking fee
(The booking fee includes a Restoration Levy charged by the venue £5.35 per ticket - £1.60 per ticket)
Transaction Fee £1.50 Total £44.35
Setlist
This Means War
Charlie Big Potato
Because of You
An Artist Is an Artist
I Believed in You
Love Someone Else
God Loves Only You
Secretly
Weak
I Can Dream
Twisted (Everyday Hurts)
My Ugly Boy
Animal
Yes It's Fucking Political
Tear the Place Up
Little Baby Swastikkka
Encore:
Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)
Cheers
Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin cover) (Snippet with band introductions and thanks)
The Skank Heads (Get Off Me)
Lost and Found
An Artist Is an Artist
Weak & I Can Dream (with crowd-surfing)
Cheers (Not the sitcom title song)
It's wine o'clock during the encore
Hanging around to 'Wishing I Didn't Miss You' by Angie Stone (according to Shazam)
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