Gigs Of The Year 2011....

Mostly due to work I have not managed to get along to as many gigs this year as I would like to have. In fact I have probably been to less live concerts this year than any other in the last 20 years.

There are two however that stand head and shoulders above all the rest - one from an artist that I have seen many times and have never left the venue anything other than blown away by him and still not understanding why after over 30 years in "the biz" that so many do not even know the sheer majesty of The Boy Wonder. See the review from mid October here .

The other was just last week when I went along to The Arches to see Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat. They were accompanied onstage by violin, double bass and some exquisite trumpet playing by Robert Henderson, all of which rightfully allowed the lyrics and piano to retain centre stage throughout. Most of the set comprised the tracks from one of 2011's finest long players, Everything's Getting Older, including a spellbinding performance of The Copper Top. Thrown into the mix was a strangely moving cover of Bananarama's Cruel Summer and a lovely Christmas ditty that he wrote for his kids loosely based on The Night Before Christmas that had some great laugh out loud moments involving an alcoholic Santa and some bondage which can be found here .

Moffat somehow manages to distil seemingly small moments in life into startling real, and touching lyrics that, on Everything's Getting Older, are amongst the best he has ever written. This was an excellent show that was equal parts beauty, misery and humour. In fact just perfect for Christmas.

Drink A Drink To Before....

If Roddy Frame had walked onto the stage at Glasgow's ABC the other night and just performed Killermont Street I would have felt like I had got my money's worth. Thankfully, however, he played many more including finishing the main set with the holy trinity of Oblivious, Walk Out To Winter and Pillar To Post.

This was the first time in over ten years that he has played live with a band having probably rediscovered the joys of playing with a band after touring over the last few years as Edwyn Collin's guitarist. The gig included tracks from the first Aztec Camera album right up to a brand new track, White Pony, with Frame declaring that he "might write another one next year" after the rapturous reception he received from an adoring audience. Never mind one new track, a new album would certainly be very welcome and long overdue.

The set was an embarrassment of riches with particular fave moments being Down The Dip, Western Skies, a terrific version of We Could Send Letters and the aforementioned Killermont Street which is easily one of the best songs ever written by one of Scotland's most talented musicians. Frame knows his audience well, and didn’t disappoint ending the show with a rousing Somewhere In My Heart which had a packed ABC transported back to '88 and fully in agreement that "the closet thing to heaven is to rock'n'roll".

I'm quite sure that Roddy and co could quite happily have played for another couple of hours and I'm sure there would have been no complaints from anyone present. As it was we got about one and a half hours from The Boy Wonder, delivering probably the best gig of 2011.

Just Close Your Eyes Again....

Following on from yesterday's post I had a listen to Side 2 of the first Indie City cassette and although not quite up to the standard of Side 1 there is sill a smorgasbord of musical treats to tempt the Indie tastebuds including The Cocteaus, The Redskins, Joy Division and East Kilbride's very own Boy Wonder Roddy Frame.


The word genius is thrown about too readily these days but there can be few more musicians worthy of the word than Roddy Frame.I've seen Roddy a few times live with Aztec Camera, solo and a couple of times when he was playing guitar with Edwyn Collins where you would catch Edwyn sitting and watching in sheer admiration at the guitar virtuosity of one of this country's most talented and gifted songwriters.

Still astonishing to this day that he was only 19 when he released one of the best debut albums of all time in High Land Hard Rain . An album literally bursting with youth, vitality, energy and just great songs. Very hard to single out best tracks from an almost perfect album but the track that is on the Indie City cassette, We Could Send Letters, is certainly one of them with one of Roddy's finest ever lyrics. If for any reason you have never seen Roddy Frame live you should try and catch him the next time he plays at a town near you.