No. 1 Son & Colette McKendrick
>> ABC
>> 24th June 2006
It's about as lovely a Saturday evening as is possible on Glasgow's Sauchiehall street (boozed up w*nkers and tramp-looking Jumpin Jack go-ers aside), as the sun goes down and the Argentina game kicks off. This may explain the smallish turnout then, as two of the best local songwriters grace the ABC's stage.
What more can the Lick say about Colette? Another storming show from the Queen of the Glaswegian piano and a new song or two thrown in as well for good measure. As I'm now familiar with almost every song from her brilliant debut album Etheria, it occurs to me the weirdness of the line up that she has with her (no offence guys...). Drummer Mark 'Itch' Aitcheson and bass player Dangerous Dave Milne play like their in a metal band at times, beating the bejesus out of their instruments and adding an extra bit of beef to the live sound. Guitarist Arthur Izat on the other side of the stage looks like Gandalf on crack (that's a good thing by the way) and the Manga that is Laura Healy also backs up brilliantly with some adorable harmonies.
Anyway, enough about Colette and Co. No.1 Son are the headline band this evening and are definitely potential stars in the making. Having released a one-off single at the start of the year, the band are fresh off recording their debut album which I'm sure you'll be hearing much more in the coming months.
Kicking off with a couple of heart crumbling emotion-filled songs, No.1 Son immediately grab everyone's ears and singer and songwriter Paul McGlaughlin has a voice that could melt even George W's heart.
Some simple and well-written songs are the theme of the band's sound, but it's the slightly left-of-centre instrumentation (glockenspiels and Banjo's for example) and simply beautiful voice that lifts No.1 Son above most singer/songwriter style acts around.
The night may have been spoiled slightly by the time over-run, leading to the band only getting 5 songs or so, but I'm sure everyone has seen enough to realise that this a band with a big future.
So I give you another word of warning before both these acts say goodbye to these smallish gigs and head up the stairs to the ABC1 in a year's time.
>> Joe Sach
www.myspace.com/no1sontheband
www.myspace.com/colettemckendrick
