The Best of 2025 – Part 1: Gig of the Year and Single of the Year

I think I am going to find this a hard thing to do! So I think I’ll get the easier stuff out the way first. Thinking about all of the arts and culture there are things that I don’t partake in much, if at all. I don’t watch television, so it’s going to be hard for me to consider topics like ‘TV Series of the Year.’ The same goes for film. The only new release I watched in the whole of 2025 was 28 Years Later – which I did enjoy, but I could hardly award it as ‘Film of the Year’ winning solely for being the only new film I watched.

I also went to some comedy gigs during the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. The highlight of which was finally seeing Fern Brady whom I have wanted to see for a number of years now. As a result, Fern gets the Comedy Gig of the Year for me. Had Craig Ferguson’s show had gone ahead, that might have been a tougher battle.

Now, onto the hard stuff! Music. Broken up into categories of gigs, albums (coming tomorrow), and singles.

GIG HIGHLIGHTS

Firstly, let’s have a reminder of the gigs I’ve been to in 2025.

• Jan – Franz Ferdinand at Mono (14th), KT Tunstall and Loudon Wainwright III at Quay Sessions BBC Scotland (29th)
• Feb – Field Music at Oran Mor (2nd), Hamish Hawk – Aberdeen (9th), Hamish Hawk – Newcastle (12th), Hamish Hawk – Edinburgh (22nd)
• March – Juanita Stein at Nice n’ Sleazy (18th), Zoe Graham – TENT album launch at Assai (21st)
• April – The Anchoress at Deaf Institute – Manchester (23rd), Warm Digits at PopRecs (Future Collaborations) – Sunderland (26th)
• May – Ist Ist at The Caves – Edinburgh (1st), Stag and Dagger (3rd), The Anchoress at CCA (10th)
• June – Simple Minds (w/ Future Islands, KT Tunstall, Hamish Hawk and Yes & Maybe) at Bellahouston Park (27th)
• July – n/a
• August – Hamish Hawk (w/ Billy Nomates and Cloth) at Fringe by the Sea – North Berwick (8th), Megan Black at Room 2 (29th)
• September – Zoe Graham at Hug and Pint (19th), Goodnight Louisa – Marathon album launch at Assai (26th)
• October – Warm Digits at Star and Shadow (Liminal Sound) – Newcastle (11th)
• November – Cloth at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut (8th), Ist Ist at Oran Mor (29th)
• December – Hamish Hawk at Barrowland Ballroom (11th), Del Amitri at Barrowland Ballroom (23rd)

This is going to be a tough call because so many of these gigs were frigging AMAZING. Honestly, there was hardly a dud in them. Some were a little more amateur than others. There were bits of the Stag and Dagger that struggled. They had sound and other technical issues at the Renfield Centre which then meant it was a little hard to get to see some of the other bands I wanted to watch at the other venues on Sauchiehall Street. But it was still great for exposing me to quite a number of bands that I would like to see again. Also the Future Collaborations event in Sunderland in April – well, it is run by a group of volunteers and young adults with autism so it was a little bit disjointed here and there but you couldn’t knock the atmosphere. I did have a great time, and Warm Digits are ALWAYS worth a venture down to Tyne and Wear.

It feels so blooming crazy that seeing ‘two thirds of’ Franz Ferdinand was actually this year! It feels like so long ago! I had also clean forgotten about seeing Hamish THREE times in February, as all I could remember was Aberdeen and Edinburgh and had wiped away Newcastle from my memory. Rude! This also made me realise that I’d been to the North-East three times this year. I do love my trips there!

So, how do I choose? Well, obviously for his SIX appearances in my list of gigs (the Edinburgh Book Fest event aside and making seven), Hamish Hawk WILL figure. The only question is which gig? And, really, there are two BIG contenders – February’s gig at Usher Hall…a true ‘home town’ show for Hamish. But then there is the show at the Barras just a few weeks back. Also, the Fringe by the Sea gig was fantastic too. I think I have to consider everything else around it too. So, support acts: At Usher Hall there was Withered Hand and Redolent. I enjoy Redolent – love their music, but they are a little like how Future Islands feel to me and I enjoy their music more on record and as studio recordings than how they are live. Withered Hand were good but not really going to be something I’ll seek out. At FBTS, Hamish shared the stage with BILLY FRICKIN NOMATES – I had been wanting to see her for at least four years now, so that was a real bucket list tick seeing her. Cloth were there too, and I’ve been to see them as a headline act and supporting Hamish again since then. Then, the Barras. That venue. How are the crowd are with Hamish. How pumped he always is to play there. Cloth, yet again, along with Goodnight Louisa. And the weather was on our side and all that night too. It was meant to be peeing with rain all night but there was only a tiny bit around and it stayed clear as we queued. I think the Barras has to be the contender as far as all the HH gigs go.

Field Music were fantastic. Ist Ist won me over completely. I genuinely don’t know how I started to investigate them now. I think I just saw their name come up on upcoming gigs and thought I’d look into them. I’m glad I did, they are bloody unreal. The Anchoress at the CCA was incredible. Catherine makes it seem so effortless. Zoe Graham was amazing at the Hug and Pint, Warm Digits were out of this world in Newcastle, Cloth were stellar at King Tut’s, and then there was Del Amitri last week. OMG! How am I going to choose?!

I think because the choices are so hard, I might offer up a top five – in no particular order:

GIG OF THE YEAR – TOP 5

That has to be a first! A gig list that features a Simple Minds gig and they don’t feature in the shortlist of contenders for Gig of the Year. What can I say? They do what they do but they’re not reinventing the wheel. It’s almost become robotic in nature. I think I’ve seen more than my fair share of Simple Minds gigs over the past decade. There isn’t anything new I’m gaining from it and it’s just getting more and more expensive to see them. What would I rather? Simple Minds once, or Hamish Hawk, Ist Ist, or The Anchoress THREE times? Sorry, no contest! Apart from seeing them, my most expensive ticket was for Del Amitri, and that was nearly half the price of the SM ticket. And the Dels were SSOOOOO worth that ticket! I want to see great bands that I an support and my money genuinely makes a difference to them. That my attendance to their shows, the buying of their merch and their music means they can continue to carve a career for themselves. That is not the case with Simple Minds. They don’t need me support. I am not buying their overpriced merch. And as for their music? I’ll let Regurgitator tell you about that…

SINGLE OF THE YEAR

Now on to Single of the Year.

Speaking of new music. It appears that I am definitely NOT averse to exposing myself to new music. I will cover the Album of the Year in the second part of my Best of 2025, but for now, let’s have a look at the contenders for the best single of 2025 (for me anyway).

I had seen somewhere, I think, that a certain Mr Sloan had chosen the Quad90 single as his Single of the Year – and it is catchy little so and so. I bought a copy of the album from Last Night From Glasgow purely on the strength of it.

All the others in the list made such great plays for the crown but for me, the song that gets it is….

Happen by Zoe Graham, with Ist Ist’s I Am The Fear coming up around the outside in second place.

Tomorrow we’ll look at Album of the Year and my favourite podcasts of 2025.

Tara!

To end with, here’s some Ist Ist from May in Edinburgh…