Categories: festivals
Tags: Celtic Connections
Date: 04 February 2012 14:11:40
I've got a bit behind so have a couple of concerts to catch up on from the last week, and then we're going to our final two tonight and tomorrow. First up, last Sunday we headed over to the O2 ABC to catch Skye band The Peatbog Faeries, supported by Scottish hiphop band Stanley Odd (those of us who were at the final night of the first Solas festival a couple of years ago will remember them as the last two, absolutely storming, acts of the festival, so we were really excited about seeing them both again and weren't disappointed. I was quite amused that a lot of the people there looked, let's say, quite a bit older than us (and we're not exactly in the prime of our youth), and were obviously there for the Peatbog Faeries, I'd absolutely love to know what they made of Stanley Odd! I enjoyed both bands very much, my own highlight was a song by Stanley Odd called (I think) Sundance which the lead guy said was about a girl he went to school with whom he bumped into recently and found out she is now a prostitute - it was really moving and profound. Hiphop is not music which I feel that comfortable with, but Stanley Odd are really something else. The Peatbog Faeries were also brilliant, they did a great set and we went away absolutely buzzing. Sadly no photos as they confiscated my camera (apparently the venue only allow little point-n-shoot and phone cameras), oh well I'll know for next time.
On Thursday we went for a completely different experience, at the completely random Glasgow Art Club on Bath Street. We were sat at tables with candles in not that big a room, to see Belfast-born singer-songwriter Andy White. HD is a bit of an AW-fanboy, having inherited a load of cassettes from his brother and sister donkeys years ago, has seen him several times over the years and I think has most of his stuff now. The evening was acoustic, just him and his guitar, with his sister doing some vocals and a bass player for a few songs at the end, and was a selection of songs and readings from his book and album 21st century troubadour. I was sad not to have my camera with me as he was all of about 6 feet away from us, but we bought (and got signed) everything on the merch desk and had a chat with the man himself at the end so that will have to do us. A very good evening indeed (and I have to say the GAC has possibly the most reasonably priced bar in Glasgow!).