In the dying days of the old year Glasgow-based micro record company Iceblink Luck put on a wee Xmas party in the downstair space of The Old Toll Bar. BM had not been to TOTB for a good few years and had forgotten what a fine establishment it is, a beacon of hope in the otherwise dire hostelry options in the Ibrox/Govan end of town (let us say no more about that…).
With the audience encouraged to bring some donations for a local foodbank and many punters being either friends or relatives of the label and/or its artists, this had something of a works night out feel to it, and people were there to be entertained.
First up, and on the label, was Glasgow-based artist Ruby Gaines, who played around six or seven tunes, mainly from her ‘Cardamom’ EP. With deft guitar playing and a smoky-toned voice, many of the tracks came across like a Glaswegian sister of Jeff Buckley. BM was especially taken with ‘King Jack’ from the EP, and will be checking some of these tracks (and several new ones) out in 2023.
The other artist on the bill tonight was Stina, aka Honeyblood (originally from Edinburgh but now a Glasgow resident), whose most recent releases have been on the label. Taking a fairly relaxed approach to the event (“I’ve not written a setlist, what do you think I should play?” etc) she ripped into her trademark guitar style and gave us eight or so tracks. First album highlight ‘Superrat’ made an early appearance, just after set opener and most recent release ‘Human Condition’. A new track ‘Underwater Forever’ sounded good, while things took an unexpected turn with a Wonderstuff cover (‘It’s Yer Money’, BM thinks…).
The classic ‘Babes Never Die’ sounded great, there was another new song, then an old song, then for a last track Stina invited IL label supremo Robert Kilpatrick up to sing Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’. This was obviously an unplanned move, as Robert looked aghast and started swiping his phone to find the lyrics. Meanwhile Stina started the duet off but it soon transpired her knowledge of the lyrics was pretty shaky as well, so there was quite a lot of audience participation (yes there were some hardcore Wham! loyalists in the crowd thankfully) – a hilariously off-kilter end to a great night, and let’s hope the label goes onto bigger and better things in 2023.