Franz Ferdinand come to Shetland

Alex Kapranos and the boys finish their Highlands and Islands tour tonight in Shetland, at the 350-capacity community hall over at Weisdale. Actually, as I write they’re just going on stage, I think, for their second show of the night. I caught the, uh, matinee, put on specially for under 18s (and a suspiciously large number of ‘parents’) sneaking in with my daughter, son and their pals.
It was a bit short, actually, the set, maybe 40 minutes max including one encore. And while the crowd loved it, going soberly (no bar) bonkers, I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the murkiness of the sound and what seemed like a fatigued performance. Still, they were there, we were In The Room with Franz, and for one of the biggest bands in the UK to make the effort to come so far north is admirable. I imagine the late show, with added alcohol, will be a more abandoned affair.
Afterwards, the best haddock suppers in northern Europe were obtained. Garlic mayonnaise with chips, too…

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3 responses to “Franz Ferdinand come to Shetland”

  1. Jim C Avatar
    Jim C

    Attempted to get back to you yesterday pm but failed miserably due to non-understanding of how the blogger thing works (or doesn’t as the case may be).In a spoonerism-based link (Motelli’s/Frankies – you had to be there) the “Motelli’s” brought to mind the Glasgow-based (really good) band “The Motels” (with journalist Cliff Hanleys’ son on guitar?) whose repertoire, unleashed regularly at the Dial Inn, included a song with the unforgettable chorus “Boogie to the Reggae – Po-Go to the Reggae now”. A song of it’s time.Back to the plot… imagine my surprise to find that said Black Bic Biro were Vic Galloway’s No.1 Unsigned band on his show last night. Perhaps the first step toward the bigger thing?I don’t often get to listen to you in the afternoons (job incompatible with listening to radios) but I listen when I’m in travelling in the car etc. You have a damnably fine show there. A broad range of good tunes and the archipeligotic-ness (?) of the goings-on is, I’m sure, what brings in the web-based listeners from further afield.Seems like you have regular listeners from all over the world – which must be nice – and Dry-Stane-Dougie too.Keep up the good work and I’ll be keeping ma een on these Biro Boys.

  2. Tom Morton Avatar
    Tom Morton

    Could well be, Jim. I was told by one, somewhat biased, observer that they ‘blew FF offstage’. They have an EP which is pretty impressive in a Fratellis-meets-the-Monkeys way.

  3. Jim C Avatar
    Jim C

    Concensus seems to be that the night-time performance was also a bit flat. However, there’s a bit of a buzz about Black Bic Biro, FF’s support for the Shetland night-time gig. Seems they’re destined for bigger things. Any ruth in this trumour?

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