My concert highlights, track by track
1. After the Last Waltz — “Coyote” (Joni Mitchell cover) — Kirsten Adamson — King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
This one is SPECIAL. The show is After the Last Waltz, a tribute to The Band’s legendary 1976 farewell concert that Martin Scorsese turned into one of the greatest music films ever made. It’s fronted by the Stevie Agnew Band with Pete Agnew from Nazareth as a guest. But the voice you’re about to hear belongs to Kirsten Adamson. Her dad was Stuart Adamson. The man who gave us Big Country, Fields of Fire, In a Big Country. Stuart left us far too young in 2001. Kirsten grew up between Dunfermline and Nashville, sang backing vocals on Big Country’s final album as a teenager, and has built her own career in folk and Americana. Here she is covering Joni Mitchell’s “Coyote” at King Tut’s, and I promise you, the apple did not fall far from the tree.
2. The Boo Radleys — “Wilder” — Mono Cafe, Glasgow
The Boo Radleys at Mono in Glasgow. If you only know them for “Wake Up Boo!” then you are missing the point of this band. They came out of Wallasey in 1988, named themselves after a character in To Kill a Mockingbird, and spent a decade making some of the most adventurous guitar music Britain has ever produced. Giant Steps in 1993 was a masterpiece. Wake Up! went to number one in 1995. Then they walked away. They got back together in 2021 without songwriter Martin Carr, and they played Mono to celebrate 30 years of Wake Up! This track, “Wilder,” is the closing song on that album. Piano led, gentle, totally beautiful. A hidden gem sitting right at the end of a record most people only bought for the hit single. Here it is live.
3. Van Morrison — “So Quiet In Here” — Belfast
Van Morrison. Belfast. Two words that belong together. “So Quiet In Here” comes from the 1990 album Enlightenment, and it was actually recorded in a converted church in Somerset. Van himself has said it picks up where “Into the Mystic” left off. It is six minutes of pure stillness. Foghorns, salt air, candlelight, and that voice doing what no other voice on the planet can do. Seeing Van in Belfast is like watching a man return to the source. This is about as good as live music gets.
4. Pastel — “Fight For Your Rights” — Edinburgh
Right, this is Pastel doing “Fight For Your Rights” in Edinburgh. If you know the Beastie Boys original, forget the baseball caps and the beer cans. Pastel take it somewhere completely different. This is what happens when a band grabs a song everybody thinks they know and makes it their own. Edinburgh crowd loving it. I also caught Pastel live at Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh earlier this year. Have a watch.
5. bdrmm — Glasgow
This lot are called bdrmm. That is “bedroom” without the vowels, because the whole thing started as a bedroom recording project by Ryan Smith in Hull. He stuck a demo on BBC Introducing, forgot about it, then got an email saying Radio 1 had played it. So he thought he better start a proper band. They signed to Sonic Cathedral, then moved to Mogwai’s Rock Action label. The sound is SHOEGAZE at its finest. Walls of fuzz, reverb everywhere, vocals buried in the noise like a dream you can almost remember. Three albums in now, each one pushing further out. They started out channelling My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, and now they are folding in electronics and synths. This is them live in Glasgow, and trust me, they hit different in person.
6. Fish — “Lavender” — O2 Academy, Glasgow
Fish. Real name Derek William Dick, from Dalkeith, just down the road. He was the voice of Marillion from 1981 to 1988 and he gave us some of the greatest prog rock of the decade. “Kayleigh” went to number two. “Lavender” hit number five. Misplaced Childhood went straight to number one. He left the band, went solo, kept touring for over 30 years, and then retired from music in 2025. Moved to a croft on the island of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides with his wife and 13 sheep. This is from one of his Glasgow shows at the O2 Academy, playing “Lavender” one more time for a Scottish crowd. A proper farewell from one of our own.
7. Melin Melyn — Glasgow
Last one. Melin Melyn. The name is Welsh for “yellow mill,” and it is also a play on words because both words sound almost identical in Welsh. They are a six piece psych-pop band from Cardiff who dress up in costumes, bring props on stage, and have built an entire fictional village called Melin Village where all their songs take place. The debut album Mill On The Hill came out in 2025 and it sounds like Super Furry Animals met The Beach Boys in a windmill. They sing in both Welsh and English, sometimes in the same song. They are one of the most FUN live bands around right now. This is them doing their thing in Glasgow.
Let me know if you enjoyed it and I may do another.
Cheers!
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