Summer Nights At The Bandstand: ABC - Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow 11.08.2026
For the first time ever, I made it to a gig at Kelvingrove Bandstand, given the number of years I lived in Glasgow this is an embarrassing admission but it’s an oversight I’ve now, finally rectified.
And what an act to debut with, ABC were one of those bands in the 80’s that made people dance, sing and smile. That’s a rare ability and one they still hold. The highly enthusiastic, if perhaps slightly older, crowd were clearly up for an evening in their company.
The venue itself is fantastic, well organised, a natural amphitheatre and, on a lovely summers night like this was the perfect spot to enjoy great music.
The band clearly realised their role in the evening was to provide a soundtrack to a summers night and, given their back catalogue, it was easy for them to do. Martin’s voice has held up well; he is still a very sharp dresser and told a brilliant story about getting chased around the streets of Sheffield for his dress sense while seeing Phil Oakley experiencing the same thing (I think there may have been a slight bit of artistic licence in the telling).
Pulling out the total banger that is 'When Smokey Sings' as your second song was always going to have the crowd eating out their hands after that. The Motown infused song was brilliant to sing and dance along to and got the whole crowd going. It’s one of those songs that just takes you back to a place in time and makes you happy.
We were then treated to selection of quality songs which kept the crowd going, the banter from Martin stayed consistently high throughout and anticipation built for the conclusion.
The sun slowly sank over Glasgow as we built up to the final four songs, and what a four songs. There was no encore, just a whammy of some of the best singles from the 80’s. 'Poison Arrow', 'All Of My Heart', 'Tears Are Not Enough' and finishing on an extended version of the excellent 'The Look Of Love'. The band had the crowd singing, dancing, hugging (I’m still not sure who it was that hugged me from behind but cest la vie) and left us all walking out of the amphitheatre with massive smiles on our faces and a renewed love of live music in our hearts.
This was truly a life affirming show, 'All Of My Heart' was my personal highlight of the night, but it was pushed a close second by 'When Smokey Sings'.
I won’t be leaving it so long to have a second visit to Kelvingrove Bandstand. This was also, shockingly, my first time seeing ABC, but it absolutely won’t be my last. My friend Stuart and I sang and danced our hearts out, we knew other people there as well and saw them doing the same thing, the walk back into the City Centre seemed to take no time at all. Maybe I was hearing violins…..
Review - Iain McClay
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