There are times, I suppose, when one might actually want to be stuck in the middle of a football crowd, but this wasn’t one of them.

The Men They Couldn’t Hang are celebrating their 25th anniversary by releasing a new album, Devil on the Wind, and embarking on a UK tour. Their highly political songs blend folk with punk, very much in the style of the Pogues, with neither the tunes nor the personality.

What they do share with Shane McGowan’s mob is the sort of crowd they attract. Glasgow’s Pogues fan club were out in force, punching the air and tearfully hijacking songs which, lyrically, have little to do with rebellion, but musically sound the part, which, presumably, is enough for them. Eric Bogle’s The Green Fields of France, for example, is an imagined conversation between an individual and a fallen soldier of the First World War. It is a lament for the thousands of lives wasted in that and subsequent conflicts. Here it sounded like a rebel anthem, spat out by individuals who could barely contain themselves.

The band played well enough. The early part of the set, with songs like Wishing Well, Bounty Hunter and the Beast of Brechfa, was enjoyable, but the underlying menace grew as the evening wore on. Ultimately, I was simply happy to leave in one piece.

An honourable mention for support act, TV Smith, former front man of the Adverts. He played a blinder and finished his set of politically charged, often amusing songs, with Gary Gilmour’s Eyes, which was just perfect.

**

Stuart Morrison