Callum Beattie, Edinburgh Castle review: 'a deeply personal occasion'
This summer’s Castle Concert series opened with a resounding local success story, writes David Pollock
Callum Beattie, Edinburgh Castle ★★★★
There was an air of triumph to Callum Beattie’s full-band headline set at Edinburgh’s most famous venue, but also a sense of humility, that he’s been on a rags-to-riches journey and this was his chance to thank everyone who’s helped him on the way.
These included this concert’s promoters Regular Music and his own manager, who he invited out to say a few impassioned words before an encore of the plaintive We Are Stars, a very occasion-friendly take on Dougie MacLean’s Caledonia merged with Wild Mountain Thyme, and the bittersweet closer Always Rains in Glasgow.
Musselburgh’s own Beattie knows how to put on a show; a high-gloss, arena-worthy set filled with anthemic choruses and honest, hard-time lyricism, like an East Lothian Sam Fender. Daddy’s Eyes and Easter Road (the latter borrowing a line of the Proclaimers’ Sunshine on Leith) had a raw, confessional element, but the lines of Hot Stuff added to Man Behind the Sun or We Built This City in 25 Seconds felt as cathartically joyful as the songs they accompanied.
The sense this was clearly a deeply personal occasion for Beattie couldn’t help but sweep the audience even further up in the emotion he was expressing. At one point he spoke of how music helped him deal with his traumas. “I love you and I'm going to do my best for you tonight,” he told everyone, tears welling in his eyes. Elsewhere he called out to his mum, in attendance, and reminded her of writing the tender, harrowing Salamander Street in her cupboard. To his dad, he revealed he’s been recording with “David Bowie's official band”, a charity version of Heroes which was revealed here in a boyish baritone.
The main set closed with Heart Stops Beating, a song delivered with the power and energy of a young Rod Stewart under the encroaching haar. For this summer’s Castle Concert series, his was a resounding local success story to open with.
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