Grace Petrie

Oct 14th 2026

Queens Hall, Edinburgh

 

Set list
This was the setlist at Lancaster on the following night of the tour.  The setlist may have been the same in Edinburgh, although I have no recollection of either IKEA or The Distance being played tonight.

Farewell to Welfare
No Woman Ever Wants to Be a Muse
Iago
Nobody Knows That I'm a Fraud
IKEA
Verify You're Human
The Distance
They Shall Not Pass
                                                           Interval

The Best Country In The World
Storm to Weather
Ivy
Pride
Start Again
Fixer Upper
The Losing Side
Black Tie

Encore
Northbound

Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks

28th September 2026

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

So - here we have one of my long time musical heroes, former Yes vocalist Jon Anderson out and about with a collection of seasoned musos (mostly American, I think) performing a selection of Yes tunes from the band's 1970's heyday.  Along with a smattering of new 'uns recently written by Jon and the lads. 

Following the (once) traditional opening to any Yes concert, the climax to Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, Jon aeroplaned with arms outstretched onto the stage, as The Band Geeks launched straight into a rendition of Close to The Edge.

Jon's voice perhaps broke a couple of times during the quiet I Get Up, I Get Down section, but overall his pipes were far better than any of us had any right to expect from an 81-year old.

Perpetual Change followed, and the band missed a bit of a trick here, in my opinion.  I rather hoped they would recreate that lengthy jam session/drum solo, which appeared on the live Yessongs album.  But, whilst the band enjoyed a fine wee blow-out towards the end, this rendition never came close recreating the magic of that recording from 1972 .

The first new tune arrived next: Counties and Countries.  Lyrically it appeared to be a bit of a love letter to Jon's home land, and musically it was pleasant enough.  Perhaps reminiscent of some of that plethora of outtakes from the Tormato sessions.

And You And I was the first Yes song I ever heard, back in the mid 1970s, and I can recall being entranced by it.  Over the years, I certainly played it to death, and it sorta morphed into a feeling like a bit of dirge.  But, I enjoyed it this evening - it feeling a bit like hooking up with an old girlfriend for a one-off one-night stand.

Giving is Living, another one I was unfamiliar with followed, and I have to say I found myself stifling yawns through much of it.  It was a long way from bad, just ... well ... meh.

The first half of the show ended with the "Soon" section from the Relayer track The Gates of Delirium.  One of Anderson's most beautiful melodies, I have long felt it spoiled a touch by Steve Howe's intrusive nails-down-a-blackboard guitar work.  This evening, however, stand-in guitarist Angus Clark gave the composition the respect it deserves, and his tastefully restrained work elevated the song immeasurably.  Certainly one of the highlights of the show.

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks (Glasgow 2026)

Close To The Edge

Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks (Glasgow 2026)

 

This queue for the Gents is, I suppose, the price you pay for attending a
gig populated by so many middle-aged and elderly male bladders (mine included).

After a short interval, we were back with Awaken.  I know this one is generally regarded as the last real epic from Yes' golden years, but I have always been a touch ambivalent about it.  I know Anderson's lyrics generally cannot be taken literally, but even my 17-year old self when first hearing the song thought: " 'Awaken Gentle Mass Touch' - what the fuck is that all about?" 

It has a lot if interesting stuff going on musically - particularly Rick Wakeman's work - but it generally leaves me cold.  But the rendition was fine tonight, and the lengthy standing ovation Jon and the Geeks received at the conclusion, suggests I am very much in the minority here.

Another of Anderson's sublime melodies followed with Your Move.  I have always delighted in the chess analogy here in the lyrics.  And, for reasons which I cannot quite put my finger on, I found my 67-year old self welling up a bit, when the audience this evening began singing along to the Give Peace a Chance refrain.

Which brings us to All Good People - a fun bouncy number which lyrically repeats a single (Chris Squire penned) line over and over.  The line being:  

"I've seen all good people turn their heads each day, so satisfied I'm on my way."

I have often wondered over the years, as I did this evening, just what Squire meant by those words (if anything).  

Today I sorta take it to be a reference to that old aphorism:  The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing.  Although, in light of the John Lennon line used in Your Move, it could be referring to the utter indifference shown by most US "good people" to the (in 1971 still raging) war in Vietnam.  Who knows?

We were then "treated" to Once Upon a Dream, the 15-minute whopper from Jon's album with The Band Geeks, True.  I remember, when the album came out in 2024, this track being touted as the most "Seventies Yes" thing Anderson had done since ... well ... the Seventies.

And whilst there are certainly a few memorable passages in the song, it suffers that same malady I hear in many of Steve Hackett's recent work.  Just too much crammed in there, too many seemingly disconnected musical themes bolted together with jarring time signature and key changes.  The "Twice Upon a Dream" section is inoffensive enough, but is too clearly an attempt to recreate the majesty of I Get Up. I Get Down.  And whilst the guitar solo at the end is great, really, Once Upon a Dream is a Topographic Oceans-esque five minutes of butter spread thinly across a quarter-of-an-hour of toast. 

