Perth Concert Hall
27th May 2017

I have probably said this before, but for some time we have been used to hearing classical music reproduced on and moderated by electronic media, and watched orchestras at work courtesy of video cameras. A performance in a concert hall, by comparison, is a totally acoustic experience. It depends very much on the properties of the particular hall, and of course there is no scope for engineering the sound to perfection, eliminating extraneous noise, or repeating passages if a mistake is made. In actually attending an orchestral concert one must accept these rough edges and that there is no way to smooth them. I will mention a couple from this performance (the over-strident timbre of the triangle and the bad note sounded during ‘Bydlo’) and move on. Also in a live concert one has to accept the interpretation offered by the conductor; if something is taken at a slower tempo than you like or are used to (as was, to my taste, the ‘Dance of the little swans’ from Swan Lake), there is no opportunity to pick a different version – this is not YouTube!

Apart from recorded audio performances, the other feature of a venue that competes with attending a concert is, as I mentioned, the televised production that allows you to see the orchestra at work, thanks to well-placed cameras. I love Perth Concert Hall and have attended not only orchestral concerts there, but rock gigs, jazz, recitals, and talks. It’s a great all-purpose venue, but there are problems when it features an orchestra. These problems are the flat stage and the gentle rake of the removable seating, which means that the bulk of the stalls have a view of the front rank of first violins, the front rank of cellos, and very little else. Add a grand piano front-and-centre and that’s that! The lesson is to rely on, and get as much as you can from, the good acoustics here – just enjoy being in the same ‘real space’ as an orchestra.

The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is a very formal, very disciplined outfit. This can be seen from the way they enter the stage to take their seats, all the way through the performance, to their leaving the stage. If at first there was a kind of coolness to their precision, which may be one reason why the imperfections I mentioned stood out, by the time they had got to their second encore – the ‘Pas de deux’ from Nutcracker – they had totally found their groove, they had warmed to the audience and the audience had warmed to them. Their performance of very popular pieces with a distinct Russian flavour, with French dressing, were directed by a conductor who had been a child prodigy and has since then been heaped with honours, Moldovan-born Yuri Botnari. He used the orchestra’s discipline to good effect, bracketing the main performance of the evening with material which, albeit ‘easy winners’, showed what they could do.
The other former child prodigy present was concert pianist Freddy Kempf. The Rachmaninoff concerto that he tackled is one of considerable technical difficulty, and yet he launched himself into it with great energy. I very seldom attend a performance where my attention is held throughout, but this was one. Kempf’s handling of the solo passages was enthralling, there is no other word for it, and the balance between orchestra and soloist was almost perfect. The slight swamping of the piano in the coda of the concerto’s final movement was just one of the rough acoustic edges we had to deal with. My only regret is that this is a piece that Kempf has never recorded, at least not yet. If he did, I would add it to my iTunes library without hesitation.

As an overall assessment of the concert I really couldn’t fault the acoustics and totally accept the ‘edges’ in the performance, so I have to award five stars. For the atmosphere I’ll take one away from top marks, because the evening took a little while to warm up and, as it had cooled down during the interval, needed a second boost, so four stars. As regards performance, it would be churlish to punish a single cracked note from one member of the orchestra; Pictures at an Exhibition was a feast of synesthesia, Ravel’s orchestration conjuring up vivid mental images perhaps beyond the paintings by Viktor Hartmann that originally inspired Musorgsky, and of course the Rachmaninoff piano concerto was breathtaking, so round up four-and-a-half stars to five. That’s as near to a royal flush as a hand can hold. The concert programme continues on 28th May at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh and on the 30th at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

Many thanks to Perth Concert Hall and Perth Festival of the Arts.

Review by Paul Thompson

May 26th

Usher Hall

The Bells rang to usher us into the hall, the audience sat watching the orchestra make a final amendments to their instruments. The Usher hall provided a wonderful setting for this with great atmosphere, sound and lighting. A nice touch was the Chief executive dedicating the concert to the terrible atrocities that were carried out in Manchester that week.  Thomas Sondergard entered the stage and immediately captured the audience with his stage presence. The concert started with gently flowing melodies. Jennifer Johnson joined the stage, holding the audience in her hands with her strong well controlled tone for the Mahler songs.

