Glasgow Barrowlands

Sunday 23d November

Bible John’s sinister eidolon may well have been present among the number of dark-clothed profiles wandering through Jim Lambie’s album pathway at Barrowland Park, as Glasgow sons The Jesus and Mary Chain returned to the holiest of grounds in the Gallowgate area. Tonight’s gig at the Barrowlands was to commemorate the Mary Chain’s seminal-debut album Psychocandy, released in 1985. The unique scaffold-clanging, abrasive, chaotic and foggy havoc created by the brothers Jim and William Reid was a welcome release from the New Romantic scene forcing Simon Le Bon’s warbles on to the unsuspecting world. The brooding sexuality in the lyrics of songs such as Taste The Floor could almost pass for describing JAMC’s own blueprint for assaulting the music industry:

Here it comes.

Can’t you hear the sound of it?

Just like a big brass drum

and some cunts always scratching it?

This was never going to be a gig greeted by tribes of neon-stitched adolescents, but one would have expected a healthy share of fresh-faced music-goers after the ascent of contemporary bands such as The XX, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Crocodiles – all of whom owe a debt to the distinctive gloomy spell conjured up by the Mary Chain during the mid-1980s. Instead, it was largely an audience with whom the band has grown up with, and this could perhaps explain the pacific stance adopted by much of the crowd; or perhaps Sunday nights really does remove something from the live circuit.

Mercifully, it did not take away the performance on show. Strobe lights coruscating through every set of eyes, William Reid’s sonic assault of the senses during You Trip Me Up that would still be ringing when daylight arrives, flares of feedback on songs such as Never Understand, and all the while Jim Reid standing with one hand gripped on the microphone, either spitting attitude on the crowd or lurking around the carnival of strings behind him. It was all just as it should be. Perhaps unfairly, the Mary Chain’s pop sensibility has often been overlooked and beguiling songs such as Just Like Honey and (the originally omitted from the first album) Some Candy Talking reminded the Barrowlands crowd just how bright the Reid brothers can be when it comes to crafting universal pop melodies – should the notion grab them.

The current five-piece Mary Chain have a good, solid understanding: Minimal chat, tight sound, and occasionally look up from your instrument at the audience. As a drummer for the band, Brian Young must wonder if he is in the greatest or the worst job in the world as pedals and cymbals are suitably whipped into a repetitive babel for the crowd to jerk and judder to. The drums intro for Sowing Seeds almost tricked the audience into believing Just Like Honey was being repeated, only for Jim’s controlled vocal to throw their adoring public off centre.

As the night dissolved your reviewer into a perspiring, bouncing shambles clinging to the front barrier (Speakers directly in front and promising future health issues), the Mary Chain left the stage without an encore despite a short and strange interval half-way through the set; the blinking crowd ushered to leave by the dazzling house lights. Sweated foreheads had turned grey hairs black once more, and a number of revellers couldn’t resist picking up a half-price t-shirt or poster outside the main entrance after being reminded exactly how fantastic their youth had been. It’s a nice thought to think that a number of Glasgow households will once again be adorned with posters of the Jesus & Mary Chain’s sneering faces upon their walls; in a frame, of course. FOUR STARS

Reviewer : Stephen Watt

O2 ABC

Glasgow

21-11-14

As we entered the hall having half-lost at smuggling in our miniature wines, The Selecter had already begun. Seeming quite vitriolic Pauline Black shouts there’s nothing good about nationalism before singing ‘Meanwhile in London’ and bursting into ‘London’s Burning’ with intense anger. She ended this with a relieved remark of, ‘I feel so much better now.’ As a scot who voted yes in the crowd, I felt this was a little harsh on us… luckily my mood was rescued by watching a fellow smuggler being caught with a wine bottle tail. It looks like the security have mellowed at 02 as the offending booze was confiscated as opposed to the usual ejection of said party from the building.

The band then got down to the business of all their bouncy classics. Black clearly feeling a little subdued by the fact that this was a Levellers crowd at the gig stated here’s a song you might recognize and right enough On My Radio got the crowd up the front and the whole room bouncing about albeit it wasn’t the ska professionalism you’d expect at a ska gig. There was definitely a different vibe from the last time I saw them play with the Skatalites in the HMV Picture House in Edinburgh but well worth it, there was some brilliant theatrical keyboard playing that was quite hilarious.

