Halestorm's Lzzy & Joe: Unplugged. The Garage, Glasgow. Sunday 14th June, 2026

I arrived at the venue forty minutes before the doors were due to open. The queue is down as far as the Genting Casino. The warm sun shines behind us, as a steady flow of fans in rock T-shirts joins the queue. Deliveroo and Just Eat riders zip up and down the cycle path at speeds that should be prohibited so close to the pavement. An occasional souped-up car phut-phuts along Sauchiehall Street, sounding like it needs a new exhaust when, in fact, it's entirely deliberate. The casino is popular with the local Chinese community, as they're the only people I see coming in or out. 

At 7pm, we're let in. It's a smooth process. No pat-downs, just bag searches. If you haven't got a bag, you're told to keep going. Then, a ticket scan at the box office at the top of the stairs, then up more stairs to the hall. I get a spot near the barrier, three people in front. I can see both microphone stands and the keyboards. Perfect. There's almost another hour before the show starts.

The space gets hot and sweaty. The front row is all VIPs, with stickers on their shirts identifying them, their number written on in marker pen. In the centre are a couple of giants, their true height disguised by their leaning on the barrier. 

The crowd is still fluid at this point, with positions changing. I end up three from the front. Somehow, a young lad with designer stubble and a wide-brimmed Panama fedora moves from behind me, to beside me, to in front of me. He's more annoying than the giants in front. Who wears a wide-brimmed hat to a gig? What's next? Top hats? 

At 8pm, Lzzy and Joe take the stage. She has no instrument (other than her voice), so pulls the microphone out of the stand and sings from the centre of the stage. Joe sticks to his microphone stand, which is lined with guitar picks. With the audience lights down, Hat Boy's hat blocks my view, a circle of darkness redacting the performance. I can barely see the top of Lzzy's head. I imagine taking slapstick vengeance on the lad, pulling the hat down so hard his head pokes through the rim, becoming a ruff around his neck. I simmer at my lack of view. It's too packed to move.

Before

(en)During

I sneak a few pics of Lzzy, framed by his neck and hairy shirt, from beneath the hat's rim. All is not lost, though, as I can view what's happening on stage thanks to the myriad of tiny screens people are holding to record their own show experience. At the end of the first set, as the pair leave the stage, Joe flicks a few of his guitar picks into the audience. I lose sight of the one heading in my direction, but feel a tiny dunt on my chest. The pick lands on the floor between my feet. I casually retrieve it before anyone else can and slip it into my change pocket. It must have been a lucky pick because this is when my circumstances changed. 

Phone screen

At the interval, a heavy-set Manchester lass inveigles her way forward, initially behind me, then beside me, then in front of me. This places me further away from Hat Man, and suddenly I can see, albeit still with the man-giant baldy in view. The second half was much better. The aircon in the hall kept the place cooler. My view was more relaxed, and I enjoyed the performance much more now that I could see it.

Lzzy has one of the finest and most powerful voices in rock. Her range and clarity are unsurpassed. As a frontwoman, she's so at ease with the crowd, chatting humorously with tales about shows and offstage antics. The dynamic between her and Joe, her partner of 23 years, is similarly comfortable. He seems in awe of her, and she loves him back with every glance and gentle putdown. She's the star, and he loves to be in her orbit. We all do. The sing-alongs are loud, the audience appreciative. We belt out the "Here we, here we" anthem unbidden, followed by "No Scotland, No Party." At the end, the pair surprise us by donning Scotland football tops, Joe in the away top, Lzzy in blue, before toasting us and playing the final song, Here's to us.   

At the end, Lzzy rushes off stage to thank and shake hands with the VIPs before returning to take her bow with Joe and pose for the obligatory audience pic. 

It was an incredible evening, lasting two and a quarter hours, and, afterwards, I felt young again, lifted in spirit and pain-free. Even Hat Boy couldn't spoil this feeling when he scarpered like a young gazelle. Lzzy scrunched up most of the setlists and threw them into the audience, but I managed to find someone with one that was still pristine, who graciously allowed me to take this photo.  

Isn't this lovely!

Setlist

Set 1:

I Get Off

(Halestorm cover)

Do Not Disturb

(Halestorm cover)

Girl Crush

(Little Big Town cover)

Freak Like Me

(Halestorm cover)

I Am the Fire

(Halestorm cover)

Like a Woman Can

(Halestorm cover)

Shiver

(Halestorm cover)

In Your Room

(Halestorm cover)

The Silence

(Halestorm cover)

I Remember You

(Skid Row cover)

Set 2:

Dear Daughter 

(Halestorm cover) - Lzzy solo at the keyboards

Break In 

(Halestorm cover) - Lzzy solo at the keyboards

Love Bites (So Do I) 

(Halestorm cover)

Mz. Hyde 

(Halestorm cover)

I Miss the Misery 

(Halestorm cover)

Gold Dust Woman 

(Fleetwood Mac cover)

White Dress 

(Halestorm cover)

I Like It Heavy 

(Halestorm cover)

Familiar Taste of Poison 

(Halestorm cover)

Bad Romance 

(Lady Gaga cover)

Rock Show 

(Halestorm cover)

Here's to Us 

(Halestorm cover)

Videos (not my finest work)

Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac cover)

Bad Romance (Lady Gaga cover)

Ticket Price: Artist Presale Ticket: £38.50 x 1
Service Fee: £4.85 x 1
Handling Fee £1.50
Total £44.85 via Ticketmaster

Tyketto "Closer to the Sun" UK Tour, The Garage, Glasgow. Tuesday 21st April, 2026.

