The Scotsman Sessions #23: Justin Currie

Welcome to The Scotsman Sessions. With the performing arts world shutting down for the foreseeable future, we are commissioning a series of short video performances from artists all around the country and releasing them on scotsman.com, with introductions from our critics. Here, Justin Currie gives a solo rendition of Del Amitri gem Tell Her This, direct from his living room in Glasgow

What has Justin Currie been up to in self-isolation? We’re not sure but, heading through the keyhole of his Glasgow abode courtesy of his brilliantly off-the-cuff Scotsman Sessions contribution, it seems to involve a bottle of ketchup, Tabasco sauce and a bag of satsumas.

“It’s so hard to get your head around the current situation and you don’t know where it is going next,” he says. “I’m very confused at the moment. I’m trying to think everything through and do the right thing at the right time. Half the time I’m just frozen in panic like everybody else.”

But he and his Del Amitri bandmates have taken decisive positive action in announcing a free gig for frontline NHS Scotland workers. This first show in over two years will take place on 9 December at the iconic Barrowland Ballroom, a favourite Del Amitri haunt described by Currie as “a sort of heaven for us - and what better way to get out of this hell?”

This Christmas gift will be followed early next year by a full tour and a new Del Amitri album. In times of uncertainty, Currie can at least say that the recording of the long-awaited follow-up to 2002’s Can You Do Me Good? is in the bag – and just in the nick of time, as the band rounded off recording in a residential studio in Worcestershire the night before the UK went into lockdown.

“We were actually isolated from everyone else,” says Currie, “but every time we went to the supermarket, you could see things had changed. It was very odd.”

While we wait for normal service to resume, fans can take pleasure in Currie’s solo rendition of Del Amitri gem Tell Her This direct from his living room, with a bonus cool cat cameo.

Del Amitri play a free gig for frontline NHS Scotland workers at Glasgow Barrowland on 9 December, http://www.delamitri.info/