This enjoyable and entertaining evening was the launch gig was Glasgow-based Sister John’s second, self-titled album. The Poetry Club is a new-ish, small and compact venue beside SWG3 adjacent to the Clydeside Expressway, with the rumble of trains overhead. It has a balcony, unusual for a small venue, but it is a tad eccentric. The event was hosted by those wonderful people at Last Night From Glasgow, who are putting out the new album and remain Sister John’s backers.
So first on was Stephen Watt, a very talented poet who was dressed in a kilt (for Burns night) and spat some excellent lines. He admits John Cooper Clarke (ooh, Prof. JCC now) as an influence and his rants about T in the Park, football experiences and other various subjects were very entertaining, punctuated by those perky overheard trains…
Wojtek The Bear are a Scottish Fiction-associated band who have been keepin’ it real since 2016 and their brand of emotive Scottish pop/rock went down very well both with the crowd and with BM. There are some dark lyrics in songs like ‘Strong Suit’ and the mid-tempo pace gave lots of chances for some twangy guitar work. Playing as a four-piece they made a very good impression, playing cuts from their debut album ‘A Talent For Being Unreasonable’ – tracks like ‘Oil and Water’ and ‘Postcode’ are really good songs from a very promising act.
Sister John are a very special band, comprising five members tonight – Amanda takes most of the vocal duties and guitar, Jonathan does a lot on guitar and some keyboards while Heather and Sophie do bass, viola, violin and several other things. BM could not access the drummer’s name tonight but he put in a very good shift…
The new album tracks sounded great, very laid back but also emotional – twangy, a wee bit of country and a wee bit of the Stones and other classic artists, the playing was spot on and held the sold-out audience captive. BM has not quite absorbed album no. two (it is very promising) so for her some of the oldies really struck home, having lived with them for longer. So ‘Thinner Air’ was a real highlight, conjouring up timeless music from Neil Young to Pasty Cline. We are very lucky to have such talent in our midst.