MUSE, Drones tour, SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Sun 17th April 2016

I was really looking forward to this gig. 'Drones' was my favourite album of last year and, although our seats were in the upper section, MUSE had promised a spectacle.

The first disappointment came on arrival when everyone was being funneled into huge lines through the south entrance. At this point, the doors had been open for forty minutes so I wasn't expecting such a long queue. It took fifteen minutes to get through in a bitingly cold wind as security searched (almost) everyone for booze or weapons. Our queue didn't have a female security person so the women didn't get a frisk. The man who searched me was in a right mood, pausing his search to repeat, 'I said are you carrying any beer, bottles or cans?' when I failed to respond to his initial mumble. If you expect an answer, don't address my chest, talk to the ears. Welcome to the Hydro.

The second disappointment was realising we couldn't see the round screen above the stage from our seats because the sound and lighting rigs obscured our view. This was a small irritation but enough to trigger my negative mood.

The support act were not the ones listed on the Ticketmaster email. Instead, we got Phantogram, an American electro-rock band with a female lead singer. They never managed to own the large circular stage. Being unfamiliar with their work, their songs never engaged me and I was glad when they stopped.

MUSE have a powerful sound. It's a shame they didn't get the acoustics right last night, with a lot of sibilance on Matt Bellamy's vocals. I didn't think he was on top form, his guitar work occasionally sloppy, his vocals missing the big notes consistently. Matt also failed to personalise the show for the Glasgow fans, bar three obligatory mentions of Glasgow and two of 'Scotland'. No chat, little crowd work; it was the same show that everyone else gets. He didn't even introduce his bandmates.

I did think the staging was imaginative, with its turntable centre and raised wings; the lighting was amazing and the floating spheres added another dimension. The screens that descended occasionally worked well sometimes, such as when displaying the hands pulling the puppet strings, but were weaker when projecting live images of the band. Maybe it was the angle we were looking at them, though.

The crowd on floor level looked like they were really enjoying themselves, bouncing and rippling, with an occasion mini mosh pit erupting during the faster numbers. Upstairs we wobbled our legs, nodded our heads and were told to sit down if we deigned to stand. Probably for our own good given how drunk some were. The chatting behind me really irritated me during the quieter numbers but that was perhaps due to a lack of engagement with the band. It didn't stop me imagining turning around and lifting the squawking woman bodily from her seat and propelling her over the balcony to the floor below. Give her something to really talk about. A couple of rows in front of me the tall lads, in their late twenties/ early thirties, with formerly athletic frames built in the gym and lost in the pub, regularly popped off for another quartet of pints, forcing everyone else in the row to stand up to let them out. I understand why they don't but it would be great if the venue would shut the bars during the performance to avoid this disturbance. I was amused by their air hugging at the end, necks too tired to support their lolling heads.

If I went to see MUSE again, I would only want to do so if I was standing. I'm left with a feeling of 'seen that, done that, box ticked, move on' which I'm sure is not the impression MUSE want to give their fans.

Setlist
Drones (Intro tape) 
Psycho
Reapers
Map of the Problematique
('Who Knows Who' riff + Rage Against The Machine's 'Maggie's Farm' riff outro) 
Dead Inside
Bliss (Extended outro)
The 2nd Law: Isolated System (Shortened)
The Handler
Supermassive Black Hole (The Jimi Hendrix Experience's 'Voodoo Child' intro)
Prelude
Starlight
Citizen Erased
Munich Jam
Madness
[JFK]
Stockholm Syndrome (Rage Against The Machine's 'Township Rebellion' riff + 'Execution Commentary' riff outro)'
Time Is Running Out
Uprising (Extended outro)
The Globalist
Drones (Reprise)

Encore:
Take a Bow
Mercy
Knights of Cydonia (Ennio Morricone's 'Man With a Harmonica' intro)

Mark Thomas. ‘TRESPASS’, The Tron Theatre, Wed 13th April 2016

Mark Thomas is a political comedian, an activist, a trouble maker and, most of all, very funny. With an impish demeanour, he can be playful, indignant, raging and serious all in one sentence. Throwaway lines explode like comedic hand grenades. He prowls and parades across the stage, owning the space (an apt metaphor), commanding and demanding our attention for the words he speaks are a gospel of truth designed to open our eyes to the injustices around us (with wank gags: he assures us the political stuff is coming later).

