Review: Iggy Pop, O2 Academy, Glasgow: He's still got it

The Herald Scotland

04-06-2025

Of course we came. It's Iggy. A genuine living legend of the street-walking cheetah variety.
He opens with TV Eye, a driving, insistent version of the Stooges' song from 1970's Fun House and the crowd, which stretches from 70-year-olds to a few not quite out their teens, grabs his energy and feeds it back to him rapturously. This audience eschews looking at their phones and chatting - see Supergrass at the Barrowlands recently. Behaviour that has had some folk wondering if Glasgow crowds have lost their famous vibe.
Iggy plays the favourites, Raw Power, Gimme Danger, I Wanna be Your Dog, Search and Destroy and Lust for Life. And that's good. He's obviously enjoying himself - and so are we. That is what we are here for. To hear that gravelly voice and see that unmistakable figure writhing across the stage. We get Frenzy from 2023 but it's mostly those groundbreaking tunes from the late 1960s and 70s.
The concert sold out - unlike Iggy Pop (Image: free)
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Live, notes of jazz, blues, RnB slip into the primitive proto-punk and the only duff note, for me, was Wild One - which was always way below his standard. I'd have loved to hear 1969 instead.
Iggy is an inspirational figure. At 78, he has outlived so many of his contemporaries - and probably many of the parents of those in the crowd tonight.
I paid £100 for my ticket - and it's the best £100 I have ever spent.