Another Glasgow evening, another Celtic Connections gig, and this time, the first full-band King Creoeote show in a few years.
Tonight’s gig sold out weeks in advance and there was an air of anticipation despite it being a school night, and looking at the audience probably a few hundred babysitters to relieve after the gig. Around 8pm rather than the expected “plus support” as per the ticket (BM assumed it would be Lomond Campbell), who should stroll onto the stage but Mr Anderson himself. He explained there would be audience participation and that the band would be its own support act. He attempted to warm up the audience by asking them to join in with the words and tune of a 70s/80s Dryburgh’s Keg Heavy advert – “strike it rich…” etc. He then brought the other seven members of this version of King Creosote on – Mairearad Green on accordion/pipes, Lomond on synths and other electronica, the eponymous “Des” (Derek O’Neil) on keyboards, Hannah Fisher on fiddle/guitar/vocals, percussionist Andy Robinson and also on vocals, Heidi Talbot.
BM counted five songs – not all of which were KC originals (one was a cover of ‘Time’ by Tom Waits at least one other was a Lomond track – ‘The Length’); although the second with Hannah on lead vocals had to be restarted halfway through – “they only learned it earlier today” quipped Kenny. The overall effect was slightly ramshackle but rather sweet and certainly authentic, with some banter and lots of laughter.
There was then a break of around 20 minutes, during which final track ‘Drone In B Flat’ from the latest album ‘IDES’ could be heard as background music, before firstly Lomond and then the others returned to the stage, substituting the playback for some live drone, along with fiddle and other effects, quite sinister and atmospheric. By now there was a screen projection at the back and it was used effectively during the ‘IDES’ section, with a different set of images for each track.
Firstly we got a take on Tom T Hall’s ‘That’s How I Got To Memphis’ sung mainly by Heidi in a country stylee – it’s a pretty but rather self-pitying song IMHO and given Kenny’s back catalogue… well, there’s lots of original stuff to choose from so why on earth? To give the rest of the band exposure maybe, but the “support act” stuff had already done that… anyway, next up was the beautiful John Hopkins co-write ‘Running On Fumes’ before the band “rehearsed” ‘It’s Sin That’s Got Its Hold Upon Us’ and then launched into a full version of it, the first time this evening where they really started going up through the gears and using their full sonic potential – yes it did sound pretty amazing, and fair play to Richie Dempsey on the desk at the back of the room, probably not the easiest evening for him overall…
This was followed by the other eight subsequent tracks on ‘IDES’ – including the evocative ‘Blue Marbled Elm Trees’ (“I was happy laughing with my girls” is a classic Kenny line), the ridiculously catchy and sample-led ‘Suzie Mullen’ (this and ‘Walter De La Nightmare’ the first indications back in 2022 that KC had new material on the way), and the plaintive and self-humiliating ‘Please Come Back…’. All well and good, and it was great to hear these tracks finally live and in full effect, certainly his most mature work to date, mixing meditations on getting older (“maybe dying’s not for me”) with pure silliness and idiot-savant insight into a world gone mad.
What happened next was typical of KC’s somewhat wayward approach to live gigs – after mock-walking off the stage and with people at the front yelling out suggestions for tracks from the “well over a hundred” records he has made solo or with collaborators, instead we got a hip-hopped up version of ‘So Forlorn’ from the ‘Musical Boat Rides’ record, a real obscurity (in fact from the first KC release reviewed in this organ), and then (after a few quips from Kenny about being about to turn 57), to be fair, a very beat-driven dash through ‘Saffy Nool” from ‘Rocket DIY’ – “this face didn’t make much sense till 35/55”.
And last of all – what possibly nobody except the man himself wanted, another run through, er, ‘Dryburgh’s Keg Heavy’. Then an impassioned rant against globalisation and looking out for one’s neighbours – the same old-time itm? readers referenced earlier will be familiar with Kenny’s attitude towards big business and the environment, and in particular, those little plastic UHT cartons…
Anyway, respect to Kenny and the band for what was a most diverting evening, and a bit of a rollercoaster ride.