Speaking of Topographic Oceans, a modest chunk of this was next on the menu, as the acoustic section of The Ancient allowed guitarist Clark an opportunity to shine, which he did.  And Jon's voice was just sublime on this.

As we moved towards the climax to the show, Starship Trooper landed.  The first two sections tonight were perfect, but the third Würm, just dribbled on way too long, with all of the musicians getting a little solo spot.  Which was fine, but what we all really wanted was a note for note rendition of Wakeman's Moog synthesiser solo, as heard on the Yessongs album.  Which, at touch disappointingly, we did not get.

Proceedings did close out on a high though, with a pretty darned magical run-through of perhaps Yes' best known song, Roundabout.  Although, even a non-muso like me recognised a couple of bum notes by Angus during that fiendishly tricky intro.

No encore, though.  If I am being really picky, I could have done without one of the new songs, and should prefer to have heard Wondrous Stories, the Nous Somme du Soleil section from Ritual and, maybe, Heart of the Sunrise.  All of which the band had performed on the US leg of this tour. 

But all-in-all, a really enjoyable evening in the company of a man who has, over the last half century, perhaps given me more musical enjoyment than anyone else.

Thank You, Jon.

 

Setlist
Close To The Edge

Perpetual Change

Counties and Countries

And You and I

Giving is Living

Soon section from The Gates of Delirium

                                                            Interval

Awaken

Your Move / All Good People

Once Upon a Dream

Leaves of Green section from The Ancient

Starship Trooper

Roundabout

q

Luke Combs

25th July 2026

Murrayfield Stadium

Not quite my bag this sort of stuff, but this was nevertheless an entertaining evening spent in the company of the personable and clearly very talented Mr Combs.  A fine, fine singer, if a bit of an inveterate mumbler between songs.

I liked the way his set neatly balanced upbeat country rockers with more laid back tunes - with the borderline heavy metal show-closer a real bouncer.

 

Martin Turner

April 3rd 2026

Backstage at The Green Hotel, Kinross

Having seen the real Wishbone Ash (i.e. the one with Andy Powell) a few months back, I thought it only fair I take the time to drop in and see what his former bandmate (and, now avowed enemy) Martin Turner was doing with his time.

Having been legally prevented by Powell from calling his band "Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash", the bassist now hits the boards under the moniker "Martin Turner Ex-Wishbone Ash".

And, maybe it was because I was at one of my semi-regular stamping grounds, rather than the sweaty crush of The Derby Flowerpot, that I found I marginally enjoyed Martin's gig more.

This was also due, in no small way to the vocals.  As I have said before, whilst Andy Powell remains a fine, fine singer, he chooses to sing all the songs solo, rather than utilising the other musicians to add harmonies.  Harmonies which, were of course, an integral part of the original group's sound.

And, whilst Martin's voice does not appear to have worn as well as Andy's (we heard some serious wobbles during Lay Down The Sword and Blowin' Free, this evening), all three of his guys add harmonies at various points, where required.  And it made a huge difference.

The tour was billed as the "Two Eras Tour 2026 - Performing Music from the Wishbone Ash Mk.1 and Mk.2 Eras". 

Although, in truth, we got precious little from the Mk.2 line-up.  Just three tunes in fact, the pick of the trio being that bass-heavy chunk of instrumental bonkers FUBB.

Although I did rather enjoy guitarist Danny Willson's take on You See Red from the No Smoke Without Fire album. 

Set list

Time Was

Blind Eye

Errors of My Way

The Pilgrim

Warrior

Throw Down The Sword

Doctor

Phoenix

                                                    Interval

The King Will Come

Lady Jay

Front Page News

FUBB

You See Red

Written In The Stars

Blowin' Free

Encore

Jailbait 

  

Friends Again

31st January 2026

Glasgow Old Fruit Market

I used to love Friends Again - at least, up until that slightly disappointing Trapped and Unwrapped album.  It wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a poor album.  

It just failed, in my opinion, to live up to the promise shown by those marvellous early singles by the band:  Honey at the Core, State of Art, Sunkissed and Lullaby No2.  Most of these tunes were, of course, re-recorded for the album, but they were infuriatingly inferior-sounding renditions.

Nevertheless, like a fair % of Glaswegians of my vintage (going by how quickly the gig sold out), I made sure I was going to be present, when the band performed this first concert in over 40 years.

Although, strictly speaking we only had 3/5 of the original band up on stage this evening - for we saw no sign of the rhythm section of yore: Stuart Kerr and Neil Cunningham, who were replaced this evening by Stuart Kidd and Douglas McIntyre.  Plus a young pup - Rob McLaughlin - who played Chris Thompson original guitar parts, allowing the singer to swoop and sway.

It was wonderful to hear many of these magical songs live, for the first time since I caught the band back in 1983.  

But I have to say, if truth be told, Friends Again don't really have enough quality tunes to pad out an 80 minute set.  Consequently there was a rather flabby middle to the show (Tomboy/South of Love/Dealing in Silver), I thought.

I don't know if the band did much in the way of covers back in the day, but we got two rather surprising and fun choices here:  David Bowie's Kooks (which I missed, as I was in the bar queuing for a much needed (non alcoholic) rehydration - gosh, but it was hot in there.

