Scottish Refugee Week Opening Party, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Few artists could upstage King Creosote, but a beautiful short film almost did so at this Fence-curated opening concert for Scottish Refugee Week.

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nicola meighan

Entitled Courage, it offered a moving, hopeful and local reminder of 60 years of the UN Refugee Convention's essential work (and is well watching online: http://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/courage).

The mini-documentary followed a terrific turn from Glasgow chamber-pop octet Randolph's Leap, who induced many a swoon with their brass and string-fuelled elegies to zombies, crisps and Deep Blue Sea. Then Johnny Lynch, aka the Pictish Trail (KC's Fence Collective right-hand man) unleashed a rock behemoth, augmented by various eagleowls. He previewed tracks from forthcoming album, Secret Soundz Vol. 2, including the glorious sunrise lilt of The Handstand and recent sweatshirt single (now there's a format) Of Course You Exist.

Courage offered a poignant intermission, but the evening had a sense of jubilation, and King Creosote's celebratory set prompted scores of cheering dancers on the balcony, and in the moshpit, and it was a joy to watch. Backed by a seven-piece rock'n'roll band, KC – alias Kenny Anderson – zipped through his current EP, I Learned From The Gaels, from the nostalgic rodeo hoedown of Doubles Underneath to Gummi Bako's raucous, Neuk-fired closer, Little Man.More upbeat fresh material came in the pyrotechnic math-rock of On The Night of the Bonfire, and a brand-new pop escapade, Dial C for Cradle, which suggests that forty-odd albums in, King Creosote still has much to say. Favourites such as You've No Clue Do You and Nooks also raised the roof, while Diamond Mine's typically affecting psalm, John Taylor's Month Away, saw the crowd replace leaps with swaying arms in a collective, timely reminder that home is where the heart is.HHHH

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Scottish Refugee Week Opening Party, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow

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