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)

Martin Barre

28th January 2026

Backstage at The Green Hotel, Kinross

It is now almost a decade since Ian Anderson reformed Jethro Tull, without long-term former sideman Martin Barre.  And, whilst the pair are each still very active, their snippy comments on the business, I come across on regular YouTube and Facebooks clips, occasionally suggests a divorced couple whose prime aim in life is simply to outlive the other.

Making the most (and why not?) of his Tull back catalogue (as opposed to his solo albums), Martin is presently out and about playing the 1971 Aqualung album in it's entirety.

He still monkeys around with the iconic solo on the Aqualung track - refusing the play it as recorded.  This is not new, and YouTube presently abounds with bootleg recordings of the song from the early Seventies.  And none feature the solo as it should (IMO) be played.  

Elsewhere, whilst we may have had a slightly clumsy guitar instrumental passage replacing Anderson's flute solo on My God, we were presented with some really were some impressively heavy renditions of the likes of Cross Eyed Mary, Hymn 43 and Wind Up.

Singer Dan Crisp also made a fine fist of the three acoustic tiddlers on the album.

The first half of the set had been mainly given over to "More Tull Classics"; the exceptions being Martin's own bluesy Back to Steel, and a rather clunky arrangement of Eleanor Rigby.

As with the previous occasion I had seen Martin, he picked up a flute to tootle out a perfectly respectable rendition of Serenade to a Cuckoo - even ending the performance with one of his old bandmate's trademark snorts into the instrument.

An odd choice to play, perhaps, for like A Song For Jeffrey, these two songs dated from prior to Martin joining Jethro Tull, back in December 1968.

Heavy Horses, which closed out the first set, was just brilliant.

All in all, great fun - even if the Backstage At The Green Hotel audience appeared a rather more restrained and sedate bunch, than I have generally encountered when attending Martin's shows here.

Perhaps we are all now just that important few years older.

   

Terl Bryant

Martin Barre Band - Kinross - January 2026

Dan Martin serenading a cuckoo

Martin Barre

Alan Thompson

Dan Crisp

Setlist

Steel Monkey

Back to Steel

A New Day Yesterday

For a Thousand Mothers

Eleanor Rigby

Serenade To a Cuckoo

Hunting Girl

A Song For Jeffrey

Sealion

Heavy Horses

                                                          Interval

Aqualung

Cross Eyed Mary

Slipstream

Wond'ring Aloud

Cheap Day Return

Mother Goose

Up to Me

My God

Hymn 43

Wind Up

Locomotive Breath

Encore

Teacher

 

We had a guest who ambled on stage for the final three songs.
Nobody introduced him beforehand, although Martin did mumble his thanks after the final song.
 I still don't know his name.