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Yesterday lunchtime I was chatting to a colleague about a St Andrew's day charity concert being held in Glasgow, and saying it was an excellent line up, but it was probably too late to get tickets. An hour later her phone rings, and it's somebody trying to get rid of three tickets. So I bought them, naturally, and then spent an entertaining couple of hours trying to persuade someone to come with me.
The line-up was a bit vague on the lower half (Echo and the Bunnymen, assorted Smiths and New Order types) but I really only wanted to see The Fratellis and Travis, two of my favourite bands. The rest was gravy. And it was all in a good cause.
My friend Paul and I got in just before 8, in time to see Alphonse (I think) a decent enough indy band, and Sergeant, a band hailing from Fife, but looking as if they'd just blown in on the 7.10 dragon from Hobbiton. A four piece, only one of them looked old enough to grow a beard. Actually, he didn't look old enough for his beard either, and it's possible he was renting it for the evening. If so, he'd bought it by the yard, since bum-fluff was spouting from every part of his face. Still, they were good, far tighter than I'd expected, even if their guitars had obviously been bought big enough for them to grow into and their drummer was only allowed one drum-stick. If they're a manufactured band a la Busted they'll be huge next year, and if they aren't a manufactured band they'll be huge and I'll love them.
Attic Lights were up next - hard working, obviously onto something, but not quite sure what to do with it yet. They'll either explode out of the pack next year, or move off onto serviceable obscurity.
The truly excreable comperes, DJ's from local radio, explained that Echo and the Bunnymen had pulled out, leaving us with the Fratellis and Travis. No one seemed too bothered.
By this time Paul and I were about 3 or 4 rows from the stage - it was quite busy, not far short of a sell out I thought. The problem with being three people from the front at a gig for 3,000 is that the sound can be a bit shit. The Fratellis suffered from the vocals being too far down in the mix, but they were good value. They came on with "Chelsea Dagger", which reminded me of Steve Earle saying that he always plays the hits, because that's what's brought people there - he calls it "Dancing with them what brung you" (also the name of his sister Stacy's second album). The crowd were well up for some good bouncing, the drummer was having a ball, and we all sung along. A certain amount of bouncing was achieved, enough to bring prenomitionary twinges from my calves.
Travis came on around 11, and stormed the place - they actually look like one of the world's top bands these days, instead of the slightly scruffy urchins I last saw live five or six years ago. They did the greatest hits bit, too, giving me a chance to bellow "What's a Wonderwall anyway?" along with everyone else. There was a fair bit of clambering up speaker towers to solo, and bit of windmiling here and there - it would be tempting to rip the pish out of these rock star antics, if you didn't have the feeling that they were already sending themselves up.
They were the only band who played an encore - "Why Does it Always Rain on Me?" which they stopped before the last verse to remind the crowd that everyone had to pogo their way through it. So we did.
A very good night, so it was, with no egos on display, just good music and shambolic organisation. The fact that it raised a lot of money for a good cause is the icing on the cake.
The line-up was a bit vague on the lower half (Echo and the Bunnymen, assorted Smiths and New Order types) but I really only wanted to see The Fratellis and Travis, two of my favourite bands. The rest was gravy. And it was all in a good cause.
My friend Paul and I got in just before 8, in time to see Alphonse (I think) a decent enough indy band, and Sergeant, a band hailing from Fife, but looking as if they'd just blown in on the 7.10 dragon from Hobbiton. A four piece, only one of them looked old enough to grow a beard. Actually, he didn't look old enough for his beard either, and it's possible he was renting it for the evening. If so, he'd bought it by the yard, since bum-fluff was spouting from every part of his face. Still, they were good, far tighter than I'd expected, even if their guitars had obviously been bought big enough for them to grow into and their drummer was only allowed one drum-stick. If they're a manufactured band a la Busted they'll be huge next year, and if they aren't a manufactured band they'll be huge and I'll love them.
Attic Lights were up next - hard working, obviously onto something, but not quite sure what to do with it yet. They'll either explode out of the pack next year, or move off onto serviceable obscurity.
The truly excreable comperes, DJ's from local radio, explained that Echo and the Bunnymen had pulled out, leaving us with the Fratellis and Travis. No one seemed too bothered.
By this time Paul and I were about 3 or 4 rows from the stage - it was quite busy, not far short of a sell out I thought. The problem with being three people from the front at a gig for 3,000 is that the sound can be a bit shit. The Fratellis suffered from the vocals being too far down in the mix, but they were good value. They came on with "Chelsea Dagger", which reminded me of Steve Earle saying that he always plays the hits, because that's what's brought people there - he calls it "Dancing with them what brung you" (also the name of his sister Stacy's second album). The crowd were well up for some good bouncing, the drummer was having a ball, and we all sung along. A certain amount of bouncing was achieved, enough to bring prenomitionary twinges from my calves.
Travis came on around 11, and stormed the place - they actually look like one of the world's top bands these days, instead of the slightly scruffy urchins I last saw live five or six years ago. They did the greatest hits bit, too, giving me a chance to bellow "What's a Wonderwall anyway?" along with everyone else. There was a fair bit of clambering up speaker towers to solo, and bit of windmiling here and there - it would be tempting to rip the pish out of these rock star antics, if you didn't have the feeling that they were already sending themselves up.
They were the only band who played an encore - "Why Does it Always Rain on Me?" which they stopped before the last verse to remind the crowd that everyone had to pogo their way through it. So we did.
A very good night, so it was, with no egos on display, just good music and shambolic organisation. The fact that it raised a lot of money for a good cause is the icing on the cake.