Summer's most sensational Scots gigs: who is playing and where

Stirling City Park, Stirling, June 29

Let’s go outside. It is time for summer gigs outdoors and of all this year’s shows en plein air this seems like the obvious banker. Not only are Edinburgh’s Young Fathers the best live act in the country, the main support act is Self Esteem, aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor, who is, we can all agree, aces. Tom Jones is playing Stirling the following night, but this is the gig to be at.

Young Fathers (Image: free)

Rachel Sermanni

Tolbooth, Stirling, May 29; Boat of Garten Community Hall, Boat of Garten, May 31; Mac Arts, Galashiels, June 13; The King’s, Kirkcaldy, June 14; Paisley Arts Centre, Paisley, June 21

Back in 2012 I picked Rachel Sermanni as one of the stars of that year for The Herald Magazine. It still seems like a good shout 12 years later. In the years between then and now Sermanni has made five albums that have been increasingly confident and assured statements of her songwriting craft, whilst showcasing that crystalline voice. It’s a joy to hear it live. This extensive tour also takes in the Eden Festival in Lockerbie on June 13. That will be a busy day as she’s also scheduled to play in Galashiels.

Rachel Sermanni (Image: free)

Richard Hawley

Barrowland, June 2; Usher Hall, June 3

Of late Sheffield’s finest son has been working on a proper old-school musical, Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which, after sell-out runs at the National Theatre and Sheffield Theatres, is currently on in London’s West End. But here he returns to the day job, promoting his new album In This City They Call You Love. Hawley has been talking about his love of pre-Beatles British pop - think Joe Meek and The Shadows - in the run-up to its release. That might give you some idea of what to expect when he plays Glasgow and Edinburgh at the start of June.

Richard Hawley (Image: free)

Girls Aloud

P&J Live, Aberdeen, June 4; OVO Hydro, June 8-10

British pop back in the noughties was frankly a bit rubbish. Do you remember? While America was at the sonic cutting edge thanks to producers such as Timbaland, the Neptunes and Rich Harrison, and Europe - Sweden especially - was updating the very idea of what pop music might be (courtesy of Robyn and producer Max Martin), the British music scene was all X Factor stars and dreary indie guitar bands (The Libertines, I ask you).

The only bright lights were Amy Winehouse and Girls Aloud.

The Spice Girls might have invented the modern British girl group and All Saints or Sugababes might have been the hipster’s choice, but Girls Aloud were the ultimate example of the form. Proof that TV talent shows weren’t an entire waste of time, the five members thrown together by ITV’s Popstars: The Rivals teamed up with production team Xenomania to produce a string of peerless top 10 singles full of brash energy, increasing sophistication and idiosyncrasy (ie, the giddy three-songs-in-one hit that is Biology).

The result was good enough to remind you why you loved pop music in the first place.

This comeback tour will inevitably be bittersweet due to the absence of the late Sarah Harding. And it begs the question, who’s now going to sing the “Here I am, walking Primrose …” line in The Promise (quite frankly the greatest moment in 21st-century British pop)?

Girls Aloud (Image: free)

The Pearlfishers

FRETS, Strathaven Hotel, Strathaven, June 7

Every few years David Scott releases a new record that sounds like some dream of pop that you half-remember from 1968 or maybe 1974; a set of songs that you think you must have heard before and the sound of all the summer afternoons of your childhood.

In a better world than this one Scott would be duly lauded for his talent. But we’re lucky to have him in any case. Making Tapes For Girls is his latest album under The Pearlfishers' banner. It’s out next week. Think California sunshine pop if it came from Camelon and you’re nearly there. Scott will be playing songs from it in Strathaven next month in the latest of the estimable FRETS concert series organised by Douglas MacIntyre. Try and get a ticket if you can.

BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Classical Musician 2024 Grand Final

City Halls, Glasgow, June 8

Harpist Gina Gallacher, pianist Vita Hofinger Mihelic, accordionist Melia Simonot and oboist Chris Vettraino are the four finalists for this year’s Young Classical Musician 2024 competition and all four will perform alongside the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Martyn Brabbins next month. An eminent panel of judges will decide who will win the title and a recording session with BBC Scotland. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance.

Beth Gibbons (Image: free)

Beth Gibbons

Usher Hall, June 11

It’s not that Beth Gibbons has been idle. In 2019, after all, she released her 2014 performance of Henryk Goreki’s austere, soaring Symphony No.3 with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. And in 2022 she collaborated with Kendrick Lamar on his track Mother I Sober.

But the fact that the Portishead singer is putting a new album out - her first new material in 22 years - is definitely a big deal. Gibbons has been working on Lives Outgrown for some 10 years and we are promised a “psychedelic, pastoral, soft explosion.”

What will that sound like live? Well, this gig in the Usher Hall is the chance to find out. We’re not really expecting to her sing Mysterons but it would be nice.

Hejira: Celebrating Joni Mitchell

Mackintosh Church, Glasgow, June 20 The Glasgow Jazz

Festival kicks off on June 19, promising four nights of music, with appearances from the Fergus McCreadie Trio, Paisley’s vocal titan Kitti, the Hamish Stuart Band and Black Umfolosi. But the show that caught my eye was this Joni Mitchell tribute show at the Mackintosh Church. Named after Mitchell’s 1976 album, this seven-piece band will play tracks from the singer’s back catalogue. Hattie Whitehead provides the vocals.

Gladys Knight (Image: free)

Gladys Knight

The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, June 24

Here’s this week’s confession. I think Gladys Knight might have been my first crush. She’d turn up with the Pips on one of those BBC light entertainment shows in the 1970s, singing Midnight Train to Georgia or Help Me Make It Through the Night (one of my dad’s favourite songs), and I’d be smitten.

Knight turns 80 on May 28 and she remains a force of nature; one of the great 20th-century voices whose career spans Motown to hip-hop (everyone from Kanye to Wu-Tang Clan have sampled her). This is being trailed as her farewell tour. That’s been said before. Even so, this is a chance to see a legend in her winter years.

Bernard Butler

Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, June 21; Mackintosh Church, Glasgow, June 22

He can sing too. It’s still difficult to compute that fact given that Bernard Butler has worked with so many great singers in the past, from Brett Anderson in Suede to David McAlmont and from Jessie Buckley to Duffy. But Butler has his third solo album, Good Grief, out at the end of May and these gigs are a chance to hear his gruff, rather affecting vocals live. And of course he remains one of the greatest guitarists of his generation.