Kaleo, Glasgow Barrowlands. Fri 3rd Nov 2017

It's not often that you pay to see a band then wish the support act had been headlining. Not there was anything wrong with Kaleo. The audience loved them, singing along, clapping their hands, stamping their feet, even performing an Icelandic Viking thunderclap to bring them back for an encore (they're from Iceland). It's just Judah & the Lion were more fun.

Kaleo's play a moody Southern blues-style rock. Their debut album has just gone platinum in the US. The lead singer has a deep resonant voice with a growl Dave Grohl would be proud of. The band are tight. What was lacking was charisma. Only the bassist went to town geeing up the crowd to get them bouncing. The lead singer, with his perma-frown and moody eyebrows, looked like his dog had died, at least until the encore where he cracked a smile briefly. I don't think it was nerves. I don't think it was arrogance. Maybe it's too early in his performing career. His confidence will grow with age. I just hope they move beyond their signature sound as it became a little samey.

Judah & the Lion, on the other hand, stated their agenda up front - we were going to have a good time. Lots of energy from the lead singer and a quirky sound that made them stand out. As a support act, their lighting show was well above average. They stated they will never be a cool band, they will only be themselves. It felt like they were welcoming us into their world. It was a nice place to be, replete with booty dances, a cover of Mr Brightside, woah-a-long songs, and even a touch of bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. They may be from Mississipi but tonight their hearts belonged in Glasgow. They finished with a two-minute dance party with all the guitar players and singers bustin their moves while the drummer and keyboard player went mental on the rhythm front. A superb finale. I suspect they will become a festival fave.

(There was a second support act, from Ontario, but I never caught their name. They had a distinctive guitarist-singer with a lion's mane of brown hair, a female bassist and a nutty drummer. We only heard a few of their song as we arrived late. They were what I expect from a support act).

My photos were poor so I've only attached a couple, plus a publicity pic. I hope you have enjoyed reading my review.

Judah and the Lion

GUN, "Favourite Pleasures" Album Launch Party - St Luke's and The Winged Ox, Glasgow. Thurs 14th Sept 2017.

A freebie gig for four hundred lucky fans that had pre-ordered the new album from the band's website (that's two hundred pre-orders with two hundred plus ones). This gig was a wee bit special.

In such a small venue, the sound quality was a bit off at first, with the mix favouring the guitars over the vocals, but you felt so close to the band you could (almost) smell Dante's aftershave and get dripped on by Joolz sweat. Shame a
tall, dome-shaped baldy decided to plonk himself between me and the singer's microphone stand. Hence my poor photos, despite being relatively near to the stage. It was fun to play a game pretending to be at a stadium gig watching the band on the screens. Even if they were only phone size, the picture clarity was great.

Playing a lot of the tracks from the album, the lack of familiarity prevented the audience from properly engaging but everyone was nodding their heads appreciatively. The album's been getting great reviews, well earned from what I heard tonight.

Of course, they weren't only going to play new songs to entertain and brought out the classics, 'Crazy You', 'Inside Out' and 'Shame on You' to finish their hour-long set.

Of course, even freebie gigs can have encores. So they came back out to play 'one' more number, 'Steal Your Fire', which then flowed into 'Fight for Your Right to Party' as a proper finale. I'm ever so slightly hoarse now.

Tonight felt like a teaser gig: fun, intimate and rewarding. I'm really looking forward to the full gig at the Barrowland in December. "Paaaar-tay."

Fun fact I discovered tonight: St Luke's is not where I thought it was. It is not St Andrew's House, off Glasgow Green. It is another six-minute walk from there, beyond the Barras, on Bain Street. Google Maps, you are a saviour in times like these. This meant we missed most of the support act, local band, 100 Fables. The two songs I heard were alright.

100 Fables

Setlist

She Knows
Here's Where I Am
Favourite Pleasures
Secret Lovers
Black Heart
Tragic Heroes
Boy Who Fooled the World
Crazy You
Inside Out
Shame on You
Steal Your Fire
(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!) (Beastie Boys cover)

Rainbow - SSE Hydro, Glasgow. Sun 25th June, 2017

The touts were lamenting outside. The gig was nowhere near a sell-out, with the top tier and some of the balcony curtained off. Perhaps the lack of sales prompted a budget cut when it came to the spectacle (and the number of people playing in the support act - usually seven, but tonight five).

