Three stars
If (as Jon Stewart's The Daily Show suggested this week) the Commonwealth Games' Opening Ceremony is the "Off Broadway" version of Danny Boyle's Olympic masterpiece then, using the same frame of reference, the Glasgow Green Live Zone gig was much like Coney Island, complete with Big Wheel and candy floss stalls. Top of the bill was Lulu, Dennistoun's favourite daughter, while musicians such as Eddi Reader, Sarah Hayes, Emma Pollock and Rab Noakes took to the stage earlier in the evening.
Billed as a "pre party" the proceedings at Glasgow Green took a little while to get going. Mellow was the word that sprung to mind while Pollock, a founding member of the Delgados, sang a number with which she thought the crowd would struggle to clap along. After that, she sung an Italian ditty, acknowledging that it would now probably be difficult to sing along with her. Hayes, from Admiral Fallow, performed Tinseltown in the Rain, pleasing The Blue Nile fans on the Green.
Reader performed Perfect and Mother Glasgow diligently, before Nina Nesbitt made The Hardest Part seem easy and looked the "Festival" part - all sunglasses and peroxide hair - during Stay Out. Some malfunctioning video transmissions then removed the slickness, which was a pity, before schoolchildren from the east end of the city, sang the Games' local anthem Let The Games Begin.
Lulu entered with a typical "How's it gaun?" before asking the crowd to sing along, as Glasgow is "full of chanters". Her slick band's rendition of Mocking Bird finally got the crowd rocking, before some Blues Brothers tunes brought the evening round to Shout, for which Lulu invited 40 of her closest friends on stage, the delightful local schoolchildren, while the Red Arrows flying over Glasgow Green was the most memorable highlight.
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