For some reason I didn’t get around to writing about this one… It was one of those usual dilemmas on a Saturday night in Glasgow, with so many great gigs in every weekend, there at least two that vie for attention, the decision usually having to be made to pick one over the other. On the night in question though I had the opportunity to get to two gigs in one night, and who am I to pass up an opportunity like that.
One not to be missed was Keeley’s first gig in the (in)famous King Tuts. This was Keeley’s fifth gig in Glasgow, and I was sure I wasn’t going to miss it, having missed the last visit supporting The Boo Radleys in Mono. Keeley’s tagline on her social media posts is “bliss out, don’t miss out” but there was the chance I was going to miss this one too. The gig having been sold out before Keeley being added to the bill, as support to the first of two nights in Tut’s for 1990s Manchester “baggy” band Northside. Thanks to Keeley organising a guest list for me, I was saved from missing out again and got the opportunity to bliss out stage front as the trio: Keeley Moss herself on guitar and vocals, Lukey Foxtrot on bass and Andrew Paresi, who played on some of the classic Morrissey albums, on drums.
Keeley is a prolific writer, and as such the set was made up of mainly new songs from their forthcoming third album coming later this year. This was the best I’d seen the band perform, they are now a well established unit and they have clearly gelled over their time together. These new songs are destined to be Keeley classics, played with a tightness and more passion and energy than ever before, if this band doesn’t hit the heights of success it will be a disgrace and more an indictment on the state of the music industry today rather than the quality of the music. For anyone unfamiliar with Keeley’s songwriting, every song she writes comes straight from the heart. The subject of all her songwriting is a young German backpacker, Inga Maria Hauser, who was murdered after leaving Stranraer and arriving in Northern Ireland during her dream trip around Europe/the UK. One of the last two songs they played was their song titled Inga Maria, which I was honoured to find out they added to their set in Glasgow knowing it was one of my favourite singles of 2024. Hopefully the band will return to the city later in the year to celebrate the release of their third album.
Northside were never really on my radar back in the day, with their single Shall We Take a Trip being, to coin a phrase from that time, the only one I know… so I took the opportunity to jump a few streets over to Bloc+ for the latest Fuzz Factory night.
Embarrassingly this is only the second of these I’ve managed to attend, the first being Mariachi Death Squad and Anna Secret Poet a few weeks previously. This time it was the turn of Edinburgh’s The Phlegm and scene stalwarts from Glasgow, the might Reverse Cowgirls. The Phlegm were already playing when I arrived but fortunately it was early in their set, and I was there before the switch from bass guitar to stand up bass. The band played a great mix of their own psychobilly songs and diverse cover versions from Ultravox’s Saturday Night… thought I set closer an immaculate cover of Edinburgh legends Radium Cats Pink Hearse.
What a sublime way to end a Saturday night in the company of the superb Reverse Cowgirls led by the gravelly vocal of the one and only Hugh McLachlan, not only a hero of the Glasgow scene, but one of the most stylish cats on the scene too. The Reverse Cowgirls played a flawless set of their definitive garage rock sounds, McLachlan’s laidback personality shining through with his instantly recognisable vocal that has surely spawned many copyists and his unique playing style, but this is far from a one man show, with some tasty riffs and kicks and excellent guitar interplay, thunderous bass lines and a driving pounding beat from the man at the back. The Reverse Cowgirls never disappoint and this was a shot hit set that hit the mark with a deadly pinpoint accuracy.