After the interval the audience were treated to the Beethoven Lenore Overture No3, set in a Spanish Prison at the end of the 18th Century and part of the Opera Fidelio, said to be the manuscript that caused Beethoven “the most sorrow; and for that reason the one, most dear to me”. The Bows of the wood section came to life, frantically building up to the finale which filled the stage with emotion and drama with the orchestra and conductor giving their all.

Jennifer Johnston – Mezzo-SopranoThe grand finale of Sibelius Symphony No 5, saw the wood section show you not only their skills in arco-work, but also in pizzicato. Principle flutist Katherine Bryan stole the show, magically transporting you into another world with her stunning work. The lights of the Usher Hall glistening down on her flute added to the moment. The excellent and captivating work of timpanist Benedikt Kurz is also worth noting, the concentration and skill made for excellent dramatic build to an end that saw the RSNO work to create a finale to remember.

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Sibelius was said to have drawn great inspiration from the natural world, you feel this in the music, with what sounds like the build-up of humming bee’s approaching you in areas, you are often transported in your mind to scenes of nature. “Today I saw 16 Swans. One of the greatest experiences! Lord God, what beauty!” The Concert flowed well, completely enthralling from beginning to end, true escapism in the magic of the music.

Reviewer : Dolina Gorman

Perth Concert Hall

Wednesday 24th May

With every passing season, Perth is cementing is steadily growing status as one of the top cultural hot-spots of Scotland. Right now its ‘Festival of the Arts’ is drawing performer & punter alike into its warm embrace, & a delightful experience it is to. For me, a wee drive to Perth is never too bad & so I chose last night’s gig in the Concert Hall for this year’s slice of the cake. Rachel Sermanni was up first, a young lassie from Carrbridge who appeared on stage with a Pictish ponytail & her ‘lovely band’ as she put it, for a low-key yet spiritually invigorating set. What Seth Lakeman is to the Celtic West Country, Sermanni is to the Celtic north & of her many gracefully sung tunes, the one in which she sang ‘This is where I lay my heart / All the people gathering pass round the Whiskey‘ was especially engaging. Next up was Adam Holmes, whose set in the large I missed on account of me having to find a garage to fill the car with petrol, else spend the night sleeping in it overnight in Perth with no duvet or anything. Still, I did catch the last couple of songs & thoroughly enjoyed this young man’s guitar work, his trance-inducing band & their collectively mellow vibrations.

Then it was time for the main event; the ridiculously entrancing, ingeniously-crafted, foot-stompingly hypnotic Treacherous Orchestra… Goth-Folk at its funkiest & epic best. Drawn from all over Scotland, this supergroup becomes something like Led Zeppelin at a ceilidh, using proper instruments, the orchestra kicking through their session like a bunch of bikers on the Stornaway ferry, & the crowd was up & dancing. This is what happens when magically modified heavy metal meets the mild-mannered middle classes, & the blend was some spectacle to watch & some audiofest to hear. An explosion of light & sound, for me this was my first Treacherous experience & they have burned something of an immemorial & indelible mark across my mind. Happy Days!

Reviewer : Damian Beeson Bullen

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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

21^st May 2017

This varied and rich programme chosen and conducted by Thomas Dausgaard, commences with Haydn’s Symphony No. 88.  Completed in 1787, it belongs firmly to the classical era; ordered, harmonious, light hearted and a delight to listen to.  Haydn, considered to be the ‘father of the symphony’ was a friend and mentor of Mozart and to me his music is similarly as joyful and exhilarating.  It is written in four parts, the slow largo movement is considered one of his best, the melody is played by solo cello and oboe to which the whole orchestra reply to at various points.  Brahms after hearing this movement is said to have commented that ‘I want my 9^th symphony to sound like this’!  The minuet and trio is evocative of folk music of Hungary, Haydn was born on the border of Austria and Hungary and his father was a keen folk musician.   In the finale the tempo picks up but the music remains dainty and light hearted.  Haydn was known for his good humour and his love of practical jokes.  Perhaps seen by many as lacking the tragic allure of Mozart, his early years were difficult making his own way in music, he was afflicted by smallpox, and his face bore many scars, and he married unhappily to the sister of a woman who he had been in love with.  Obliged to stay with each other, they both took lovers and never had children.  He lived to the age of 77.

