Vic's Picks: May 2026
BBC broadcaster, author, actor, musician, DJ, and List columnist, Mr Galloway flicks through some music listings to choose top May gigs in variously sized rooms and across different genres…
Some bands are fortunate enough never to age, stylistically or conceptually, and we are forever happy to welcome their return. Welsh psych-pop wizards Super Furry Animals are definitely one of those acts. If proof of their popularity was needed, two shows at the legendary Glasgow Barrowlands (Friday 8 & Saturday 9 May) sold out in seconds. A full 30 years since their debut album Fuzzy Logic emerged into the UK scene in a lysergic haze, you soon realise how timeless and surprisingly fresh their back catalogue sounds. Missed out on tickets? Well, they’re back at the end of August for Mogwai’s Big City Festival in Queen’s Park.
Fairmilehead’s lyrical dandy and purveyor of fine chanson, Hamish Hawk, plays four different cities this month. A man with wit, flair and charisma in abundance, he brings his Ivor Cutler tribute show Life In A Scotch Sitting-Room, Vol 0 to Òran Mór in Glasgow (Sunday 10 May) before supporting legendary folk-rock firebrand Richard Thompson to perform songs from his own acclaimed solo albums at Aberdeen Music Hall (Tuesday 26 May), Eden Court in Inverness (Wednesday 27 May) and Edinburgh’s Usher Hall (Thursday 28 May).
It’s heartening when true legends include Scotland on their global live tour itinerary. Tuareg desert-rock pioneers Tinariwen have been quietly reinventing rock music in their own North Saharan image since 1979, and you can experience their dusty, windswept, rebel soul at Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms (Thursday 21 May) as they play tracks from their recently released 12th album Hoggar. And it would be remiss of me not to mention the real architects of electronic, and indeed modern pop music, Kraftwerk, who return to Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (Monday 25 May) and Edinburgh Playhouse next month (Tuesday 9 June). They are still The Robots and nobody does audio-visual, retro-futurist pop art better.
But if you’d rather leap about, bang your head and hang out with the young team, let me recommend the excellent Dead Pony who bring their 21st-century nu-rock anthems to Edinburgh’s La Belle Angele (Wednesday 27 May), with Anna Shields giving it rock-star licks and unashamed empowerment up front. Bring the noise!
Listen to Vic Galloway every Monday night on BBC Radio Scotland, or anytime on BBC Sounds. Vic also comperes & DJs on the main stage at FyneFest on Saturday 30 May; picture: Tinariwen / Marie Planeille.