Primal Scream – Usher Hall

I’ve seen Primal Scream quite a few times over the years.

Some of those gigs have been good, some have been great and one of them remains among my favourites of all time. Their XTRMNTR tour stop at the Barrowland was an absolute monster of a concert and still ranks near the very top of my gig-going memories. If you were there, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

They were also one of the first bands I took Emma to see when they embarked on their greatest hits tour a few years ago, so there was never much chance of us missing this one.

Being the careful financial planner that I am, I decided to save a few pounds by buying restricted-view tickets at the Usher Hall.

This turned out to be a mistake.

Now, when a venue says “restricted view”, I generally assume that means you’ll miss the occasional corner of the stage or perhaps have a slightly awkward angle. What I didn’t anticipate was just how restricted the view would actually be.

When we sat down, I quickly realised that I’d perhaps been a little too enthusiastic in my pursuit of a bargain.

Still, at least we had the music.

Or so I thought.

Unfortunately, seated directly behind me was a young guy who apparently believed he’d bought tickets to a pub rather than a concert. Throughout Baxter Dury’s support set he talked continuously. Not the occasional comment to a friend. Continuous conversation.

After a while I turned around and politely asked him to stop.

He didn’t.

In fairness, he may have stopped briefly, but if so it wasn’t long enough for me to notice.

Baxter Dury, meanwhile, was excellent.

The son of Ian Dury has carved out a distinctive identity of his own over the years, combining deadpan humour, sharp observations and an unmistakable vocal style. He deserved far more attention than he was receiving from the human podcast sitting behind me.

By the interval, I’d had enough.

Rather than spending the second half trapped between a restricted view and a restricted attention span, I took Emma downstairs and explained the situation to one of the security staff. I also asked, hopefully rather than expectantly, whether there might be any possibility of moving into the stalls.

Thankfully, the gentleman took pity on us.

A few minutes later we found ourselves much closer to the stage and with a dramatically improved view of proceedings.

So, in a strange way, I owe the annoying guy a thank you.

Had he kept his mouth shut, we’d probably have remained in our original seats all evening.

Instead, we ended up with a far better experience.

When Primal Scream took to the stage, they reminded me why I’ve continued following them for so many years. Few bands have reinvented themselves as successfully or as often. From indie rock to acid house, gospel, electronic music and beyond, they’ve spent decades refusing to stay in one lane.

The songs sounded fantastic.

Once we were down in the stalls, it was much easier to lose ourselves in the performance and enjoy the show properly. Emma took on her usual role as official videographer while I concentrated on what I do best: enjoying the gig.

I trusted that she would capture enough footage to document the evening.

Thankfully, she did.

As for me, I only recorded a couple of short clips. Sometimes the best way to remember a concert is simply to be present while it’s happening.

Looking back, what could have been a frustrating evening turned into a very enjoyable one. A poor seat, an even poorer neighbour and a fortunate intervention from security combined to give us a much better view than we’d paid for.

Not every concert improves because somebody won’t stop talking.

This one did.

The videos below include footage from Emma’s vastly superior vantage point, along with a couple of clips I managed to record between actually watching one of Britain’s greatest live bands do their thing.

At the break I took Emma downstairs and spoke to security about the annoying dude and asked if we could get into the stalls.  Thankfully he was happy to oblige and so we ended up quite close to the front of the stage, which was much better.  So thank you annoying dude.  Here is the footage that Emma captured.

Here is a couple of clips that I captured.  I was too busy enjoying the gig to record more and trusted that Emma would have caught enough to give you a good idea of the gig.