Callum Beattie @ Inverness Leisure Centre 10/12/2023

Where: Inverness Leisure Centre – Inverness, Scotland (UK)

Venue Rating: 8/10 (Probably the same opinion as before. I also wished they had handed out water)

Who I went with: Paul again (He’s more likely to agree to local events)

Where I stayed: My house

How I travelled there: Paul drove

Beverage of choice: Prosecco

SETLIST:

*Sadly unavailable*

Inverness Leisure Centre is very good at putting on Christmas events. Paul and I were impressed with how they transformed a gym hall into something resembling a proper music venue last December when we saw Skipinnish and were more than happy to return there for another evening of great music. Since The Ironworks closed down earlier this year, Inverness Leisure Centre is probably our best and biggest option until somebody decides to build a new music venue for us (which will probably be around the same time pigs fly). There is a nice amount of space inside and a high stage, so you can see the action even from the back (we can only presume, as we were keen to be there and standing in the second row). There were three back-to-back concerts taking place here this month; Skerryvore (who I saw at Belladrum Festival and remind me a lot of Skipinnish, though I’m not sure who formed first), Bjorn Again (an ABBA tribute who are labelled as satire, intriguingly) and, of course, Callum Beattie. I thought CB would be best for us because his music is more our style and I knew a few of his songs beforehand. His music is most often defined as Pop but has notably more edge to it than most material you hear on the radio. From the top of my head, I would say he is quite similar to Sam Fender. I listened to CB’s albums and singles before the event but there were still some songs I didn’t know, including brand-new songs and a couple of covers. We didn’t manage to get a copy of the setlist but I think I remember two of the new songs were called ‘Pins And Needles’ and ‘Red’ (from an upcoming album, we can only hope) and I’m sure he did a cover of ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac.

We arrived early to get a parking spot and watched from the comfort of the car as the queue increased in size. There were only about ten people huddled together when we arrived, sheltering from the rain. We remembered being let in about half an hour early the year before and the same thing happened this time around, which was fantastic. Normally staff are a few minutes late opening the doors, so this was a brilliant start to our evening – even though it meant a lot of standing around once we were inside, which both of us struggle with because we never want to move once we have claimed a good spot by the stage. Thankfully, the people around us were very pleasant and nobody pushed or were obviously intoxicated, unlike most concerts I have attended. We didn’t buy anything from the merch stall in the corner but I had a quick look and there was a large variety of t-shirts and fluffy hats which obviously had a lot of effort put into their designs. People were wearing the hats before the opening act even came onstage, so CB was definitely receiving a great amount of support from the crowd. The hats looked too warm to wear but the fans didn’t appear to be phased by the heat, even when the place really started to fill up. I didn’t realise he had performed at Strathpeffer Pavilion a couple of months earlier, or I would have been interested in seeing him there as well. Strangely, I didn’t see any posters dotted around the area advertising that event and they are usually quite vocal about their upcoming performances. I liked seeing him at the Leisure Centre because Paul and I seem to be making a Christmas tradition out of their festive concerts and the atmosphere was excellent all throughout the night.

The Tumbling Souls came on after a short wait and told us they were missing the majority of their band, so would be doing stripped back versions of their songs. Paul and I cast worried glances at each other when they explained they would be performing Celtic music for the next forty-five minutes as it didn’t sound like our kind of thing and we couldn’t exactly make an easy exit at that point but their catchy and engaging songs were a pleasant surprise. We didn’t know who the opening act would be as the Inverness show was not listed on CB’s tour posters, which mentioned support acts such as Cammy Barnes, Brownbear and The Eves. Our tickets just said “plus support”, which was very vague. The lead singer, Willie Campbell, was full of enthusiasm and encouraged us to listen to the full band “in all their shabby glory” on Spotify and we wondered whether they would sound more Celtic in the official recordings. He was joined by Stephen Drummond, who played the accordion and had his fair share of fangirls in the crowd who were continuously screaming his name and drawing attention to themselves. The band is from The Isle of Lewis and they come over here a lot, though I had never heard of them before. They talked about frequenting The Gellions, so Inverness pub-goers may do a better job recognising them than us. They were funny and, after a failed singalong, discussed basically stealing an Adam Sutherland song and sticking it into one of their songs they don’t have a name for yet and how underage drinking was one of their favourite past-times (which, yes, they also wrote a song about).

