Edwyn Collins, Glasgow review: 'what a way to bow out'
If this really was the last hurrah for Edwyn Collins, it was a fitting finale to an extraordinary career, writes Fiona Shepherd
Edwyn Collins, Theatre Royal, Glasgow ★★★★
Edwyn Collins’s Testimonial tour is purported to be his “last lap around the UK”. He could hardly have gone out in more celebratory style, backed by a trusty band, surrounded by friends and digging merrily into his own back catalogue, including a joyful cluster of Orange Juice songs.
He began at the beginning with their debut single, Falling and Laughing, ringing out in this grand theatre only a few hundred metres from his humble Postcard Records base of the late Seventies. Dying Day sounded similarly box fresh and 45 years young.
From his extensive and glorious solo career, he chose to major heavily on Gorgeous George, his mid-Nineties flourish, featuring the charming Make Me Feel Again, fitted with fun fakeout ending, and the droll Campaign for Real Rock with tasty acid guitar break from Patrick Ralla. Saxophonist Sean Read got his moment in the spotlight with the piercing solo on Orange Juice’s debut hit Rip It Up, and successive OJ cuts were greeted by waves of approbation from the audience, from the dreamy doo-wop of In a Nutshell to the lean playful funk of What Presence?!
He closed the main set, on his feet, with two buoyant solo highlights, Don’t Shilly Shally and his most palpable hit, A Girl Like You, and opened the encore with two mellow gems, Low Expectations, embellished with his own harmonica skills, and Home Again, described in inimitable Collins’ style as “sad, tragic, mournful, wistful and all that sh*t”.
But there was still a truly special surprise waiting in the wings, as he reunited with Orange Juice bandmates James Kirk and Steven Daly (just flown in from New York) to perform the glorious Felicity (“the best song ever” cried a delighted voice in the crowd) and the barrelling Blue Boy. If this really was the last hurrah, what a way to bow out.
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