I didn’t have any expectations for the first act. “They usually don’t even have a support!”, a friend sulked to us in a chance meeting. I was waiting for some Paul Weller wannabees to grace the stage to give us their best impression of, The Jam’s greatest hits but with this being the Barrowlands, I should have known there’d be a few surprises along the way. “Is that … He’s a fucking magician!”, I heard someone say in disbelief and indeed it was! Adorned in Fred Perry and sporting a bold as brass Cockney accent, yer man dealt with a crowd, that wasn’t always hospitable to tricks, with grace, charm and wit.

Acting like Del Boy giving a sales pitch down the market, (which was very appropriate for The Barras), ‘Magic Mod’, made bottles disappear, constructed an endless deck out of 6 cards and for his final trick, even picked out a person from the crowd’s seven of clubs, out of a live bear trap! A modest man (pardon the pun), ‘Magic Mod’, warmed the crowd with stories of how he became interested in magic and even dedicated one of his tricks involving a colouring book, to his son. ‘Magic Mod’, expressed his gratitude to the people watching him and always let the crowd know what an honour it was to be here and by the end of the act, having entertained the crowd with jokes, magic and humility, even the drunks couldn’t find it in them to give anything but cheers and applause.

CREDIT: DISCOVERYMUSICSCOTLAND.COM