In November of 2025, Westside Cowboy’s Reuben Haycocks made a remark to their sold-out crowd at Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh about how the band had never had a successful show in Scotland. Breaking the curse that night, the Manchester “Britainicana” outfit returned to Scotland on February 2nd for the first time since then on their current headliner tour around the UK and Ireland before they embark on supporting Geese around Europe during the spring.
The floor of Glasgow’s iconic King Tut’s Wah-Wah Hut was already crowded by the time openers Holly Head hit the stage, a sign of just how eager Scottish fans have been for Cowboy’s return to the stage, especially with the January release of their EP ‘So Much Country ‘Til We Get There’ promising new songs to be heard live for the first time.
When speaking with Holly Head at the merch stand before the headliners came out, they mentioned that Paddy Murphy, the drummer in Cowboy, actually used to be a part of their outfit. Though it would be easy for the band to take the request as a slight, both the energy and music styles of Head and Cowboy lend to one another very well, making the entire night essentially a back-to-back feature of energetic Manchester rock.
Opening with their signature rendition of Santo & Johnny’s Midnight Cowboy riff, Westside Cowboy segued into their biggest hit to date, ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Love (Until I Met You)’ to a chorus of fans singing the words straight back to the band. Aoife Anson O’Connell, bassist and a primary vocalist in Cowboy, remarked after the show when asked why the band always chooses to start of with the Santo & Johnny riff, that James Bradbury– their guitarist– is simply a big fan of skiffle and Hank Williams-style riffs. The song’s title being ‘Midnight Cowboy’, of course, is just a perfectly incidental nod to the band’s name.
Following another fan favourite, ‘Shells’, towards the end of the set, Haycocks made an apology to the crowd.
“We’re very excited today, as I said, and we’ve played through our songs very quickly.”
Making a call to the crowd for a spare capo, the band quickly got themselves back together and continued into the final stretch of the show, presumably having to add songs that were not originally on the setlist– though it wouldn’t show with the cohesiveness the outfit maintained even through the impromptu add-ons.
Throughout the show, there were several points where the members of Westside Cowboy glanced at one another with bewilderment at the sheer amount of people in the audience perfectly singing along to every song. One of these devoted fans, Gemma Kelly, a 16-year-old artist lingered at the barricade for the band to come back out after their set so she could gift them the painting she did of the other signature beat of their live shows– when the four gather around one microphone with a single drum to close out the night.
When asked her and the rest of the band’s thoughts on opening for Geese next month, with the tour having a stop in Cowboy’s home city of Manchester, Anson O’Connell responded that the prospect of being on stage where Cowboy saw Turnstile perform months ago is going to be a definite highlight. With Turnstile themselves recently winning a Grammy for Best Rock Album, Westside Cowboy’s growing success can surely be taken as a sign of similarly good fortune to come.
First year student studying English & Creative Writing and Journalism, Media & Communications. Sometimes writes well. Also the host of Strath Fusion’s F1 recap and music show “The Garage Playlist” (@garageplaylist on Instagram).
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