Moving forward more than 100 years, the orchestra turned to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 7, a long and complex symphony.  The movements are quite varied but notably with dark undertones.  The night movements were written first, the 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th movements came after a period of composer’s block culminating in a boat trip across a lake where his inspiration at last re-surfaced.  A work of the late romantic era; louder, more dramatic, more atonal, such works continue to be controversial.  However this work despite its challenges is compelling, with genuine melody and subtlety.  The second movement is more subdued with the night music, Mahler compared it to Rembrandt’s ‘the night watch’ a quiet march punctuated by the main theme.  The scherzo continues in a spooky fashion with shrieking motifs, distorted waltzes and mourning strings.  In the 4^th night movement the romantic melody is the symphony’s most charming, and yet the darker tones remain.  Mahler used a number of unusual instruments in this movement; a solo mandolin and guitar offer the romantic serenade.  However as with many love themes there is an air of sadness.  The finale picks up in mood and takes on a triumphant air, quite different to the previous movements, Mahler himself described it in the phrase “the world is mine!”.   It is thought from a letter written to his wife around that time that he had begun to recognise the importance of a positive attitude, especially in the context of relationships.  However Mahler had something of an artistic temperament and forbade his wife from composing music, which she was frustrated by. She eventually had a surreptitious affair which Mahler was very upset by and visited Sigmund Freud, who advised him to allow his wife her own musical freedom, which he duly did.  But sadly for him she continued her affair, and we could surmise from his music that his love for her was genuine but frequently overshadowed by his (and her) artistic temperament.  Mahler was born in Bohemia to Jewish parents and died at 51 due to a heart condition.  Following his diagnosis he made some changes to this symphony before it premiered, which may have added to its darker undertones.

Thomas Dausgaard’s love of these two pieces is clearly evident and his enthusiasm and engagement with these pieces and the excellent Scottish symphony orchestra is clearly evident.  I also enjoyed the fact that the works are quite different and from different eras.  The Usher Hall is a lovely venue, classical music is good for the brain, so make sure you check out the BBC Scottish symphony orchestra.

Reviewer : Sophie Younger

Usher Hall 

Edinburgh

28 April 2017

This wonderful evening commenced with Alexander Scriabin’s Reverie, a short but powerful orchestral piece written at the young age of 26, it certainly does have a dream like quality, sadly beautiful.  It starts softly with the tragic melody introduced by the woodwind section, followed by the strings and full orchestra, the music builds and becomes a little more triumphant before descending again into sadness and the return of the opening melody.  Scriabin’s later works became more atonal making use of the mystic chord, highlighting his interest in theosophy. He was also fascinated by the relationship between colour and tone.  A frail and short-statured man who was brought up by his extended family after his mother died when he was 1.  He died at 43 of septicaemia.

This was followed by Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin concerto no 2.  The brilliant Russian born Sergev Krylov, a violin playing prodigy from the age of 5, begins unaccompanied with a bitter sweet harmony, which is taken up by the orchestra moving down into the basses and violas.  Krylov then begins a demanding ‘perpetuum mobile’ technically fiendish but delightful to listen to.  The melody is based on traditional Russian folk music.  The second movement continues with the solo violin’s fast paced melody becoming increasingly complex and passionate.  The third movement is a rondo, the melody of the violin continues increasingly manically with more dissonance and drum beats from the orchestra.  I thoroughly enjoyed this technically difficult and engaging piece.  Prokofiev is widely regarded as one of the major composers of the twentieth century.

