When they last played Glasgow in 1980, the Pop Group – supported by the Slits – gave this city something akin to its Sex Pistols at Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall moment. "Everyone at that show went off and formed bands," recalls frontman Mark Stewart, before thanking tonight's openers The Sexual Objects, whose singer Davy Henderson was motivated by these Bristolian politico post-punk provocateurs 33 years ago to shape his own, like-minded group Fire Engines.
Henderson's louche glam-bangers provided the perfect warmup for an event where rebels of yesteryear reigned again, in an inspired booking by Celtic Connections. When the Pop Group, reformed since 2010, make their arrival it's to the harsh sound of guitar/keyboard player Gareth Sager doing something awful to an organ, before the fierce groove of We Are All Prostitutes shakes the floor, then Thief of Fire peaks with Stewart bloodcurdlingly roaring "we must reject the very concepts of law", while pointing an accusative finger at the heavens.
You could sum up the Pop Group's impact by listing bands they've influenced from the Slits to the Rapture. Or by quoting Nick Cave, who described first hearing their "unholy, manic, violent, paranoid and painful music" as "one of those moments when... your life is irreversibly changed for ever". Stewart might these days be so punk-rock as to require sheets of A4 in poly pockets to remember his lyrics, but the years have divested this band's music of none of its urgent potency, as fuelled by bassist Dan Catsis and drummer Bruce Smith's irregular rhythmic fusion of funk and reggae, Sager's free jazz-informed jagged riffs and shrieks of feedback, and Stewart's creepy howl caked in dubby echo.
Debut single She Is Beyond Good and Evil remains a primal call to action, be it reading a book or breaking a window. Elsewhere, Colour Blind is dedicated to the memory of Joy Division's Ian Curtis. When the Pop Group close with the tremendous We Are Time, it's with the sense of a band that could and still ought to light a fire under guitar music's conservatives.
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