This gig was meant to happen on Friday the 24th of January but was postponed due to the incoming storm that day.
It was the launch gig for the album ‘The Committee’ by Middle Class Guilt.
The album is out in all the usual digital places but has also been released on cassette tape. The cassette has four bonus tracks.
A format surprisingly that I can still play.
Middle Class Guilt are a six-piece band of Shetlanders all based in Glasgow.
They’ve been around since at least 2018 and have released a few singles and EPs in that time.
In their early shows sounded different every time but now they’ve found their own voice and seem happily doing their own thing.
They’re a bit like a Post Punk band and there are definitely Fall influences in there. Specifically ‘Dragnet’/’Totale’s Turn’-era Fall.
They are quite a quirky band which a huge part of their charm and there are other influences in the mix too. Not least of which is simply the Shetland thing.
The album opens with a song built around the radio jingle for the local news on BBC Radio Shetland.
Or so I am reliably informed.
It closes with a song called the ‘Trowie Song’. Which was the single released from this album.
Do you even know what a Trow is?
This was the second last song of the night and has become a bit of a live epic.
It is also the only song to have a fiddle on it, played by Fraser McCallum. Named after a mythical being who happens to like fiddle music.
Many of their songs have a sort of storytelling feel to them. Maybe it’s just singer Joseph Morgan’s delivery of the lyrics?
Some songs like ‘Burra’ and ‘Jab Jab Punch’ are spiky and fast and come across well live. Others like ‘Long Hot Summer’ are more melodic and catchy.
A long hot summer in Shetland?
Aye, right.
How long was it, four days?
Special shout out to the sound in McChuils. It was excellent. As was the Murphys.
The first support band of the night Holistics touched on both of these things as they had a few sound problems early on. But thankfully only in the talking bits between songs.
They reported no problems with the Murphys.
They are a four-piece band that are kind of grungy in their sound. They also performed a Radiohead cover. What makes them a little different is they have two singers who took turns about.
They played some good tunes but unfortunately I didn’t catch the names of them.
Middle band of the night were Opium Clippers who are a three-piece band described as playing a Psychedelic Rock cross over. They played a few songs from their releases ‘Reality Super User’ and their newest single. Which if I understood drummer Paul correctly as he told us about it, isn’t out yet.
The two songs that stood out to me were ‘Walk Away’ with its “chk chk chk” guitar parts and ‘Float’ where the melody seemed to be played on the distortion pedals more than the guitars.
It is a shame that this gig had to be rescheduled as it definitely hurt the numbers showing up on the night. But it was a successful launch nonetheless.
- Middle Class Guilt / Opium Clippers / Holistics - 8 February 2025
- Pictish Trail / Afterlands - 7 February 2025
- The Bluebells / The New Leaves - 3 February 2025