The Levellers came on with an explosion of white confetti and Beautiful Day. From the offing the sound, visuals and lighting are amazing and exactly what you’d expect from a band that have been doing since the early 90’s. Bless them as you get closer up they have aged and are visibly not as elastic as they used to be. But hey I saw the Skatalites one time at a festival and I’m pretty certain that one of them had a zimmer frame. The band played with the brass section of the Selecter and that was great to hear some new sounds to some old tunes. Unfortunately Pauline Black was lost when she dueted with Mark as was the regular female vocalist. Sorry ladies but those were weak performances.

It was interesting that although the Leve11ers have continued making new music that it is still the tunes that drove me out of my hometown in the mid 90’s are the same ones that are liked best today. They managed to create a real movement out of their music back then. We hear Hope Street, One Way, The Boatman….not in that order because I wasn’t taking notes but I was very surprised not to hear Men an Tol and was delighted to hear some one else shout out for it. A wee bit of dissent from the backbenches. Something a little more dark and atmospheric would have been nice to break it up a bit. I heard this tune performed live at the Barra’s during the Zeitgeist tour and it sent you straight out of the room and onto a foggy mystical stone circle, also it is my favorite. Chadwick quipped at this also saying that we the crowd had chosen these tunes…did you do an online thing asking people Mark? If you did I missed it! Regardless the gig was brilliantly performed without visibly tiring the lads out. Fair shout to them for playing the Devil went down to Georgia at the end. I wasn’t sure about the satanic salute that was encouraged throughout…I felt like I was at an 80’s Iron Maiden gig ….in fact I shouted “what the fuck was all that about?” To which Mark responded something like “we don’t get it either!” I was touched to be in a conversation that I don’t even think anyone else noticed. We had brought a wee caped super hero to to chuck at them but that was confiscated by the security. Obviously they were keen to take that home….along with the wine!

Reviewer : Sarah Marshall

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Friday, November 21^st, 2014  

There was a full house at the RCS for this Friday lunchtime concert featuring The New Wallace Collection brass ensemble, led by John Wallace, former principal at the Conservatoire and now Emeritus Professor of Brass. They were joined by the Royal Conservatoire Brass and soprano Julia Daramy-Williams. The opening item was ‘Concerto for 7 Trumpets and Timpani’, attributed to the 18^thC German composer Johann Ernst Altenburg, though we learned that the piece was probably ‘handed down’ by his students. Fitting then, that the composition was played in sprightly and confident manner by student musicians, conducted by John Wallace, who kept things precise, while still conveying his enthusiasm by sashaying from the waist down – prompting a comment later from my companion that she liked the hang of his jacket.

In the Scottish première of Eddie McGuire’s sequence of five Songs from the North, members of the New Wallace Collection accompanied lyric sopano Julia Daramy-Williams, a singer in her second year of the Master of Music programme at RCS. Greenland, Iceland, volcanic and other northern landscapes provided settings for these musical voyages, as well as more familiar territory in the Hebrides and the River Clyde. There is also an underlying theme of goodwill and friendship, and the beautiful harmonic and counter-pointed interactions, most often with muted brass,  conveyed this well.

The qualities associated with a lyric soprano – warmth and brightness with a full, rich timbre – are certainly there in Julia Daramy-Williams’ voice; added to that she had composure, a lively sense of energy when the songs moved that way, and she rounded out everything wth clear assurance. The very experienced players, with trumpets, trombone, french horn, tuba (this had a mute about the size of traffic cone), showed how tact and virtuosity can be combined, and as a result McGuire’s fine songs were wonderfully conveyed. The virtuosity, this time on some historic instruments from the John Webb Collection, carried over into Jules Levy’s signature composition ‘Whirlwind Polka’. Here, John Wallace on cornet, John Miller, also on cornet, John Logan on French horn, Simon Johnson on a Sax trombone and Tony George on ophicleide chased us back to the heydays of Philadelphia and other American hotspots in the late 19^th century.

