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The Herald Scotland
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Some of the world's best bands play Scotland in June: Here's our pick
But can we point you in the direction of this Glasgow gig by our favourite Fifer Jacob Alon? The singer-songwriter has often been called Scotland's next big thing (we said it ourselves in The Herald Magazine back in January), a debut album, the sublime In Limerence, out May 30, is the next step on the journey. Alon's delicate vocals and searingly honest lyrics have drawn comparisons to Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley. Heady company, but Alon doesn't sound out of place. This will probably be one of the quieter gigs this month, but it will possibly resonate the longest. Iggy Pop 02 Academy, Glasgow, June 3 Iggy Pop (Image: PA) Maybe the drugs do work. Or maybe he's indestructible. So many of his contemporaries are no longer with us, but Jim Osterberg's still around, still singing Lust for Life and The Passenger and showing off his aged torso as he reaches the fag end of his seventies. It really is quite something. Still a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm, in other words. Spectacular Shostakovich: Royal Scottish National Orchestra Usher Hall, June 6; Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, June 7 Marking the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich's death, the RSNO performs his epic 11th Symphony, inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1905. Thomas Sondergard conducts and cellist Daniel Muller-Schott is the soloist. Pulp OVO Hydro, Glasgow, June 7 Getting the jump on Oasis, Britpop's finest (well, it's them or Suede) mark their first album - entitled More - in 24 years with another round of live gigs. Last seen in these parts ushering in 2024 at Edinburgh's Hogmanay, the band have had a new lease of life whilst mourning the loss of bass player Steve Mackey. Will the new album live up to its predecessors? That remains to be seen (the precursor single, Spike Island, is OK but maybe not much more). Still, any excuse to sing along to Do You Remember the First Time and Babies is always to be welcomed. Abbie Gordon The Poetry Club, Glasgow, June 19 New blood. Abbie Gordon is a teenage singer-songwriter from Irvine who was named Young Live Artist of the Year in December after headlining King Tut's. The future starts here. And while you're at it, maybe check out Theo Bleak (Canvas, Dundee, June 20), another fresh singer-songwriter with an ear for a tune. Diana Ross OVO Hydro, Glasgow, June 25 Diana Ross (Image: Newsquest) Yes, that Diana Ross. Now in the foothills of her ninth decade on the planet, Ross has a back catalogue that stretches back to her Motown pomp in The Supremes, and takes in her imperious disco era working with Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, her Bee Gees-fuelled Chain Reaction chart ascendancy and even collaborating with the name producer of the moment, Jack Antonoff, on 2021 album Thank You. Not sure she'll have any time for deep cuts. The question is, which of her 100 plus singles will she leave out? Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band Mono, Glasgow, June 25 The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band (Image: free) In the mood for some country blues? This might be the gig for you. Big voice, big beard and guitar picking. The good Reverend, who hails from Indiana, leads a trio including his wife Washboard Breezy (on washboard, you might not be surprised to hear) and Jacob Powell on percussion. Can't deny, they make a noise. Lana Del Rey Hampden Park, Glasgow, June 26 Lana Del Rey (Image: free) Gone are the days Lana used to hang out in Glasgow's south side, but she is back in the city for this arena gig towards the end of the month. Del Rey's shtick - established as early as her first single Video Games - is the society girl with an eye for bad boys, as played out in a Mogadon haze. On paper that doesn't sound like a recipe for filling arenas but it's turned out to be surprisingly moreish. Del Rey is currently the 25th most streamed artist in the world. Hopefully she will turn up on time this evening and not risk getting the power turned off as happened to her at Glastonbury in 2023. Simple Minds Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, June 27 Part of this year's Summer Sessions programme (preceded by the Sex Pistols and Sting on June 21 and June 25 respectively), Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill return for a hometown gig. We can argue over their back catalogue (my cut-off point is 1982; given the commercial success of what was to follow clearly few agree), but the truth is they remain a formidable live act. As frontman, Kerr both looks his age and acts like he's still in his twenties. It's quite the combination. Macy Gray Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, June 27 Macy Gray (Image: Newsquest) Want to feel old? It's now been 26 years - yes, 26 - since Macy Gray's breakthrough single, I Try, which introduced us to the gorgeous rasp of her voice. It remains her best known song, but she has never stopped making records. Quick question. Is her cover of Radiohead's Creep better than Billie Eilish's? Discuss. Kid Creole and the Coconuts Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, June 28; Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, June 29 To be honest, there is a corner of my head where it's always 1982. The year I left home, the year I started fending for myself, the year I fell in love. Kid Creole and the Coconuts were part of that year's soundtrack, a heady mix of disco, Latin rhythms and New Pop, amped up by August Darnell's larger-than-life ego and Zoot suits, and gilded by the Coconuts themselves, all backcombed blonde attitude and harmonies. It was pop panto back then, probably more so now, but, admit it, you're humming 'Ona-Ona-Onamatopea' even as you read this. (Who cares if that's not the real lyric? It's a better one.) Lucy Dacus Usher Hall, Edinburgh, June 30; Barrowland Ballroom, July 1 Fresh from her time as a member of Boygenius and being namechecked by Taylor Swift in her song The Tortured Poets Department, the American singer-songwriter is touring in support of her latest album Forever is a Feeling. It contains a track called Limerence, by the way, which takes us back to Jacob Alon and where we came in.
