Who would have thought that live reviews would have a forced seven month hiatus during 2020?
There has been other live music in the meantime (the Govanhill Festival gave it a go with outside performances back in September) and Optimo was holding a similar event event to this one at SWG3 the same weekend but this was the first real attempt at a live gig BM has attended since March.
Last Night From Glasgow took a punt on this and arranged a matinee and evening show with pre-booked tables in the yard at SWG3, under canvas, with social distancing and table food and drinks service. With a limit on numbers, the audience were very spread out but the initial lack of atmosphere became less of a problem as the applause became more enthusiastic throughout the afternoon and the artists clearly relished having live humans to interact with.
Long term LNFG associate Mark W Georgsson, with addition of his pal Tino Macdonald on additional guitar, played us a few songs, old and new, including from his current ‘Comes A Time’ release.
The Bluebells then gave us 8 or 9 tracks of acoustic 80s janglepop, including several bonafide classics (‘Cath’, ‘I’m Falling’ and ‘Young at Heart’). Sounding in good form, the brothers McClusky and Robert were joined by fiddle player John McCusker – there were jokey asides and quips, along with some tambourine acrobatics from Ken…
Last on were Lola In Slacks, playing as a five-piece and turning up the volume somewhat. Their eight track set included a lovely cover of ‘Don’t Move to Denmark’ by Broken Chanter, a track recorded for Last Night from Glasgow’s great ‘Isolation Sessions’ album released during the darker days of lockdown. Louise Reid’s vocals sounded smoky but high enough in the mix over the plangent guitar, bass, drums and keyboards backing her. Best tracks for BM’s money were the last few, when the band had got properly warmed up – ‘Postscript in Blue’ was evocative and ‘Ocean Atlas’ was magisterial – best performance of theirs that BM has witnessed…
And so it ended, with the whole lot due to run again that evening – a bold and brave move by LNFG for which they and all involved should be praised highly…
If this is the model for future live gigs then so be it – it is viable and BM will be there next time, if there is one…