Music review: Frances McKee, The Hug and Pint, Glasgow
Frances McKee, The Hug and Pint, Glasgow ***
Vaselines frontwoman Frances McKee is more than prepared to give an audience what she doesn’t want and what (she thinks) they don’t want – namely, a Vaselines song she claims to hate and a quirky cover she has performed to some bemusement for years.
Mostly, however, her current solo tour has been an opportunity to play a batch of fragile, haunting indie folk songs on some unfiltered topics – having sex dreams about someone you shouldn’t, hearing ghosts – written during her first pregnancy 22 years ago.
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Her son was in the audience listening with forbearance while his younger sister, the unflappable Pippin, was on stage, accompanying her mum on piano and complementing McKee’s delicate Jane Birkin-like breathiness with grounding alto harmonies, which lent the songs a quality of ancient conversation.
The One Made For Me could have been unearthed from some sealed folk vault but in McKee’s hands it was a straight-talking get-the-message kiss-off, followed by one chord wonder Are You Scared To Be Alone and a more belligerent protest song with melodica accompaniment from Pippin, who later stepped up to perform a few of her own songs, cast in a similar style and performed with a modest assurance, plus a simpatico cover of Wicked Game. “She’s the talent now,” quipped McKee, noting the more vocal response from the audience.
McKee’s choice of cover was the odd earworm Uncle Feedle, a spindly ode from classic kids’ TV show Bagpuss, though her rendition collapsed after a few attempts when she forgot the words. She was on safer ground all round with a couple of Vaselines’ songs – Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam, famously covered by Nirvana on their MTV Unplugged album, and Molly's Lips, performed with its all-important cheeky bicycle horn honk.