LIVE REVIEW: Bob Vylan, Hyphen, CLT DRP, SWG3 Galvanizers Hall, Glasgow, 30/10/2024

Photo Credit: Sara Getson

London-based duo Bobby Vylan (singer) and Bobbie Vylan (drums) brought their self-styled punk music to a very energetic Glasgow crowd at the SWG3 Galvanizers Hall in the west end of the city, with a show like this one who says “punk is dead?”. Unfortunately we missed most of the first support CLT DRP set but what we did see and hear sounded right up our street, vocalist Annie Dorrett already had the crowd whipped into a frenzy with their mix of punk, electronica and heavy pop, the Brighton band left a good impression on the Glasgow audience.

The main support for the tour are Hyphen, a band that are very similar to ‘The two Bob’s’ in style but also the lyrical content of some of their songs makes them a perfect support as they entertain the young enthusiastic Glasgow crowd with a half hour set and boy do these guys know how to work a crowd! We are going back a couple of decades for the first track and it’s a surprising choice: The Backstreet Boys famous song Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) gets (some) of the crowd singing along but it’s Dystopian Peter Crouch that gets the energy flowing around the Galvanizers Hall and it basically stays that way for the remainder of the set. Freshly released track Hate Yachts Not Dinghies gets the crowd chanting the chorus back to the stage all with the knowledge of the subject matter of the song, it is the best of the set as one young lad down the front rouses the crowd enough to start the first mosh pits of the night … there were many more to come. The high-energy set ends with the band’s two biggest songs to date, 3 Pound Pints and Marching Powder, Hyphen have won over more than a few new fans tonight that’s for sure, us included. 7/10

It was now time for the Humble As The Sun Tour to work its magic on the Glasgow crowd and they didn’t let us down … appropriately entering to The Beatles track Here Comes The Sun is a bold move but an even bolder move is that it’s not Bob Vylan that first appears on the stage but his manager simply asking the crowd “are you ready?” to a resounding yes from the capacity crowd. The energy levels are palpable in the hall as the duo start off the set with a few songs from April’s album release Humble As The Sun namely Reign, GYAG (Get Yourself A Gun), Dream Big and He’s A Man, every one of these tracks gets a new mosh pit underway with bodies charging in from all over the hall to join in with the fun as bodies bounce off each other in an ever-enlarging circle. This is the energetic start that the band would have been looking for tonight as we now head into a cover of Roy Ayers track Everybody Loves The Sunshine which includes a frantic drum solo from Bobbie driving the crowd wild. With only two members on the stage some purist music fans would maybe not call this punk music, there are many other two-piece bands out there such as SOFT PLAY (Vylan has collaborated with them) proving the critics wrong though, and that band are also out on a very successful UK tour right now. These musicians are giving a voice back to the oppressed of this land, making a statement with a deep-rooted political message to those in power and the crowd response to this allows them to release their pent-up anger, the crowd surf from the shirtless vocalist Bobby is a crowd pleaser and brings up the energy levels a notch or two.

The three best songs were left to the end, beginning with The Delicate Nature followed by We Live Here, taken from the album of the same name and Vylan’s biggest song to date, there could be only one song to end the set… Hunger Games as the crowd enjoy one more bounce around as Bobby sing the lyrics “Alright, alright/What will you win yourself tonight/Spin the wheel for the chance of a hot meal” ending a highly charged night of music helped along massively by a very passionate audience that did Glasgow proud tonight. The UK leg of the tour finishes up at London’s Brixton Academy tonight with the band then heading out to Europe for the remainder of November. Judging from some of the colourful punk hairstyles on show tonight we can confirm that punk is definitely not dead. 9/10

Written by: Alan Brown

Photos by: Sara Getson