It's around 20 years since I last saw The Charlatans in concert, in an 'exhibition centre' (i.e. barn with rubbish acoustics) in Livingston. Tonight's venue then already offers the prospect of a better show. Add to that the band's own maturing in that time & the return to form on most of their recent albums, most notably this year's Modern Nature, and you have a cracking show in prospect.

Prior to the main event though there were the supports to get through. I use the plural but, whilst Dundonians the following night get the BMX Bandits playing a set, those initially through the doors at the Usher Hall are met with two DJs onstage. One of whom we discover later is crime writer Ian Rankin. This may have been obvious up close at ground level but from the circle he could have been anyone. What he chose to play wasn’t exactly memorable either so maybe he should stick to writing.

Celebrity spinner out of the way it’s the turn of touring support Frankie & The Heartstrings to try and warm up the currently half-full hall. Fair play to them as they put all their energy into it but other than eliciting polite applause ‘Think Yourself Lucky’, their new Xmas song (without Edwyn Collins) and the rest don’t really reach the crowd and they’re left looking like a young band on too large a stage, with Frankie Francis being likened to “Rick Astley’s love child”.

Tonight is therefore very much about the headliners. The ageless, ever-grinning Tim Burgess and Messrs Blunt, Collins, Rogers & Salisbury take to the stage at 21:00 with ‘Talking In Tones’ and from that point onwards the crowd are at their beck & call. The place has filled up, people are taking off items of clothing, folk don’t know whether they want to be in their seat or dancing and the main body of the crowd are swaying as one.

‘North Country Boy’, ‘Just When You’re Thinking Things Over’, ‘So Oh’ – they all get a run out tonight. ‘One To Another’ inspires a mass bounce in the crowd that seems unbeatable, until ‘The Only One I Know’ tops it in both movement & audience singing. Burgess conducts the crowd in a manner befitting the hall's more classical ventures (& he's not shy of the odd Christ-like pose now and again) and they love it.

Sure, I’d have liked ‘Crashin’ In’ to have been in the set and no doubt everyone there had at least one favourite song missing, the non-single tracks from Modern Nature are passable but won’t become staples (although they do have the best of the back projections – inviting tropical beaches rather than crap squiggles) and the fake encore is a joke as you can’t really fool anyone when your roadies are tuning things up as soon as you leave the stage but the epically drawn out finale of ‘Sproston Green’ is exactly the sort of thing you want to have ringing in your ears as you depart after a show as good as this. I’ll likely not wait another two decades before seeing them again.  

The photos in this piece are from the band's gig in Newcastle a couple of nights later, where Lee Hammond witnessed Frankie & The Heartstrings & Hot Vestry make a bigger impression:-

Tonight Manchester’s Hot Vestry open proceedings having had an exceptional year, supporting a variety of bands including breakthrough act of the year Wolf Alice, and the almighty New Order. With the latter having a special connection to the band as Stephan and Gillian Morris’ daughter is on keyboard duty, the band take to the stage as the crowd files in.

The amassing horde is immediately awoken, by the swaggering electro infused beats of these four Mancunians. Their lively sound providing the perfect opening, although tracks like 'True Colours' are by far the most captivating, the depth of the bass and the darker atmosphere sees the band at their best. The rest of the set is somewhat more upbeat, and at times lacks some originality and does suffer slightly from style over substance.

That said though it’s a consummate set throughout, filled with promise and it sets the stage perfectly for Frankie & The Heartstrings. With them being close to home turf this evening, Frankie and his band take to the stage full of bravado, with their usual brand of upbeat indie pop getting the whole crowd on side early with the likes of 'Photograph', and 'Hunger' lighting the touch paper. As newer tracks in particular 'Money' goes down a storm in the latter part of the set, its clear to see the band are having a great time tonight as they feed off the crowd's energy.

Particularly when they rip into a rousing rendition of their festive single, 'Too Right It’s Christmas' as they bring a jovial atmosphere to proceedings. Despite the shortness of their set, Frankie & The Heartstrings pack a lot in with the aforementioned bravado and excitement rubbing off on this previously sedate crowd. By the end of their set they’ve truly brought the festive party atmosphere, with the crowd truly warmed up ready for The Charlatans.

Modern Nature is available from amazon & iTunes and further photographs from the two shows can be found here.

It must be fantastic to be Django Django right now. It’s been a jam packed year and the band, who are prevailed as one of the biggest indie success bands in recent years, have been non stop touring and releasing their second LP Born Under Saturn.

Jump forward to tonight and here at the Barrowlands in Glasgow, the art rock outfit are stunned to be playing at this legendary venue. Singer Vincent Neff specifically said “I can’t believe we’re playing here. I’ve been wanting to for fucking ever and it’s finally happening.”

