The Boo Radleys / Keeley / The Martial Arts

Quite a triple header this, at a not quite full Mono on Valentine’s day… Glasgow’s Paul Kelly aka The Martial Arts was up first, playing four tracks from his current album ‘In There Like Swimwear’, solo on guitar/vocals with a backing track of drums, bass and other instruments. The tracks were upbeat, a bit poppy, bit psychedelic, with shades of 67-era Beatles. He supported the Boos on their last visit to Glasgow so they must like him, as does this reviewer…

Next up was Keeley (the band), playing as the usual 3-piece with Keeley (guitar/vocals), Lukey (bass) and Andrew (drums). They played four new songs (from a forthcoming third album) plus two from the last album (setlist cut slightly short due to timings) and of course every single one was about Inga Hauser (if you don’t know about this by now readers, look it up).

The new material was less dreampop and a lot more rock ‘n’ roll, with the sort of riffs and delivery from Keeley that put BM more in mind of Chrissie Hynde than anyone else. The sound is definitely evolving into something more aggressive, with the keyboard/synth backing track only deployed on the last couple of tracks. As a trio they were incredibly tight and the audience responded well – hopefully further Scottish dates will follow at some point…

The headliners were advertised as playing tracks from the ‘Wake Up!’ and ‘C’mon Kids’ albums, which they duly did, aside from one pretty obscure cover. Boosted to five with the addition of a keyboardist/trumpeter, the three original members (guitarist/songwriter Martin Carr is now long gone) and additional guitarist gave us a longish set (almost 20 songs), along with some genial quips from lead singer Sice, who explained for example how much Martin hated Preston, and commiserated with any wives or girlfriends who’d been dragged to the gig as a Valentine’s date.

Tracks from the albums were interspersed, the set starting with ‘C’mon Kids’, ‘Wake Up Boo’ appearing quite early on, and ending with ‘Stuck On Amber’ (no encore, although by this time it was well after 11pm, quite late for Mono…).
The songs themselves do stand the test of time, and the playing was still passionate, sprightly even – although there were a few shouts for early track “Lazarus” throughout the set.

It’s a moot point whether they are a so-called “heritage act”, as they have released a couple of albums since their original late ’90s breakup, although nothing from these records tonight. The band revisited earlier album ‘Giant Steps’ last year, although there was also material from other releases on that occasion – maybe they will at some point just settle for the “greatest hits” or “audience favourites” – anyway, this was a great night out…