The programme concluded with Tchaikovsky’s symphony no 6 in B minor Pathetique, meaning emotional or passionate.  Tchaikovsky died 9 days after the premiere in 1893; he regarded the symphony as a work of therapy and catharsis, having suffered years of depression and angst over his homosexuality.  There is a characteristic recurring love theme.  The opening adagio is poignant if a little pessimistic but a beautiful melody emerges which follows into the more lively allegro, a solo clarinet softly plays the melody until it is barely audible after which the music builds to a climax.  The dramatic and bold 3^rd movement encompassing the full orchestra remains largely optimistic in mood building to a bold climax.  The concluding slower movement returns to the more poignant b minor with a suggestion of impending tragedy, punctuated by the love theme, it fades to a brooding end..  Tchaikovsky intended the work to be enigmatic and it is thought there was a secret programme that he wouldn’t reveal.  Did he have a sense of his impending fate?  We will never know, but his musical legacy will continue to be enjoyed by so many.  The distinguished Nikolaj Zneider, also an acclaimed violinist who has worked with the world’s top orchestras, deftly conducted the RSNO in this accomplished and enjoyable performance.

Reviewer : Sophie Younger

Hi Haylee, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking
Born in Edinburgh grew up in Livi. Right now in Dykes Road – that’s not joking, that’s where we live haha.

What inspired you to become a rapper
I didn’t grow up wanting to be a rapper I wanted to be a firefighter but got a criminal record for silly driving chases from cops etc. I’ve always wrote poems and songs from a very young age. Was on the way to Glasgow when I met my first Scottish rapper. he told me to spit some bars, I did, he was impressed and then a week later he pushed me to freestyle over eves greatest hits cd. took the wrong turn to Carlisle but was worth it.

What do you think of the Scottish hip-hop scene
The Scottish hip hop scene… I’ve met the good the bad and the ugly. There’s amazing support in Edinburgh and Glasgow etc but there is a lot of jealousy and ego causing drama so I now tend to not get involved anymore with people like that. It’s the same with real life. Just sticking with the ones who are real and stood by me. Learned the hard way haha but there is a massive rise in emerging talent from Scotland. It’s very refreshing to see.

Who are your musical inspirations
My main inspiration is Marilyn Manson I went to see him at 12. Well Eminem was who I went to see and refused to watch Manson cos my granny just died – she was Catholic and he burned crosses in videos. I thought he was the devil but little did I know at the time until I saw him dedicate a song to a girl who committed suicide and I fell in instant musical love. His performance was so bold and entertaining. I got home and next week I went out and bought any album I could get my hands on. He taught me to embrace the real me.

What subjects motivate you to write your lyrics
My songwriting. Used to be about exs now its politics, frenemies and story telling of things that I see or go through. It helps me to understand the life I’m living. It helps me cope.

How do you find being a female rapper in a predominantly male field
I love being a female rapper in a predominantly male field cos I’m one of the boys. You get a few lassies doing their thing (some are brilliant), you get others who just enjoy male attention a bit too much – but that’s not me. I thrive on the bad energy that comes my way and embrace the good. I got a lot of stick for being myself but it’ll never stop me. I should been born male. My mum said the doctor said I was a wee boy trapped in a girls body I think that was the inner rap man wanting out, big balls an all!

Can you tell us about your band, Devils in Skirts
My band are my entire life. I have had many devils over the years but these at the present are the greatest I have had the honour to make music with. We are rap Rock, punk hop and anything we can get our hands on to add our devilish twist. All are talented in their own way. Two music teachers in the band and some fresh new personalities. Devils in Skirts is named because we’re mental – all of us! The name sorta is a statement about being a female-fronted band in rap, about women calling all the shots. We’re very Scottish, and I use my Scottish accent proudly – that’ll never change. Fundamentally, we’re just about being shamelessly ourselves.

