Skip to main content

Concert in the Gardens 2017/2018 - Rag'n'Bone Man, Human League, Sacred Paws

Edinburgh's Hogmanay
Four stars

When Rag n Bone Man sings Auld Lang Syne following the eight minutes of fireworks choreographed to a mash-up of tunes by Skye-based band Niteworks that heralded the new year, he looks so little-boy pleased with himself that he might just burst. As well he might, given the year the artist formerly known as Rory Graham has had. Following collaborations with the likes of Kate Tempest, the Brighton-based rapper turned crooner's debut album, Human, was the fastest selling record by a male artist this decade, and saw him named as British Breakthrough Act at the 2017 Brit Awards.

For Edinburgh, Graham brought with him a seven-piece band, including a two-piece horn section, to accompany his set of nouveau soul epics. Prior to that, semi-local heroines and Scottish Album of the Year winning duo, Sacred Paws, opened the Waverley Stage programme. Expanded to a quartet, their fleshed-out dispatches from a post-punk global village made for an infectiously jaunty warm-up. The Human League's set of triumphal wine bar electro-pop saw singer Phil Oakey pay tribute to the Edinburgh-based Fast Product label that released their first two singles before a slew of eighties hits closed with the inevitable Don't You Want Me.

Over in Princes Street Gardens, the crowd very much wanted Rag'n'Bone Man, who seemed in genuine awe of the occasion, which allowed him to give full vent to his user-friendly gospel, delivered with a mile-wide grin throughout. For Human's title track, he “got so excited I nearly tripped over”, before the night closed with a rousing cover of the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter. Reclaiming the song’s soulful roots, Rag'n'Bone Man and co built it up to kick-start a choreographed mini stage invasion that made for a joyous start to the year.

The Herald, January 4th 2018

ends

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Butlin - The Sound of My Voice

When Ron Butlin saw a man who’d just asked him the time throw himself under a train on the Paris Metro, it was a turning point in how his 1987 novel, The Sound Of My Voice, would turn out. Twenty years on, Butlin’s tale of suburban family man Morris Magellan’s existential crisis and his subsequent slide into alcoholism is regarded as a lost classic. Prime material, then, for the very intimate stage adaptation which opens in the Citizens Theatre’s tiny Stalls Studio tonight. “I had this friend in London who was an alcoholic,” Butlin recalls. “He would go off to work in the civil service in the morning looking absolutely immaculate. Then at night we’d meet, and he’s get mega-blootered, then go home and continue drinking and end up in a really bad state. I remember staying over one night, and he’d emerge from his room looking immaculate again. There was this huge contrast between what was going on outside and what was going on inside.” We’re sitting in a café on Edinburgh’s south sid

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) 1. THE STONE ROSES    Don’t Stop ( Silvertone   ORE   1989) The trip didn’t quite start here for what sounds like Waterfall played backwards on The Stone Roses’ era-defining eponymous debut album, but it sounds

Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989

Disc 1 1. THE REZILLOS (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (12/77)  2. THE EXILE Hooked On You (8/77) 3. DRIVE Jerkin’ (8/77) 4. VALVES Robot Love (9/77) 5. P.V.C. 2 Put You In The Picture (10/77) 6. JOHNNY & THE SELF ABUSERS Dead Vandals (11/77) 7. BEE BEE CEE You Gotta Know Girl (11/77) 8. SUBS Gimme Your Heart (2/78) 9. SKIDS Reasons (No Bad NB 1, 4/78) 10. FINGERPRINTZ Dancing With Myself (1/79)  11. THE ZIPS Take Me Down (4/79) 12. ANOTHER PRETTY FACE All The Boys Love Carrie (5/79)  13. VISITORS Electric Heat (5/79) 14. JOLT See Saw (6/79) 15. SIMPLE MINDS Chelsea Girl (6/79) 16. SHAKE Culture Shock (7/79) 17. HEADBOYS The Shape Of Things To Come (7/79) 18. FIRE EXIT Time Wall (8/79) 19. FREEZE Paranoia (9/79) 20. FAKES Sylvia Clarke (9/79) 21. TPI She’s Too Clever For Me (10/79) 22. FUN 4 Singing In The Showers (11/79) 23. FLOWERS Confessions (12/79) 24. TV21 Playing With Fire (4/80) 25. ALEX FERGUSSON Stay With Me Tonight (1980) 1. THE REZILL