Entering the recently-reopened Picture House is like stepping back in time. And it’s not just that the venue was a regular touring venue in the late 70s before its 20-odd year hiatus. Or that the bands on the bill could be described as being of ‘a certain vintage’ – from that golden era of Edinburgh music that has recently threatened a resurgence, to coincide with the grand old venue’s reopening. (And, not coincidentally, the rebirth of show promoter Avalanche Records in its new Grassmarket home).
No, as with any gig venue, or any live show, the audience are what makes it. And what an audience. Genuine celebrities in Irvine Welsh and Iain Rankine, mini pop legends like Paul Haig and Davy Henderson, as well as sundry might-have-beens from Factory and Fast, even a Frightened Rabbit and a Second Hand Marching Band (the latter almost a statistical certainly, to be fair) holding up the more current side of things.
Shock and Awe, recently added to the bill following a happy event in the Kid Canaveral camp, seem sprightly enough, but they’re firmly steeped in past punk traditions – even with a tune they claim was co-written with Joe Strummer. With a slew of songs that weigh in at the very 70s mark of two minutes or less, they’re an ideal kick-off to the proceedings.
Go to any other venue and ballboy would be described as veterans – what, over 10 years on the fringes of showbiz? But tonight they’re mere striplings, the headliners having split before, we assume, any of this band had taken their first steps. Anyone in the Scottish capital who’s a regular gig-goer is unlikely to have failed to encounter Gordon Mcintyre and his cohorts before, and most will have succumbed to their endearing charms. Indeed, why they’re not playing venues this size on a regular basis is one of Scottish rock’s little mysteries.
They open with a towering ‘Public Park’, itself one of their earliest tunes, but choose to run through the years given that there will be a few people here who’ve not encountered them before. Gordon invites them to enter the “semi-circle of doubt”, that area betwixt band and crowd (I think that’s what he said, I was back beside the bar at the time). There’s new material to please diehard ballboy-watchers though – including ‘Independent Popular Music’, which could act as their manifesto. Or perhaps the fact that their setlist was scrawled in the margin of the Guardian – “because that’s the kind of band we are”.
It’s apt that TV21 take to the stage immediately before the headliners. Trailblazers of a sort, they, like Scars now, recently reformed after many years and many flirtations with success (including a Playhouse support with the Rolling Stones). However, unlike most revived bands their post-reformation recordings are acclaimed with this year’s Forever 22 picking up reviews to compare with debut A Thin Red Line.
They kick off with stomping newie ‘Look To The Sun’ and we get a few more instant classics like ‘Girl On The Moon’ as well – but in the main it’s those should-have-been hits like ‘Snakes and Ladders’ and ‘On The Run’ that will strike memories with the bulk of the audience, and past meets present with ‘What’s Going On’, dedicated to anyone who voted Tory, or Liberal (careful now, Norman).
There’s one final treat as they employ a brass section (borrowed from ska act Bombskare who resist the temptation to play on the offbeat) which allows them to recreate oldies ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘Ideal Way of Life’ with the gusto of their recorded versions. The more privileged/astute here tonight have seen the new TV21 plenty since they got back together again, but now they’re as on the mark as they have been.
A hard act to follow in a sense, especially as Scars have only recently even been together in the same country, and their recent hurried rehearsals the first time they’ve done anything in close on 30 years. However, from the opening ‘Horrorshow’ it’s like they’d never been away – even though Rab King’s shock of dark hair is gone, replaced with a shaven head to match the dramatic, almost monochrome music. Oddly the band probably never headlined a venue of this size during the first chapter of their career, though there were support slots with The Cure and Siouxsie. And John McGeoch’s guitar sound rings out in the playing of Paul Research, though it’s likely that he’d already developed the chiming multi-layered technique that became the Scars’ trademark.
It’s an intense performance, mainly comprising tracks from Author Author – the crooked sci-fi of ‘They Came And Took Her’, the post-punk rush of ‘Adult/Ery’, and ‘Love Song’ with its howled chorus “This is the weekend, so let’s have fun”. Sadly there’s no room for pop hit ‘All About You’, perhaps deemed just too darned cheery for this set.
Despite the stark and menacing nature of the songs played, Rab cheerily scatters the audience with aftershow flyers and unzips his leather bomber to reveal a scrawled “Marc Bolan” on his bare chest. Paul, Calumn and John, meanwhile, just look happy to be onstage once more.
Deserved encores come, in a reprise of ‘Horrorshow’ with Murray Shock and Awe augmenting it – that’s as close as we’ll get to a Fred Deakin remix. And ‘Psychomodo’, a forgotten b-side which could have passed for an At The Drive-in cover rather than a Steve Harley-penned tune. Indeed, whether for an audience entrenched in the late 70s, or for those modern hipsters present, this seems like one reunion that has the legs to be more than a one-off.