Strathaven Hotel, 3 October
Heading to the Strathaven Hotel required more hope than judgement as Storm Amy made the journey that bit more treacherous than it would normally have been. However, it takes more than a strong breeze to put off the audience that packed into the venue to see The Bluebells on the first of a two-night stint at the hotel.
Supported by Gerard Love, ex-bass player with Teenage Fanclub, both acts faced an audience steeped in the musical history of both bands stretching back over 40 plus years of joyful entertainment.
Gerard Love
For Gerard, it provided the time and space to deliver a ten-song set that spanned both his work with the Teenage Fanclub and his solo work, in addition to an excellent cover of Moondog’s Do Your Thing. Kicking off with Teenage Fanclub’s December and ending with Sparky’s Dream it was a highly enjoyable and interesting remix of songs that everyone knew so well in a band format, but which were played here with the simplicity of an electric guitar and some background drone sounds.
Gerard seemed to enjoy himself just as much as the audience, and the genuine applause that ended each song was highly merited,
The Bluebells
You can always expect a bit more than just playing the old standards when you go to see The Bluebells. There’s inevitably a bit of banter between the band and the audience which all makes for a good night out.
There can be few times though during their musical careers when they informed the audience at the outset that they were being seen as guinea pigs for the imminent release of their third official album. While that may have injected fears of a mass exodus to the bar when the ‘and this is another new song’ was announced, the band needn’t have feared.
Kicking off with four brand spanking new songs, it was obvious early on that the band had not strayed from the proven formula that had attracted the packed-out crowd to see them. If anything, it left then wanting to hear more ahead of the album’s release and the band didn’t disappoint with four tracks mid-set to give us more than a brief glimpse of what to look out for in 2026.
As expected, the greatest hits section proved the most popular with Cath, I’m Falling and Young At Heart ending the main set.
A very quick gap between exit stage left and enter stage left for the encore let the band finish with Some Sweet Day and possibly a unique song in the history of Scottish music Stonehouse Violets, a song about a local junior football team that is no more, with name checks for a few other local junior teams along the way. Maybe not yet up there with You’ll Never Walk Alone, but a reminder that football can be a source of inspiration to be put down on record.
While Storm Amy was still howling across the moors, there was much comfort on the journey home recounting all the little reminisces that nights like this can provide. The band might have been ‘bigger’ in the eighties, but they have never lost sight of what makes good music and how to entertain those who want to see the play.
With a special note of thanks to Douglas MacIntyre and Katy Lironi who pull these events together under the umbrella of Frets Concerts and make everyone feel so welcome throughout the events.
