I've never been an inveterate gig goer so the number of gigs i have been to where people say with pride 'I was there' is not large. Although obviously I was at the Sex Pistols at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, along with the rest of the entire population of the world.
Last night I was at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow gig for Edwyn Collins, on his farewell tour. I've been to a few farewell tours of a few different performers, some of them more than once, but I think this was the real thing. In part because the effects of the stroke Edwyn suffered in 2005 are still there, but also because I don't see him as breaking it. He's just not that type of person.
I had wondered why it wasn't actually the last night of the tour, as he played Home Again, but I suspect that had it been he would not have been allowed to leave. The audience, as with so many gigs I go to now have been going to see him for over 40 years. The normal affection that is built up over that time is compounded in Edwyn's case by the knowledge of the stroke. There is something astoundingly appropriate thar for some time the only phrase he could say was as per the title of the thread "The Possibilities Are Endless" which sounds just like the title of an Edwyn song.
It wasn't a gig for singing along, his and Orange Juice's songs are not anthems. They are part of the jangly twee pop that forms a part of the music of the West of Scotland. Twee pop though is often much more cutting than the sound, just because there is a love of melody doesn't mean that the introspection doesn't have an edge, though also a sense of hope.
It was rather lovely to see James Kirk and Stephen Daly join him for the last couple of songs, Felicity and Blue Boy. so much of the show felt like a proper end by returning to the beginning.
The first song Falling and Laughing was introduced by Edwyn as that a return to the beginning, so here are two versions of that from the start and one nearer now.
https://youtu.be/XxD45UONhco?si=nQnZPDKzMJPTLGephttps://youtu.be/6EK60QEmvsU?si=CKLzDQk4BPXktDWUAs we left last night, I wondered to my wife how many people in the audience had been at another gig of Edwyn's that got in the papers, well the Daily Record. It was at the Burns Festival in Ayr in May 2004, it was a joint gig with The Alexander Brothers who did the first half, and Edwyn. Paul Cook, ex of the Sex Pistols, was playing in Edwyn's band at the time. At one point Edwyn made a slightly mocking remark about Morrissey, and a shaven headed woman in a long black leather cloak took umbrage, and walked up to the stage and threw her pint over Edwyn. This led to the headline in the Record "Alexander Brothers in Punk Rock Mayhem'
