Words by Morgan Hermiston
To close their UK tour, English quartet October Drift play a small, intimate gig at Cabaret Voltaire in the Scottish Capital. The genre-crossing band entertain fans from start to finish, and the gig itself is one of the best I’ve ever attended.
Kicking off an incredible night of live music are Forgetting the Future. From a 2016 recording session with fellow Scottish musician and 80s legend Edwyn Collins, Forgetting the Future have been making their mark on Scottish music through a range of hard-hitting singles and an impressively long list of live sets. This support slot is another addictive addition to this tradition. The quartet from Thurso also make their mark on the minds of those in the Cabaret Voltaire – It’s amazing to see how packed out it is for the band, showing that hard work truly does pay off.
Frontman Robbie McNicol speaks minimally in between each song, giving them more time to power through their own material, which included tracks like ‘Have You Settled?’. Accompanying McNicol are drummer Connor Wilson, guitarist Jamie Mackay, and newest addition Cole Cummings on bass. McNicol voices that the band themselves are fans of the headliners, and this sound is evident in their own work. I couldn’t think of a better Scottish band to support October Drift. They are definitely a band you should get to know.
October Drift walk onto stage to cheers and applause from all around. They kick things off with ‘Waltzer’, from 2022 record ‘I Don’t Belong Anywhere’, which encapsulated the crowd’s attention immediately. Like Forgetting the Future, frontman Kiran Roy keeps speaking to a minimum, allowing them ample time to immerse the audience in their sixteen-song setlist. They dip back in time to 2020 album Forever Whatever, via ‘Just Got Caught’, ‘Cherry Red’, and ‘Oh The Silence’. Their most recent record Blame The Young [2024] is heavily included too – through the title track as well as ‘Demons’, ‘Everybody Breaks’, and ‘Wallflower’.
Throughout, there’s a steady momentum accompanying Roy’s vocals, kept by guitarist Dan Young, bassist Alex Bispham, and drummer Chris Holmes. What’s very noticeable is Holmes drumming and providing backing vocals, which I’ve never really seen before. Members of October Drift, primarily Roy, find themselves in the audience on numerous occasions. One of these is a crowd surf, other times playing their instruments while walking up and down the room. After playing final track, ‘Not Running Anymore’, Bispham and Young quit the stage, leaving Roy to centre himself in amongst the crowd once again, this time joined by Holmes. They sign off with ‘Like The Snow We Fall’, a beautiful ballad that connects everyone in the room together for the final time that night. It’s a poignant way to end a show and their tour. With no encore, and the lights going back on after the track, the crowd begin making their way out of the venue, noting similar sentiments to mine, that this was one of the most remarkable of recent gigs we’d been to.
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