by Edwyn Collins took his final bow in Glasgow on his farewell tour, alongside former Orange Juice bandmates James Kirk and Steven Daly.
Collins is currently undertaking ‘The Testimonial Tour: A Last Lap Around The UK’. He is joined by The Hanging Stars and will next go on to hit Buxton, Bath, Southampton, Brighton, London, Norwich, Manchester, Newcastle, and Edinburgh, his hometown, where he will finish the farewell tour on October 9th.
Playing in Glasgow to a sold-out crowd of some 1,500 people on September 27th, Collins opened the show with two Orange Juice songs, ‘Falling and Laughing’ and ‘Dying Day’. Later, he returned on stage for the encore to sing ‘Low Expectations’ and ‘Home Again’.
At the end of the encore, after smashing through the two solo hits, Collins announced that he had a “surprise” for fans. James Kirk and Steven Daly, guitar and drums of the original Orange Juice, then joined their old bandmate on stage, to thunderous applause.
Other than a get-together at a private event for Nordoff Robbins music therapy charity in the early days of Edwyn’s recovery from suffering a stroke in 2008, the band have not played together publicly since 1981. Their original bassist, David McClymont, was missing only because he now resides in Australia.
In 1985, for various reasons such as Polydor Records’ growing dissatisfaction and general chart failure, the band reached its natural conclusion. However, the friends appeared happy to share the stage for one last time in celebration of their enduring frontman.
Far Out attended the Collins’ show at the Brudenell Social Club and gave it a glowing review, observing, “Orange Juice might have had their day over 40 years ago, but Edwyn Collins still stands tall among the most important, influential, and tirelessly independent figures out there. Not only did his Friday night performance at Brudenell cement all of that, but it also presented an artist for whom musical expression is – and always has been – the answer to everything. They don’t make them like that anymore.”