The support act was 'MOSTLY AUTUMN' (not a jibe about the missing two). They play a folk rock that D&D players would love to have on in the background during a game. The lead singer resembled a depressed Disney Princess in her black maternity dress and tiara (I later discovered she dropped a sprog a week ago). Her hubby, the guitarist, looked like a wilder Grizzly Adams. He sang too. I wasn't overly impressed by her vocals or his guitar and the band lacked something (probably the missing two). I was glad when the lighting guy decided to throw everything up at the end in a frenetic burst because it signalled they were done.

This gig was attended by a lot of strange people. One pensioner became very confused because row U was not the one after Q. His wife abandoned him to security.

As an all-seated gig, you didn't have the luxury of moving to avoid the nuggets. We, unfortunately, had two in front.

The first, directly in front, was your typical inebriated Glasgow punter. Charming in an 'everyone's pal' kind of way, he produced the best heckle of the night - 'Richie, I want to drink your bathwater'.

The second was a younger guy, maybe in his forties, looking like a blond Liam Gallagher with Frank McAvennie's teeth, dressed in a polo shirt and white zip top. He danced the entire night like a toddler in need of a whizz, pumping the air with his fists, performing air drums and air guitar along with whoever was prominent, singing all the lyrics and constantly turning to his friends around the auditorium for affirmation. I don't know if he was autistic or just high. I just wish I had the same lack of inhibition to enjoy myself as much as he did. He even pulled a burd. Before we knew it he was bumping bums with a short girl with frizzy hair and an excited grin that said 'this is the best night of my life'. She'll probably stab him to death when she discovers it's not true love.

Our 'Liam' offered a major distraction from the show as he demanded attention from everyone around, mimic heckling the big boys, occasionally wandering off to shake the hands of a nearby friend. When the 'Felicity Smoke' bouncer with the blonde ponytail and glasses caught him wandering the path between block 2 and 5 looking for a better view, she marched him back to his seat. He looked chastised for about a second then he was up again drumming the air.

As for Rainbow, they played a mixture of Rainbow and Purple tracks, with Stargazer being particularly strong. The lead singer, who looked like the actor who played Robb Stark, has a powerful voice with a great range. He does superb justice to the Dio songs with a growl that sounded like the legend himself. I loved the little homages to Dio on the screen, either in footage or stills during those numbers. One day, when he is allowed to, Ronnie Romero will make a great frontman for a fine band.

Unfortunately, this is Richie Blackmore's Rainbow and no one is allowed to upstage him. The singer knew to drift to the edges of the stage when the god that is Richie was playing. While he is a great guitarist, he offers no empathy towards the audience, satisfied to perform as if on Lithium. Still, what he does is highly accomplished plucking.

One disappointment about the show was the visuals. We were treated to a forest, a candle, burning flames, a vortex effect, some twigs, smoke and some gloop. This does not make for interesting visuals. Maybe they were trying to recreate a proper 70s show, only with a big screen. I suspect they were saving money.

Surprisingly for Glasgow, the audience interaction was flat, beyond the morons shouting out. The singing along wasn't strong. The next best heckle was during the 'harpsichord solo' (yes, you read that right) when the man behind me called out 'Get your ice creams, two for a pound.'

Sad to admit, but Rainbow isn't Rising but it is the nearest thing you'll get to hearing the Dio classics live again. Long live rock n roll.

Setlist

Land of Hope and Glory (Edward Elgar song)
Over the Rainbow (Harold Arlen song) (Intro)
Spotlight Kid
I Surrender 
Mistreated (Deep Purple cover)
Since You Been Gone
Man on the Silver Mountain
Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
Soldier of Fortune (Deep Purple cover) (Ritchie and Bob Nouveau on acoustic guitars)
Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple cover)
Difficult to Cure (including bass and keyboard solos)
All Night Long
Child in Time (Deep Purple cover)
Stargazer
Long Live Rock 'n' Roll

Encore:
Burn (Deep Purple cover)
Black Night (Deep Purple cover) (including drum solo)
The Temple of the King
Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple cover)

KISS - KISSWORLD 2017, SSE Hydro, Sat 27 May 2017.

As a support act, we wanted the best but got The Dives. They had the look and sound of an American high school band playing prom night. A four piece, stylised in separate but distinct outfits, in greys, creams and blacks, they played sixties style guitar pop, with lots of backing vocal oohs and aahs. Each member sang lead at one point but the main vocalist was obviously the leading man, the Lennon of the group, front and centre, whipping his guitar up and enjoying their first night in an arena. Their one concession to the fact that it was a Kiss concert seemed to be the lightning flashes on the main man's guitar strap. An odd choice of support. I won't be rushing to download their new EP.