What are yours & the band’s plans for 2017
2017 is going to be a very busy year for us. We’ve already done about 20 gigs so far this year, with plenty more planned for Scotland and beyond. The next big one for us will be in London in just a couple of weeks, then the week after Isle of Arran with our best-band-pals. We’re looking at investing in a campervan, just need to make sure it’s good enough to drive around the Devils. Lastly, we’re planning our tour for Amsterdam and Berlin. We’re lucky to have met some brilliant artists who are leading the way to help get our name outside of Scotland

THE MUMBLE : Hello Stazy, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking?

STAZY : Awrite, Mumble. We’re from a lovely wee village on the east coast of Scotland called Leith.

THE MUMBLE : When did you first realise you were a musician

STAZY : I think I’m still waiting to realise that I’m a musician. I’m more of an ideas man with hear vision. No bad at rhythm guitar. We all played different instruments on the new album but dunno if you’d call it musicianship. I just watched that Take That special and Jason Orange was tapping a tambourine.

THE MUMBLE : How were your influences in the early days, & have they changed over the years

STAZY : The band as a whole has got too many influences to mention, and not just musically speaking. Every day is an influence. I’ve got an old Top Of The Pops on the telly just now and I was thinking that this was probably a big influence on me as a wee skid mark. Thursday at half 7, couldnae beat it. Rod the Mod is number 1 this week.

THE MUMBLE : So can you tell me about Frantic Chant?

STAZY : There’s a song on the Ride It Like A Shark album called Surf Daft and the chorus goes “We do what we want and we don’t give a fuck”. That probably sums up Frantic Chant. If you like us, sound. If not, sound. All our album sales pay for the next one, so as long as that keeps happening we’re happy.

Our drummer, Col, runs the label as well. He’s still sending out copies of our last two albums, Oscillator and Ride It Like A Shark, to happy customers every week, so hopefully that continues with this album.

THE MUMBLE : You’ve just released your seventh album album, The Glass Factory, there’s a hell lot of songs on it, what’s that all about on a song-writing level and can you tell us how it was recorded?

STAZY : The plan was to do 9 tunes but over time and space that escalated to 21. As far as songwriting goes, nobody ever comes in with a full tune, it’s usually a couple of chords or a riff or a line or something and we kick it about a bit and see what happens.

Most of the lyrics were done well into the recording, so we took time and could fuck about with harmonies and that. We went a bit radge with the orchestration and overdubs on a couple of numbers, with 8 minutes of us “ohmming” being one. There’s a good mix of 4 minute catchy tunes and 11 minute journeys of aural discovery.

A couple of the songs came about while waiting on everyone turning up to the studio. If there’s an idea, get it down. We first went to, our producer, Elle’s studio and spent a few weeks recording tracks that were 3 acoustic guitars and a couple of bongos. We then packed up the gear and moved into our space in Leith where we recorded the stuff that would benefit from us being in full flight.
We went back to Elle’s to work on about 15 songs. We spent ages on overdubs and because there’s always something to play in a studio, someone would come up with another tune. We’d all get distracted by this, join in and then that would get finished and put on tape there and then.

One of the tunes was done with a drum machine at, Darren, our bass player`s studio with Nick playing Darren’s right handed guitar (Nick’s left footed) and we just kept that more or less the same as Nick couldn’t play the same way with his good hand.
The Memory Song came from a nice motif that Darren had follow him which we then took it through Morocco via The White Album. We called it The Memory Song because we kept forgetting the titles we had for it.

We know Colin from the band Bombskare and knew he was sound so we asked him if he was up for playing trumpet on a track. The four songs his trumpet eventually ended up on are a perfect mesh of Psych and Soul. It’s quite a good time really.

THE MUMBLE : Do you have any live gigs coming up this year?

STAZY : We’re playing at Leith Depot on the 20^th of May, which is the first gig since the CD came out, so we’ll have a few to punt on the night.

