Roddy Frame
Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow
GRAEME THOMSON
****
“DO not google ‘persistent cough’,” Roddy Frame advises, revealing a bout of scratchy health leading up to his first Scottish date in three years. If he hadn’t have told us we’d never have known. Armed with only an acoustic guitar and harmonica, Frame was in fine fettle for a warm-hearted homecoming show which blended flawless musicianship with a touch of stand-up comedy. By the end, he was fielding requests, product placements and birthday shout-outs like “an indie Tiger Tim”.
Pound for pound, there’s a case to be made for Frame being Scotland’s greatest songwriter of the post punk era. The torrent may be more of a trickle these days, with only three albums in 20 years, but the well runs deep. Though his stage manner retains something of the cocky chutzpah of youth, his best songs are deeply-lived despatches from the edge of the night, love rarely travelling in a straight line. Highlights on Saturday included Small World and Over You, choice cuts from his spare masterpiece, Surf, and a rollicking Spanish Horses, featuring jaw-dropping flamenco guitar. Stray was poised and sadly soulful; Reason For Living crunchingly anthemic.
There was, sadly, nothing from Frame’s most recent album, Seven Dials, although he did unveil one new song, the Dylan-esque Twilight. Instead, the emphasis was on former glories, particularly a run of classics from Aztec Camera’s 1983 debut High Land, Hard Rain. It’s rare for a single twangy guitar note to precipitate a standing ovation, but Oblivious delivered, while the closing Killermont Street, Frame’s hymn of exile, came with a verse of Wild Mountain Thyme. All this, and a busk through Chicago’s If You Leave Me Now. It was that kind of night. A fitting finale to a fine fortnight of Summer Nights in the West End.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here