LIVE REVIEW: The Snuts, Siobhán Winifred, O2 Academy Bournemouth, 26/11/2024
Photo Credit: Jack Delve
On a rainy Tuesday night, we headed to the O2 Academy in Boscombe to see West Lothian’s The Snuts play their debut Bournemouth show. With their third album Millennials released earlier this year which saw it hitting the top spot in the Scottish charts and number two in the UK charts, we were looking forward to seeing the tracks which made the cut tonight.
Arriving just as Siobhán Winifred was taking to the stage with her band, the set began with Stay For Good before going into debut single Black Hole. The soothing vocals of Winifred stood high above the guitars as we found ourselves captivated and forgetting about those who were unfortunately chatting during this solid set. This soon changed though as a cover of Arctic Monkeys 505 came into play, upping the indie-rock vibes in the room as we looked round to see smiles on faces singing along. Unreleased track Toothpaste, about a perfect moment in time and the nostalgia behind it showcased the lyrical ability and vulnerability of the singer-songwriter who we have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of in 2025. Standout moment came with Don’t Do Well Alone; the title track of her debut EP which features a snippet of Sam Fender’s Getting Started as an unexpected treat. The local artist took the time to let the crowd in on the struggles musicians face and the expenses which comes with touring so be sure to head over to the merch desk when you’re at a show in the future! We can’t help but wish the crowd had paid a bit more attention to Winifred’s set as she deserved much more than the crowd gave her tonight.
Having seen The Snuts live before and been ever so slightly (very!) disappointed when they couldn’t play at Victorious Festival earlier this year, so we were incredibly excited for tonight’s set and they didn’t disappoint. Opening with an overwhelmingly bright light show and into latest single Millionaires, the crowd were on board the moment Jack Cochrane walked on stage, sunglasses firmly on and we got our first taste of his always improving vocals.
Taking us on a journey through their discography tracks such as Pigeons In New York and Deep Diving show two different sides of the band. We have the fun, infectious singalong anthem of Pigeons where we got taken on a sing-along journey to find out where the pigeons are and what unites people across the world, and the brilliant funky guitar lines from Joe McGillveray and Callum Wilson in Deep Diving. As fan favourite Knuckles, began we looked round to see people squaring up to each other in the crowd as the quartet were bouncing across the stage feeding off the energy.
Tonight’s lighting guy was absolutely making the most of the lighting at the venue, with it at times an uncomfortable distraction due to the ongoing strobes. However we didn’t let this stop our fun as the singalong trio of All Your Friends, gritty Don’t Forget It (Punk) and Burn The Empire came in giving a dose of angst and fire. Sometimes you forget where a band is from, until they speak to the crowd and remind us just how brilliantly Scottish they are, as Cochrane explained when Burn The Empire was written they were feeling angry and political a theme evident in the lyrics, it lit the venue up and got the crowd well and truly bouncing.
With this being their first time in Bournemouth, Cochrane was impressed with his spot on pronunciation of Bournemouth and so were we! ‘I’m generally quite a miserable bastard and it takes a lot to make me happy. This is a beautiful place and venue,’ which those who have been to the stunning surroundings of the O2 Academy in Bournemouth will agree. Playing one of the biggest venues in Bournemouth, which was suitably packed for a Tuesday night it showed us that The Snuts who are playing OVO Hydro in Glasgow tonight are a band who deserve everyone’s attention.
Hallelujah Moment took us back to strolling through a street with our friends, with the simplistic setting of a streetlight and some TV screens meant our attention were on the beautiful music and this standout part of the set was where it felt like everything had just fallen into place. Stripping it back to basics was Top Deck and this acoustic-esque number in a venue like this felt even more special ahead of Sing For Your Supper; a track which prior to this tour hadn’t been played live in about five years much to the delight of pockets of fans in the crowd. This was an incredibly slick set from a band who have worked on their craft and live performance with relentless touring schedules behind them.
As we began to head towards the end of the set, Somebody Loves You is a song which many can relate to as everyone pulled their loved ones close for this happy, feel-good track. Taken from latest album Millenials, it seemed like Novastar had its own fan club as the opening notes began and a single scream came from the crowd; Jordan Mackay’s drumlines got right beneath our skin as we found ourselves singing along to ‘I’m a rocket ship ready to fly’ during the powerful chorus. Closing the main part of the set, Cochrane commented, ‘if you don’t know this song unlucky for you. We wrote this when we were maybe eighteen or nineteen’ before they kicked into What’s Going On. Okay, as expected there were quite a few parts of the set when the crowd trailed off with an incredibly unnecessary amount of talking around the venue during the lesser known tracks. As frequent gig attendees, it’s really disappointing to see this behaviour making a resurgence as it detracts from some of the sincere, emotive onstage moments when they’re overpowered by needless chatting.
Coming back for a three track encore, it did feel like the best has been saved for last as Circles started it off with full band unity, and a singalong session. Joking with the crowd ‘we don’t know why you all like this song so much but we’re glad you do – this one’s called Glasgow’ and after the venue lit up, it reminded us that we’ll always love the way The Snuts say Glasgow especially with their twirling guitar riffs soundtracking it! Final track Gloria gave a big Scottish goodbye to round off their first visit to Bournemouth, we’d say based on the smiles across faces and the cheer as they left the stage it would be classed as a job well done by them.
