Live Review

Cherry Ghost – Oran Mor, Glasgow

• 16th Mar 2011

The night didn’t start well. The doors were late in opening, leaving a lengthy queue standing in the snow. (Yes, Glasgow has snow in March!) But things did get progressively better once the near capacity crowd had finally made it into the building.

Support band Driver Drive Faster from Manchester played a short set that helped to warm things up. Their rock sound involving keyboards and guitars is solid although the vocals are a little high pitched for my taste. Their debut single They May
Talk went down particularly well though.

Cherry Ghost sauntered onto the stage, picked up their instruments and got straight to it. There are no rock star pretentions here, just a desire to play music. And from the off the strong, brooding voice of frontman Simon Aldred is to the fore.

The opening A Month Of Mornings, like much of the set, was taken from the Bolton band’s recent album Beneath This Burning Shoreline. But there were a fair few songs from the debut album, 2007’s Thirst for Romance mixed into the set too.

There is a smooth and even vibe to Cherry Ghost’s brand of indie music. Musically the band is tight and Aldred’s vocals perfectly portray the melancholy of much of the lyrical content.

4am from the debut release was an early highlight, the swirling keyboard introduction from Ben Parsons building before the drums kicked in, followed by the vocals. The crowd were now dancing along to the beat.

Diamonds In The Grind saw the stage go dark, and then an eerie red light picked out Aldred as his slow, deep vocals cut through the mix. And Phill Anderson’s crunching bass line added to the atmospheric feel in fine style. Another excellent song.

The closing pairing of The Night They Burned Sadie Clay, featuring an unusual drum rhythm from Grenville Harrop, and People Help People, with a fine guitar solo from Jim Rhodes, had the audience in a frenzy. The demands for more started almost before the band had left the stage.

Simon Aldred returned alone and performed an excellent acoustic version of Deadman’s Suit, the tender ballad turning into a singalong. Then the others came back on stage to end the night with the excellent Mathematics, a real crowd favourite.

Cherry Ghost adopt a different approach to music than many indie bands. The guitars have a subtlety that backs rather than dominates and this allows the vocals to lead. The overall effect is of a confident and talented band that are ideally suited to playing live music.