Glasgow King Tuts 3/6/2001
F***in
ace!!!!
That was what I call a good gig!! Gerard and Dylan played a blinder of an
acoustic set. The crowd was probably more Witness orientated than the one that
was there last week for their headlining gig.
Me, my girlfriend, a mate and his girlfriend grabbed a beer when we got in the
bar and about half an hour later Gerard and Dylan sat down at the next table. I
admit I did get a bit starstruck (the sad git that I am). My girlfriend etc.
were totally ripping the mince out of me for it, (they like Witness but aren't
big enough fans to get starstruck when nearly half of the band are drinking at
the next table). I got used to it after about 20 mins. and came back out of my
shell. A few beers later I stumbled into the lavatory to lose a gallon or two
and Gerard was standing at the end of the urinal. I plucked up the courage to
say "Alright, Gerard". "Yeah, not too bad thanks, You??".
Then we just got talking about the gig last week, he seemed quite surprised that
someone had bothered to come along twice, "You must be a glutton for
punishment". Amongst other things I told him the new stuff sounded
excellent and he was able to tell me that they have been confirmed for V2001.
Straight from the horses mouth. He washed his hands and thanked me for my
support and went back out to the bar. I then got stage fright at the urinal
which lasted about 10 mins.
They came on stage about 3/4 of an hour later after an American solo guy called
Mark Mulcahy (sounded like Van Morrison to me) and played a blinder. Gerard
seemed to have gained a lot of confidence on stage and appeared very relaxed and
at points quite funny, especially when "playfully" taking the piss out
of Dylan who also showed he had more strings to his bow than being a bass
player, he had a banjo on the go for some songs, a mouth harmonica and showed he
had played a fair bit of guitar also. It was Dylan`s multi instrumental set that
Gerard used to get a few laughs out of the crowd along after
"Hijacker" by telling the really loud guy in the 3rd row to sing a bit
quieter and more in key or tune. "We'll get on with the next one in a
minute....after this guy gets all tooled up" as Dylan struggles to hold the
guitar on his lap and at the same time get the mouth harmonica holder thingy to
sit right without falling off.
The set included a mix, the old song included "Freezing Over Morning",
"Hijacker", "My Own Old Song" and the set closer
"Still". I'm not too good with the names of the newer songs but I
picked up that they played "Under A Sun" and a song called
"Avalanche".
Each song had the crowd clapping and cheering for yonks and the ones who were
there for Tom McRae (who also was astounding) seemed to be well impressed as the
two acts do compliment each other really well in my humble opinion. As at the
moment Tom McRae is being pushed by the record company (I saw an advert for him
on the Q music channel). It looks as though it could be a good thing for Witness
by going on tour with him as they will be playing to an audience that has an ear
for their kind of sound. Best of luck to Witness, if Toploader can get where
they are on what they are then Witness should be the biggest band in Britain.
Greig Martin