On a bitterly cold December evening, a large crowd filled the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for a performance from New Zealand born Hayley Westenra. Before Hayley though, there was the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCoS) Renfrewshire who performed two songs before making way for the main act of the evening.
At first the band and the Raven String Quartet appeared on stage before the drummer began playing on the snare. This was to lead into the opening number of The Little Drummer Boy. This was followed by the beautiful yet haunting song Veni, Veni Emmanuel. After this, she welcomes the audience to show and jokes about how they were worried about getting into Glasgow because of the snow, but the biggest problem was getting out of London. After asking the audience about Christmas shopping, she confesses that most of hers is done through duty free.
Introductions out the way, the music continued with the well known song, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire). She introduces the next song explaining that it originally started out as a poem, but throughout the years has been put to different music and that this arrangement is based on a traditional Irish tune. The song is Love Came Down At Christmas. After this, she introduces her special guest, Thomas Oliver (usually seen in the Welsh male choir Only Men Aloud). He performed two songs; a almost swing version of Winter Wonderland and the Austrian song Still, Still, Still.
Hayley returns to perform a song that she's kept a hold of since performing with the Boston Pops a few years ago, the song being The Little Road To Bethlehem. Before she has a chance, the NYCoS Renfrewshire choir return to the stage to accompany Hayley on the last two songs of this half: The Coventry Carol and When A Child Is Born.
After an interval, it's straight back into the music with Carol Of The Bells and the Corpus Christi Carol. Silent Nightis next, but only after Hayley explains the history behind the song. After this, she introduces the musicians that join her on stage before adding a few mentions to people, particularly her guiarist Andy's mum, who's birthday it was (cue, Andy to give a sort burst of Happy Birthday on the guitar).
Getting the show back on track (because she's knows people are watching the time very carefully!), she introduces a track from the album, Winter Magic that she wrote called Peace Shall Come. At the end of this, she leaves the talented Raven String Quartet to play a little medley of songs including We Wish You A Merry Christmas and The Sailor's Hornpipe. During The Sailor's Hornpipe, the audience began to clap along, almost taking the quartet by surprise. Whilst the song itself does get faster and faster as it goes on, it almost felt as if the girls were deliberately getting faster, trying to lose the audience in the clapping. Fortunately, the audience kept up and in time right to the end.
The wonderful Thomas Oliver appears back on stage followed by Hayley for a duet on the the song I'll Be Home For Christmas. Next we're treated to a traditional Maori carol called Te Harinui as well as the traditional Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. After a brief thanks, she explains the song and also that this will be her first Christmas away from home. At first she'd warmed to the idea but realised what she'd be missing, explaining that it is Summer in New Zealand after all. On a positive, she might get to experience a White Christmas. It is now she realises that she doesn't have her sleigh bells and explains they're essential to the next song. It leads on to her asking if anyone has any spare. Cue someone from the NYCoS choir to rattle a set and her asking them how they knew they'd be needing them. Fortunately, Michael the drummer/percussionist produces some and so it's onto Sleigh Ride.
All With You is next and is another track that Hayley wrote for her last album. Finally, she sings, what she believes is either the most popular or most well known, she can't remember, Christmas song. That is O Holy Night. With it being the last song, she leaves the stage. But no house lights come up. Is she coming back on?
Of course she is and once again, is joined with Thomas Oliver on stage. She invites the audience to join her in a spot of carolling with the song The First Nowell (which, for those who had purchased the programme, had probably realised something like this would happen). As the band start up, the audience is still seated, causing Hayley to stop and get the audience standing. After all, she's standing and it's good singing posture. So everyone is the standing singing three verses of the carol, meaning everyone present could claim that they'd sang with Hayley Westenra (a tweet from Hayley later on would reveal she thought Glasgow rocked the carolling). This brought the evening to a close.
Overall, despite being cold outside, it was a fantastic atmosphere in the main auditorium. Hayley was engaging with the audience, if appearing shy and a little embarrassed when people clapped at the end of her songs. She is one of the few artists around who sounds the exact same live as she does in studio recordings so you don't sort of feel cheated. You get what you pay for and it was certainly worth every penny of the ticket price.
