Dara Ó Briain: Re:Creation, Theatre Royal, Glasgow. Friday 27th June 2025

Because I'm an idiot, I put in my diary that I'd bought tickets for the Thursday performance, and I got one hell of a surprise when I found out I'd made an error - it was the Friday show - as I'd subsequently bought tickets for Ed Byrne at Paisley Town Hall for that night too. Not for the first (or last) time, someone suggested I hire a social secretary. I like both comedians, but I cannot be in two places at once. That is a physical impossibility, so I had to make a choice. My wife prefers Dara. He's a more sophisticated comedian, though both are excellent storytellers, so my Ed Byrne tickets made their way to Renfrew. Cheers, Colin.

Dara opened the show with some observational material and crowd work. Dara's improv skills are acute. He hit gold multiple times with the woman who sells plastic, the IT administrator for brand management at Tennants (Tennants Zero receiving an instant "Fuck Off" from the balcony), and the man who works on a "House boat" (Dara misheard him. What he'd actually said was 'Hedge Fund', but Dara ran with House Boat anyway because it was funnier). My only concern at this point was in making out everything he was saying. The sound from the speakers wasn't clear, and he talks so fast, it was difficult to keep up. 

Then, just as he was getting into his flow on the subject of identity, the one thing we hadn't expected happened. We all got an unguided tour of the Theatre Royal's fire escape corridors and backyard when the emergency alarm rang. It took an eternity to shuffle out. Dara had been talking about not minding people coming up to him for a selfie; it was the chat he detested, so he had to eat those words as we gathered outside. (There's no private fire alarm waiting area for the performers.)

When we were allowed back in, and he returned to the stage to finish Act One (or Part Two, as he now called it), he made a point of informing us that he still didn't mind selfies, but perhaps it shouldn't delay him returning to his work, for the show the people talking to him had paid to see.    

After the interval, 'Part Three' got to the meat of his material: that of his search to identify and locate his biological father. Dara's previous tour, "So...Where Were We?", discussed his discovery later in life that he'd been adopted and his difficult search to find his biological mother. This was the follow-up to that story, its continuation. Once again, he weaved a delicate, sensitive tale punctuated with humour, leading up to a doozy of a punchline that made the audience gasp. The fallout from that big laugh then became the subject of the encore.

Dara is such a skilled storyteller. It's easy to forget, given that he has been performing for thirty-five years, just how talented he is. Whatever his genetics, he's definitely got funny bones.   

Ticket Price: £35.18 x 2 plus Transaction fee £3.95 = £74.31

Sting 3.0, Summer Sessions, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. Wednesday 25th June 2025

The last time I went to a gig at Bellahouston Park, I parked miles away and got hugely irritated as I passed many empty spaces on the way to the venue. Tonight, I parked closer, but didn't get irritated as I reached Corkerhill Road and saw only a couple of cars parked there. I was chilled. 

Chilled would be a good term to describe Sting. The show isn't about gimmicks. It's about playing the music that spans his career. Sting 3.0 is as close as you're ever likely to get to The Police lineup, just Sting, a drummer and a guitarist. The crowd were definitely up for being witnesses.

We had VIP tickets, so took the opportunity to chill in the private garden area, grabbing a surprisingly delicious burger from one of the food vendors and a drink. There were many benches and seats, but still not enough to accommodate everyone, even with a few forward-thinking people bringing their own. 

We missed the opening act, Sophie Grey. I couldn't even tell you what she sounded like as the mobile DJ, blasting out tunes from his Range Rover in the VIP area, was so loud we couldn't hear her. 

Giving up our seats, we headed across to the main site before Alison Moyet was due to take the stage, showing our VIP wristbands to access the Gold Circle. The area wasn't busy. I spotted a uni pal and said hello. It was most unlike me to be so confident, but she'd posted on FB an image of the gig, so the odds were in my favour that it was her. She took the selfie.

 

Returning to my wife, I spotted a short lady ahead of us and manoeuvred into the gap behind her, leaving us a clear view of the stage. Then her tall, Yellow Submarine cap-wearing husband appeared and stood behind her, blocking my wife's view. She rolled her eyes at me for giving up the spot we'd had, where she could see. To be fair, the influx of people meant that nowhere was entirely safe from view blocking. Later, a geriatric in a white baseball cap pushed past and stopped in front of her. Maybe he never saw her. The man was so short-sighted, he often shot videos of the big screen rather than the stage, even though the stage was closer. To be fair, many of the oldies did the same. I would usually get stressed over such activities, but I'd decided to enjoy the show. If I managed to shoot any videos myself or snap a few pictures for this blog, all the better, but if not, it was no big deal (the Tim Minchin opener must have struck a chord)..  

