Dead Hope - The Ginger Quiff

Bodega – Brand on the Run tour, Glasgow

October 22, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

All photographs courtesy of Chris Hogge (@chrishoggephotography) • Instagram photos and videos

It feels that there has always been an affinity between Scotland, particularly Glasgow, and New York. It seems that the spirit of the cities live within each other. Perhaps it’s because we look alike, with Glasgow often substituting for the Big Apple in Hollywood blockbusters and then there is New York hosting a Tartan Week, perhaps it’s because both cities have a strong musical heritage spawning some of the worlds best bands and having some of the most iconic music venues, past and present. Or maybe it’s just because each cities people know how party and have a good time.… Read the rest

Sister Madds, The Froobz, Lemon Drink & comfort girl – King Tuts Summer Nights Live

September 1, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

My gig game has been weak recently. I’ve missed several fixtures that should have been easy home wins. For some reason I’ve gone down the route of weak football analogies here, I should point out that as an armchair Aberdeen fan, I may be giddy through their early season success, as I started to write this my team was sitting in the recent uncharted territory of the top of the league.

Personally, I’ve not been match fit recently so my first gig back for a while was an opportunity to test my fitness levels. Not my actual fitness levels, testing them would most definitely not have a positive outcome, but what I mean is my ability to seamlessly slip back into the pattern of play as if nothing had happened.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 7 – July

August 16, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

I love new music. Simple. New music from new bands. New music from old bands. It never ceases to amaze me when I come across people who don’t like music (at all?!?) or are determined to tell me, all the great music has already been made (really?1?)… Suffice to say, EVERY month there are dozens of quality new sounds and bands that blow my mind…

Top 10

I keep digging a hole for myself by rating things. How hard it is to have a favourite! it’s like, do I prefer eating, drinking or breathing? Anyway… here goes…

Single of the Month

Keeley – Inga Hauser

One of the Ginger Quiff’s 24 for ’24, the peerless Keeley Moss and her band Keeley, continue to go from strength to strength, having wowed me from the off with the songs on their Brave Warrior EP, and literally everything that has followed since, culminating in my finally getting to see this musical tour de force live last year.… Read the rest

Govanhill Street Music Festival – Scottish Faultlines, Junk Pups & San Jose live

August 12, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

After recent weeks events with the racist right wing rioters taking to the streets (of England & Northern Ireland) to claim “are country” back it was heartening to see UK-wide counter protests claim the streets back from these knuckle-draggers to prove that the fascist scum are in the minority.

To join in on these celebrations of togetherness, I ventured out to my first “gig” in about 3 weeks to the sun swathed Govanhill Street Music Festival, three stages in the area catering for every music taste.

Scottish Faultlines

Unfortunately I didn’t make it to the Reggae Stage at the Bees Knees Cafe with the Bass Warrior Soundsystem, my day kicking off in the early afternoon sunshine at the Belljar Stage being entertained by the inimitable Hugh Haggerty in his guise of Scottish Faultlines.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 6 – June

August 10, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

I’m not entirely sure I’m ever going to catch up… August is already in flight and here I am sharing my June singles…Anyway. Here they are, with playlist at the end.

Single of the Month

Junk Pups – Spoonfed

The June released singled from their Ball and Chain EP (full EP reviewed here)…

…Spoonfed….“for anyone who misses the off the wall duo, The Bikini Bottoms, this bouncing garage rocker will fill that hole. A hauntingly mysterious melody unfolds into glorious dual harmonies from Jack and Dylan. This mesmerising slice of psych/garage rock, and it’s lyrical ode to dysfunctional relationships, comes replete with some blisteringly face-melting triumphant wah-wah riffing as the song reaches its dazzling zenith courtesy of guitar goddess Ishi.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 5 – May

July 24, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

I am so unbelievably behind it’ll be Halloween soon and I’ll still be at Easter… I’m still working month’s behind in singles round ups, and about 6 months behind in album and EP reviews. I’m putting that down to shit like life getting in the way, but I’ll also use the excuse that there is so much fantastic new music out there by bands old and new that I can’t keep up with the sheer volume of music to listen to, which to be fair, ain’t that far from the truth.

My May (yeah I know, May, that was like months ago, literally…) round up follows, as does a playlist of all the songs on Tidal.… Read the rest

Scorpio Leisure – Audio Pleasure- album release gig – review

July 20, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

All Photos courtesy of Trevor Pake

I Believe in Scorpio Leisure

2024 continues to be a dick of a year for so many reasons, and yeah, my mood is more negative than positive at the moment. Ironically I started this blog as a way of managing my mental health and mood through writing about my favourite subject… but my output is worse than ever because I’ve slipped into old habits in managing, or should that be not managing, said mental health.

As I reached the end of another working week, my “peopling” quota for the week had reached critical mass, so on arriving at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms I ditched my usual objective of being stage front and slipped quietly to the back of room with my pint of Tennents to enjoy the soothing and entrancing rhythms of Accident Machine, providing just the right balance of helping dissipate the stresses and anxieties of the week, and to build up the anticipation for the main event. … Read the rest

Junk Pups, Apologies and National Playboys – live in Nice n Sleazy, Glasgow

July 14, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve not been at many gigs recently so a Saturday night in Sleazys was a most welcome release from the pressures of life that are sent to try us. And after missing a couple of Junk Pups recent performances, including their appearance at the Variety Bar for Crowded Flat’s third birthday celebrations, having this most extraordinary of bands at the centre of the nights entertainment made it all the better.

Glasgow’s Junk Pups were bookended by Apologies from Falkirk and Edinburgh’s National Playboys. Apologies were the first band on the bill, playing what I believe was only their second or third gig as a four piece.… Read the rest

Scorpio Leisure – Audio Pleasure – Album review

July 7, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

The witching hour edges ever closer. The album launch gig (or should I say release gig – especially for Coco) for this majestic brooding masterpiece in Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms on 19th July looms large. I for one am expecting nothing less than a spectacular show from this singularity unconventional quartet who are currently one of Scotland’s most exciting music exports. To coin a phrase oft made by the bands manager “you should go”!

Audio Pleasure is a uniquely bewitching album from a band like no other, each member brings something different to the mix from their varied backgrounds in several Scottish bands from across the decades.… Read the rest

Walt Disco – The Warping – album review

June 20, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

2024 has already been an outstanding year for album releases, however, Walt Disco certainly do not need to be fazed by what has come before as their second album finally hit the shelves. The Warping twists and turns, contorts, confounds convention and delights in equal parts as the serpentine songs worm their way into the very fibre of your being, and while not totally vitiating all comers, the album lays waste to much of the competition.

Where Unlearning announced their arrival as the ones to watch, The Warping takes that complex blueprint and not so much runs with it as rips it to shreds and starts again, taking the sum of their parts, adding layers of instrumentation, multiplying their sophisticated textures by distorting, altering and reshaping their already distinct signature soundscapes and somehow making their music even more passionately intense, akin to some sort religious awakening.… Read the rest