We’re also playing the Carnival 56 Festival in Dundee in August alongside Mark Ronson, Basement Jaxx, Clean Bandit, Hot Chip, The Fratellis and many other esteemed popular acts from the hit parade. No doubt we’ll be adding more dates as the year goes on and we’re looking at heading down south for a few to help spread the word.

THE MUMBLE : What does Stazy Chant like to do when he’s not making kick-ass music?

STAZY : Caving.

THE MUMBLE : Hello Daniel, so where ya from & where ya at, geographically speaking
DANIEL : Hello – I’m from Edinburgh! I’ve lived here for most of my life, and been working at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, for 7 years now.

THE MUMBLE : How do you find working at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in the Old Town
DANIEL : It’s a really interesting place to work, we have something different happening every day and I work with a great variety of artists, performers and organisations. We also welcome many tourists into the building due our Royal Mile location – we like to think we offer them an authentic and varied cultural experience during their visit.

THE MUMBLE : So, you are the Festival and Events Manager of the centre’s annual Tradfest, when & how did you get the job
DANIEL : The Storytelling Centre is a real mix of things, one of which is being home to TRACS (Traditional Arts & Culture Scotland), who support and promote the traditional arts networks of storytelling, music and dance. As part of my role as the Programme Manager of Storytelling Centre I manage TradFest for TRACS, which involves pulling together all the event submissions and curating the overall festival direction with various programming partners.  TradFest started as a pilot in 2013, when TRACS took on the admin and planning of it as a new trad arts festival for Edinburgh.

THE MUMBLE : You are also a singer, songwriter and music promoter in his own right. Does your personal musical taste influence your programme choices
DANIEL : Not really, because we do a wide range of different styles, catering for all sorts of interests. Having worked on the other side of the business as well as a performer gives me an understanding of what is needed to make an event succeed.  Musically my background is not in traditional music, but that makes it exciting for me to learn and discover new acts as I go.

THE MUMBLE : Tradfest is multi-arts. Aside from the music, what other arts are presented to the public.
DANIEL : Most traditional folk festivals tend to focus on music, but TradFest celebrates storytelling, dance, folk drama, folk film, crafts, walking tours and the local environment as well. We are also celebrating Edinburgh as a place and bringing out different aspects of the life and cultures of the city.

THE MUMBLE : What flavours are we to expect from this year’s festival
DANIEL : We’re pleased this year to include a strand called The People’s Heritage, which introduces key characters and locations throughout Edinburgh in a series of pop-up storytelling events. We’ve been able to partner with the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology to celebrate Edinburgh’s rich history in a lively way.  A big part of TradFest’s success is that it celebrates local cultures and activity that is happening throughout the year, and we’re pleased to give a platform to many diverse cultures and traditions that exist in Edinburgh today.  We have performances that celebrate traditions from Iraq, Norway, Ghana, Ireland and Kenya amongst others, all performed by artists who are based in Edinburgh.

THE MUMBLE : The festival is quite Edinburgh-centric, but you do look further afield to other parts of Scotland & beyond. Can you give us some examples.
DANIEL : The Storytelling Centre hosts a strand of the festival called Local Cultures, where we’ve invited performers with event projects celebrating particular areas of Scotland or further afield. For example, ‘The Wick That Was’ showcases stories and photography from Wick in Caithness, ‘Furan’ is performed by young Gaelic singers, ‘The Two Truths of Thomas the Rhymer’ stems from the Borders and ‘Lorgan Bàta Nan Salm – Traces Of The Psalmboats’ is performed by members of the Lewis community

THE MUMBLE : What are the especial qualities of Tradfest that keeps it so popular
DANIEL : As well as all the different variety of events, TradFest also celebrates the coming of summer, which is always welcome! We include the Beltane Fire Festival and May Day celebrations in the programme, both vital parts of the folk traditions in Edinburgh.  TradFest reflects the strength and variety of the traditional arts in Edinburgh, there’s something for everyone to enjoy and discover.

