Category: Gigs in Glasgow

The Ginger Quiff – Gigs of 2025

December 30, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

With the count coming in at 44 it was a poor showing on the gig front for 2025 for me, it was a clusterfuck of a year with a mixture of poor physical & mental health curtailing, with a certain irony given the dopamine boost live music brings, my gig going somewhat and also curtailing my writing. I probably missed just as many gigs I’d planned to attend as I actually attended, and among these missed events I’m sure would have been some guaranteed to be amongst the best of the year.

As it was, every gig played it’s part in making it a successful year of gig going despite the high number of missed dates…

The Second House Guest Festival in April alongside Tenement Trail in October were two obvious highlights of the gig going year giving the opportunity to see a whole host of bands who are all part of the reason the live music scene in Scotland is in such rude health, and they also sewed the seeds of an idea in my head that should be coming to fruition imminently despite a delay in the planned announcement…

Several bands had me return to see them time and again, each time proving their worth and playing cracking sets (equally there were bands I had tickets to see several times and didn’t make any of their gigs…).… Read the rest

Ex – – Imposter Syndrome – album review

December 27, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

On Know Your Rights The Clash handily provided their listeners with a “public service announcement with guitars.” 43 years on, and on their twentieth album/EP release to date, Imposter Syndrome, the prolific Ex- provide not so much a public service announcement but a social conscience with guitars. Taking nothing away from the rest of the band, the vitality and energy of whose playing provides the indispensable soundtrack to Imposter Syndrome, Meek’s lyrics here are as essential as ever and a crucial part in what makes Ex- stand head and shoulders above the majority of their peers. As someone who is as profuse in his writing as Meek, he never fails in managing to blend his creativity with a nail on head social commentary.… Read the rest

Slime City – National Record of Achievement – album review

December 23, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

Slime City have already reached legends in their own lunchtime status in their home city, the shitehole that is Glasgow, with their debut album Death Club so it was clearly time to go interstellar and conquer the rest of the music loving public. And what better way to do it than with the release of their new album, National Record of Achievement. I’m too fucking old to have experienced National Records of Achievement, but I’m willing to put my trust in Slime City (is that wise?) that they were a waste of time and energy, labelling them an utterly pointless exercise as they ascertain that nobody will ever ask to see it. … Read the rest

This Questionable Life – Sucker Punch – EP Review

December 22, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

This is the fifth EP from the band whose name unfortunately becomes more and more pertinent with each release, or may be that’s just me…

Anyway, however questionable things may be in the current dystopian times we are living through, there is always music to fall back on, giving a respite from reality, or that feeling that you’re not alone and there is hope for change. That’s the feeling from listening to this EP from This Questionable Life.

The hard-edged driving rhythm of the EP’s opening song, it’s title track, has a sense of R.E.M. in it’s melody, a punchy high-energy beat underlines some crunching riffs and sets the standard for the rest of the EP.… Read the rest

Miki Berenyi Trio & f.o. machete – Live in Sleazys

December 21, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

It was the last gig of 2025 for me, so what better way to bow out than in the company of one my favourite bands who also happened to be the purveyors of one of my albums of the year (a list which I’ve not even considered yet, and given that I missed a whole chunk of the year needs a bit of thought…) and also in the presence of a singer who I last saw in what I fear was as far back as 1994 in King Tuts if my memory serves with her first band Lush, so I was well overdue a re-acquaintance.… Read the rest

Water Machine/Maz and the Phantasms/Vibrator/Junk Pups – Live Review – Palestine Red Crescent Society Benefit

December 17, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

My third from last gig in 2025… in a year when I seem to have missed more gigs than I managed to get along to for a combination of reasons not worth going into here..Let’s just say I need to resolve to ensure 2026 is much of a shit storm than 2025…

There was the potential for me to be missing this one too, but with this line up, plus the knowledge that this would be the last ever outing for Junk Pups it was a no brainer to pull out all the stops and make it by hook or crook.… Read the rest

Pick of the Gigs for December

December 6, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

For reasons too boring to go into, the last part of Novembers Singles round up hasn’t yet been completed, and the pick of the gigs for December is appearing a week into the month with some top gigs already passed…

My first week in December didn’t quite go as planned… the pattern of missing more gigs than I’ve seen in 2025 continues having missed Gutterblood’s first Glasgow gig last Wednesday. My ticket for Thursday’s gig featuring The Liminanas supported by the brilliant Scorpio Leisure also went a-begging AND even with the best will in the world I was never making t back to Glasgow for the 5pm launch of Lacuna’s new EP Nest in Assai on Friday afternoon… Let’s hope 2026 is a better year for so many reasons.… Read the rest

My Bloody Valentine – live in Glasgow

November 29, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

I don’t remember the last time I set foot in the Hydro for a gig. I detest the place with every fibre of my being, but… it was My Bloody Valentine who, somehow with all my years of going to gigs behind me, I’ve never managed to see live before now. As I walked into the arena I remembered exactly what it was I hated. It’s a soulless cave, and despite the numbers of people in early to catch J Mascis it was devoid of any atmosphere, like a vacuum had sucked the soul from every living being…

Then J Mascis ambled onto the huge Hydro stage and all was well as he proceeded to delight and wow in equal measure with his familiar languid drawl, just him and his acoustic guitar, heavy on the effects and distortion.… Read the rest

Son of the Right Hand – EP launch gig – Glad Cafe

November 15, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

It had been too long since I’d been at a gig in the Glad Cafe, especially considering that it and The Rum Shack are my local venues. It was especially great to walk into the venue knowing what I was going to witness, such is the beguiling and intriguing nature of the music of Son of the Right Hand. Clearly the feeling was mutual given the hubbub and upbeat buzz around the cosy and welcoming venue right from doors open. I had a good feeling that it was going to be a gig to remember.

Before the band got to officially launch their EP, we had two support bands to entertain us, with eclectic styles to mix things up a bit.… Read the rest

Son of the Right Hand – Pscenic Root – EP review

November 10, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

Not since Deer Leader released their album We’ve Met Before, Haven’t We? have I been as intrigued as I am by the new EP from Son of the Right Hand. To take the play on words of the EPs title, Pscenic Root, the band have created a sonic soundscape that takes a journey through genres borrowing snippets along the way and pairing them with found sounds and other intriguing instrumental arrangements to create an overall sound that despite the references I’ll make, is a sound all of their own. I could listen to these five songs a dozen time and hear something different each time that will delight, confuse and intrigue me in equal measures.… Read the rest