The Ginger Quiff - Musings on music and mental health

Monica Queen – Stop That Girl – album review

August 2, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

Monica Queen is making a concerted effort to appear in my top 10 albums of the year for possibly the third year in a row with this stunning collection of cover versions and original songs.

An integral part of the Glasgow music scene going back to the 80’s, Monica owns what is surely the most stunningly recognisable voice on the circuit, ebullient and versatile and constantly in demand. Talking of in demand, partner in crime Johnny Smillie is surely one of the most sought after guitarists and producers in Glasgow, what he can’t do with a guitar just isn’t worth knowing.… Read the rest

The Reverse Cowgirls – Fortus et Fidus

August 1, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

Hugh Mclachlan and co. return with this exquisite and fitting 10 song tribute to his late sister Kim. The album title comes from the motto of the MacLachlan clan, translating as strong and faithful, an appropriate title for the ten emotionally charged songs on show here.

Reflecting the album’s title, the game is strong on the Glasgow quartets new collection of songs, coming across both as vigorously brawny in their own inimitable brusque garage rock cowpunk style, but dig into the song titles and lyrics and there is a touching depth to them, the love and passion for Hugh’s sister shining through on these songs, such as the seagull backed achingly beautiful lament that is Born for You.… Read the rest

Lemon Drink, flinch., Sacred Noise & Miss the Occupier – Live in the Hug and Pint

August 1, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

What better way to avoid the Sunday night blues than to attend a gig in one of my favourite little Glasgow venues with four (count em!) brilliant bands. Part of the series of the Endless Summer gigs in the venue, the line up was set to make this a very special night, and one which stuck two fingers up to the festivals that continue to lean heavily on white male guitar bands (says the aging white male who can’t play the guitar… but ), a fact which did not pass flinch. by… making a tongue in cheek comment about the line up being made up of white female electric guitar bands instead… Seriously though, on a night where England and Germany were battling it out in the women’s Euro’s, well done England… it was refreshing to be at a gig where male band members were outnumbered 2 to 1.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up Part 7 – July 2022

July 30, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

I’m ahead of the game this month for a change, the round up published before the month ends!. As usual, some absolute belters again this month. I’, especially enjoying Rabbit Heart and looking forward to Collars album coming soon…

Pizza Crunch – Wilting Youth

They’ve gone from Young Excitement to Wilting Youth. I know my youth is well and truly wilted… but inside I’m still 19, and listening to the constant stream of top quality singles from Glasgow’s Pizza Crunch helps keep me that way. Well, most of the time… Wilting Youth is the latest in a long line of their infectious post-punk tinged singles.… Read the rest

The Dead Thatchers – Nae Pasaran Ya Bass/Perfect Vision – album/EP review

July 29, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

Taking nothing away from the band or their deeply engrossing and engaging music, it is actually embarrassing that a band such as this needs to exist in 21st Century Britain. It’s almost like 1979 never happened and we’ve not learnt a thing. Rising interest rates, poverty, food bands, a summer of discontent, strikes left, right and centre, a Tory government that is doing its best to increase the gap between the rich and poor and to top that off a pair of clueless Thatcher-lite puppets who just seem to spend their time arguing about who will be the worst Prime Minster for the country.… Read the rest

Sacred Noise/Watters – live in Bloc+ Glasgow

July 16, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

First up, kudos to Bloc+, what’s not to love about this bar? The whole ethics around the place are fantastic, its whole reason for being, the food (amazing!), the welcoming atmosphere, and especially from tonight’s perspective, its support of grassroots music.

It was with music in mind I was in attendance tonight, mainly, I have to say, to see Sacred Noise, but as someone who soaks up music like a sponge, I was interested to hear Watters having done a bit of research when I’d seen who Sacred Noise were playing with.

This was live gig number four for Sacred Noise, and having been to their debut live performance in the self same venue earlier in the year, I was looking forward to seeing them again.… Read the rest

Reality Asylum – 1312 Overture for the Working Class – album review

July 13, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

With their new album 1312 Overture for the Working Class (if you know you know), anarcho-punks Reality Asylum are angry. No they are incandescent with rage. And they have every right to be. There is a lot to be furious about in this supposedly modern, forward thinking world…

2022 did I say? It is interesting that Reality Asylum channel the spirit of bands like Discharge and Crass (from who I assume they take their name…), and while their lyrics rail against 21st century issues, it feels like all these songs could have been written by those bands who lived through what I previously thought was a low in British politics, the Thatcher era.… Read the rest

His Lordship – Live in McChuills

July 10, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

While the hordes of fake tanned youths and lads with bum bags descended upon Glasgow Green and a large contingent of the potential His Lordship crowd were lording it up at Pineda psychobilly festival, a small gathering in Glasgow could have a smug grin on their faces that they were at an insanely epic gig by the aforementioned His Lordship in the small but perfectly formed McChuills venue.

Nicky Stewart was spinning the tunes in the main bar, the bar staff serving drinks to Fontaines DC who had popped in for a pint after their TRNSMT set, meanwhile in the venue, the early birds were enjoying a superb set by Zydell Henry, the Rockytonk troubadour, proving that its always a good idea to get in early for the support.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2022 – Part 5/6 – May/June

July 5, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

In an effort to clear my backlog, its a bumper singles round up this time around….as usual, there should be something for everyone here,

Michael Monroe – Can’t Stop Falling Apart/Everybody’s Nobody

When it comes to good time rock ’n’ roll you can’t get much better than Finland’s premier rock star, Michael Monroe, two recent singles here in the shape of the bluesy Can’t Stop Falling Apart and in the nostalgia fuelled Everybody’s Nobody. I look forward to seeing his energetic live show again next year.

Michael Monroe

Bodega – How Can I Help Ya?

Addictive eccentric NYC indie from Bodega in the shape of How Can I Help Ya?… Read the rest

A Walking Contradiction – an exercise in self sabotage

July 5, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

I currently feel like a walking contradiction. That old physics thing about every action having an equal and opposite reaction, well physics and chemistry seem to have got caught up in a mix somewhere with me and I’m not sure the opposite reaction is supposed to happen automatically after every initial action as a matter of course.

With restrictions (if not COVID itself) a thing of the past, I feel like I should be back in a world of near normality, whatever shape or form that may take, but I still feel far from that. The COVID hangover remains, feeling like a different form of the long COVID everyone talks about, but from a mental health perspective rather than physical.… Read the rest