Gig review: The JD set, Glasgow

Published on Friday 22 April 2011 21:37

THE JD SE ABC, GLASGOW **

LAST year this annual bourbon-bankrolled shindig saw a matey bunch of artists from the Moshi Moshi label have a good laugh tackling the tunes of Madonna. This year it fell to Sharleen Spiteri and her Texas bandmates – backed by an oddly disparate clutch of guests apparently booked on the basis of whoever wasn't washing their hair that night – to make the best of hosting an at times shambolic run through of selections from David Bowie's untouchable œuvre.

Kate Nash got right into the spirit of things by dressing-up in a glammy white jumpsuit and gamely knocking-out Oh! You Pretty Things and Under Pressure. Echo and the Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch, contrastingly, had got right into the spirits, and held up proceedings with outbreaks of soused ranting and mumbling, souring slightly – car-crash entertainment value aside – what little atmosphere there was in the room.

Ex-Beta Band man Steve Mason had earlier valiantly rattled through Rebel Rebel and Queen Bitch despite being sketchy on the lyrics, before the two young bands on the bill, Kid Adrift and Ramona, held their own with nervous stabs at Ashes to Ashes and The Man Who Sold the World respectively.

Spiteri and band couldn't be faulted for effort and framed proceedings slickly with Ziggy Stardust and The Jean Genie, though the audiences' weariness with the night's stilted format was palpable. It took a couple of Texas numbers to liven things up at the end, fuelling suspicion that everyone might have preferred watching the artists do their own thing instead of paying difficult tribute to the Thin White Duke.