Anyone reading this that is old enough to remember the 1980s Scottish music scene will know that James Grant was the lead singer of Glasgow band Love & Money who were part of the golden era of Scottish music when bands such as Del Amitri, Big Country, Deacon Blue and many more flew the flag for Scotland. Times move on of course and James has recently been touring as part of ‘supergroup’ Butler, Black and Grant made up of Bernard Butler of Suede fame and Teenage Fanclub frontman Norman Blake.
James is back solo touring once again and has booked four nights at the stunning Cottiers Theatre, an old church that sits not far from Byres Road in Glasgow’s West End where the acoustics are on a par with Saint Luke’s in the East End of the city. Joining James on stage tonight is friend Rob McLaughlin on guitar and his daughter Ursula Grant who both help to make a decent night of music even better. “We will be playing a lot of solo material tonight,” James tells the packed all-seated venue to which two audience members respond with “yeah”, Mr Grant then responds with “Only two people happy about that then!”. He is well known for his cheeky banter with fans at shows and storytelling for which a lot of people will have turned up to hear tonight.
Love & Money track Strange Kind Of Love is played early in the set to the delight of the fans and begins acoustically before springing into life, Rob McLaughlin shines on guitar throughout the evening sometimes playing the songs in a blues inspired way. Just before Ursula gets a turn on lead vocals James tells us about his shiny guitar that he bought in New York for $800 during the Strange Kind Of Love tour back in the day … “It’s probably worth around $850 now”, his personality is certainly shining through tonight! Next Fraser Spiers joins James on stage for harmonica duties, the pair had met back when Love & Money needed a B-Side for Strange Kind Of Love and Fraser kindly agreed to help, the song was originally played acoustically by James as it is tonight. Fraser is on and off the stage a few times showing off his skills on the harmonica to the delight of the crowd, this man is a true pro. My Father’s Coat is written about his Dad while Lips Like Ether has all four on stage again, the audience are quietly nodding along to each song that is played, this was never going to be a rowdy night!
We can’t think of a more perfect venue for this type of show than the Cottiers Theatre, Glasgow has so many beautiful venues dotted around the city, the small intimate ones are always the best for us. James and Rob play Winter acoustically before a short break and a refreshment is welcomed all around as people reminisce about ‘the good old days’. The first song of the second half of the show is Jocelyn Square, a personal favourite from the Strange Kind Of Love album that was released in 1988, we close our eyes and the memories come flooding back of a time when Scotland was the testing ground for Margaret Thatcher’s ‘popular’ poll tax charges … ah good old Maggie! Talking of politics it’s just dawned on us that Thursday was the local election polling day and what better way to celebrate the moment than with Halleluiah Man, the opening track from Strange Kind Of Love and one of Love & Money’s finest releases that has the very relevant lyrics “I am the Halleluiah Man, break all the rules and I’m the king of fools/I’m the renegade in this grey town, and I’ll do anything to bring a government down”. Here’s hoping! As we move towards the end of an entertaining evening The Last Ship and Papa Death are great to hear live.
After this show a night at the Harbour Lights down in Irvine, North Ayrshire the following night should prove just as popular as the Glasgow show, it really is good to see that James Grant is still keeping the music from the past alive as his army of ageing fans (including us!) will testify to. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