Levy had competed with the Scottish-born Matthew Arbuckle and others for billing as the ‘World’s Greatest’ cornet player at the time; but when the white gloves went on and everything kicked off in Glasgow it was evident John Wallace still shaped right up with the best: though whether he was using an A shank and a high pitch slide to speed things on their way I couldn’t exactly tell. The final concert piece involved the Royal Conservatoire Brass group with the New Wallace Collection, conducted by John Logan, to give us Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition arranged for brass and percussion by Elgar Howarth. The composition, which started out as a piano solo, has gone through plenty of arrangements – Ravel’s orchestral one being especially popular – but the colour, and range and vitality of Howarth’s version is immediately attractive.

In the ‘Whirlwind Polka’ we had mischief, quixotic display and astonishing command. In this performance of Pictures at an Exhibition the ensemble playing brought out the full variety of moods and effects suggested in movement titles like ‘Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells’, Catacombs’, Baba Yaga’ and ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’.  At the same time, the continuing link of the ‘Promenade’ and the conductor’s sure touch provided integrity. There was strength and lightness, there were rumbling undertones and a marche funèbre, then high tremolos, then something else ominous, then passages with squawks and mayhem, straight out of Daffy Duck. When things got solemn and impressive they never were ponderous. All the brass sections (trumpets, French horns, trombones and tubas), and the flugelhorn and the euphonium, and the two percussionists emerged with full credit. Delicacy of tone, drive and impulse, were properly achieved. There is a grand and stately flowering that leads to the finale, and when the conclusion was reached, and applause got underway, you could tell this was an audience that had got full value, that felt something special had come their way. FIVE STARS

Reviewer : Mr Scales

* * * * *

Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
Monday 17 November

Founded in 1960 The Edinburgh Quartet celebrates an extensive and exciting history as one of the UK’s leading chamber ensembles, having performed frequently at major venues across Britain and toured extensively across Europe, the Far and Middle East, and North and South America. In addition to an eventful concert schedule the Edinburgh Quartet can be heard regularly on BBC radio amongst other stations. The Quartet supports new music and living contemporary composers, such as James MacMillan, Michael Tippett and Howard Blake, however in this concert, ‘Postcard from Paris’, we see they are equally talented in bringing traditional classics to life. Harking back to their origin, they demonstrate what a vast range they can create.

The opening concert of their Queen’s Hall season is entitled ‘Postcard from Paris’, as the schedule is loosely inspired by the growth in Paris’ musical connections. A trio of Violinists Tristan Gurney, Gordon Bragg and Jessica Beeston and solo Cello player Mark Bailey open with Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in C. Consisting of four movements, the first is light, jovial and playful, the second turns somber, slow but dramatic and the third is a Menuetto. The musicians performed this piece outstandingly. I lost myself in the music, however Haydn maintains to challenge the conventional and throws in the odd unpredicted surprise to keep us on our toes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/egv2fx#p018662w

(link to the Quartet on the BBC)

After a brief interlude where Violinist, Tristan Gurney explained the Parisian connections behind the performance, he introduced Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor. Debussy lived in Paris and I truly felt I was immersed in the throngs of Parisian life. High in energy, the piece flows from slow meandering emotion to high-tension drama. Then spirals down to a still hum, a highly emotive journey. The quartet delicately pluck the strings creating a jumpy experimental dramatic energy in the second movement. The theatrical dynamic builds with elements of cine magic. This powerful charismatic piece flows, spins, glides and tingles until finally building into a frenzy of spectacular energy. The daring contrasting movements throughout the composition produces a rich story. Debussy’s revolutionary String Quartet is considered by many to be one of the finest quartets ever written and it was undeniably my favourite of the evening.

Following the interval the Quartet were joined by a solo Pianist Simon Callaghan, to perform Cesar Franck’s Quintet for piano and strings in F minor. Franck was a Belgian composer who lived and worked in Paris. The Piano Quintet is one of Franck’s most comprehensive instrumental compositions. The pianist opens the piece with dramatic vigour. The Quartet follow producing a powerful and wonderfully executed piece with tantalising pauses. The pianists hands effortlessly dance across the ivory keys. The emotionally charged piano Quintet evokes great sadness, elegant peacefulness then rises to a theatrical finale. The varied textures and skill of this composition generates remarkable stimulation.

