"Wake Up" Glasgow

They're an energetic bunch that Arcade Fire, after a busy year of touring you would forgive them for feeling a little lethargic, but the truth is this band couldn't be much more lively, they radiate get up and go and even on a cold Sunday night the essence of the Canadian 8 piece is infectious. The gig at Glasgow's SECC was the last of their current tour and they certainly ended on a high. Rest assured, these guys love their job.

They're a fascinating band to watch, lively, engaging and obviously incredibly talented, they take turns at instruments on a rotational basis and throw themselves entirely into the music they play.

'I know a place where no cars go' sings Butler to the sold out crowd (thankfully the thaw has ensured that that 'place' is no longer the M8) The hauntingly brilliant My Body is a Cage follows and breaks into The Suburbs, the title track from the latest album.

They disappear behind the curtains before returning for the encore of all encores. Wake Up - the chugging riff builds sending the crowd into a euphoric frenzy of 'woah oh oh oh oh ohing' (this will make sense if you know the song) . It takes a very special band to fill the rather vast surroundings of the SECC but Arcade Fire do it with ease. Utterly brilliant, tingles up the spine brilliant.

Glasgow: Artistic and Tasty

Two wins for Glasgow this week (well 3 if you include the city's wellie manufacturers - damn you pesky snow slush!)

Firstly Glasgow born Susan Philipsz won the Turner Prize for her sound installation Lowlands. She is the first female Scottish winner of the prize and now joins fellow Scots and Scots based Turner winners Douglas Gordon, Martin Creed, Simon Starling and Richard Wright. (We're an artistic bunch up here don't you know)

Lowlands was an installation originally presented at the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art earlier this year. Recordings of Philipsz singing three versions of the folk song Lowlands were installed under George V Bridge, the Caledonian Road Bridge and Glasgow Bridge. It is also the first time a sound installation has won the coveted prize.

Secondly a subject very close to my heart...curry.

Glasgow has regained its title as Curry Capital of Britain. And rightly so...anyone who has ever eaten at Mother India's Cafe will concur. The competition was organised as part of National Curry Week, an excuse to indulge in pakora and chana daal if ever there was.