THE MUMBLE : With Tradfest being an annual event, do you have an eye on 2018 already
DANIEL : It’s always wise to keep looking longer term, but we need to deliver 2017 first! My hope is that we can continue to develop the international side of the festival, as we’ve found that great collaborations can be forged across differing cultures and traditions.  It would be exciting to form relationships with different traditional arts festivals across the world, so we could share and collaborate together, bringing new people to Edinburgh and sharing Edinburgh’s talent with the rest of the world.

 Stereo, Glasgow

30th March, 2017

It isn’t often that a selfless record label appears in your city, promising to promote and release quality music with no other agenda other than to preserve the good reputation which already exists. Twelve months later, and not-for-profit independent record label Last Night from Glasgow (LNfG) invited its project-artists for 2017, its shareholders (£50 membership per annum) and their friends to celebrate in the basement of city favourite Stereo in Renfield Lane.

A queue spiralling up the staircase and into the café area was a sound basis for how revered the label has become in such a short time, and this was exemplified in the diversity of its members; from silver-mullet rockers to LED-lit trainers upon the feet of Glasgow’s students, it was proven that good music taste arrives in many guises. With label members based in Canada and records being shipped across the world, the interest in LNfG has recently captured the interest of The Skinny, Evening Times, the Herald, and punk-pages Louder Than War, while its artists have been more than matching the vision of the company with names such as TeenCanteen, Be Charlotte, and Mark W. Georgsson already having release quality material on the label’s name.

Like any one year old’s birthday party, there were large inflatable balloons bobbing at the entrance of the venue, with cakes for all, great tunes being played by the sound engineer, and party miscellanea tied around Stereo’s pillars and walls. The hilarious Stephen Solo opened proceedings, advising that the reason the label came into being was because “middle aged cunts need a job” (most of LNfG founding members are now in their forties), before welcoming first act Sister John to the stage.

SISTER JOHN

Luxuriant and inviting, Sister John’s kindly and clement beginning to the evening, consisting of a couple of guitars, violin, and a drum-kit was unexpected but not unwanted, unveiling a range of multi-instrumental changes and three-part harmonies which the crowd was receptive to. The delightful ‘Greatest Moment’ was inspired by “a sticker on a record promoting ‘the forthcoming hits’….”, joked songwriter Amanda McKeown. It was difficult to not compare the quartet’s blended arrangements and easy-listening style to Norah Jones, whilst the time taken to tune up the various instruments led to occasional uneasy-listening gaps and sporadic checks that the various cables winding around the stage were not prepared to yank any of the band to the floor. It will be interesting to see how the album release later in the year develops. Meantime, interested persons should certainly check out the alluring ‘He Came Down’ single released by LNfG at the start of this year, whilst live the soothing harmonies on ‘Hot Water’ and the final song – title unknown – a dreamy tale of lost love and “hair like the endless midnight sea” provided a delectable, if curiously understated way to begin the evening.

EMME WOODS

Central belt-born 21yr old Emme Woods was just the jolt which the night needed, leading a five-piece band (being watched at the front by birthday girl, Bubbles the chihuahua) in a sublimely-defective style. The rumble produced by the raw, bluesy sound Woods produces on her electric guitar is matched by her distinctively Celtic-eroded vocal on ‘I Don’t Drink To Forget’, the second single released by LNfG in 2016, while her cocksure mien on stage is more forbidding than distasteful. “I nearly took Jamie out with my guitar there”, Emma laughs as she slowly-gyrates, jerking on stage to the wonderful next single “I’ve Been Running”, all witchy keyboarding and black horns bookending the star attraction.

A discussed mini album is due for release in May 2017, currently in development with Runrig keyboard player Brian Hurren producing, and it appeared that these new songs were giving an airing judging by the sheet music placed in front of each band member. “I told you that I love you but I lied”, Woods wails and the crowd eat up every word – right up to the final note which neither Woods nor band knows how to finish. The slightly ramshackle nature is endearing, and closing number ‘It’s My Party’ (And You’re Not Invited) is a spit in the eye at the Lesley Gore single from 1965 with Woods tip-toeing to hit out those venomous notes with enough belief to worry the café-dwellers upstairs that something dark is howling below their feet.

