Photo by Julia Schtri.

The farewell tour of a great live band means the audience tonight arrive with mixed emotions. Many want to scream about the injustice of it all. One of the most uplifting live music experiences are set to leave the stage, as the economics of being a touring band do not add up to a life for them.

Though the audience are subdued initially, the band seem determined to be upbeat. The first couple of numbers warm them up. Lead singer, Billy McCarthy, goes to the side of the stage to shake himself between them, obviously winding himself up for a launch into some older audience favourites like 'Chapel Song', 'Juarez' and 'Book Of James'. These combined with Billy’s exhortation to not be down get the crowd singing along with familiar and heart-felt lyrics about embracing and surviving loss. The poignancy of this is lost in the moment as the room begins to jump.

The set contains a wide range of the emotions from some funked up styling during band banter between songs to a quieter version of 'Philadelphia (The City Of Brotherly Love)' to an a cappella serenade by Billy swigging out of a wine bottle to keep his lips wet. Then, there is a version of 'Walkabout' where sadness seems to finally get through to Billy as his voice cracks. But the band’s determination to get the fans out on a high overcomes this and the last encore is a rousing version of 'Cruel City' that completed the night with Billy down in the crowd bawling out the lyrics and bouncing up and down.

This gig was a roller-coaster. There were the double-edged emotions of the songs combined with the knowledge that this was the last night of Augustines’ uplifting music therapy for those there. There was the band’s playfulness with each other and then with the audience as keyboard player Eric got the audience to practice mindfulness as the gig moved to its final few encore songs. (They had such command of the room that they really did stop playing and get silence for the audience to take two slow deep breaths where all that could be heard was the whisper of air moving in and out of lungs.) There were the familiar songs that the fans lustily sang along with and the raucous love for life that Augustines exude.

Damn, it’s over.

Further images from the gig can be found here.

Photo: Julia Stryj

“This is intimate” says John Lydon as he looks over the sell out crowd in the small venue on Victoria Street. Then launching into the start of two hours of intensive post-punk heavy duty noise. Lydon warbles through the first three songs of his mammoth set (no support band), a pause for breath, a drink of wine and then ‘This is not a Love Song’. But of course it is a love song. Lydon is where he wants to be. All those daft butter adverts, all that ridiculous cavorting in the jungle with Ant and Dec was to allow him to finance and resurrect the band he formed after the disintegration of the Pistols in 1978.

The last time I saw PiL play in Edinburgh it was a different affair. The Playhouse and fancy suits were the order of the day on the Album tour in 1986, an unbelievable 30 years ago. But here was Lydon dressed in clothes darker than a Scotsman’s heart watching the euros, up close and personal in a small venue giving it to us.

Having released a 10th studio album last year - What The World Needs Now, the set was a mixture of old and new with ‘Now Know’ and ‘Corporate’ sitting along side tracks from that most Marmite of PiL releases Metal Box. Lydon’s charisma oozes from the stage and while the crowd lap up the old favourites at times its hard going. A brutal and bruising rendition of ‘Religion’ sees Lydon chanting “turn up the bass” a wall of noise causes speaker cabinets to wobble and ear drums to vibrate. The audience is still recovering when we treated to the seminal ‘Rise’. It may be 30 years old but it still resonates here. Anger is an energy - you betcha.

After one encore, two hours of intensity from everybody’s favourite anti-hero, disconcerting guitar chords and thunderous bass, the lights come back on and it takes ages to squeeze out of the venue. It has been intimate.