A Tuesday night gig at The Garage: the queue is down as far as the Gentings Casino by the time we arrive. The doors are due to open at 7 pm, with Collateral on stage at 7.15. The entry process is smooth, and, bypassing the merch room, we make our way to the main hall, where we end up five-deep at the front.

A couple are on my left, the woman as short as the man is tall. Her view of the stage is good until a white-haired pensioner with hearing aids, thick-rimmed specs on a cord, and a walking stick shuffles through the crowd and stops right in front of her. The husband is irate, demanding that the man move, which he doesn't. There's no room. The pensioner brasses it out and stays where he is, forcing the unhappy pair to slide over.

Collateral both look and sound great once my ears adjust to the room. Frontman Angelo Tristan packs charisma with a fine voice. He brings the energy, demanding we raise our game so they can fulfil their role in warming us up. He succeeds. A great start.

However, my photos are shite.

Collateral

It doesn't take long for Warrior Soul to sap that energy. Their intro takes forever before the lead singer joins them on stage. I wished he hadn't. If you're going to copy the look of David Coverdale and the dance moves of David Lee Roth, you shouldn't do it as they are now - vocally strained and arthritic. Any singing voice this man had is long gone. He still bears the demeanour of a rock god, but I quickly grow tired of his shouting into the mic. I don't mean in a death metal way. This is not death metal. If anything, this is the death of metal. The solos the guitarist shreds sound more like instrument abuse than music. If I'd had a magic amp, I'd have rubbed it and wished them to stop. Forever. As I haven't, I close my eyes and wait for it to be over. Interminable!

Warrior Soul - look at us, we used to be middlingly famous

This rather dampens my feelings towards Tyketto. As does the clean-shaven Hagrid in a leather jacket, who uses his heft to push forward to stand in front of the girl beside me. She taps him on the shoulder. He pretends not to notice. She taps more insistently. He turns and fake apologises, edging over slightly. She still can't see. She tells him to do one. He relents and eventually slides sideways to be a pain in front of someone else. (He returned during the set, standing in front of the couple on my other side, but the husband, who was as tall as him, 'encouraged' him to keep going. I didn't see where Hagrid went after this - hopefully home.)

Tyketto frontman Danny Vaughn is a humble soul. He appreciates how the fans have stuck with them for their thirty-five years. He's retained a powerful voice and his sense of humour, and is an easy presence to like. I'm not overly familiar with their music, though I did give the new album a couple of listens (it's a grower). The hardcore fans sing along, while I try to work out what the words are. The talented guitarist keeps playing at the side of the stage, out of the spotlight, which is a bit frustrating. I don't think he realises he's in shadow. 

I don't attempt to shoot any video footage. Too many heads at the same level as mine. Besides, the tall bloke to my right seems to have his phone permanently on record, with an unobstructed view of the stage, so his footage will be superior to mine. Let's hope he shares it on YouTube.

Mr Video

I never managed to snag a photo of the setlist, but noticed a poster of the stage times behind the bar. The barmaid saw me taking the picture, asked if I wanted it, and handed it over. Tyketto never stuck to the 'strict curfew', finishing at 10.45 pm.

The Garage printer needs a new ink cartridge.

Overall, the gig was fine, but I would have enjoyed it more without Warrior Soul's set. 

Setlist:

Rescue Me

Wings

Burning Down Inside

Higher Than High

Strength in Numbers

Reach

Closer to the Sun

The Run

We Rise

Circle the Wagons

Seasons (preceded by the opening verse/ chorus of "Stuck in the Middle with You" by Steelers Wheel)

Harleys & Indians (Riders in the Sky) (Roxette cover)

Standing Alone

Lay Your Body Down

The Brave

Forever Young

Ticket Price: unknown (Bob owes me for tickets, and I owe him. It balances out in the end). 

 

Sam Campbell: Wobservations. The Garage, Wed 13th March, 2024

I didn't know what to expect from this gig. Sam comes across as a funny oddball on TV, but I hadn't seen any of his stand-up. He has pedigree, though, as he won the Edinburgh Award for Best Show of the Fringe in 2022. He also sold out a solo performance of "Bulletproof Ten" at last year's Fringe at the Pleasance Grand despite promoting that the show only lasted ten minutes. 

The ticket for tonight's gig said the doors opened at 8 p.m., but the GICF website said 7 p.m., so I arrived early, at 6.30 p.m., not wanting to take the risk. There was no queue, so we went across the road to the pub. By the time we'd downed our drinks, there were about twenty people waiting. 