Normally at a gig you’d expect the band to play their latest music first. But with Django Django, the guys decided to not mess with perfection and blasted onto the stage with ‘Intro’ and ‘Hail Bop’, covered in green neon light. Continuing with the classics, the guys belt out ‘Storm’ followed swiftly by the heavy beats and synths of newer track ‘Shake & Tremble’.

Up next is a clear fan favorite here tonight, ‘Reflections’. You can just see everyone's head bopping up and down to this techno jazzy track, with the help of saxophonist James Mainwaring.

Changing the tone a bit, we head into ‘Love’s Dart’ with Neff announcing Dave Maclean on “the cardboard box”. These guys are just so versatile, chopping and changing between instruments.

The production is just stellar. It’s what adds to a Django Django gig. I wouldn’t expect such an enthusiastic performance without the details out into the stage video. You can feel the heat of what looks like fireballs on screen mixed in with the performance by the guys.

Mixing it up again, Tommy Grace (synthesiser operator) moves over to the drums for ‘Slow West’. The gradual reverbs of this slow western is a nice reprieve before ‘Firewater’. A deep and heavy bass contrasting with Neff’s high vocals. This is followed by ‘Waveforms’ which sees bassist Jimmy Dixon have a swatch on the drums.

Leading into ‘Skies Over Cairo’, both Neff and Dixon take hold of the synths and then all goes manic with a lead into hammering drums and an Egyptian influenced sound throughout. Another fan favourite, or so the crowd leads us to believe with their hysteria. One man proves this with his so eloquent mash of raving and dad dancing.

Taking down the tone a bit is ‘Default’ with its bouncy electro-pop western style encouraging the crowd to bounce along with it. Which takes us into the more summery ‘Life’s a Beach’, which for tonight's blistering gales is a nice change.

Finishing up, its ‘WOR’ with distorted visuals, alarm bells ringing and utter mayhem on stage from the guys. They have the power, quite literally by bringing the crows to their knees. And so it should end. But all night the band have preferred old hits, so an encore of ‘4000 Years’ and ‘Pause Repeat’ seems app. This before finishing of on oldy ‘Silver Rays’.

If there’s anything that can be picked up from tonight is that Django Django are refreshing and smart. Bringing all these different sounds together and not wholeheartedly sticking to one card makes them stand out.

 is the new album from Stephen Young And The Union. It’s been three years in the making and the production was fraught but Young describes it as “light years better than Wilderness Machine, our debut”.

The man himself is just back from the USA where he played the new songs in Nashville and Austin. They’ve been described as “the best Americana band on this side of the Atlantic” and Young has the States in his sights with this album; “our sound is very much an American sound... the US seemed wise to line up as priority number one. I have a great publicist working for me there and we managed to get ourselves a nice couple of gigs in good music towns so we'll see how things go”.

Tonight is the album launch in the Grand Social and the venue’s faux- marquee setting is a welcome respite from the seemingly endless series of storms battering the city.

Stephen Young comes on and plays a solo song to ease us in. It’s a low key start and he looks the understated everyman in plain jeans and t- shirt. Polite applause turns to a rapturous reception when the rest of the band join him onstage. There’s no chit chat with these guys. They just tune up and get started.

They have an Elvis Costello looking bass player, some very welcome honky tonk piano for the bluesy numbers, and guitarist Shayne Byrne is an exemplum of the lost art of the guitar solo. Solos usually bore and annoy me but these are tastefully executed, tuneful, and sound like a natural part of the song.

Young gets really into the songs and when he closes his eyes and sings he appears slightly crazed. The eyes appear to roll back in his head and the eyelids flutter wildly. He comes across as a handsome ragged troubadour, but not someone you would want to piss off.

Previous album, Wilderness Machine, was pure blues rock and is complemented well by an Elvis Presley medley of ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and ‘Hound Dog’ in a 12- bar blues style. But the Eagle Fort Rumble material shows a real progression and modernising of their sound.

There’s a ‘70s vibe off some of the new jams, not unlike Joe Perry’s Aerosmith work. And the bluesier aspects have given way to a more modern rock orientation. There's a real grunge overtone and the new songs are like Mother Love Bone, or maybe early Pearl Jam. Many of the tunes here wouldn’t sound out of place on the soundtrack of Cameron Crowe’s Singles. Targeting America with these tunes seems a wise move indeed.

In a rare moment of banter Young apologises for making us miss the Toy Show. For readers outside Ireland, ‘The Late Late Toy Show’ is the traditional start of the Christmas season and is literally a three hour toy show, broadcast live on national television.

Finishing the set with current single ‘Shuffle in the Quicksand’ and an uptempo rip through ‘All Along The Watchtower’, Young introduces the members of the band during the breakdown in the traditional fashion.The inclusion of two covers in a shortish set from a band with two albums out is a little puzzling but is a minor complaint amid the party atmosphere in The Grand Social. I get the feeling that the launch for the next album could be in a much bigger venue.  

Eagle Fort Rumble is available from amazon & iTunes.