LIVE REVIEW: The Vaccines, Brigitte Calls Me Baby, O2 Academy, Glasgow, 28/02/2026
Photo Credit: Martin Smith (12th March – Prospect, Bristol)
Tonight seems like a dream come true as The Vaccines hit the road for the 15th anniversary tour of debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? What’s more it is a Saturday night in Glasgow and it is also the first night of the tour, we were expecting a high energy show and the crowd didn’t let us down.
First up, all the way from Chicago are Brigitte Calls Me Baby, as the five musicians take to the stage they look like an eclectic bunch, their genre can be described at 80s inspired new wave and it works really well. Frontman Wes Leavins is a bundle of energy as he moves around the stage saying hello to the crowd who react really enthusiastically to the music, they are certainly a new name for us but we were sure to have a good listen before the show. They release album number two – Irreversible – on 13th March and after tonight’s performance we can’t wait to have a listen. Four of the eight tracks on the set are taken from the upcoming album with I Danced With Another Love In My Dream and Slumber Party being standouts from the set, Brigitte Calls Me Baby certainly gained a few more fans tonight. 8/10
The O2 Academy is packed to the rafters with two and a half thousand eager fans anticipating what other songs they might get to hear on top of the twelve from the What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? album. At 9pm Justin Hayward-Young (vocals & guitar), Arni Arnason (bass), Timothy Lanham (guitar) and Yoann Intonti (drums) take to the stage as the decibel levels rise. You can just feel the excitement and anticipation in the air as the set begins with Blow It Up before two big favourite crowd pleasers in Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra) and Post Break-Up Sex send the crowd wild with excitement. Ok, some of The Vaccines’ tracks are really short in length but that takes nothing away from how well the band perform them, Wetsuit is a personal favourite from the debut album and is an early contender for the best of the set. Singer Justin soon comments that “It’s all downhill from here” meaning that the Glasgow show has set the bar high for the remainder of the UK tour.
Norgaard, Wolf Pack and All In White are a joy to hear live before the opening bass line of If You Wanna once again sets the place alight with passion, up in the balcony most people are on their feet now joining in with an explosive mass singalong, a goosebumps moment from the set for sure. Family Friend and Somebody Else’s Child end the first part of the set, the band are playing the latter song live for the first time since 2013 and was a hidden track back in the day when CD’s were still relatively popular. The chat amongst the crowd was now about what other tracks they wanted to hear, they have so many to choose from and some would inevitably be disappointed. English Graffiti and Back In Love City are two albums that are right up there as the best they have released but we only get one song from each on this tour (Handsome and Headphones Baby respectively), however this then allows some of the seldom played tracks to come back to life such as We’re Happening, being played live for the first time since 2016 and Tiger Blood (first since 2017). We also had a new song from album number seven that Justin confirms is now finished, we are hoping for a release date in 2026 and maybe another tour off the back of it? The song in question is called Ten Years Too Far and the crowd are delighted that it is being played in Glasgow for the first time live.
Like the aforementioned albums there is only one taken from Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations too, Heartbreak kid is a great choice of song to play from that release, it has become very popular since its release and Headphones Baby has everyone in the O2 Academy screaming back the lyrics to the stage, another unforgettable moment. The main set closes with No Hope and I Always Knew, the two track encore begins with the mentioned new song and it is All My Friends Are Falling In Love that closes off the opening night of the tour with one final mass singalong sending everyone home with big smiles on their face. Justin reckons that The Vaccines best music is still ahead of them … we can’t wait for album number seven to be released now. 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
