Royal Concert Hall; City Halls, GlasgowGreg Lawson’s boisterous ensemble celebrate freedom and the Declaration of Arbroath while US duo Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn add festive moonshineGlasgow’s annual roots music jamboree Celtic Connections may ha…
Read moreAuthor: Graeme Virtue
Tracks of the week reviewed: Raye, Usher, Lil Uzi Vert
This week we’ve got pop’s next big thing, a comeback by an R&B veteran, and a blatant attempt to start the next dance craze Continue reading…
Read moreAlabama 3 review – raucous ravers soak up mashup outlaws’ sin and soul
Barrowland Ballroom, GlasgowThis was a rambunctious wake for founding member Jake Black – with their Sopranos’ theme a high point among club and country meldings Jake Black, one of the founding members of Alabama 3, died in May this year. The southern-…
Read moreIdles review – snot, silly walks and compassionate aggro
Barrowland Ballroom, GlasgowWith snatches of Enrique Iglesias and Mariah Carey, the Bristol punks give a Christmas party feel to their strident, socially conscious stage-dive anthemsChaotic, exhausting, emotionally overwhelming: no band seems more embl…
Read moreGiggs review – UK kingpin still at the top of rap’s food chain
SWG3, GlasgowAn unexpected appearance by JME punctuates a stripped-back but rambunctious hour that thrums with the energy of a basement clubIt has been a good year for Giggs. The industrious rapper from Peckham – AKA Nathaniel Thompson – kicked off 201…
Read moreBruce Hornsby review – intense and exhilarating
Glasgow Royal Concert HallFrom boogie-woogie to avant-garde classical, this virtuosic tour of Hornsby’s talent was richly rewarding‘You won’t hear a song like that on the radio,” declares Bruce Hornsby. The veteran songwriter from Virginia has certainl…
Read moreKano review – brash and brilliant block party from Top Boy of UK rap
The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow The rapper and TV star, enhanced by a choir and even a sousaphone, is equally adept at storytelling and moshpitsEarly on in this broiling and boisterous gig, Kane “Kano” Robinson emerges from a maelstrom of strobe lights to…
Read moreWilco review – alt-country classics sound stronger than ever
Barrowland Ballroom, GlasgowJeff Tweedy’s troupe return after a two-year break, with new songs holding their own among frazzled classicsTwo decades ago, Wilco were a band on life support. Their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, was so emphatically re…
Read moreEdwyn Collins review – soulful inspiration still ripping it up
QMU, GlasgowAt times using his walking stick as a conductor’s baton, Collins may have turned 60 but he’s not letting up in this cracking showIt has been 14 years since Edwyn Collins – the former Orange Juice frontman turned suave solo star – suffered t…
Read moreBiffy Clyro: ‘In grief, you feel a dozen different things every day’
The Scottish band provided the soundtrack – and more – for Jamie Adams’s new film, Balance, Not Symmetry. The band’s frontman, Simon Neil, and the Welsh director explain how they bonded over shared experience of bereavementOn an overcast June afternoon…
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