Gigs in Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s only church always feel special. The acoustics of the room always add something extra to the performance. Although it maybe isn’t the most fully equipped venue compared to some other former churches – this one still has the layout and facilities of a church. It is a room that I always enjoy spending some time in.
“Could you not have put us on in a nicer venue?” Rick Anthony said as he took to the stage.
Afterlands is the latest project from Rick of the Phantom Band/Rick Redbeard and David McAulay of Strike the Colours. With a little help from Jill Lorean. They’re doing something a little different from the work they did before under their other guises.
There’s a beautiful bleakness to Afterlands. Maybe bleak is the wrong word, as these songs feel optimistic but there’s an emptiness in these songs. Especially performed in the old Queen’s Cross Church.
They started off with just Rick’s vocals and David on either guitar or piano before Jill joined them and provided backing vocals and violin.
The songs ‘Leaf Cutters’ and ‘Ghosthouse stood out for me, particularly the latter with the lyric “The sky turned from coal black to blazing grey”.
Aye, summertime. This song started kind of pedestrian and then built up into a wall of sound. Very atmospheric.
Pictish Trail gigs are always interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the same set up twice.
Here Johnny was joined by Susan Bear on keys and bass, Gillian Fleetwood on harp and Semay Wu on cello. In rehearsals for this show they discovered that Semay Wu actually played on the original recordings of some songs. ‘I Don’t Know Where To Begin’ being the main one that they played here.
This gig was like three gigs in one. Four if you count the intros between songs as a little bonus stand up comedy routine. Johnny told us about misadventures of being in a car accident with the comedians Josie Long and James Acaster and how he feels like he didn’t survive and this is one long trip to purgatory. Then instantly messed up the intro to the next song. Was that on purpose?
He told about being out his of head at Glastonbury and seeing a ‘Bear With Heart Eyes’ tormenting him. He donned a mask like a hairy Frank Sidebottom for this song.
To begin with we got some new songs played solo on acoustic guitar. One of them may or may not be the title track of the next album as the name was trialled with the audience. That name was ‘Slime Life’.
Most of the set was played with the full band but a few songs towards the end they left the stage and Johnny sang solo with beats and sequencers.
When the band rejoined they played ‘Columns’ and ‘It Came Back’. Both of these made full use of the acoustics of the room. The second one had the tune coming and going through a wall of noise which was great.
It was a very enjoyable night in a beautiful venue to bring Celtic Connections 2025 to a close.
- Middle Class Guilt / Opium Clippers / Holistics - 8 February 2025
- Pictish Trail / Afterlands - 7 February 2025
- The Bluebells / The New Leaves - 3 February 2025