Buy Hayley Westenra releases @ Amazon.co.uk
Download Hayley Westenra releases @ Amazon.co.uk
Buy Hayley Westenra releases @ iTunes
As 2010's end comes rushing in, one fan was quick to point out that, if there was no release this year, then it would be the first year that Jade Valerie hadn't released anything since 2000. 
CD1 
It's been a while since KT's last proper tour (she did do a small solo tour earlier this year performing tracks from the latest album, Tiger Suit) but tonight she arrives in at the infamous Barrowland Ballroom as part of her current UK tour.
As they’re starting the next song, KT announces that this song is back by popular demand and she does read what we write sometimes. The track turns out to be Heal Over. As the song progresses, the rest of the band returns and she tells us that a question gets asked frequently is what sort of music inspires her and her answer is the 80’s. She wants to sing The Voice, but doesn’t have a bagpipe player, so she opts for the Erasure track A Little Respect. The night ends on a high with the fantastic Suddenly I See. Once the stage is empty, the crowd once again try chanting but the house lights come up and everyone realises that it the end of the night.
Overall, it was a great night. The Barrowlands is a great little venue and has seen some great acts over the years. The support act didn’t live up to the main act and felt as if they just been picked 5 minutes before they went on stage. Of the main event, KT was fantastic and, compared to the last big gig (held in the SECC) this seemed much more impressive. The tracks sound perfect live, if not, slightly different but that’s what seeing an artist live is all about: experiencing the music how it should be: live. 
The Scottish weather couldn’t dampen the spirits of those that turned out to see Amy Macdonald at the O2 Academy in Glasgow as she tours the country on the aptly named Love Love Tour (which is also the name of her current single). 
Giving the band a chance to prep, Amy tells us about how she is constantly asked about what it’s like being a WAG, to which, she responds that she doesn’t see herself as one. This leads us onto Footballer’s Wife. After this she tells us about a performance that they made where the person responsible for booking them obviously hadn’t heard the song that they would be performing and how it seemed a little controversial seeing as the event was a beauty pageant and the song was This Pretty Face. From this we go into Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over which gets the crowd going from the very first note.
Announcing that she’s going to slow it down a little, we’re treated to the beautiful Troubled Soul and Give It All Up. Once again the crowd get going with Next Big Thing. Now we’re given a tale about how she gets to travel and do different things from singing the national anthem at Hampden before the Scotland/Spain game to performing in Luxembourg with an orchestra at the weekend. This of course leads to the song from which the current album’s title is taken from, No Roots. The next song is Run which, as Amy recalls seeing The Killers in this very venue and being inspired to write the song. Again this is another singalong for the crowd. From this, they go into Spark.
Now she tells about how Glasgow always gets a bad reputation for it’s binge drinking but how, if it hadn’t been for it, that the next track would never have been born. This track is the title track to the debut album, This Is The Life. She finishes with the track What Happiness Means To Me. Again the crowd sing their hearts out and at some points one would swear that Amy was about to start crying. At the end of this, she shouts goodnight and herself and the band leave the stage. It doesn’t take long before the chants of ‘Amy! Amy!” begin. Soon, she returns to the stage and performs her version of Bruce Spingsteen classic Born To Run. This once more has the crowd singing along with her at the top of their voices. The final song of the night is Let’s Start A Band which brings the night to close on a high.
Overall, the night was a complete success. The songs sounded different and this is more than likely down to the inclusion of the additional band member Owen. The live versions of the songs never sound the same and some are given a little change from the album or usual version. Her chat or ‘banter’ as would be said in Scotland, broke the night up so that it wasn’t just constant music. The little anecdotes give the fan an insight into what inspires Amy to write her songs. With a good mixture from both her albums, the set list ensured that there was something for everyone. The crowd appeared to be really enthusiastic joining in with the songs and generally having a great time. Hopefully the rest of the tour will go just as smoothly as this night did.
