I saw Broken Chanter at Cottiers Theatre - here's why he should be the next great Glasgow band

The project, which is the moniker adopted by Scottish musician and former Kid Canaveral songwriter David MacGregor, took to the stage at Cottiers Theatre in the West End. Alongside Charlotte Printer, Bart Owl and Martin Johnstone - who currently make up the band.

Playing in the heavenly surroundings of Cottiers Theatre, there could be sparse a better venue for Broken Chanter’s brand of Scottish infused indie pop. Pulling tracks from each of the first three albums, and his latest EP - MacGregor fully embraces a venue that he says he played to some surprise during a Christian Rock festival in 2000.

An interpretation of Ewan MacColl’s haunting The Moving On Song (Go, Move, Shift) kicks the show into another gear with its occasional biblical allusions. The song is tight and fraught with tension that weaves its way through the hall.

MacGregor and Broken Chanter are the fresh off of a Scottish Album of the Year longlist nomination for Chorus Of Doubt, it is his third effort as he steadily gains recognition as one of the best Scottish projects around - and deservedly so.

But it is a cut from his eponymous debut album that lights up the night. Don’t Move To Denmark, with just MacGregor accompanied by bassist Charlotte Printer, sounded magisterial in the confines of the hall at Cottiers. Tender and ethereal as MacGregor belts out his lovelorn tale.

Throughout the show MacGregor showcases the humour that cuts through and infuses each of his songs - both self-effacing and very much at the expense of those in power. There are further barbs thrown at those in power during the encore - where Woody Guthrie’s All You Fascists is played with raucous abandon.

If all is right and fair in the world, Broken Chanter would very well be alongside the Frightened Rabbit and Twilight Sads of Glasgow’s music world.