The Slow Readers Club returned to Glasgow for the first time since their triumphant Barrowland Ballroom gig (opening for Shed Seven) last autumn for a more intimate affair. Stuart Ralston went back home for the evening and was blown away.
How do you follow up a massive sell out show in your hometown in an iconic venue? How about an intimate, sell out show in Glasgow? On paper, you might think that tonight’s show would be something of an anti-climax for The Slow Readers Club, having only hours earlier played Manchester’s legendary Ritz Ballroom but no. The band are on fire and frontman Aaron Starkie has an energy, an enthusiasm, and a passion that suggests he’s on a mission. Over the next ninety minutes the band - brother Kurtis on guitar, Jim Ryan on bass and David Whitworth on drums - deliver an impassioned set of some of their classics whilst road testing and showcasing their new album due early next year.
Tonight’s venue takes the band back to where it all began for them in Glasgow. Just shy of a decade ago, The Slow Readers Club took to the stage of Stereo, opening a showcase for some local Glasgow bands. It was their first trip north and, on a memorable evening to an assembled crowd you could count on your fingers, the band debuted tracks from unreleased second album Cavalcade.
Since that low key debut Scottish gig, the band have worked their way around many of Glasgow’s iconic venues, including the hidden gem that is The Classic Grand, the much missed ABC, King Tuts Wah Wah Hut and the famous Barrowland Ballroom amongst many others. Each and every gig has won them new fans, not surprising, given their burgeoning back catalogue of anthems and uplifting, heartfelt tunes. As they approach their seventh studio album, The Slow Readers Club are out on the road showcasing new material and reminding us why we love them.
The set for this tour is interesting as some of their big anthems have been rested for some lesser exposed tunes like opener Yet Again. And that is to the band’s credit; they continue to push themselves and their audiences and refuse to go through the motions. Yet Again is a big, bold atmospheric opening statement dominated by some of Ryan’s powerful bass lines. Yet Again is taken from the excellent album 91 Days In Isolation - born from the time that the band couldn’t tour their hit album The Joy Of The Return, and a particularly fertile period for the band when they wrote and recorded no fewer than twenty songs, spanning two LPs.
The Wait is pretty much a set staple and continues in that pounding vein of Yet Again. A bold and powerful opening from the band. The first of four new songs played tonight is the excellent Animals which is distinctly The Slow Readers Club - there’s room for all band members to shine. That for me, is one of the strengths of the band; it is not, and never has been a front man and a backing band. All four of them almost take turns to lead the song. After a relatively quiet year for the band, Animals is as reassuring as it is uplifting. However, as good as Animals is, it’s not the best of the new ones. That bar is set considerably high and the honour for the pick of the new ones so far must go to jaw-droppingly stunning Boy So Blue.
Boy So Blue features Aaron on keys and Kurtis on acoustic guitar, so it’s a bit of a departure for the band. As the song builds, the appreciation from the crowd does too and simultaneously both Aaron and Kurt independently and without looking at each other deliver these huge, beaming smiles of recognition that they’ve made an instant connection with the audience. It’s a beautiful moment and the highlight of a stunning performance. On this evidence and on this form, album seven Out Of A Dream is possibly going to surpass its predecessors, which is some achievement.
There are still some staples in the set tonight too including Plant The Seed, the classic Cavalcade single that won the band legions of fans, which was debuted in this very building. All I Hear sees Aaron encouraging the band to do a “Glasgow wave”, which they duly do. Forever In Your Debt sounds as powerful as ever and first single Sirens sees a welcome return to the set. It has been away too long and each of these classics is appreciated by tonight’s respectful and polite crowd - the “here we f’king go brigade “ are mercifully absent tonight. The atmosphere and adulation seems to build as the set progresses and Build A Tower highlight You Opened Up My Heart sounds incredible. Kurt’s riffs and backing vocals give the track a massive sound. Meanwhile at the other side of the stage, Jim Ryan looks like he’s having a ball. Confident, assured and enjoying every minute.
Tonight was like a back-to-basics show, and there’s a sense that the band having something to prove - the show was shorn of lights and backdrops, thus creating a more intimate and raw atmosphere in this old Glasgow basement. The band positively thrive in this environment and the audience seem to warm to them more with each and every song. Aaron tells us the band are going to dispense with the encore due to the awkward nature of the Stereo stage but we get the songs anyway. First, an audience-led reprise of On The TV which prompts the band to resume playing the anthem, followed by a closing trio of I Saw A Ghost, Knowledge Freedom Power, and Lunatic.
Knowledge Freedom Power is jokingly described by Aaron as one of their few positive songs. If I had one criticism of the set, then it’s that the Knowledge Freedom Power album is underrepresented - there are so, so many gems on there that the audience rarely get to hear live (Sacred Song being a case in point). It does show however the depth of the ‘Readers back catalogue. With the imminent arrival of the new album, we’re going to need a bigger setlist.
The Slow Readers Club played Yet Again, The Wait, Animals, Plant The Seed, All I Hear, The Greatest Escape, Lay Your Troubles On Me, Little White Lies, Sirens, All The Idols, Technofear, Afterlife, You Opened Up My Heart, Forever In Your Debt, Boy So Blue, On The TV, I Saw A Ghost, Knowledge Freedom Power and Lunatic.
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