A to Z Chapter 1 – Musical Acts

The #AtoZMusicalTour

It started on 27^th January 2024 with a trip to The Bungalow in Paisley to see ska-punk band Rudebeard, and ended with a visit to Room 2 in Glasgow on 16^th November 2024 to witness experimental exponents Xiu Xiu.

In between, with my good, patient lady Bronagh, we have visited many venues across Glasgow, a few in Edinburgh and wandered into Strathaven a couple of times too. Even my old mate Dek, has been hauled into gig duty from time to time with me.

Add to that a brilliant Interrail tour that took us to gigs in Hamburg, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Milan, Strasbourg and London.

For those unfamiliar with the story, we undertook to try and see musical acts that began with every letter of the alphabet.

It’s taken a few gigs this year, 67 so far, but has been one of the best things I’ve ever done.

With thanks to all the acts seen this year, all 147 of you so far, offering a multitude of styles, musical abilities that I feel genuinely in awe of, and some great nights into the bargain.

Much better than the alternative, as Pink Floyd once described in Nobody Home, ‘I’ve got thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose from.’

To all the venue teams, over 40 of them so far too, cheers for everything you do to put on gigs safely.

And here below are the 26 acts that helped us complete this leg of the challenge, with a link to the review I did of the gig itself earlier in the blog.

Some were headliners, some in a supporting role. All offered a memory to keep for ever.

It’s a fairly eclectic list, but it genuinely reflects our diverse tastes in music.

• ABC, The Royal Concert Hall
• Butler, Blake and Grant, Pavilion Theatre
• C – Gaz Coombes, The Barrowland Ballroom
• Depeche Mode, The Hydro
• Esperanza, The Bungalow
• Filthy Tongues, Oran Mor
• Gates of Light, St.Luke’s
• Harley Kimboro Lewis, Pavilion Theatre
• Idles, Max-Schmeling-Halle, Berlin
• Jesus and Mary Chain, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
• K – Takuya Kuroda, Porgy & Bess Jazz and Music Club, Vienna
• L – Al Lover, The Flying Duck
• M – Roisin Murphy, Forum Karlin, Prague
• Night Beats, Broadcast
• One Nine Eight, St Luke’s
• Port Sulphur, Websters Theatre
• Quad90, The Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh
• Rudebeard, The Bungalow
• S – Nadine Shah, The Hydro
• Theta, Broadcast (THETA is now known as Brielle , but they still make the list!)
• Unharm, The Glad Café
• Vaselines, Strathaven Hotel
• Whitelands, The Barrowland Ballroom
• Xiu Xiu, Room 2
• Yo La Tango, SWG3
• Zoon Phonata, Nochtspeicher, Hamburg

This is not the end. It’s just the close of Chapter 1.

The A to Z of Venues and Towns/Cities remains a challenge we accept with fervour. The A to Z of  Countries? O man!!!  That’s possibly beyond me, though I’m sure Bronagh, with her worldwide instinct for travel might be up for some of that Chapter.