Over 2000 days since their last show in the city, Catfish and The Bottlemen made their triumphant return to Glasgow on July 9th 2025.
Featuring a stacked lineup with support coming from local lads The Fratellis and Liverpool indie darlings The Wombats, fans flocked to the field to catch a glimpse of what they knew was going to be something special.
The Fratellis were first up, with the front pens of the arena already closed, it was only fitting that they opened with one of their biggest crowd pleasers, Henrietta. The crowd were sent into a frenzy and the show was officially underway.
The energy could be felt from the first minute of the set to the last. Classics like Whistle For The Choir and Creepin’ Up The Backstairs kept the energy up with a cover of Baccara’s Yes Sir, I Can Boogie thrown into the set for some peak Scottish summertime antics.
The ten-song run was closed with one of Scotland’s most celebrated bangers, Chelsea Dagger. Mosh pits, jumping and dancing all ensued as the Glasgow group left their mark on the day.
As the day went on, thousands more entered the grounds as The Wombats took to the stage. Blasting straight into hit track Moving To New York. If Glasgow Green had a roof, it would have been firmly blown off by this point. The Liverpool trio played a set full of hits, both old and new, with tracks like Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves) and Turn garnering huge reactions from the Glasgow faithful.
The boys were on top form during the set with a lot of crowd interaction, their self-aware use of lemon imagery and metaphors led to them jokingly saying that they’d been “fighting off scurvy since 2007” before launching into an excellent rendition of another fan favourite Lemon To A Knife Fight.
Closing out their set with Greek Tragedy and Let’s Dance To Joy Division gave the crowd something to remember their set by, everyone went crazy when frontman Matthew Murphy belted, I’m back in Liverpool and everything seems the same and the crowd became louder than the band, singing along to every word.
The Wombats finished up, said their goodbyes, then the tension and excitement grew. Everyone moved closer to the stage in anticipation for the performance that the city had been waiting almost 6 years for.
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide blasted from the speakers as Catfish’s famous walkout tune Helter Skelter played. The band took to the stage as some simple bass notes began Longshot. GlasGO, ahead and tell me was sung by Van McCann and the tension that had been building burst and the crowd went wild, Catfish And The Bottlemen were back on a Glasgow stage once again.
The band played hit after hit, the crowd didn’t stop moving for a second, the lights flashed, mosh pits opened and beers were flying overhead, it was a celebration of a band and their music beloved by so many. The set included a plethora of songs from all 3 of CATB’s albums. Kathleen was met with a thunderous roar, Soundcheck had bodies flying everywhere, Pacifier saw flares and smoke bombs being set off. It was truly an incredible sight.
They sounded great too, some incredible instrumentation throughout the set and Van’s voice sounded immaculate, songs like Conversation and Anything were performed with some slightly stripped back intros which really allowed him to showcase his vocal talents.
2all was a major standout, it felt very personal and special to hear Van singing about sending his love to all the ones that stuck around. After all of the turmoil that plagued Catfish over the past few years, it was beautiful to see so many people standing by the band, and it seemed that Van had prepared a present for the people that did stick around.
The crowd went quiet between songs, the band walked off stage except the frontman, acoustic guitar in hand, Glasgow was played for the first time since 2019 to a rapturous reaction. Rumours had been circling that they may play the song, but the payoff was worth it to hear tens of thousands of people singing along to a song about their hometown.
The classic transition of Glasgow into Rango confirmed that we were in the home stretch, and Catfish made it a memorable close to the night. Fan favourites such as, Hourglass, Outside, Fluctuate and 7 all paved the way for the final hurrah, a storming performance of the band’s biggest song, Cocoon. The crowd erupted, Van gave it his all and it really showed. The chorus was repeated over and over again with the rest of the band offstage, it was just McCann, his guitar and thousands of people all singing along to the song that kickstarted it all for the band. A beautiful end to an incredible show.
