Loney dear - Old Blue Last

Not sure who this last chap is, headline billing, sounds Swedish, looks like my cousin Jimbo.

He's got a backing band out in the crowd but for the first song they're not really up for joining him so he has to resort to magic.

He plays a chord and gets the audience to all sustain it, Ab. Its a weird sensation, I'm at gig, but the sound is coming from all around. Sure, it drifts in and out as folk give up and then are roused once more as the chap on stage strums and plays along, but it wraps round me disconcertingly.

The band join him onstage for the next song, tuning up whilst he regales us with a tale of their exploits earlier in the day.

Its very light music, drifting and acoustic, but I'm not into it. There's a couple stood right in front of me, really caught up in each other's eyes, almost oblivious to the music. Giggling and chatting, gazing at each other's faces. They distract me too much from the music, so I leave.

Martin Carr - Old Blue Last

This is the first time I've seen Martin Carr since November 1996 at Manchester Uni with Julia Roe. I missed out on the Bravecaptain thing during the past ten years, save some track on an NME cover CD.

Anyhoo he's on stage right now, hair contained in a bobble hat, acoustic guitar cappoed on second fret and Mary providing backing vocals. Its quiet, laid back stuff. Some fancy fingering, but the strings are buzzing like a bad 'un.

It sound like you'd imagine acoustic Boos b-side demos would sound like, his voice so familiar, and wee flourishes where you can imagine the trumpets would be.

The audience were a bit noisy, a few bursts of silence breaking out during quiet bits, but then the chatter rising again. I wonder what other shows he's got lined up and what new material recorded.

When I got bored of the final band of the night, I found myself crossing the street at the same time as Martin Carr and for a few brief moments I considered the person I would be if not for him and his music. No Boo Radleys, no gig at the Manchester Academy in '95, no first girlfriend, no emotional scarring, no learning to play those songs on guitar, no endlessly going to gigs to try to find the magic like that show at the Academy, no gig review blog. And none of this...

Adam Donen and The Drought - Old Blue Last

So I'm stood near the bar at the Old Blue Last, sweating a wee bit, a few feet in front of me is Andrew the photographer and just to my right is a bloke who looks like Ed Byrne.

On stage is a chap with big permed hair, scary starey eyes and for this song, an acoustic guitar. Adam Donen presumably.

They have a slightly dischordant sound but nice thundering bass and celtic-ish violin, although in this case it would be called fiddle.

Its a little bit too blarry for my tastes as though hs shouting at the audience, but I don't get it.

Nice baaa backing vocals, and organish keyboards.

They had a book of poems and a CD, and album for sale, I neglected to buy a copy.

Gay Against You - The Old Blue Last

Once more into the breach dear friends, once more. and I'm back in London once again, only forty five quids worth of petrol, drove slowly to push the boundaries of fuel efficiency, when it would have saved the environment so much more if I'd just stayed in bed and sobbed to myself.

There's a strange dream-like quality to the evening, I arrive late at the Old Blue Last, still unsure what that means, but it does neatly fit in with the theme of the word Last which has dogged my muso career since university. I've missed whatever support acts there were and Gay Against You are hitting the stage.

Yup I've driven 406.3 miles to see a Glasgow band. Wee Joe who could be a twelve year old and his friend Lachy.

They make noise and they make a mess. I reckon they're glitch pop, some of their tunes on myspace are nice, but live, they're a different beast, noisier and less structured. Their live performance is a gimmick, they make a mess, with foam, paper, cardboard, chalk, whatever they can get their hands on, strangling theirs elves with mic leads, breaking their own necks leaping off of tables and writhing on the floor.

The crowd here are loving it, lapping it up, diving in and falling over. It'll stick in their heads but for how long, and is this what bands have to do to get noticed?

When they finish I sneak away, long drive home.

Why do I do it?

This whole project Last Night From Glasgow Indie Eyespy, instant gig reviews of gigs no one else writes about, well most of the time, its a failed mission. No spectacular hits, no huge income from google ads, less than $5 last month. Only one guestlist place. No new friends or life altering experience, just noisy disillusionment.

I wish I could be like Gay Against You. But I can't.