My name wasn't on the attendee list, but I had printed out the tickets, so we were waved on. Unusually for such an event, the tickets weren't scanned. Then we waited in the bar area for the main hall to open. The staff opened the curtains just before showtime and, as the show was a sellout, insisted we fill each row in turn with no gaps, starting at the front. We ended up sitting bang in the middle of the second row. Perfect!

My pre-show view

We were packed in like sardines (which Sam referenced early in the show). I wondered if the seats were getting smaller or if I was getting bigger (thinking the latter), but my mate, who is thinner than a stick that's had its stomach removed, assured me it was the seats.   

Sam arrived on stage wearing sunglasses, which flew off his face up onto the balcony. From there, the weirdness continued. Sam's comedy is difficult to put into words. It's absurd, it's wacky, it's prankish, but most of all, it's funny. He asked a guy in the front row if he had keys. Sam got him to throw them onto the stage for Sam to catch using his special catching glove. Then Sam pinged the keys to a guy wearing the same type of glove at the side of the stage. The guy catches them, receives an audience cheer, then bolts off, with Sam admitting, "I don't know that guy", then corrects himself, saying, "I do know that guy. I just don't trust him". The poor punter had to wait till the very last moment of the show to get his keys back, and even then, the return was elaborate (involving a plant tub, a box of rice crispies, four litres of milk and a giant spoon, the keys being tossed into the pot from the balcony).

An Image from The bizarre video he played during the interval

We had a broken egg dangled over our heads using an extendable pole, the yoke dangling longer and longer, threatening to drip onto us (it was a foot long before he whisked it away - pun intended). He showed us screen grabs of text exchanges between him and a school, which resulted in him going in disguise to a parents' evening pretending to be the parent of the kid for whom he'd been receiving detention notifications. There was audience participation in a bizarre game show where the participants picked a number that revealed an Australian ad for life insurance. His PowerPoint work was extraordinarily bizarre. With his standup material, you never knew what was coming next.   

Sam is a unique talent, unlike anything I've ever seen. Hail to the weirdness! 

Ticket price £18 plus fees.

Blurb:  

Basically, we keep him in a metal crate. Once everyone is settled and the house lights go down, we will let him loose onto the stage.
It is our understanding that his comedy moments will DAZZLE you. His prefrontal cortex is larger than you might expect.
When he’s done/empty we shove him back in the crate and you will be allowed to return to your home. How does all that sound?
As seen on Taskmaster.

Those Damn Crows, February 2023 Tour. The Garage, Glasgow. Tuesday 21st February, 2023

Sometimes a song on the radio sticks in your head so much, you feel compelled to learn more about the band, seeking out their back catalogue and searching the tour listings to see if they're coming to town. Such a song was "Man on Fire", a catchy head nodder that received heavy airplay on Planet Rock Radio. Having listened to and liked their other work, it was a no-brainer to go with the lads to this gig. Better still, it was on a Tuesday, my regular day off from work, so no problems getting there on time.

But we were meeting in the pub and some were running late so we didn't arrive at the venue till after seven (doors open at 6.30pm). The place was rammed. I've never seen The Garage so full so early. Valhalla Awaits were mid-set and it looked like we were going to struggle to find a spot except at the back. What I didn't know was we had booked a booth. With six of us crammed in, my nutsack came in for a bit of a crush, legs pressed together, and I knew this position would be untenable for the duration of the gig. Fortunately, Alan and Bob wanted to stand so the increased space became bearable.

Sitting properly on the seat, the view was poor. I could barely see the second support act, which I wasn't overly bothered about. The music didn't move me. They played their set. That's about all I can say about them.

I was here for Those Damn Crows. They did not disappoint. Choosing to perch against the wall on the top of the backs of the seats, my view was much improved except for the pipe on the underside of the balcony which restricted it marginally, becoming an issue only when the lead singer or bassist stood on the platform at the nearside of the stage.

The sound was good, the music had depth and the lead singer enjoyed himself immensely, teasing us that we couldn't be better than Swansea (the band are Welsh, as in fact were all the bands tonight). He even climbed onto the balcony to lead the singalong, returning to the stage through the crowd.

This was their first UK headline tour and I think they played safe picking the 700 capacity Garage. I don't know if they could have filled the Barrowland but that is a gig I want to see.  Maybe there the other guitarist would have had more stage to play with instead of being stuck in the corner.

I predict great things from this band. They will fill arenas one day.

Setlist

Fill The Void

Wake Up

Sick of Me

Kingdom of Dust

Sin on Skin

Blink of an Eye

Who Did It?

Send the Reaper

Rock N Roll Ain't Dead

Go Get It

Takedown

Man On Fire

Waiting For Me

Encore:

This Time I'm Ready

Play Video

See You Again

Ticket Price: £18 plus fees.  

The timings slipped slightly on the night

James & The Cold Gun