(Image: PA)
Gig of the Month
Stevie WonderOVO Hydro, Glasgow, November 11
Well, obviously. Everyone from Van Morrison to Cat Power is playing in Scotland in November, but, in truth, there’s one gig that stands head and shoulders above everything else this month. An appearance by the Motown legend and all-round musical genius, Stevland Hardaway Judkins.
Or, to use the name producer Clarence Paul gave him, “Little Stevie Wonder (aka “the eighth wonder of the world”). No pop star name has ever been more appropriate. From the exhilarating Fingertips Part 2 in 1963 (recorded when he was just 12) Wonder spent the next 20 years making more truly great records than anyone (yes, and that includes the Beatles, Dylan and Abba, or anyone else you want to mention; he’s pop’s top trump).
Through the 1970s, he made a run of albums that are the best that ever appeared on the Motown label, and as good as - if not better than - anything else that came out that decade. His current tour marks the 50th anniversary of his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life which sees him play it in its impressive entirety (it was a double with a bonus EP). So, you’re definitely going to hear I Wish and Sir Duke. If you’ve got a ticket you’re very lucky.
Becky SikasaLetham Village Hall, Letham, November 7; The Tunnels, Aberdeen, November 9; The Caves, Edinburgh, November 10; The Rum Shack, Glasgow, November 12
New Scottish star Becky Sikasa (Image: unknown)
Scotland should be sounding pretty soulful in November, come to think of it. Wonder apart, there’s also an appearance by American neo-soul star Jalen Ngonda at the Barrowland in Glasgow on November 2.
And then there’s this mini tour by singer-songwriter Becky Sikasa. Raised in Germany and based in Scotland, Sikasa was last year named BBC Introducing Scottish Artist of the Year and she’s been compared to Cleo Sol and Olivia Dean no less. Listen to her voice and those heady comparisons don’t seem grandiose at all.
Squeeze & Billy BraggOVO Hydro, Glasgow, November 12
A double bill featuring Deptford’s very own Lennon and McCartney and the Bard of Barking. Billy Bragg is probably known as much for his political activism as his music these days, but it’s worth remembering that he has a back catalogue of love songs that are equal parts Ken Loach griminess and Bill Forsyth romanticism (Levi Stubbs’ Tears can still reduce me to a mushy mess). As for Squeeze, when they played the Hydro last year supporting Madness they quite frankly tore the place up.
BMX BanditsHug and Pint, Glasgow, November 14
Tickets are at a premium for this matinee show (1.30pm) celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary, but Bellshill’s finest promise us a greatest hits show “with a twist” - which means they’re playing the singles but also the tracks that should have been, too. Douglas is one of Scotpop’s great showmen, so this should be huge fun. Plus, the early timing means you can also catch Teenage Fanclub across town at St Luke’s on the same evening.
BeabadoobeeOVO Hydro, Glasgow, November 14
In the Guardian last month music critic Alexis Petridis suggested that the 26-year-old Filipino-British singer Beatrice Laus (aka Beabadoobee) is a test case for the notion that pop music is no longer at the heart of the culture. Laus is a hugely successful singer-songwriter, much loved by young women in their teens and twenties, who has supported Taylor Swift, has number one albums to her name and is playing big venues such as the Hydro.
And yet few of the rest of us have heard of her. But isn’t that on us, not her? We could always put aside those old records and listen to some new ones.
In Beabadoobee’s case, what would we find? Nineties-flavoured alt-rock guitars, the sweetest of voices and songs that are ultimately maybe a little too neat and tidy. Then again, her latest album Pylon is actually rather moreish and here and there you can hear the ghost of Harriet Wheeler and The Sundays haunting its grooves.
Fontaines D.C.Barrowland, Ballroom, November 22
Fontaines D.C. (Image: unknown)
There’s no shortage of rock acts playing in Scotland in November. You can choose between metal pioneers Deep Purple at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow on November 19, or Josh Homme’s Eagles of Death Metal at the Barrowlands the night before. Then there’s Ireland’s finest, Fontaines D.C. They are touring in support of their new album Dopamine Chamber which has been rightly garnering five-star reviews.
Getdown ServicesBarrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, November 26
Is there anything wrong with a joke band if they make you laugh? Earlier this year Getdown Services - the unpreprocessing Minehead duo of Josh Lawlor and Ben Sadler - turned up on Later... with Jools Holland to offer up some properly moustachioed performance art, thanks to a song about radiators. Was it terrible? Was it brilliant? Was it both?
Whatever it was, it was definitely compelling. Because, sometimes, “WTF” is the best response you can hope to elicit from anyone. Getdown Services might not be built to last, but right now this gig promises to be as much fun as you can have on a night out this month.
JungleOVO Hydro, Glasgow, November 28
There comes a moment on the nights I spend on YouTube (more of them than I care to count) when I inevitably click on the video for Jungle’s Back on 74. It’s not just that the song itself is a retro-disco banger, powered by Lydia Kitto’s gorgeously breathy vocals. It’s the fact that it’s one of the great one-take dance videos, something that has now become something of a tradition for the band. What started as a two-man bedroom act who knew a good sample when they heard it, has blossomed over the last decade into a glossy, high-end party band out to give listeners a good time. That’s not enough for some, as the odd rather sniffy review for the latest album Sunshine proves. But here’s the thing. It’s OK, even in these troubled times, to be happy.
Phoebe BridgersOVO Hydro, Glasgow, November 28
Everyone loves Phoebe Bridgers these days. Taylor Swift (yes, her again), Paul McCartney, the Grammy voters (Bridgers’s supergroup Boygenius, which also includes Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, won three Grammys in 2024.)
Lost Weekend, Bridgers’s latest album addresses the death of her father (with whom her relationship was complex, even difficult at times) and the ending of her relationship with actor Paul Mescal. How her indie songs will translate to the size of the Hydro is an interesting question. Here’s our chance to find out.
Tinie Tempah (Image: unknown)
Tinie Tempah02 Academy, Glasgow, November 30
Other choices you have this month. Leo Sayer is in Glasgow on November 13 and Bruce Foxton is in the city the following night. Anna von Hausswolff is at the Queen’s Hall on November 14, while Nia Archives is at the Barrowland Ballroom on November 22.
The Proclaimers are at the Playhouse in Edinburgh on November 27 and Placebo are at the Hydro in Glasgow on November 30. But let’s round this all up by flagging up Tinie Tempah at the 02 Academy in Glasgow, also on the last night of the month. There may be some who felt we’d lost the English rapper to telly in recent years. (Did you catch his property porn series Extraordinary Extensions?)
But he’s back with a new album The Night is Not Dead. And presumably he’ll be performing Pass Out. All together now: I’ve got so many clothes, I keep some in my aunt’s house …”