Some of the world's best bands play Scotland in June: Here's our pick

The Herald Scotland

01-06-2025

But can we point you in the direction of this Glasgow gig by our favourite Fifer Jacob Alon? The singer-songwriter has often been called Scotland's next big thing (we said it ourselves in The Herald Magazine back in January), a debut album, the sublime In Limerence, out May 30, is the next step on the journey.
Alon's delicate vocals and searingly honest lyrics have drawn comparisons to Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley. Heady company, but Alon doesn't sound out of place. This will probably be one of the quieter gigs this month, but it will possibly resonate the longest.
Iggy Pop
02 Academy, Glasgow, June 3
Iggy Pop (Image: PA)
Maybe the drugs do work. Or maybe he's indestructible. So many of his contemporaries are no longer with us, but Jim Osterberg's still around, still singing Lust for Life and The Passenger and showing off his aged torso as he reaches the fag end of his seventies. It really is quite something. Still a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm, in other words.
Spectacular Shostakovich: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Usher Hall, June 6; Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, June 7
Marking the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich's death, the RSNO performs his epic 11th Symphony, inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1905. Thomas Sondergard conducts and cellist Daniel Muller-Schott is the soloist.
Pulp
OVO Hydro, Glasgow, June 7
Getting the jump on Oasis, Britpop's finest (well, it's them or Suede) mark their first album - entitled More - in 24 years with another round of live gigs. Last seen in these parts ushering in 2024 at Edinburgh's Hogmanay, the band have had a new lease of life whilst mourning the loss of bass player Steve Mackey. Will the new album live up to its predecessors? That remains to be seen (the precursor single, Spike Island, is OK but maybe not much more). Still, any excuse to sing along to Do You Remember the First Time and Babies is always to be welcomed.
Abbie Gordon
The Poetry Club, Glasgow, June 19
New blood. Abbie Gordon is a teenage singer-songwriter from Irvine who was named Young Live Artist of the Year in December after headlining King Tut's. The future starts here. And while you're at it, maybe check out Theo Bleak (Canvas, Dundee, June 20), another fresh singer-songwriter with an ear for a tune.
Diana Ross
OVO Hydro, Glasgow, June 25
Diana Ross (Image: Newsquest)
Yes, that Diana Ross. Now in the foothills of her ninth decade on the planet, Ross has a back catalogue that stretches back to her Motown pomp in The Supremes, and takes in her imperious disco era working with Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, her Bee Gees-fuelled Chain Reaction chart ascendancy and even collaborating with the name producer of the moment, Jack Antonoff, on 2021 album Thank You. Not sure she'll have any time for deep cuts. The question is, which of her 100 plus singles will she leave out?
Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Mono, Glasgow, June 25
The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band (Image: free) In the mood for some country blues? This might be the gig for you. Big voice, big beard and guitar picking. The good Reverend, who hails from Indiana, leads a trio including his wife Washboard Breezy (on washboard, you might not be surprised to hear) and Jacob Powell on percussion. Can't deny, they make a noise.
Lana Del Rey
Hampden Park, Glasgow, June 26
Lana Del Rey (Image: free) Gone are the days Lana used to hang out in Glasgow's south side, but she is back in the city for this arena gig towards the end of the month. Del Rey's shtick - established as early as her first single Video Games - is the society girl with an eye for bad boys, as played out in a Mogadon haze. On paper that doesn't sound like a recipe for filling arenas but it's turned out to be surprisingly moreish. Del Rey is currently the 25th most streamed artist in the world. Hopefully she will turn up on time this evening and not risk getting the power turned off as happened to her at Glastonbury in 2023.
Simple Minds
Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, June 27
Part of this year's Summer Sessions programme (preceded by the Sex Pistols and Sting on June 21 and June 25 respectively), Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill return for a hometown gig. We can argue over their back catalogue (my cut-off point is 1982; given the commercial success of what was to follow clearly few agree), but the truth is they remain a formidable live act. As frontman, Kerr both looks his age and acts like he's still in his twenties. It's quite the combination.
Macy Gray
Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, June 27
Macy Gray (Image: Newsquest)
Want to feel old? It's now been 26 years - yes, 26 - since Macy Gray's breakthrough single, I Try, which introduced us to the gorgeous rasp of her voice. It remains her best known song, but she has never stopped making records. Quick question. Is her cover of Radiohead's Creep better than Billie Eilish's? Discuss.
Kid Creole and the Coconuts
Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, June 28; Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, June 29
To be honest, there is a corner of my head where it's always 1982. The year I left home, the year I started fending for myself, the year I fell in love. Kid Creole and the Coconuts were part of that year's soundtrack, a heady mix of disco, Latin rhythms and New Pop, amped up by August Darnell's larger-than-life ego and Zoot suits, and gilded by the Coconuts themselves, all backcombed blonde attitude and harmonies. It was pop panto back then, probably more so now, but, admit it, you're humming 'Ona-Ona-Onamatopea' even as you read this. (Who cares if that's not the real lyric? It's a better one.)
Lucy Dacus
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, June 30; Barrowland Ballroom, July 1
Fresh from her time as a member of Boygenius and being namechecked by Taylor Swift in her song The Tortured Poets Department, the American singer-songwriter is touring in support of her latest album Forever is a Feeling. It contains a track called Limerence, by the way, which takes us back to Jacob Alon and where we came in.