Waiting until the very last minute to buy a ticket to see a band is never a good idea as we discovered today when realising that there were no tickets available for the Corella show at The Garage in Glasgow. The whole FOMO (fear of missing out) emotions played away at the back of our mind … turns out needlessly though as a kind gentleman passed on a free ticket to us upon arrival at the venue!
The wet weather was soon forgotten about as we awaited rising Manchester indie star Alex Spencer taking to the stage at 7.30pm, we have been lucky enough to catch Alex at the Sound City Festival in Liverpool for the past three years and his additional releases over that time has pushed him into the spotlight, three years ago Alex was still busking on the streets of Manchester. He also made his TRNSMT Festival debut this year where he played a blinding half-hour set down at the new BBC Introducing stage. The couple of hundred that got down early weren’t disappointed and as the set went on we could see that the crowd were really taking to the eighteen-year-old who played throughout with a big smile on his face. There was a good mix of old and new tracks with Waiting For The Change – the first song he ever wrote – being one of the picks for us alongside Clouded Thinking and Where Do We Go From Here? The title track from his June EP release. There is also time for a new song All Of This Will Be Gone as well as Nightmares, a track that made it on to the FIFA 25 playlist. When they played in his home city of Manchester a few days before at New Century Hall they ended the set with a cover of Faithless song Insomnia but sadly not tonight. We will be watching Alex Spencer rise through the ranks with interest and he confirmed a tour for February 2026. 9/10
We had the pleasure of reviewing the debut album Once Upon A Weekend by Corella in May last year with the band confirming tonight that they are working on album number two. We even get to hear two brand new songs from it, Lost A Friend and Rewire being the song titles and both sounding so good. They have spent the last year touring with the likes of Circa Waves at some decent sized venues as well as playing at some of the UK festivals, Bring The Noise had the opportunity to interview the band before their set at Kendal Calling at the end of July but sadly being stuck in a traffic jam for four hour put paid to those plans!
We couldn’t have wished for a more lively energetic start to the set than Do You Want It, Drifting, Let On and Head Underwater, the crowd response is as expected at any Corella show, mass singalongs, moshpits and general mayhem adding to an already electrifying atmosphere. It would be rude not to introduce the band: the four-piece who met at University are Joel Smith (vocals & guitar), Jack Taylor (guitar), Ben Henderson (bass & vocals) and James Fawcett (drums), they have such a unique blend of guitar riffs and vocals and they could possibly be your new favourite Manchester band. There is no let up for the crowd here as the band play all the well-known tracks to keep the intensity high during Monday, Bloom, Fever and Waterfall, the pits are opening right up now and The Garage turns into a sweatbox, nobody is complaining though, the band are watching all this in amazement. “This one is for all the ladies in our lives” comments vocalist Joel as they play Lady Messiah, the crowd singalong is memorable for this track as it appears the whole four hundred or so in the room are joining in. The next track gets an even louder response with a cover of Oasis song What’s The Story (Morning Glory), it’s a very apt choice of song to cover after the Gallagher brothers reunited during the summer playing massive shows around the UK and beyond.
During Puppets, Joel decides to come down into the crowd as a massive circle opens up and everyone eventually bouncing along together including the brave Joel who was lucky to make it back on to the stage afterwards. There are only two songs left of the eighteen on the setlist, Come Around being a personal favourite and we all knew what one was going to end the set: Barcelona Girl prompts the biggest chant/singalong/mosh-pit of the night making sure that everyone had squeezed out any last energy they might have had left in their bodies. The chorus is relatively easy “Barcelona Girl, make it happen girl/It’s the way you walk and the way you talk”, the song is extended for an extra minute or so in such an outpouring of energy ending what has to be one of the best gigs we have attended at The Garage, we had so much fun. This was such an enjoyable sweat-filled night and as we filtered out from the venue Alex Spencer was posing for selfies so we took the opportunity for a photo and a chat with the young lad, watch this space both these bands are heading for much bigger things! 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
