Album Launch Show Review - Dan Byrne This is Where the Show Begins - Assai Records Edinburgh 22nd May 2026

It was a good day for Dan Byrne.

His solo career had been a bit of a slow burn, working away in the shadows and small halls while perfecting his craft, before writing and recording this first solo album. He’s been working his wee socks off promoting it in advance with a big social media campaign, radio support and a sell-out UK tour.

Finally, his big day had arrived and he spent it in Scotland, shuttling between the excellent Assai shops in his girlfriend’s home town of Glasgow and the magnificent capital city, where he had big boxes of CDs to sell and sign, and a queue of punters happy to take them off his hands. As a bonus, there was a short in-shop acoustic set and an entertaining Q&A. It was just Dan and his hat and his guitar, plus that big voice that had no problem filling the room.

The song ‘Praise Hell’ was familiar from his upgraded and sold-out show at The Voodoo Rooms earlier in the year, followed by ‘Saviour’ which he started with a bit of ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ as an intro. Both demonstrated Dan’s incredible vocal talent. Vocally, he is grounded in that blues-infused classic rock style reminiscent of Paul Rogers and David Coverdale, but with a distinctly modern twist and infusions of country, soul and modern rock.

‘She’s the Devil’ was next up. This was one of Dan’s big “gateway” songs – video clips have had over 5m views on social media and he’s had a lot of air-play on Planet Rock too, all of which he described as “mind-blowing for a little lad from Liverpool.”

The chat and Q&A between songs was very entertaining. Dan revealed that he attended his first ever gig at 6-years-old and it was in Scotland; a 3-day Fish Convention at Haddington Corn Exchange, no less! When pressed, he did confess that his musical ‘guilty pleasure’ was ‘One Love’ by Blue, which he had enjoyed performing on the ‘SingStar’ karaoke console game at home as a youngster, along with ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ by The Darkness.

Dan also revealed that he had written all of the songs on the album himself, over a three-month period, although he was at pains to stress that he was not a ‘control freak’ and his band had added a lot, but as a first-time solo release, it was very personal for him and important that he expressed himself fully.



He finished the show with one of his best: ‘Death of Me’. On the record, it is a massive tune with an arrangement reminiscent of a Bond theme and he belts it out like “Adele with balls”, but it also worked very well in this stripped-back environment.

It does not take repeated listens to get into this album – it is an instant classic right out of the case. The blues-rock base is a solid anchor but it is not predominantly retro in style. ‘Sober’ has an almost AOR sound, although the lyrical story is far from “soft and fluffy.” As with most of the songs he played in-store, there are a few “devil woman” stories on the album – I’m not sure how autobiographical they are, but it sounds like Dan’s love life has not always been smooth, or maybe he has dated all of the members of female occult-lite metal band Dogma?

In any event, this first collection of songs is a very strong offering. All of the hard work and paying-of-dues has resulted in a very fine album indeed, and hopefully Dan will have another very good day this week when the chart placings are announced. He deserves it.