Those of you who visit the site on a regular basis will know these guys. I travelled to Norwich Art Centre on Saturday evening to catch them live. Not only that, but we also secured an in-depth interview which I will post later in the week. I was keen to get another perspective on the band so I dispatched Fee to cover the Glasgow show on Monday. Many thanks to Guy from Fierce Panda, also Mike from Flat Cap Music and Nik the tour manager as well as the band for making this possible.

So having not seen the band perform live before I was not sure what to expect, but from the first notes of ‘Summer Grof’ I was enchanted and captivated by the sheer enthusiasm. It’s obvious in the layered pop songs they write but they are really infectious live. They showcased songs from the new record Moonwink; these seemed to be well received by the near-capacity crowd. With four guitars, keyboard and a superb drummer its loud but above all it’s fun. The set highlights for me were ‘Later On’ from Moonwink and my personal favourite ‘Oh Mandy’. The fifteen song set finished up with ‘Direct’. In my opinion they are the kind of band you could go and see live even if you had not heard a single note previously.

I was intrigued what Fee would make of them and here is what she had to report back to me:

The Spinto band made light of the long journey from Oxford up to Glasgow by wowing the crowd.They were fun, energetic and happy, they all looked like they were getting happiness infused through their guitars. After a really great set they came back to deliver a fantastic encore which included a crazy version of Shake Rattle and Roll complete with Sax and Trumpet. Overall, they smiled their way through a very synchronized set - guitars down and lots of hand claps mid song, happy music. Lot’s of humour both in the lyrics and with the crowd to whom they dispatched bouquet’s of flowers.As we left everyone seemed to have just a little less weight of the world on their shoulders and smiling faces!

MP3: The Spinto Band - Oh Mandy

- Mark & Fiona