One great thing about free gigs, for both artist and music fan, is that the fans need not have any prior knowledge of the artist. Maybe they came for a drink, or maybe they came to see their friend’s band who are also on the bill but one thing is for sure: On her very first UK tour, Shona Foster will undoubtedly have gathered a massive following of brand new fans, not least in Glasgow’s Bar Bloc.
Local acts The Brazen Cars and My Cousin I Bid You Farewell’s Johnathon Sebastian Knight warmed up the crowd with bright, happy folk pop on one hand and Knight’s soulful vocal and guitar solo performance on the other.
Shona took to the stage dressed in black, armed with her guitar and band of misfits (that’s not an insult, it is their name, really) and jumped straight into the set, starting off with “?” and the quirky ‘Number 24’. After treating the crowd to some softer numbers such as ‘Sweet Surrender and ‘Oh Patience’, Shona and co proceeded to grab the audience’s attention with the slick guitar heavy ‘Love and War’ and Russian Cabaret influenced ‘Be Bold’ (well Bar Bloc is a Russian themed pub anyway…)
As they were packing up, the crowd were going insane, demanding an encore until the sound tech declared “You won’t get out here alive unless you play one more”. So play one more they did, choosing rocky number ‘Bad Stuff’ before leaving the stage to join their crowd of new Scottish fans for more drinks and banter until the early hours.