Callum Beattie followed his band onstage and did a lot of jumping around, building the excitement and receiving a lot of applause before he even began singing. He opened with ‘Vandals’, the title track off his newest album, which set the mood for the rest of the night brilliantly as it is very energetic and full of personality. It took me a while to realise his guitar strap also has ‘Vandals’ written on it in honour of the album, which he is rightfully proud of. I really enjoyed listening to that album as none of the songs feel like they are there just to fill up space and each of them have an interesting story to tell. The band has six members (or seven if you include their manager, David Rogers, who appeared from time to time) and it was fun watching them interact with each other. They all seemed to have great chemistry and played an impressive variety of instruments impeccably. They performed a lot of hits as expected but people were singing along with the lesser known tracks as well, which was good to see. We enjoyed ‘Easter Road’ a lot and Paul recognised it as a real place in Edinburgh, which reminded me CB is from the capital and not from Glasgow, where I assume every famous person in Scotland is from for some reason. He mentioned performing in Aberdeen the previous night and taunted us, saying they were loud and asking if we could outdo them. The crowd gave it a good shot but were still not nearly as rowdy as I anticipated. Instead, there was an incredibly relaxed vibe throughout the night, which was quite nice. It felt like a big (sober) family get-together. He reminisced about performing in Hootananny’s during his early days in front of a small audience and marvelled at the crowd who had come out to see him on this occasion for his biggest headlining show, so far. He said the next time he performs here needs to be at the stadium, which would make more sense than Inverness Ice Centre, which he did in the summer. We both commented how he powered through the set with apparent ease and he had no trouble holding everyone’s attention, which was admirable.

He took a couple of minutes to read everyone’s hand-made signs (no, we didn’t bring one) and some of them were quite humorous. One woman asked if she could be his back-up dancer at Belladrum next year and he mis-read a sign and wished the wrong person “Happy Birthday” before stating December is a terrible time to have a birthday because you don’t get as many presents because it is so close to Christmas. There was a lot of crowd engagement throughout the night – possibly the most I have ever experienced. They kept us guessing what exciting thing they were going to surprise us with next. He even jumped into the crowd at one point and you can see the excitement spread across all of the (predominantly female) faces in the photos we took. His crew members were keeping an sharp eye out for people to pull up onstage or hand out guitar picks to, depending on the signs they were holding up (or messages they wrote on their phones, which was a far less creative approach in my mind). At one point he said he doesn’t normally do shows with kids in attendance, so asked them all to come up onstage with him. The best dancer was promised a free t-shirt to take home with them but the winner wasn’t made clear at the end of the charade. A couple of the girls didn’t look like children to me and I think they were just being chancers but it was entertaining nonetheless. It was hilarious when he turned around and there were far more children up there with him than he anticipated but their presence didn’t put him off. Near the end, a girl holding a ‘Heart Stops Beating’ sign was asked to stand beside him for the duration of that song and it finally made sense to Paul, who didn’t know the song and joked he thought it was a +44 reference.

He talked about mental health and how he read Inverness has the highest suicide rate, which surprised him. He said sometimes it just takes a few days to get over the hump and everything will become okay again and told us he has had some struggles in his own life before leading into ‘Don’t Walk Alone’, which was thematically appropriate. The discussion didn’t feel out of place, since depression is especially rife at this time of year. There was a perfect mixture of fast and more emotional songs throughout the night, so everything felt nicely balanced and the songs flowed well into one another. He wore a Scottish flag borrowed from a member of the crowd for his version of ‘Caledonia’, which he performed for the encore once the lights came back on and he returned to the stage. I thought he would choose ‘We Are Stars’ for the last song, which was his first single and another of his biggest hits, especially when he asked everybody to shine their phone torches for effect. Maybe his more dedicated fans predicted the final song correctly but I would be happy to see him again and listen to his albums more to become more familiar with them. At the end, Paul managed to catch a guitar pick thrown into the crowd by CB and the women in front of us even complimented his skilful catch. I found another one on the floor as we were leaving which differed from Paul’s as it is black and white and has CB’s picture on it. I keep them all in a jar now but I only have four, which is not many considering all of the concerts I have been to. I would definitely grab a ticket to see him again when he inevitably returns to Inverness and I highly recommend seeing him if you haven’t done so already. He has a few shows coming up at The Barrowlands in Glasgow, which I am confident will be spectacles just like this one.

GALLERY