Saturday review

Glasgow and festivals have always had an up and down relationship. The first Gig on the Green in 2000 was declared a roaring success, followed by a roaring riot a year later when (surprise, surprise) Eminem and Marilyn Manson fans failed to see eye to eye. Then there was the ill-fated attempt to bring the Download Festival to the city in 2004 - while the line up had more than enough potential to fill the massive space of Glasgow Green, organisers shot themselves in the foot by taking the bizarre decision to stage the festival on a Tuesday and Wednesday (needless to say that more than 40% of the tickets were left untouched).

And so, at 2pm on Saturday 2nd September, we arrive at Glasgow’s latest festival venture, Indian Summer. Set in the leafy west end surroundings of Victoria Park, the line up - compared to the now unstoppable, world conquering T In The Park - could be seen as a little obscure, and therefore a potential financial disaster for organisers: time would tell.

Local Rough Trade signings The 1990s get things going at 2.30pm to a modest crowd of under 100 (including Franz Ferdinands’s Bob Hardy front row centre), which swells to about 250 by the time they finish. Opening number and debut single “You made me like it” is the highlight and surely makes the band deserving of a higher position on the bill. Then we have Guillemots who sounded... nice, and things are beginning to get more twee than Belle and Sebastian at the teddy bears picnic.

That is until Mark E Smith and The Fall take to the stage that evening, and you get the impression that the indie-schmindie art school elite, of which there are many, really don’t know what to expect. They’re not alone, as Mark E Smith is notorious for changing the whole band every time he makes an album (his back catalogue boasts over 20 studio LPs alone) and famous for on stage bust ups that make The Libertines look like The Monkees. All this uncertainty is quickly forgotten however, when the Fall take to the stage, complete with 2 bass players, which makes for a sound that must have had every window in the surrounding residential area begging for mercy.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs bring things to a close on Saturday night. And while the undoubted stage presence of Karen O will always see them delight crowds, it’s their earlier, more rawkus material which brings the biggest cheers.

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