Belle and Sebastian’s Glasgow Hydro gig

Belle & Sebastian played their biggest ever hometown show at the Hydro on Friday night. They were joined by the Scottish Festival Orchestra and a troupe of girl dancers for an ambitious pop extravaganza with balloons and t-shirt guns a-go-go.

Favourite Glasgow haunts

Frontman Stuart Murdoch also retained the local touch with shout-outs to his favourite Glasgow hangouts, the old Grosvenor Cafe and the 44 bus (RIP both), and the band joked about their indie gig clash with Ride, who played at Barrowland on the same night, by serving up a burst of Ticket to Ride.

You can read The Scotsman’s review of the show here.

The reviewer reckoned that ‘The challenge here was how to fill an arena without compromising the clarity and delicacy of their exquisite pop songs.’ It was a ‘balancing act’ was one of the concluding remarks.

B&S’s Stuart Murdoch came to a similar verdict today when he tweeted that ‘Doing an arena show is like moving from having a normal sex life to having a ménage a trois. It requires very different skills!’