Alison Moyet's set was good, though I have to admit I only knew a few of her songs. The staging was somewhat static; her musicians hardly moved about, and the backdrop screen didn't change. That didn't really matter, though, as we were all enthralled by Alison's voice. The few songs they recognised energised the crowd to sing along. Alison may be in her mid-sixties, but her voice remains potent, and she looks fantastic. I'm not a massive fan of electronic pop music, with its soulless drum machine beats, but I enjoyed the '80s nostalgia.  

"Don't Go"

The pushy crowd invaders emerged in strength after Alison. Close to us, a man had sat down on the grass, creating the illusion of a gap and drawing many of them into our area. He deserved to get crushed for such idiocy!

Sting, belying his seventy-three years, looked lithe as he took the stage; his voice, aged like a mature whisky, was as powerful as ever; his unshowy band, who were both exquisite musicians, rarely stole the limelight. This was Sting 3.0, not a Police tribute act. Sting was in charge, even when he pretended that the guitarist had chosen what they were about to play next.

If I were to raise any complaint, it would be to say the massive screen behind the band was underutilised. For the majority of the show, it displayed generic background images. It worked best when it showed the band playing, adding to the event's grandeur.  

As always, one drunk fan irked me, though not as much as he might. I cut him some slack because he was obviously a huge Police fan (the band, not the constabulary). He couldn't help that his vocal appreciation of his hero sounded like he'd finally reached orgasm, nor could he change his tone deaf voice to sing in tune. The fact that his wife agreed to hold his tray of pints in the jostling crowd speaks (spilled) volumes about how much she loved him. To be fair, she was tipsy too.

The night finished on a quieter, more reflective song, Fragile, with Sting swapping his bass for an acoustic (Spanish?) guitar. The rain had started, but it didn't dampen our spirits as we walked back to the car afterwards. It had been a great concert. 

Glasgow salutes you, Sting.  

  

Setlist
Message in a Bottle (The Police song)
If I Ever Lose My Faith in You
Englishman in New York
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (The Police song)
Fields of Gold
Mad About You
Why Should I Cry for You?
All This Time
Driven to Tears (The Police song)
A Thousand Years
Can't Stand Losing You (The Police song)
Shape of My Heart
Walking on the Moon (The Police song)
So Lonely (The Police song)
Desert Rose
King of Pain (The Police song)
Every Breath You Take (The Police song)

Encore:
Roxanne (The Police song)
Fragile   

Desert Rose

Ticket Price: 2 Summer Sessions Presale VIP Tickets £115.00 x2 = £230.00

Per Item Fees £11.50 x2,  £3.00 Facility Charge x2 = £29.00

Order Processing Fees: Handling Fee £3.25

Total £262.25 from Ticketmaster

 

Didn't buy any.

It got busier

The Richard Osman Award for the tallest man at the barrier
goes to...
The man in the blue jacket.

White cap man pushed in

So close to the front, yet she videoed the big screen.
What a waste!

Spot the white cap man's pinkie,
indicating video in progress.

They can't be finished yet? 
What about the encore?

The encore - Roxanne

Fragile

Tim Minchin: "Songs The World Will Never Hear" UK Tour, Leeds Direct Arena. Monday 23rd June 2025

 

Tim put this tour together to celebrate his twenty years of success in The Business and to promote his upcoming album, Time Machine. 

My history with Tim Minchin goes back to 2008. His first Edinburgh run had been a smash hit, so his subsequent return spurred me to catch him. 

After the show, he manned his own merch stall outside the Pleasance Grand. I joined the long queue of young, desirable women looking to meet him and buy his wares. When I reached the front, I became totally starstruck, barely able to speak my own name. He repeated my grunt and asked me to spell it, and I complied. He was then able to sign the canvas bag I purchased (which, unfortunately, I have now lost).

I was so impressed by his show that I caught him both times he brought the tour back to Glasgow.  

