First up, we had Edinburgh locals Bwani Junction. Almost every review I've read of them makes some mention of their African-tinged style and while I certainly heard it, I think it's been pushed a bit too much. What I did hear was bloody good, fun indie rock and of the three bands playing, these guys win with me on the stage presence/audience interaction front. They also, to me at least, seemed to be the only band truly happy to be there. While I suspect the majority of the audience had never heard of them, they made the effort to get folks singing, leading the crowd in the chorus of one of their tracks, the name of which is rather annoyingly escaping me now.
Then there were some fireworks, but it pissed down, so no photos.
After that we had The View. Another Scottish band. While the music was pretty good, they barely interacted with their audience. That said, there was a delightful mass sing-along when they played their 2007 hit Same Jeans. To be fair, I think it's probably the only song by them that most of the audience knew.
I think we can probably blame the odd blur in that second photo on me being short and there being people in front of me.
Then there were more fireworks. See pretties:
Finally, we had Simple Minds. More Scots. An all Scottish line-up, in fact. While the set was fun, I felt the setlist was a bit samey. The sing-along of the "la la la" bit of Don't You Forget About Me also seemed to go on for a little longer than really necessary, to the point where I wanted to take Jim Kerr's microphone cable and throttle him with it. That said, I was cold and achy by this point, it being nearly Midnight on New Year's Eve, so maybe that explains my lack of patience. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Of course, then it was Midnight and there was an enormous fireworks display and the obligatory singing of Auld Lang Syne. All in all, a great night. Brilliant stuff. Have some more photos.
Happy New Year, folks.
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