Glasgow
Gossip, SWG3, Glasgow - a reunion tour worth celebratingSunday, 21 July 2019If there was a downer during the giddy, gleeful Glasgow stop of Gossip’s recent run of shows, it was only when front woman Beth Ditto introduced the band as being “not really together but we’re here”. The dance-punk trio - joined, for this short run... Read more... |
Carrie Underwood, SSE Hydro, Glasgow review - country cliches brought to lifeWednesday, 03 July 2019“We didn’t come all the way from Nashville, Tennessee with just one fiddle,” says Carrie Underwood, halfway through her Glasgow show. The onetime American Idol turned multiple Grammy award-winning country superstar isn’t one for doing things by... Read more... |
Emmy the Great, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow review - emotions recollectedSaturday, 01 June 2019“I appreciate the irony of me singing this in my mum jeans,” says Emmy The Great, whose five-month-old is travelling with her on this tour, before playing “We Almost Had a Baby”. Despite its jaunty little riff the song, from her 10-year-old debut... Read more... |
CD: Honeyblood - In Plain SightWednesday, 22 May 2019At its best, the music of Glasgow band Honeyblood often sounded like a girl gang you weren’t cool enough to be a part of - making the news that singer-guitarist Stina Tweeddale had split with drummer Cat Myers and recast the name as that of a solo... Read more... |
Trust Me, Series 2 Finale, BBC One review - dodgy doctors and unreliable nursesWednesday, 08 May 2019Writer Dan Sefton’s four-part hospital drama reached a modestly satisfying conclusion as the phantom killer stalking the wards was finally unmasked, following the usual twists and misdirections obligatory in thrillerland. I felt quite pleased with... Read more... |
Olly Murs, SSE Hydro, Glasgow - a little cheesy, a little laddish, but sincerely entertainingMonday, 06 May 2019In an alternate timeline, Olly Murs - runner-up on a TV talent show a full decade ago - would have faded into obscurity by now. This, as the relentlessly charming performer on stage delights in reminding us, is not that timeline. Some internet... Read more... |
Wild Rose review - how country music can set you freeThursday, 11 April 2019It was the fabled Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard who commented that country music is “three chords and the truth”. Rose-Lynn, the protagonist of Wild Rose, just happens to have the surname Harlan, and she has the “three chords” motto tattooed on... Read more... |
Ed Gamble, The Stand review - amiable hour touching on personal issuesFriday, 15 March 2019Ed Gamble starts the hour by telling us why his latest show is called Blizzard; he and a bunch of comic friends we stranded in New York by bad weather and it made the news - yet, strangely, the headline wasn’t a play on his name - a gift for hacks... Read more... |
CD: The Twilight Sad - It Won/t Be Like This All the TimeSunday, 20 January 2019The disappearance of a band for a while calls for a re-set. A reminder, perhaps, of why you fell for them in the first place. "[10 Good Reasons for Modern Drugs]", the four minutes of minor-key chaos that opens the new album from The Twilight Sad,... Read more... |
CD: Mogwai - KIN: Original Motion Picture SoundtrackSaturday, 25 August 2018Following on from last year’s blistering blast of conviction, Every Country’s Sun, it’s tempting to view Mogwai’s latest offering – the soundtrack to a new sci-fi action drama from the producers of Stranger Things – as a continuation of this return... Read more... |
Eugene Onegin, Scottish Opera review - sweepingly sumptuous TchaikovskySaturday, 28 April 2018It’s 25 years since Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin last came to the Scottish Opera stage, and this brand new production, directed by Oliver Mears, DIrector of Opera at The Royal Opera, gives the stirring score a stately yet elusive grandeur. Based on... Read more... |
Ariadne auf Naxos, Scottish Opera review - superb singing in slick new productionTuesday, 27 March 2018"The Show must go on". So say the posters dotted around Glasgow and Edinburgh for Scottish Opera's production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. Except on Thursday, it didn’t. A fire at a nearby Glasgow nightclub which ravaged several city... Read more... |