The View’s high-energy set delights Perth crowd
Aberfeldy Gallery officially re-opens on Saturday, as the original owner’s grandaughter prepares to begin her new venture ... writes Rachel Clark.
Anna Seward, a primary teacher at Breadalbane Academy, bought the Highland Perthshire gallery on Kenmore Street after its previous owners retired earlier this year.
Now, she and her husband Adam are getting ready to welcome their first visitors this weekend.
Anna said: “The gallery was established 34 years ago by my grandparents and they and their friends ran it for 15 years, but they sold it on to another couple who have been running it for the past 19 years.”
Anna says this has always being involved with creativity has always been an interest, as she studied art history at university before becoming a teacher and Adam is a professional photographer.
“It is something we have both dreamed of doing,” she admitted
“We thought we would do something like this later on in our lives, but when the gallery came on the market, we thought, ‘lets go for it!’. We have always been passionate about art and thought we would seize the day.” It’s fair to say The View were always likely to bring an edge to this year’s Perth Festival of the Arts ... writes Andrew Welsh.
Booking a band known as much for their laddish antics as their five albums of spiky folk-punk for an event whose other main draws include Nigel Kennedy, Jools Holland and Nicola Benedetti might have been a surprise to some, but it turned out to be a masterstroke.
Making the short jaunt from their home turf in Dundee, the five-piece delighted a boisterous audience at Perth Concert Hall with a supercharged set.
This gig brought the curtain down on the band’s recent tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut album Hats Off To The Buskers, and anyone who’d not listened to their copy for a while would surely have been digging it out again after the show.
Walking on to Rock ‘n’ Roll Star by their heroes Oasis, the group launched into an impressively muscular Comin’ Down, Buskers’ opening track.
With the entire album being played in sequence, the fans enjoyed a sweaty early evening workout as they joyously received the anthems Superstar Tradesmen and Same Jeans, shedding superfluous garments in the process.
“Keep your claes, we dinna want yer claes,” frontman Kyle Falconer quipped in his distinctive Dundee ‘Oary’ brogue while holding a random trainer aloft, before the classic Wasted Little DJs pushed the mercury further upwards.
Still sounding fresh a decade on, songs like Face For The Radio and Claudia helped the teenage View to become darlings of the UK’s music press back in the day.
Now 29, new dad Falconer’s vocals remain boyishly sweet, while bassist Kieren Webster qualifies as both a bundle of raw energy and a fine standin frontman on songs like Skag Trendy and Grans For Tea.
No less crucial to the formula are lead guitarist Pete Reilly and drummer Steve Morrison. Here, both revelled in this nostalgic return to their breakthrough album, with Darren Rennie’s keys helping give their Libertines-influenced early songs an added dimension.
After the briefest of breaks, the band returned to play a selection of highlights from their post-Buskers career.
Double Yellow Lines and 5 Rebbeccas from second album Which Bitch? sat comfortably beside later
The Aberfeldy Gallery is under new ownership View touchstones such as Happy, Tragic Magic.
As high spirits got the better of some in front of the stage Falconer teased his largely youthful audience by declaring, “We’re all grown-ups now, ken whit eh mean?”
His pep talk only served to spark further lobbing of pints in the standing zone as the set accelerated towards its conclusion, with high-octane bangers like How Long paving the way for the perfect Saturday night kiss-off, the feel-good gem Sunday.
That appeared to be a fitting closer as the house lights came up and the event’s 11pm curfew beckoned, with four-fifths of the band taking their bows and leaving.
Undeterred, last man standing Falconer nestled in at the keyboard and proceeded to serenade the already departing masses with a poignant Tacky Tattoo.
In doing so, he sprinkled some quaint calm on an evening of oldschool rock ‘n’ roll thrills.