TRNSMT Friday review: 'Cometh the day, cometh the rain'
Not even Nile Rodgers & Chic could bring the sun on a rainy Friday at Glasgow Green, writes Fiona Shepherd
TRNSMT Friday, Glasgow Green ★★★
There may have been a greater quotient of saltires and Scotland football tops among attendees, but the first day of TRNSMT was noticeably less well subscribed than usual, as even this perennially sure thing succumbed to the challenging climate for festivals. Speaking of which….
Cometh the day, cometh the rain. As fans hunkered down for a marathon session including a post-festival screening of the Scotland v Morocco match, the mid-afternoon mizzle failed to stop play. Nile Rodgers & Chic, one of the all-time great music ensembles, couldn’t quite bring the sun (too many formative hours spent in dark New York clubs) but they did at least dry the rain.
Glasgow busker-turned-Main Stage attraction Dylan John Thomas stoked pre-match spirits with his more rambunctious moments. He is not a talkative chap at the best of times and appeared to be wrangling sound issues throughout but a couple of sprightly numbers with mariachi trumpet compensated for the longueurs in his set.
Becky Hill’s appearance on the King Tut’s Stage was kept under wraps until the last minute. The “Wetherspoons Whitney” known for her rave bangers debuted a new rockier direction with the backing of full black-clad tattoed band but couldn’t resist the lure of the dancefloor on new single More! More! More! and the drum’n’bass anthem Disconnect.
Wolf Alice have emerged as one of the more dynamic and adventurous indie bands around, with songs which range from seductive croon to megaphone scream. In front of a shimmering silver curtain, frontwoman Ellie Rowsell marshalled the grit and glamour, dedicating one song “to all your hangovers tomorrow”.
The Beta Band were more Sunday morning coming down than Friday night “no Scotland, no party”. Their subtle psychedelia and stoned incantations made them a complementary tag team with hippie-in-a-bucket-hat headliner Richard Ashcroft who at least had the Main Stage firepower to push his mantras to widescreen crescendos. However, he and his band jammed out Music is Power for so long that any power dissipated and in the end it was a solo acoustic rendition of The Drugs Don't Work which did the business.
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