Six Year Silence - Glasgow Cathouse 23rd May 2026

I have returned to the first venue I shot in for Rockfiend photographing one of the first bands I shot when I started to take photography seriously.

I am in The Cathouse in Glasgow to shoot Six Year Silence. There are two more bands performing tonight, one more local and one which has travelled up from England.

The band opening tonight's gig are a Glasgow based band, Layaway. Now, every time I've seen Six Year Silence, their fans turn up early in numbers to catch the support bands, which has carried on tonight, plus, also based in Glasgow brought some of their crowd along too. 

I have stated in other reviews that I'm not a fan of people who only turn up for the headline band, so bonus points to tonight's audience turning up for Layaway.

As we are in The Cathouse Rock Club, there is an early door time as everything needs cleared up before the club opens for it's usual Saturday night frivolity.

Layaway take to the stage a few minutes later than advertised, well it is Glasgow! The singer introduces the band and then proceeds to tell the crowd that they have a new album coming out (it should be out whenever you read this) and tonight's set is mostly tracks from said album. 

Layaway have been around for a while, I first saw them around 2017/18, so they are pretty sure footed on stage and communicate easily with the crowd, this rapport goes down well with tonight's crowd. It seems that with a blink of an eye Layaway have got to the end of their six song set, they leave with great applause and cheering.

Next up are our visitors from down south.  This will be my first time seeing and listening to Time Stands Still. 

I was chatting with the bands photographer earlier, she gave a very good report, so by the time they took to the stage, I was looking forward to what they were about to play. 

Like most people, when someone tells you about a band, especially someone who is pretty close to the band, you tend not to take anything too seriously, especially if, like me, you are as close to the headliners. 

A quick glance to the set list tells me that Time Stands Still are getting more stage time than our openers, either that or their nine songs are all three minutes long. They are not!

Like Layaway, Time Stands Still have a stage presence and are not shy about using every inch of the stage and more.

It doesn't take much time to realise, these guys can play, plus there is a great rapport with the crowd, it's not just "this song is called" and they play the song. The singer is a rather chatty guy with the crowd. Personally, this adds greatly to the performance. I get that supporting bands are restricted by time, But mentioning the town/city to get a response is old and boring. I know most bands do it, yes it gets a response, but please, try something different, even if it's "we have merch over there, please buy some" or "we'll be at the merch table after, come say hello".

Their set was laid out as two songs, chat, one song, chat, two songs, chat then four in a row, with the odd couple of words thrown in between the final four. 

Personally, I liked the last four songs more than the first five, I will say, the first five were not poor songs, or filler, I just favoured the last four.

I can now say that the bands "tog" was accurate with her comments about the band, Time Stands Still are bloody good, and could quite easily have headlined! 

I would happily head out to see them again.

Time for our headliners. What can I say about Six Year Silence that I have not said in previous reviews. When I started taking photography more seriously, Six Year Silence were one of the first bands I shot. I've got to know the lads pretty well too, even to the point of front man Johnny passing in his car, pulled up to have a chat. In the past, I have described Johnny as being like the lion in The Wizard of Oz movie, no, he is not cowardly, he is a mass of hair, that's just the association I get.

Since the last time I saw them, they are now a four piece, rather than the previous five piece. When a band looses one of their guitarists, at times there can be a difference to their sound, however, not tonight. Their sound is just as powerful as before, Greig on the riffs, Iain & Gary pounding out the timing like a well oiled metronome and Johnny up front, an actual powerhouse, like one of my all time favourite singer Steve Grimmett.

As always I got the ubiquitous mic toss, big hair and one finger salute shots from Johnny.

When it comes to writing a review I will admit I'm not the most observant of reviewers, I'm usually "in the zone" concentrating on the photography, I know, take notes etc, but I forget to take a notepad. I cannot remember if Six Year Silence played thirteen or fifteen songs, not that it matters, they absolutely nailed it, playing a lot of favourites like "I desire" "My Enemy" "King to a clown" and ending with "Monster". As with a lot of bands these days, they do not leave the stage and come back on for an encore, they just play on, the penultimate song was a bit of a surprise, a cover of Soils "Halo", which blew the roof off! I have to admit, Soil could not have played it better themselves.

After they ended with the afore mentioned "Monster", the crowd chanted louder and louder for "one more song". Lets be honest here, they could have easily played on, however, The Cathouse is primarily a nightclub, and it is a Saturday night, the club opens at eleven, it's now just after half past ten, it is time to say goodnight, I did contemplate staying behind with the bands, however my wallet started laughing, don't you just hate when that happens?

As always, if you don't know any of the bands here, or even if you do, head over to your favoured streaming platform and give the bands a listen to, even better, check out their web pages or social media pages and see if they are playing near you, buy a ticket and go see them perform live, there is nothing better than taking in a live gig.

See you at the barrier.