Scotsman
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Album reviews: Garbage Kathryn Joseph Jacob Alon
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Garbage: Let All That We Imagine Be The Light (BMG) ★★★ Kathryn Joseph: WE WERE MADE PREY. (Rock Action) ★★★★ Jacob Alon: In Limerence (Island/EMI) ★★★★ Mogwai: The Bombing of Pan Am 103 soundtrack (Rock Action) ★★★ The latest album from Garbage arrives sooner than the band anticipated, conceived while frontwoman Shirley Manson was recovering from the hip surgery that put a sudden halt to their No Gods No Masters world tour. In her physical and emotional vulnerability, she broke the habit of a lifetime and wrote some love songs. Nothing particularly romantic, you understand. Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is an album about practical love which chooses to confront and to hope. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Garbage | Joseph Cultice But it's still Garbage as we know it, so the album begins with a sleek electro rock song called There's No Future In Optimism, with Manson speak-singing of the instinct for fight or flight in the aftermath of disaster – in her case, the murder of George Floyd and an earthquake in her adopted home of Los Angeles. She follows this with the eloquent rage of Chinese Fire Horse directed at those foolish enough to suggest that Manson might consider hanging up her microphone. For complete clarity, she lets the last line 'I'm not done' hang in the air. She also challenges herself and others to channel rage to positive ends on the sultry ballad Radical and the propulsive Love to Give. Have We Met (The Void) evokes a John Carpenter-like world of neon LA cityscapes with its glacial gothic synths, banging arpeggios and droning fuzz bassline and there's a strong whiff of Ultravox and Gary Numan about the inexorable industrial stomp of R U Happy Now. But the album highlight is its endgame. Manson's healing lyrics for The Day That I Met God were written, rendered and recorded at home, delivered as if from a recovery diary with the holy revelation that 'I found God in Tramadol'. Kathryn Joseph | Marilena Vlachopoulou The recording of Kathryn Joseph's fourth album also didn't go entirely as expected. Arguably in keeping with its shouty upper case typography, WE WERE MADE PREY. makes a loud sound out of Joseph's intimate, eldritch songs, with producer Lomond Campbell adding big synth licks to her electric piano patterns on WOLF. and (relatively) commercial electro reverberations to recent single HARBOUR. ROADKILL. is a big, declamatory catharsis; in contrast, BEL (II). is a minimal campfire requiem for her friend Beldina Odenyo Onassis, aka Heir of the Cursed. There are also love odes for her son, daughter and dog and a trippy torch song in the vein of Portishead rounding out this sonically rich collection which stretches her quavery vocals as much as expands her noir balladry. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Jacob Alon | Contributed Jacob Alon is a confirmed fan of Joseph's ability to deliver dark matter with irreverent humour. This Dunfermline-born, Edinburgh-based singer/songwriter demonstrates their own ability to combine the sacred and profane on their beguiling debut album which explores the state of limerence – essentially being crazy in love/lust. Comparisons with Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley are not over-stretched. Alon possesses a bewitching, elastic voice accompanied by mesmeric acoustic picking and occasionally a sensation of brass or a martial drumbeat. Like Joseph, there is a dynamic mismatch between form and content in these fully formed songs. The soft waltz of August Moon belies its poetic account of a violent attack, Liquid Gold 25 is a shuffling ode to their favourite brand of poppers, while Sertraline is a delicate folk drone inspired by their anti-depressant medication. For the listener, this is all good medicine. Mogwai add to their soundtrack catalogue with a sensitive score for TV miniseries The Bombing of Pan Am 103, which slips unobtrusively from the elegiac tolling of Calling all units via the doomy shoegaze of Swiss Timers to the glacial sorrow of We Let You Down and lachrymose twanging guitar of Back Home to Giffnock, leaving most of the drama to the show itself. CLASSICAL Henry VIII On Tour (Delphian) ★★★★ Henry VIII On Tour might sound like a 1970s Rick Wakeman album. In fact, it's Henry himself from the 16th century, or rather a representation of the music and musicians that accompanied him on his regular sojourns to the provinces. As such, it's a delightful cocktail of the sacred and secular performed by Ensemble Pro Victoria under director Toby Ward, from two lute songs by William Cornysh (including the cutesy ditty Trolly Lolly), organ and harp solos played respectively by Aileen Henry and Magnus Williamson, to motets by Verdelot, More and Taverner and the intriguing Missa Christe Jesu by Lincolnshire composer William Rasar. The last adds Williamson's New Vocal Ensemble to the mix, revealing a work of bold textural scope and verse-anthem-like structure. Like the best albums it tells a compelling story: Henry, heard here in an artful lute number, even wrote his own music. Ken Walton FOLK Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Donald WG Lindsay: Two Boats Under the Moon (Own Label) ★★★★
The Guardian
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
One to watch: Jacob Alon
Every so often, a new voice comes along with the alchemical combination of fragile beauty and poetry that has the power to seemingly stop time in its tracks. It's the magic that has made alternative music pillars of Jeff Buckley and Laura Marling, and it's a quality that Fife-born Jacob Alon emits in every note. Rooted in the delicate, finger-picked folk tradition, there's a timelessness to Alon's work. But their queer stories of slow self-actualisation and romantic exploration also contain frequently devastating, consistently gorgeous moments that throw modern reference points and a knowingness into the mix. Previous single Liquid Gold 25 is named after a bottle of poppers; Sertraline wryly ends Alon's forthcoming debut album, In Limerence, with a nod to one of the UK's most prescribed antidepressants: ('You're tired/ Well who isn't, babe/ That's the price for being awake.') Performing their first single, Fairy in a Bottle, on Later… with Jools Holland shortly after its release, Alon – barefoot and wearing a pair of gold-feathered trousers – had the quality of a woodland nymph, or a being vibrating on a slightly different plane to the rest of the studio. In Limerence – a reference to the limbo state of unrequited love – cements this celestial quality on a record with all the hallmarks of a modern classic, from an artist clearly at the start of something special. In Limerence is released on 30 May via Island/EMI. Jacob Alon tours the UK and Ireland from April to July