MEDICINE MEN

Debut LP ‘Into The Light’, with wonderful album cover work and posters provided by Colin McArthur, is due for release in May 2017 and all going well, should be a considerably handsome piece of work by the Medicine Men boys. Opening with 2014 debut single ‘Show What You’re Made Of’, the four-piece quickly demonstrated what they were made of, a pounding meat-factory beat equalled by soaring Hammond organ sounds, the tempo was a far greater energy than anything else that had been on stage thus far. The competency of the band’s musicianship is not in question, as demonstrated by the wicked bass-groove and on B-side ‘Sleeping With The Light On’ or the Gretsch guitars on ‘Ceiling To Floor’, but something grates in the song-writing which fails to preserve the listener’s attention. Sometimes all it takes is one song for a band’s purpose to make sense, and it felt that Medicine Men are on the cusp – but not quite hitting the sweet spot.

Frontman Ian Mackinnon’s haunting guitar and escalating vocal on ‘In The Breeze’ is highly reminiscent of Squeeze’s Glen Tillbrook, and if that is the benchmark then the band’s future looks positive, while penultimate song of the night ‘Bruised Peach’, with its cosmic drum sound was the pick of the night. Thanking LNfG for giving the band the opportunity, the seriousness of the faces on the Medicine Men was apparent – a chance has been given, and hopefully the album will deliver.

BOOHOOHOO

Far from being recoiling church mice, electropop quartet BooHooHoo are a thumping, rousing, likeable, and animated rabble whose miscellany of synthesised, ravey sounds appeared to vacuum people towards the raised stage. Ordering one photographer perched at the front-centre to “Fuck off” has never seemed more affectionate than when chief button pusher Richard Richardson is the person lashing out. Since creating guitar-led songs at school together, Richardson and Reggie House, along with drummer Ewan Laing and flutist, keyboardist and all-round Cheshire Cat Lizzie Kiyoko, have added heaps of promise and eighties-sounding samples, with songs such as ‘Now Is The Season’ from 2016 EP “DebutHooHoo” sounding nothing short of phenomenal live. If the party sounds didn’t already corroborate BooHooHoo’s credentials, the slower-paced love estrangement of ‘Biology’ (Apologies to the band if this title is in fact incorrect – this is what happens when your band is so new and your fans are so unapologetically loud and thrilled to see you live) is a gorgeous, cinematic soundtrack with shades of Bryan Ferry’s ‘Slave To Love’, leading into the fat vibrations of ‘Mould Me’ with bass judders, Kiyoko’s surprisingly fitting flute solo, and a catchy hook transmogrifying the audience into an arms-flapping, heel-spinning, wall of body odour at the front of the stage.

Recognising an opportunity, frontman Richardson alerted the crowd to Greg, a cosmic, legging-patterned mover spotted by House dancing in the aisles of Aldi and subsequently became the centre-focus of the video for the new single ‘Fire’. Make space, Glasgow because a basement in Renfield Lane just wasn’t going to cut it. If Prides drummer and EP mixer Lewis Gardiner could just capture enough of that raw energy then the debut album expected in August 2017 will be nothing short of the party album of the year.

STEPHEN SOLO

Concluding the evening, founding member Murray Easton welcomed Stephen Solo to the stage, armed only with a sky-blue ukulele and a song written on his iPhone for his son who was struggling to sleep. Performing ‘Crying Because’, Solo’s tenderness was a gorgeous finish to proceedings, and one which was warmly received by a mesmerised, attentive crowd who had remained to the very end of the night.

A quickly-rushed raffle was squeezed in as most revellers turned for the exits, but by then everyone had received a prize of some sort – whether that was a new discovery, a favourite song, a moment to put the smile on their face, or a chihuahua wink. Like any first birthday party, people left excited by what the future year ahead will bring – both from Last Night and tomorrow night in Glasgow.

Reviewer : Stephen Watt

Photography : David Wardrop