And, as an encore: The O' Jays' Love Train.

The Old Fruit Market

    

Friends Again - January 2026

Douglas McIntyre

James Grant

Stuart Kidd

Chris Thompson

Rob McLaughlin

Paul McGeechan

Friends Again - January 2026

Setlist

Lucky Star
Swallows in the Rain
Vaguely Yours
Skip the Goldrush
Wand You Wave
Tomboy
South of Love
Dealing in Silver
Moon 3
Kooks
Lullaby No.2
Old Flame
State of Art
Sunkissed

Encore
Honey at the Core
Love Train/Lullaby No.2

Special Guest this evening was none other than adopted Glaswegian Lloyd Cole, who presented us with selection of tunes from his time spent living in the city - i.e. from the first two Lloys Cole & The Commotions' albums.

Lloyd Cole

Jethro Tull

19th April 2026

Perth Concert Hall

I have found, as long as you temper your expectations, a Jethro Tull gig (even with Ian Anderson's voice long having gone the way of The Flying Dutchman) can still be an evening well spent.  The songs remain wonderful, the musicianship first class and Anderson remains as witty and as personable a host as ever he did.

The Covid lockdown appeared to spark in Anderson a creative Jump Start, and last year's Curious Ruminant album was the band's third in four years.  Quite an out-spurt, give Jethro Tull's last collection of all new material was released way back in 1999.

And it was good to see Anderson enjoyed sufficient confidence in the quality of these latecomers, to present us with four tunes from these albums:

The Navigators - a real thumping toe-tapper, driven along by Ian's flute, but which could perhaps benefited from fewer time signature changes.  The vocals were fine here, Ian singing lyrics which seem to be about some god of the seas who, whilst keeping their own feet on dry land, has protected seafarers down through the ages.

Curious Ruminant - this was one of the high points of the set, with Ian pondering the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything, over a guitar and flute heavy composition, which would not have sounded out of place on Crest of a Knave.

The Zealot Gene - I was less taken with this one.  Too many stop/starts during the music.  And I cannot imagine what Anderson was thinking when he penned the lines:

"Half of us are in the apple

Half of us are in the pie

All of us are in the pudding" 

Over Jerusalem - A bit of a duffer this one, with Anderson's voice really letting him down here.  His flute work almost saved the day, but not quite.  

Most of the rest of the set were the usual suspects from those early Seventies albums, although I think this was the first time I had heard Beggar's Farm performed live.  

And I was delighted Budapest - perhaps the band's finest post Seventies tune - was given an airing.  The lyrics have perhaps not worn well with time, but musically it is chust sublime.

I have to say, though, if I never hear Locomotive Breath again in my life, it will be too soon.  

Set list

Some Day the Sun Won't Shine for You
Beggar's Farm
A Song for Jeffrey
Thick as a Brick
Mother Goose
Songs From the Wood
The Navigators
Fat Man
Curious Ruminant
Living in the Past
Bourrée

                                                                    Interval

My God
The Zealot Gene
The Donkey and the Drum
Over Jerusalem
Budapest

Aqualung

Encore
Locomotive Breath

The Unthanks

29th January 2026

Glasgow Concert Hall

I was more than a little shocked when I realised it was ten years since I had last seen The Unthanks in concert.  Ten fucking years!!  How the hell had that happened.

What made things appear even worse is that, whilst I have incrementally morphed into Shreck during these years, the four Main Unthanks (Rachel and Becky Unthank, Niopha Keegan and Adrian McNally) all appear depressingly untouched by passing time.

The band were here at Glasgow's Celtic Connections Festival, on the second night of a (very) short four date UK tour, along with the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

My unfamiliarity with some of the music contributed to this fact no doubt, but I just felt we had a few too many dirge-like tunes this evening - the likes of Flutter, The Sandgate Dandling Song and At First She Starts all had me stifling yawns.

I have nothing against slow quiet arrangements, but no amount of poignant lyrics and beautiful voices are going to cover up the absence of a decent melody.

But when the band do get things right, they are pretty damn near perfect - witness the heartbreaking performances of Felton Lonnin and Last.  And, that paean to departed friend of the band Lucky Gilchrist, which also shone brightly this evening.

But the stand out tune in the band's set is, of course, the tangentially proggy Mount The Air, particularly as it builds to it's climax, with Becky and Rachel clog-dancing away like a pair of good 'uns.

It really does have one's heart soaring out of one's chest.  (Not literally, obviously).

Becky Unthank

Rachel Unthank 

Niopha Keegan (upon whom I have long had a wee crush) looked as nervous
and uncomfortable, as she had when I had seen the band last.

Becky Unthank

Chris Price

The Unthanks - Glasgow - January 2026

Setlist

The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry
Madam
Flutter
The Standgate Dandling Song

The Royal Blackbird

Mount The Air

Felton Lonnin

Lucky Gilchrist

Last

At First She Starts

Scatterbrook/I Wish I Wish

The King of Rome

Mount The Air (Reprise)