Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchison Plays Charity Show in Glasgow

Posted on Jul 14th 2010 8:00AM by Andrew Kerr
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Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchison isn't adverse to a spot of fund-raising. According to the singer, playing charity gigs is "the nicest part of my job," and after tonight's entertaining set for national charity The A-T Society, you'd be hard pushed to doubt his sincerity.

This wasn't a gig in the conventional sense of the word, it was often akin to a comedy show thanks to the quick-fire quips and rambling tangents in an endearingly ramshackle performance.

Armed with an acoustic guitar, a microphone and a bottle of whisky, the charismatic songwriter was clearly in the mood to have fun. Nearly every song was punctuated with observations and retorts. It got to the point that during an admittedly "disjointed" cover of N-Trance's 'Set You Free' he stopped to ask "Is it really worth it?" -- the resounding response from the packed crowd was "Yes!"

Before inviting anyone called "Steve" to join him on stage for 'Nothing Like You' – the song was briefly christened 'Steve' at a gig in Edinburgh's Queen's Hall – Hutchison described his dilemma when it came to naming the song, "We originally wanted to call it 'Come in a Dream' but the label didn't like it."

Gloriously shambolic thanks to his distinctly Vic Reeves-like asides to the Steves (three of whom were female), this would have provided tonight's abiding memory. But Hutchison's decision to invite a fan to join him on stage to interpret for the deaf by signing along to 'Poke' -- a challenge she took on with occasionally scary levels of enthusiasm.

For his final number Hutchison and the crowd belted out a particularly vitriolic rendition of 'Keep Yourself Warm,' the singer tacking on an impromptu couple of verses of Jay-Z's '99 Reasons' for good measure before departing the stage to rapturous applause.

A-T ( Ataxia-Telangiectasia) is a rare neurodegenerative and progressive condition which starts in early childhood causing severe disability and premature death. To donate to or find out more about the work carried out by the A-T Society visit their website at http://www.atsociety.org.uk/.