(SWG3, Glasgow)The glitter-loving Enfield boy wonder has a firm grasp of the grand gesture – but could do with changing things up
‘They say you play this venue twice in your career: once on the way up and once on the way down,” jokes Declan McKenna, at the second of two sold-out shows on the spin at Glasgow’s SWG3. “It’s great to be back!” As they do in response to almost any utterance the glitter-loving Enfield boy wonder makes tonight, even a mildly self-deprecating icebreaker, his young fans shriek like mad.
McKenna’s career arc is nowhere near its zenith yet, as he belatedly comes galloping out of the gate in support of a second album which, were it not for the small matter of a global pandemic, could have already turned him into one of the biggest stars in
Britain by now. In thrall to Bowie and the Beatles and awash with big choruses, Zeros is a record so redolent of some long-lost second wave glam rock oddity that it was even edged out of a
UK No 1 last September by a reissue none more synchronous than the Rolling Stones’ 1973 album Goats Head Soup.