After all these years it was great to see The Frank And Walters live again, having last seen them leaping around as young maniac indie-popstars in Edinburgh about 30 years ago in the early 90s. Even though this time round it was as a more laid-back duo-only, acoustic set (both seated) instead of full band in full force, it didn’t take away from being an excellent show of nearly twenty back-to-back brilliant tunes. The Hug And Pint's quite a small venue, so it wasn't a surprise that they sold out this original Saturday date and added a Friday one too (us “Saturday crowd” being the better of the two, as lead man Paul Linehan repeatedly told us throughout the set, partly as we'd obviously bought our tickets first creating the need for a second night, but mainly as we were here in front of them now. Also, ignoring the fact there were quite a few folk in the crowd who were at both!).
Through to Glasgow for this rare Scottish TF&W appearance with OAW Stevie we left the east coast and its cold autumn haar, we were caught out by the taps aff heat and sunshine on offer in the west coast and it only got hotter once we were inside. Inevitably we bumped into some familiar faces in the shape of the ML2 gang; Gerry and another Stevie, with Gerry claiming a big share of the credit for these gigs, having badgered the band on social media for years to come over (cheers G!).
As I often do, I checked Setlistfm to get a heads up on what to expect from previous gigs from the band and didn’t recognise the opening track Memory Lane, which I was told by the guy standing next to us, (shout out to two-nights Terry, who was there both Friday and Saturday!) that it’s an old song they’ve never recorded (Terry also responsible for the Setlistfm posting, cheers again!) but a great start none the less.
The pair came on stage in Kraftwerk-esque red shirts and thin black ties in relatively unassuming fashion compared to the roar of the crowd greeting them and started cracking through the first half of the set belting through the tunes after the relatively obscure opener. Tony Cochrane is such an emotional song (wish I knew who he is, but he’s a lucky guy to have such a great song written about him), then the melancholy but uplifting Stages, Trust In The Future, High Is Low and Lately. All beautiful songs and all so . Paul’s chat throughout was engaging and laid back, talking about his love for Glasgow (“I love it here, it reminds me so much of Glasgow”), some banter with Matt the sound guy (“making us sound better than we are, although don’t fuck it up now Matt, don’t get too cocky” after a round of applause was called for) and sharing his thoughts of the pinata (the trojan donkey bodyguard) lodged onto his microphone stand, slightly pleased, slightly confused and a bit unsettled. The harmonies of the two guitars, clear vocals, occasional keyboard addition and stripped back sound was sublime as they lifted it a bit more with Landslide, Each Tree then first-half finale of the sing-along anthem of We Are the Young Men, then giving us a chance to head back to the bar for another beer and blether on the first half performances.
The second set (which lifted the roof off at times) started with a slow burner, Goddess Of Athena which has quite a detailed arrangement on record, was adapted for this set up well and followed up with a great cover of The Model hammered out on dual guitars (again another reference to Saturday crowd v Friday crowd as our Do Do Do Do Do Do, Do Do’s were better than Friday’s, obviously). Building on the high of Kraftwerk’s classic we were treated to and loudly joined in with the whole place singing along another the absolute classic After All (I’m getting goosebumps listening to it again as I’m writing this). If there’s a catchier, more heartstrings-pulling chorus out there I can’t name it - answers on an e-postcard please. From there it just got even better, with the jangly Colours and another couple of early single’s Fashion Crisis In New York and This Is Not A Song, but not before Paul asked, then followed through) with hugs through the crowd, soundtracked for laughs with the unmistakeable Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer. The lucky 20 or 30 folk who got a squeeze from the main man will have something extra to remember the night by (he stopped before he got to us though. No hug antics for Gig-Antics).
About halfway through this second set Paul realised his donkey bodyguard pinata was missing then finished off with the catchy Daisy Chain, anthemic The Clock and reflective Time bringing the set to a roaring finish.
These Are not the Young Men they once were (none of us are to be fair), but this set worked incredibly well, the acoustic versions of their great songs, the ideal venue and set up for this was perfect. And within minutes of an Edinburgh gig in February being announced last week I was straight on for a ticket for this date. As they play a lot more regularly in Ireland than in the UK, I’m also starting to think about adding them to my ‘tour to see them a few times list’ off the back of this. I’d forgotten just how great The Frank And Walters are.
Not sure if they still want to change the world, but I’m pleased they still want to make noise. Well worth going to see if you haven’t already and if you have, go remind yourself how good they still are.
Playlist of the setlist; https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3pgsXppw9kNAg9nXILv2Hc?si=f1f67efe5c44411c
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