I was also lucky enough to attend each of his subsequent tours: Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra Tour (2011), Back (2019), and An Unfunny Evening with Tim Minchin and His Piano (2023). 

No paper tickets For Tim's shows after this, which I lament
now the industry has switched to mobile tickets

When the dates for this new tour, Songs the World Will Never Hear, were announced, I had a problem. I was elsewhere on both Scottish dates. I had to come up with a plan; otherwise, the tour title, 'Songs the World Will Never Hear,' would be personally pertinent.

I noted he was due to play Leeds First Direct Arena on Monday, 23rd June. That date would work, and handily, I have a friend, Kenny, who lives near Leeds. Plan hatched, I checked if he wanted to go. Success!

Then disaster. When the tickets went on sale, every time I attempted to basket three tickets, Ticketmaster told me they were unable to complete the transaction. The tickets were unavailable. Eventually, I secured three tickets in the middle of section 216. Not the best view.

Later, I checked the ticketing site, AXS, only to discover that all the seats I had tried to buy from Ticketmaster were still on sale through them. I hadn't known that AXS were the official ticketing agency for the First Direct Arena. 

Then I did something stupid. I bought three more. These tickets offered a better view, were centrally located, and were closer to the stage without straying into the exorbitant VIP territory. I managed to find someone to take two of the original tickets, leaving me with one to sell.

Sorted.

Everything was going well until five days before the event, when my friend's partner, Amanda, contracted COVID-19. She would not be able to attend the concert, and I would have to find somewhere else to stay, given that their home was now a plague zone. I also discovered another problem, as Ticketmaster stated that tickets for this event were not transferable. I had no way to give Amanda's friends their tickets, except in person. 

I booked a hotel room and a train ticket down to Leeds. My Ticketmaster query, having already found the chatbot unhelpful, was met with a generic response from the human customer service advisor, stating that the tickets are not usually transferable until at least 48 hours before the event. 

Then Kenny tested positive. None of the tickets had sold, so I suggested that Amanda's friends sit with me in the central section, and I would put all the rear tickets up for resale, dropping the price, hoping that would entice a purchaser.

I went onto Tim's website and noted Twickets was the official site for reselling the tickets. How would that work if Ticketmaster didn't allow transfers? I left a comment on the tour post outlining my dilemma.

Now that we were less than two days from showtime, I complained to Ticketmaster again about the lack of ticket transfer. The bot replied that someone would be in touch within 24 hours.  The human response was again generic and unhelpful, stating that the organisers had determined that transfers would remain disabled.

To my surprise, one of Tim's web fairies got in touch, concerned about my situation regarding the lack of transfer. She had already passed on my feedback to the organisers, confirming that transfers should definitely be allowed. She promised they would instruct Ticketmaster to remedy this situation, as it was not their intention to block transfers.

On the day of the concert, Ticketmaster contacted me one more time, stating transfers were now allowed. Given the information I had already received directly from the organiser, the cynic in me suspects that Ticketmaster, as the non-primary ticket seller, had deliberately prevented their customers from reselling elsewhere in order to profit from additional charges. My action had forced them to change their plan. Unfortunately, my three unused tickets remained unsold.

(Boy, this is a lengthy post, and we haven't even got to the gig yet.) 

Alone in Leeds, a city I've never visited before, I went for a wander prior to the gig. I found the venue and the location of the restaurant where I'd arranged to meet my two guests for the evening. I avoided the beggars and the homeless and the junkies. Leeds is much like any large city in this respect, though I was approached by the same vagrant twice on different streets. 

First Direct Arena, Leeds

I waited nearly fifteen minutes for this to come around.

Zaap Thai - the company was good,
The food was gorgeous and filling

Recently, I've stopped buying concert programmes, figuring I look at them once and then put them away. Feeling nostalgic about Tim's anniversary tour, I decided I wanted one to remember the event. I didn't bother buying a new canvas bag or any of the other items on sale. It wasn't as if he was going to autograph them for me after the show.

Front cover

Back  cover

Before the show

Our view from Section 105, Row Q, was excellent, still quite far from the action, but still close enough to see the keys of Tim's piano.  

I took no photos or videos during the show (except at the bow - see below) as I heeded the message of the first song. For once, the rest of the audience complied too. From our vantage point, I didn't spot a single phone screen taking snaps or videos (except for a brief one by the guy in front of me during Canvas Bags). Everyone was living in the moment as prescribed.