The wealth of talent here was outstanding and it is beautifully well synchronised, not one note is placed amiss. I find it wonderful to be taken to another place for a few hours, away from the rat race. A moment of escapism from every day and some self-indulgent ‘me time’. To lose ones self in the music and the moment. There were times you felt there was only one instrument playing, which demonstrated how exceptionally skilled the ensemble is. The conversation between instruments took us on a musical journey of heart felt energy and drama. FOUR STARS

Reviewer : Sarah Lewis

Studio 24

Edinburgh

31st October

Audio Soup, is a yearly festival that has recently found a new home an idyllic oasis of calm in the borders of Scotland, Having been personally involved in the evolution of the festival over the course of the last four years I have always delighted in the diversity of the entertainment that this home grown grass roots three day party has to offer. The Audio Soup Massive brought the essence of this festival to Studio 24. Transforming the venue with the creative spirit that makes all of the Soups events so special, It always attracts a good looking creative crowd and the opening Dj’s set the mood perfectly as the grace of dance engulfed me. I knew this was going to be a good night.

 CCA, Glasgow,

November 1^st, 2014

Ceol ‘s Craic – ‘music and banter’ – puts on events to highlight contemporary Gaelic culture, and wants to draw a general audence as well as Gaelic speakers. ‘The circle is unbroken!’ (or, ‘Tha an cearcall neo-bhriste!’) featured a mix of generations and performers, and brought together emerging singers and musicians with established artists a good bit longer in the tooth. That worked fine for the most part – the near capacity, though fluid, audience (in and out of seats at times like a local hall) responded well, and was dished up a lively mix. A fairly impromptu session set from Neil McDiarmid (fiddle), Thomas McCabe (box accordion) and Alistair Cassidy (guitar), relaxed and chirpy at the same time, popped on through jigs, reels and polkas and launched the thing off fine.

Then we had singer Alasdair Whyte, who has a debut album Las from Watercolour Music, working with Margaret Macleod – a key figure with ‘trail-blazers’ Na h-Òganaich from the 70’s on. Alasdair’s voice is rich, true and strong (swallowed just briefly in lower register) and Margaret was on very good form, especially on puirt-à-beul and a contribution later on to that sexy classic ‘My Husband’s Got No Courage in Him’. I missed or didn’t catch some Gaelic titles here, but the blend of Mull marching (and rowing) songs, and tributes to a range of dark haired lads and lasses was delivered with confidence and warmth. Alasdair shared a duet wth Lavinia Blackwall (who featured later with Trembling Bells); Alex Neilson, Ross Wilson and Teddy Balfour backed up well, even the main man of the night parachuted in to the Gaelic choruses, and the first half ended in a rattling ensemble with ‘Canan nan Gaidheal‘.

Mike Heron’s ‘world music’ contribution, right from The Incredible String Band’ and his ground-breaking 1971 album ‘Smiling Men with Bad Reputations’, has lasted and lasted. Here he was in puckish, smiling, focussed and energetic nick: getting in a lot of numbers with little fuss but close attention. The musical connection between him and his daughter Georgia Seddon was a pleasure to follow, and the ‘Trembling Bells’ around – adding Michael Hastings, Simon Shaw, John (‘Frog Pocket’) Wilson to those not tagged before – chimed in entirely as required. We got the whole shebang: ‘This Moment’, Feast of Stephen’ (Georgia subbing for John Cale); ‘Spirit Beautiful’; the long-legged (Arlo, the Carters) ‘Black Jack David’; Robin Williamson’s ‘Cold Day in February’; one of the most beautiful ever short lyrics in the anthem ‘Air’: “You kiss my blood/And my blood kiss me”; then “slithering and squelching on” to ‘A Very Cellular Song’ before two welcome encores – ‘Sleepers, Awake!’ and ‘Log Cabin Home in the Sky’. Wished I’d heard a bit more singing from Georgia; but Lavinia Blackwall is already beautifully in orbit. Mike Heron is, of course, out beyond Arcturus. Drive on Ceol ‘s Craic!

 Reviewer : Mr Scales