In the first half, the fifty-three-year-old performs as his own support, describing what he was up to last year with his 100 acts of minor dissent. The audience supply him with four random numbers between 1 and 100 and he describes those particular acts from his book of the same name. They encompass things like having three female friends racing a pink remote control car on the pavement outside the Saudi embassy to rearranging the letters on the overhead banner promoting the films playing at the Curzon Cinema to highlight their policy of using zero hour contracts and paying less that the living wage. It was in this half that he notices an audience member lit up by his mobile phone. He then pauses the show to lecture the person about how, having paid for his ticket, he may feel entitled to use his phone but in reality, he was not only putting him off as the performer but he was also being rude to everyone around him who had also paid for their tickets. Such an act of selfishness could only be regarded as that of a Tory, he commented. This serious aside kept the mobiles away for the rest of the performance, a novelty.

In the second half, he starts the show proper. ‘Trespass’ is a show highlighting how our civil freedoms are being eroded by privatisation to such an extent that the very land beneath our feet is being sold off. A public footpath between the Thames and a high rise complex (30% occupied but 100% sold, at a cost from £2.5 million an apartment) has signs erected by the residents saying ‘No Loitering’. Mark takes umbrage with this curtailment of his right to loiter on public land and arranges a tea party with cake to encourage passers-by to stop. Then it escalates to a full-blown fete the following week when the residents complain.

He runs a 5K along the two public edges of the 15 metre triangle outside the RBS London head office to highlight that this former public pavement is now owned by RBS. He then attempts to get the walk recognised as a heritage trail. Just two examples among many that inform the show so I'm not spoiling too much.

The joy in his work is the way he uses absurdity to shed a light on injustice, which in itself can be equally absurd, e.g. Salford Council wished to introduce a swearing ban so he asked them to indicate which from a list of 240 words could he use during his show at the Arts Centre, not wishing to break the law. They replied he could use any of them because his show was art and they did not wish to curtail his freedom of speech. As such, he arranged a choir to sing a song consisting entirely of those swear words outside his show afterwards, a video of which appeared on the Mail Online with almost every word bleeped out (everything apart from ‘cunny’). Hilarious!

He is smart, witty, vulgar, challenging, righteous and preachy but right on the nose. He may be too old to flirt anymore but this audience loved him and his message. His three dates at the Tron are sold out and on the strength of this material, I can understand why.

Hue and Cry, Paisley Town Hall. Sat 26th March 2016

The support act was Emily Middlemass, with a young backing band of teenagers, none of whom would have had any chance of being served alcohol at the bar. No pics because it felt really awkward to photograph her. She is 15/16 and looks about thirteen. She has a good pop voice and a rock/ pop sound, writes her own material, which is teen catchy, and has appeared on the X Factor, but it felt wholly inappropriate for a late-forty-odd male to be excited by her. I had to look away as she sat on the edge of the stage, fearing a Britney Spears exposure moment. Aside from a misfire finale of The Killers 'All These Things I've Done' (her only cover), she rocked the town hall. Early days for her, though. I may revisit when it's legal.

I was a big fan of Hue and Cry in the eighties and early nineties, seeing them perform in all sizes of venues, but lost my way after Stars Crash Down. Tonight the Kane brothers brought the full band to Paisley.Their show was a fair mix of all their stuff: the early pop classics, the Hue and Cry faves. to some newer jazzy stuff I'd not heard before.

I wasn't sure what to make of the audience. At first, I thought they were just Paisley punters there because it was in Paisley but not necessarily fans. I was surprised that so many sang along. The older stuff worked better, being more familiar. When they played the newer stuff a noticeable chunk of the audience made their way to the toilets or the bar for an empty/refill. Surrounded a mix of males and females of an older age group, I became aware tonight of the function of a beer belly - to rest one's pint on, with lots of men adopting this cosy position.