My controversial opinion of the concert is that it isn't my favourite show of his. That might be due to the venue. Intimate, it was not, compared to, say, the Theatre Royal. The sound mix was off in the first half, with the band sounding muted, which upset the overall balance. The staging was unusual, with the band squeezed into the corner, rather than spread out behind him as per Back. Tim made good use of the platforms, occasionally performing from the ramped area at the back and on top of his piano. He played far more songs than he usually would, which was good, but this meant he limited his chat to telling the story of his career journey and sharing the background to his songs. I liked how he incorporated video footage of his early career into the performance. I hadn't seen any of this early pre-fame work. 

Given the nature of the show, the musical tone was all over the place, something Tim intended, playing a set that included ballads, jazz numbers, songs from musicals, and full-on rocking tracks. I'm not familiar with his musicals (sacrilege!), so that might also explain why the overall concert appealed to me less. However, it was worth it to see him go full rock god once again during Canvas Bags. 

As a performer, he dislikes being categorised, so this tour marks the next step of his evolution away from being a comedian, as identified in the image used for the backdrop and on the programme cover. He's happy so many have continued to follow him on this journey, but I feel I'm now hanging back. I loved comedian Tim: erudite, thoughtful, vulgar and funny. Perhaps I haven't evolved at quite the same pace. I still love his music. I'd have preferred this one were just unadulterated Tim. 

Setlist

Set 1:

Turn your mother fucking phone off

Rock 'n' Roll Nerd

You Grew on Me

Ruby

Lullaby

The Good Book

I Wouldn't Like You

I'll Take Lonely Tonight

Canvas Bags

Set 2:

YouTube Lament

Confessions

Revolting Children (from Matilda)

Apart Together

Peace

The Song of the Masochist (Timmy the Dog song)

I Know Everything (from Groundhog Day)

Seeing You (from Groundhog Day)

Encore:

Dark Side

White Wine in the Sun

That's What Friends Are For (Dionne Warwick cover)       

Screen is out of sync.

And goodnight! 

Ticket Price: £148.50 (3 Tickets)
Booking Fee £19.50
Transaction Fee £2.75
Facility Fee £9.75
Total: £180.50 from AXS.

3 Full Price Ticket  £49.50 x3 £148.50

Per Item Fees £6.20 (Service Charge Full Price Ticket) x3

£3.25 (Facility Charge Full Price Ticket) x3 £28.35

Order Processing Fees

Handling Fee £2.75

Total £179.60 from Ticketmaster.

Blurb:

Audiences can expect an evening packed with unforgettable songs and stories, as Tim looks back on how a Perth cabaret pianist ended up building one of the most eclectic and extraordinary careers in entertainment. Delivered with his signature blend of razor-sharp wit, musical virtuosity, and disarming honesty, the set list will see Tim and his band draw from three decades of unique songwriting.

Tim: ”Incredibly, many of my UK fans have been by my side for two decades. They have never flinched as I’ve turned corners and reinvented myself, always engaging open-heartedly with whatever I have to offer. I’m the luckiest artist on the planet, and I can’t wait to be back to deliver a big joyous show, spanning the whole bloody thing.”

Epilogue (nothing to do with the gig review)

The following day, I had a fantastic breakfast at Farmhouse, an all-day, independent restaurant located on Lands Lane. The food looked so good, I did something I never do. I took a picture of it. It tasted even better.

The rail journey home was uneventful, except when a coachload of Last of the Summer Wine castoffs in brightly coloured waterproof jackets invaded the train at Settle. Every empty seat was filled, except for the occasions when they left them to catch a glimpse of the location their voluntary tour guide was describing. He provided a commentary in a thick Yorkshire accent throughout the rest of the journey to Carlisle. The pensioner beside me was constantly up and down, swinging from the handle of the seat in front like a geriatric chimpanzee. Later, I thought my tinnitus was playing up, but it turned out the discordant screech was hearing aid feedback emitting from multiple nearby travellers.

Unrelated but interesting:

Researching my ticket stubs, I dug out the piles of folders and discovered I had a programme for Hamlet which had been signed by some of the cast. We'd left it at the stage door along with a stamped, addressed envelope. Somehow, I failed to spot the signatures when it arrived and got depressed that my ploy had failed. Alas, my grief must have blinded me.

We think "Patrick Stewart" and "D Tennant"