Music review: Space, St Luke's, Glasgow

Outsiders in the Britpop universe even back in their mid-to-late 1990s chart-scaling days, quirky Liverpudlian pop-rock band Space exist today somewhere on the far outer rim of the music industry solar system. If you weren't even aware until now that they had reformed within the last few years, much less self-released two albums, don't feel like you were alone '“ nor that you necessarily missed a great deal.

Space, St Luke’s, Glasgow ***

Musicians of clearly a glass-half-full rather than half-empty disposition – and half-full would have been a more than generous way of describing the venue – they rattled off a mixture of greatest hits and new material with a joy and energy that suggested they’re simply happy to still be playing for anyone these days.

Plainly well-oiled frontman Tommy Scott slurped gamely from a bottle of red wine between songs while engaging in a mixture of arcane and in many cases unprintable banter with the audience.

Frequently he hopped down off the stage mid-song for

a dance and a hug and a selfie or two with members of a crowd who, while few in number, were very much in the spirit of things.

To be reminded first-hand of the continued existence of one of the most annoying top ten singles of the late last century in The Ballad of Tom Jones was the sort of Proustian rush this reviewer could have very much done without. More pleasingly, their other best-known numbers Female of the Species, Me and You Versus the World and Neighbourhood’s various oddball dalliances with electronica, punk, lounge music and easy listening proved that, then as now and to their credit, Space were never a group to run with the pack. - MALCOLM JACK