About

There is nothing better than live music!

Our aim is to provide informal reviews of music gigs in Glasgow, to provide a list of upcoming gigs (highlighting the ones that will be reviewed), and to give some info on the many music venues in the city (and a few beyond the city confines). Our ethos is to focus on the positive, to be supportive of the bands and artists who play the city, and to generally encourage people to go to live gigs.

I have been going to about 45 gigs per year for the last 12 years, for the first 10 years in London and now in Glasgow. I will go to almost any type of gig although I favour indie, rock, pop, electronica. I just think that there is nothing better than live music and when the band connects to the audience there can be a shared sense of euphoria that is difficult to beat. I may have been lucky over the last dozen years but in nearly all of the gigs I have attended the bands always seem to want to give 100%, even when there are very few people in the audience (see The Skys review!) – I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of gigs I have been to and thought it was not really worth it. I am one of those sad souls who likes to get to the gig early so I can see all the support bands because you never quite know what you will get, because sometimes they are better than the headliners and because most are learning their trade and I might see them a few years later as headliners themselves. I have also seen some very good support bands who, because it is a tough industry, don’t make it and may not even release an album and so seeing them live was the only chance to appreciate just how good they were and what the wider world has lost out on. I also go to see lots of bands who I really don’t know apart from a quick look at the video or two beforehand, and sometimes not even that, and that has also brought many rewards in terms of me discovering a new band (like The Hold Steady) that goes on to bring me countless hours of listening pleasure. I mostly go to smaller music venues – partly because I couldn’t afford to go to 45 gigs a year at the SSE Hydro and partly because of the closeness to the music and musicians that the smaller venues give.

I am just an ordinary punter who loves music – I have no professional experience as a music writer or musician – and the blog post reviews will reflect that (and will probably reflect glaring omissions in my music knowledge). The reviews are deliberately short but will provide links to the pages of the main band and support bands as well as a link to a sample music video of the main band – so if your interest is piqued you can easily follow up on the bands. And I welcome any feedback, comments, general observations that you may wish to share!

gg