Then came the hottest band in the world: KISS. They've been coming to Scotland since 1976 and still do what it says on the face paint tin - pyros, fireworks, lasers, big screens, confetti cannons, streamer cannons, rising stages, flying band members, breathing fire, bleeding mouths and plenty of tongue. A two-hour show, with lots of energy and audience clapping, cheering and singing along, it was party time in Glasgow.

One irritation for me was the fact that Paul Stanley sounds more and more like Mark Hamill as the Joker (in the Batman Animated Series), an effect enhanced by the white face paint. If he'd donned a purple jacket and wide-brimmed hat, I'd have been looking around for Harley and wondering if the next pyro was going to be pointed at us. His on show six pack had a faint hint of cosmetic enhancement but he's certainly spritely for his age.

Gene Simmons is a monster who owns the stage. Sharing lead vocals on a number of songs, his mannerisms and extended tongue flicks are part of the joy of the band.

They chug out anthem after anthem, some I was not familiar with, and the audience laps it up. With all the flying about and rising stages, a highly entertaining show.

Setlist
Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin song) (tape)
Deuce
Shout It Out Loud
Lick It Up
I Love It Loud
Firehouse
Shock Me
Guitar Solo
Flaming Youth
Bass Solo
God of Thunder
Crazy Crazy Nights
War Machine
Say Yeah
Psycho Circus
Black Diamond
Rock and Roll All Nite

Encore:
I Was Made for Lovin' You
Detroit Rock City
God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II (tape)

Take That, Wonderland Tour, SSE Hydro, Glasgow. Thurs 11th May 2017

No proper review tonight. My wife won't allow any criticism. But... I'm not a fan of the round stage. It worked for the carousel sequence but other than that they had to divide their time going round and round and back to the middle. It felt like they were always performing for the next person rather than me. However, they had good sound, great visuals, clever staging - a Cirque du Take That. All Saints in support were looking and sounding good too, even if Nat rarely smiled. The others looked like they were really enjoying themselves. She looked like a contractual obligation. The audience was a bit 'oestrogen and alcohol' but everyone enjoyed themselves and no one I could see embarrassed themselves.

Setlist

Wonderland
Greatest Day
Get Ready for It
Giants
Kidz
Underground Machine
Relight My Fire (Dan Hartman cover)
Superstar
Hope

Jungle Acoustic Medley
Beautiful World
Wait
Satisfied
Lovelife
How Deep Is Your Love? (Bee Gees cover)

New Day
Shine
Back for Good
Patience
Pray
It's All for You
The Flood
Cry (Sigma cover)
These Days

Encore:
Never Forget
Rule the World

GUN / Black Star Riders, O2 ABC, Glasgow Wed 8th March, 2017

I had a moment tonight.

It wasn't on the way to the gig, sitting at the traffic lights, eyes glancing over at the window of the gym, where various bodies in all stages of musculature stretched, crunched and pushed to their own inharmonious rhythm.

It wasn't at the Wetherspoons pub where three meals and three pints got me change from £21 (I wasn't being greedy; there were three of us).

It definitely wasn't during the support act, Backyard Babies, whose punkish rawk left me indifferent, despite the jeers from the quivering guitarist (when he wasn't wiping his nose with long swipes of his wrist).

It wasn't even during the rock posturing of Black Star Riders, playing a co-headline gig with GUN at the O2 ABC in Sauchiehall Street. They were good but I preferred them when they played a more balanced mix of Thin Lizzy and their own stuff.

It came during the opening bars of GUN's "Better Days". It felt in an instant that the years were peeled away, shedding the baggage I've collected both physically and mentally over the last thirty years. The music took me back to my early twenties, a time when I had no responsibilities, no ties but was generally shy and quiet. I loved rock music and local band GUN in particular. The live GUN experience was so freeing, unleashing my usually repressed emotions to jump and bounce, sing and shout, pump the air and go wild along with everyone around me. I took the tunes into my heart and they made it beat faster. They reminded me I was alive.

So thank you GUN for reawakening that feeling inside. It was great to be reminded of better days. There's no better high than feeling young again.

GUN Setlist

Let It Shine

Word Up! (Cameo cover)

Don't Say It's Over

Better Days

Hold Your Head Up

Money (Everybody Loves Her)

She Knows

Labour Of Life

Inside Out

Steal Your Fire

Shame on You

(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!) (Beastie Boys cover)

BSR Setlist

Heavy Fire

Bloodshot

The Killer Instinct

Dancing With the Wrong Girl

Soldierstown

When the Night Comes In

All Hell Breaks Loose

The Boys Are Back in Town (Thin Lizzy cover)

Cold War Love

Who Rides the Tiger

Testify or Say Goodbye

Kingdom of the Lost

Bound for Glory

Finest Hour