Into Live Music Review: Mull Historical Society/ Sister John
Concert: Mull Historical Society/ Sister John
Venue: Stirling Tolbooth
Dates: 11 June 2026
As an avid gig-goer I have travelled far and wide to see live music, so when not one, but two of my favourite Scottish bands announced a show in my home city I was of course doubly delighted. Generally, Glasgow and Edinburgh are the go to cities for tours so it’s always good to see artists go beyond those boundaries to the likes of Stirling, Dundee, Aberdeen and so on. It was also the first time both Mull Historical Society and Sister John had played in Stirling. The Tolbooth is a cool venue and it’s burgeoning reputation has seen a clear uptick in gigs over the past couple of years. Add in the Albert Hall and the City Park and it does feel at last that Stirling is no longer an afterthought on the gig circuit.
Sister John kicked off the evening with a seven song set that focused mainly on tracks from their 2025 album, Don’t Worry, It’s Forever. It was a stripped-back set with Amanda McKeown on vocals and Jonathan Lilley on guitar duties which led to a reimagining of the songs given the other band members (Sophie Pragnell and Heather Phillips) were not on duty. Slipping Through provided a gentle slice of Americana, accentuated by Lilley’s guitar and McKeown’s vocal that simply soared, beseeching “where are you tonight?”. It was majestic.
The tenderness of Tomorrow, a song of life and death felt even more melancholic than the album version, a wrenched heartbreaker that was delivered in a simplistic manner that added to its understated beauty. Stealing a moment during Died Down, I looked across the crowd, everyone seemed wrapped in the moment, enjoying the sparseness of delivery, the song breathing, alive, ethereal.
Funeral with Lilley’s imperious steel guitar was exquisite before Murmurations closed the set, the sonic guitar guided the song upwards, McKeown’s vocal pleading, searching, asking. A stunning performance and if you get the chance to see Sister John (whether as a two-piece like tonight or the full band experience), make the effort, you will not be disappointed.
For sure, a tough act to follow but headliner Colin MacIntyre (CM) aka Mull Historical Society (MHS) more than did that with consummate ease. For the Stirling gig, this was a solo show and MacIntyre took to the stage with an acoustic guitar for company. Having recently released a new album (In My Mind There’s A Photograph) and a new fictional novel (An Island Burning), MacIntyre read an excerpt from the book, part of The Mull Mysteries series which follows life on Mull and a mystery that Sergeant Ivor Punch has to work out.
Thereafter, the crowd were treated to songs from the MHS/CM back catalogue from the 2001 debut album Loss through to the aforementioned new album release. First up was I Tried and what immediately hit my ears was the power in MacInyre’s voice, hitting the senses like a train.
It was evident that MacIntyre is a natural storyteller. That’s not something that comes intuitively to most and I did wonder, in this world of gadgets, instant gratification and social media if this is indeed a dying art. I hope not as MacIntyre would often tell the back story of a song before playing it and that adds something tangible, something important on the roots and the meaning of songs from gestation to craft to delivery. Of course, not all musicians are quite as forthcoming, often leaving it to the listener to decipher what they believe the words are about, but from my perspective, I found the back stories refreshing to the point I have since relistened to those songs and see them through a new lens, perhaps like studying a piece of art, we see (and hear) something different each time we view/listen.
Family was a recurring theme in the tunes with Little Bird (daughter), The Final Arrears (uncle) and Loss (dad) getting an airing, those tales and yarns told of memories hard-wired into the person that MacIntyre has become and always delivered with an affectionate smile. Life on Mull is a feature – scouring the island trying to get a signal on the radio to hear the charts for news on hitting the top 40 for the first time was a funny anecdote.
The new album features collaborations with a number of authors and creatives (For more detail, read our Into Creative interview with Colin here). MacIntyre displayed a photo sent to him by Irvine Welsh with his now wife Emma, taken during Covid with the familiar surgical masks everyone had to wear, pretty much all you can see is the eyes and that is what the song, Dopamine Eyes is partly about. Elsewhere, Jehan Bsesio, Deputy General Director at Medecins Sans Frontier contributed to Gaza On My Back, a track that sent shivers down the spine when played, the lyrics devastatingly brutal, about the horrors and trauma faced by medics during the Gaza conflict, bleak, grim but providing a voice to people who have been all but silenced by their oppressors.
Watching Xanadu is perhaps the best know MHS track and this take allowed MacIntyre to get loose and expansive, yet the lyrics tell the tale of homelessness, a blight on society that seems ever present in every city, town and village. Finishing off on the high of Go Scotland Go (We Have Another Dream) left the crowd in World Cup euphoria. Only the best of Scotland’s storytellers could do that and Colin MacIntyre is undoubtedly one of our best.
For more on Colin MacIntyre aka Mull Historical Society, head to the website here.
Review by John Welsh
@welshjb
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