I didn't rate the trumpet player or the guitarist but the rest of the band were solid. Pat Kane's ego could fill any hall and he still gives a great performance, belting out the tunes and jerking his moves to the music. The sound was a little too loud for the venue (a bit distorted and screechy at times) and my ears are still ringing and probably will be for days. They gave us an hour and a half which was fine for Paisley.

Thank you to Jackie Mills for finding me a ticket after the gig sold out. It's lovely when a customer can repay your years of caring service with a favour. Cheers, Jackie.

Adele, SSE Hydro, Glasgow. Fri 25th March 2016.

From the gods of the Hydro three rows from the roof, I enjoyed tonight's Adele concert. Unlike the Marillion lyrics of my youth, I cannot recite the words to every one of her songs but most of the audience (girls, gays and boyfriends, mostly) could. She has a great voice and a genuine affection for her audience. The sound in the auditorium was really sharp, at least until the encore when a bit of echo crept in.

I noted a lot of the females around me (just generally) really felt touched (not by me) emotionally (drunk?), as if her words were really speaking to them and I don't mean the occasional 'shit, fuck' that peppered her between-song chats.

She is very open with her audience, wiggling waves at them while singing, engaging and friendly, even autographing a boy's chest on stage while his boyfriend took pictures, then selfies and hugs.

It's a deceptively simple show (no support act) focusing on her and her songs. She doesn't have a lot of dance numbers in her back catalogue which didn't stop one girl a couple of rows in front of me doing her best impression of a forecourt inflatable sign, arms flapping in the air randomly while holding a half-empty plastic beer cup; or the mother, whose seven (?) year old daughter brought her cuddly rabbit, who rocked and pointed like Mo Farah to the music at any opportunity. I mock them only because I am too reserved to show any dance moves beyond tapping my feet and occasionally swaying. Plus there was the fear of falling. And I have a cold. But I'm getting off the point.

She is who she is and she gave a good two and a half hours tonight. The staging was clever and not too showy. Not many 27-year-olds in the music biz can match her for personality, ability and talent. You wouldn't want to mess with her. So well done Adele.

Setlist

Hello

Hometown Glory

One and Only

Rumour Has It

Water Under the Bridge

I Miss You

Skyfall

Million Years Ago

Don't You Remember

Send My Love (to Your New Lover)

Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan cover)

Sweetest Devotion

Chasing Pavements

Someone Like You

Set Fire to the Rain

Encore:

All I Ask

When We Were Young

Rolling in the Deep

LIMMY LIVE! SEC Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow. Sun 31st Jan 2016.

Quite a few empty seats down in the stalls was perhaps symptomatic of a Sunday night show in Glasgow rather than the enthusiasm of the audience. To me it felt like a Limmy's Show memorial with an appreciative audience there to pay their respects. Referencing material from the show extracted laughs, eg Dee Dee mentioning Yoker, without it actually being funny in itself.

It was fine. Some good laughs, a bit of gentle audience participation (but only if they were up for it) and lots of the C-word. 'She's turned the weans against me' was clever, starting in the balcony, then descending to the circle then the stalls, all the while extending the joke (top floor - novelty of being there, upper circle down to his pants, front circle his plastic dobber flops out, stalls reveals the skid marks on the pants) then a dance on the stage with floppy wiggling between his legs. The big screen links between sketches were inventive in the style of the tv show, playing with convention.

My main criticism is: this was Limmy Show Live! I would have preferred more new material, new characters and less reliance on goodwill. He was trading mostly on his old material rather than creating new stuff. But two hours (with a 15min interval) flew by so it wasn't all bad.

The supporting cast were excellent.

If he does another one, he's going to have to come up with fresh material.

Link to YouTube Clip 

Admiral Fallow, Celtic Connections, the Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow. Sat 30th Jan 2016

Admiral Fallow played a sold-out gig at The Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow tonight. Support came in the shape of Hannah Lou Clark who strummed a distorted electric guitar, occasionally backed by a drum machine, while warbling away her songs. Nuff said about her.

