LIVE REVIEW: The Subways, Congratulations, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, 14/11/2025
On entry to the venue tonight we thought a band with the pulling power of The Subways should be playing a far bigger venue than King Tut’s but after a quick chat at the merchandise table we were told that the band would rather play a sold out show instead of playing in a half empty venue. That was a good enough reason for us! The intimate venue on St Vincent’s Street has hosted some major bands over the years as can be seen on the way up the stairs where you will find some big names such as The Killers, Oasis and many more.
The support band are Brighton-based Congratulations who were brand new to us so we had a listen pre-gig, they offer a mix of post-punk, alternative with a big swig of 80s synth for good measure. Vocalist Leah Stanhope is an energy bubble on the stage and tries so hard to whip the Friday night crowd into a frenzy … unfortunately this mostly fails, it is a bit of a sleepy crowd. Let’s hope the energy levels move up a notch or two for The Subways. Congratulations announced they would release debut album Join Hands on 13th February, we get to hear a couple of new ones from the album tonight and they sounded great. There was a moment of fun when Leah asked the crowd to join in with a two-step dance for their most popular song Ice Tea, the crowd response was decent we can report. We also enjoyed This Life and Fought 4 Love while the band announced that they would be touring the album early next year. 7/10
The Subways released latest album When I’m With You on 17th October and it is mostly a collection of hits but there is also room for a few new tracks on the impressive twenty-four song album including Passenger Side and I Need To Feel You Closer. The set kicks off with the joyous Oh Yeah that has the crowd singing along getting the vocal cords ready for what was ahead. This continues for Black Wax (the only track from the Uncertain Joys album) and We Don’t Need Money To Have A Good Time, the crowd have definitely livened up a bit more now. The Subways formed way back in 2002 and still have two original members in Billy Lunn (vocals & guitar), Charlotte Cooper (bass & vocals) and Camille Phillips on drums who joined in 2021 replacing Billy’s brother John Morgan. Being released twenty years ago now the Young For Eternity album tour is appropriately named For Eternity – Celebrating 20 Years. Unsurprisingly a good chunk of the seventeen-track set is from that very album – seven in total – there is also room for a few of the more hardcore songs in Kalifornia, Mary and At 1 AM. Billy Lunn and Charlotte Cooper swap vocal duties with ease throughout the set with Cooper being an absolute bundle of energy all night whipping the crowd into a frenzy. A perfect example of the quick vocal shifting is during I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say, this is a goose bumps moment for us and is one of the standouts from the set.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is another crowd pleasing moment and it was great to hear Girls & Boys live, as we move towards the end of the set it is two massive tracks from the Young For Eternity album that end the night. First up is With You that takes the energy up a notch, everyone knows there is only one song they haven’t played yet: the brilliant Rock & Roll Queen where all hell breaks loose in King Tut’s and has Billy doing the usual crowd surf to the back of the room. There are no high railings for him to climb up tonight to jump off, this is something he has been doing during this tour and to be honest it’s turned into his signature move. We feel so privileged to see The Subways play in such a small, intimate venue, we are sure it will be a bigger one on the next tour. The Subways intimate venues tour continues until mid-December taking in shows in France, Netherlands and Germany among others. 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