Admiral Fallow have a very distinctive Scottish sound, due in part to the burl of lead singer Louis Abbot. They're hard to describe: imagine a pint of Scottish art college band, with a chaser of Mumford and Sons and a dash of Radiohead, then add extra percussion, a clarinet, flute and an accordion, then go and listen to them on Itunes. Good gig and a very eclectic crowd: from geriatrics down to teens all enjoying a Celtic Connection.

Setlist
Happened in The Fall
Carousel
Holding The Strings
Guest Of The Government
Dead Against Smoking
Subbuteo
Building As Foreign
Evangeline
Four Bulbs
Tree Bursts
The Paper Trench
Brother
Squealing Pigs
Easy As Breathing

Encore:
Liquor And Milk
Isn't This World Enough??
Old Balloons

Judas Priest, 'Redeemer of Souls' Tour 2015, Glasgow Barrowland. Tues 24th Nov 2015

Unlike Tom Russell, I don't think Judas Priest were sensational tonight at the Barrowlands. They were good, but a number of things counted against them: they only played for 90 minutes and Rob Halford had a tendency to remain off stage at the start of numbers while he changed his jacket (which he did for every song). It felt odd to hear the singer and scan the stage to look for him only to find him wander on a few lines into the song. Maybe there was a reason for it. Maybe he was just tired. Or lazy. Or old. I was disappointed by the way he engaged the audience. He never spoke to us until forty minutes in and it took another twenty to address us directly, his Glasgow audience. He strutted the stage like a WWE wrestler, arm aloft, waving his hand to cajole the audience to love him, which we did. Then he'd pop off during some of the guitar solos, rather than interact with the audience or the band. His voice was in fine tune though. I felt he phoned it in a bit tonight though. The younger guitarist was fantastic and the band sound was great so it wasn't all bad.

The support act Michael Schenker's Temple of God are a tight outfit. Their lead singer, Doogie White (who's also sung with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow and Yngwie Malmsteen) is an experienced frontman with all the rock moves. At 55 years old, he confessed to the crowd that this was his first time playing the Barrowland and, as a local boy from Motherwell, he felt proud. They kicked off their set with UFO's 'Doctor Doctor', one of my favourite rock songs and the audience loved it too. They also played other UFO songs, some of their own and 'Rock You Like a Hurricane' by The Scorpions. A great band and a shame they only got 45 mins.

Highlights of the gig for me were: the last track played over the PA before Priest came on stage was 'Black Sabbath' by Black Sabbath. The lights dimmed as it started giving the crowd a sense of anticipation and then everyone began to sing along as one. Memorable, given it wasn't a Sabbath gig; the song 'Breaking the Law' - as it started, the youngsters in the crowd, of which there were a few, kicked off a mosh pit about five feet from me. So much energy bouncing around as they flew at one another and into the audience around them. It was wild: a mix of sweat, alcohol and aggression, boiling up in a circle. I thought one young lad was going to erupt into violence as he stared then lunged towards someone, only to be hugged and calmed down by his mate, who then shoved him away to kick off another bout of moshing. Wonderful stuff and amusing to watch security eye them for trouble.

'Living After Midnight' was great but my favourite tune of the night was 'Turbo Lover', just because it's a great anthem, it's easy to sing along to and I know most of the words. My voice is hoarse tonight.

This was the second time I've seen Judas Priest (the last time was at the Edinburgh Playhouse in the 80s) and I think that will be enough. I'm glad I went for the experience.

It still feels weird to leave the Barrowland not stinking of cigarette smoke with a voice two octaves lower.

Setlist
War Pigs (Black Sabbath song) (tape)
Battle Cry (tape)
Dragonaut
Metal Gods
Desert Plains
Victim of Changes
Halls of Valhalla
The Rage
Turbo Lover
Redeemer of Souls
Beyond the Realms of Death
Screaming for Vengeance
Breaking the Law
Hell Bent for Leather

Encore:
The Hellion (tape)
Electric Eye
You've Got Another Thing Comin'

Encore 2:
Painkiller
Living After Midnight
Beginning of the End (tape)