Broken Chanter returns to The Rio, having headlined the very first Big Rock Records gig in February 2023 and also appearing at the first Lughnasadh Art & Music Festival in 2024.
He was there at the beginning of our live music story and we're delighted to welcome him back with a full band and support from M. John Henry as we continue to showcase some of the finest Scottish music around.
He was there at the beginning of our live music story and we're delighted to welcome him back with a full band and support from M. John Henry as we continue to showcase some of the finest Scottish music around.
Broken Chanter is the stage name of Glaswegian songwriter David MacGregor. Broken Chanter can be MacGregor on his own or, more often than not, with an array of extremely talented musicians joining him.
His latest album, This Could be Us, You, Or Anybody Else, was released by Chemikal Underground on 10 April 2026 to critical acclaim (Songs of hope for a world on fire - UNCUT) and chart success.
Prior to This Could be Us...MacGregor has released three critically acclaimed albums as Broken Chanter - 2019's eponymousintroduction to his new guise (A stunning, stately debut - The Skinny), 2021's Catastrophe Hits (Muscular, fast moving indie-pop – The Scotsman), and 2024’s Scottish Album Of The Year Longlisted Chorus Of Doubt (MacGregor's particular skill is in camouflaging rage, heartbreak, and despair as uplifting earworms. [Chorus Of Doubt] shows a band on top of their game...at its best it's agit-pop with heart 8/10 – UNCUT).
He spent 2007-2017 as the principal songwriter of Scottish Alt-Pop darlings Kid Canaveral - a band that could get you to dance, laugh, and weep all in the space of the same set. Their Debut LP Shouting at Wildlife was described by The Herald as "a Scottish pop classic that should be mandatory in every record collection in the country", and saw the band perform across a large chunk of the western hemisphere, with the similarly well-received follow-up Now That You Are a Dancer being Longlisted for the SAY Award in 2014.
"Broken Chanter's latest album is a moody, thoughtful piece of work that’s sure to delight those who love to boogie on down to sad music."
★★★★ - The Skinny
"Another monumental achievement by a singular and truly original artist."
★★★★½ - Is This Music?
His latest album, This Could be Us, You, Or Anybody Else, was released by Chemikal Underground on 10 April 2026 to critical acclaim (Songs of hope for a world on fire - UNCUT) and chart success.
Prior to This Could be Us...MacGregor has released three critically acclaimed albums as Broken Chanter - 2019's eponymousintroduction to his new guise (A stunning, stately debut - The Skinny), 2021's Catastrophe Hits (Muscular, fast moving indie-pop – The Scotsman), and 2024’s Scottish Album Of The Year Longlisted Chorus Of Doubt (MacGregor's particular skill is in camouflaging rage, heartbreak, and despair as uplifting earworms. [Chorus Of Doubt] shows a band on top of their game...at its best it's agit-pop with heart 8/10 – UNCUT).
He spent 2007-2017 as the principal songwriter of Scottish Alt-Pop darlings Kid Canaveral - a band that could get you to dance, laugh, and weep all in the space of the same set. Their Debut LP Shouting at Wildlife was described by The Herald as "a Scottish pop classic that should be mandatory in every record collection in the country", and saw the band perform across a large chunk of the western hemisphere, with the similarly well-received follow-up Now That You Are a Dancer being Longlisted for the SAY Award in 2014.
"Broken Chanter's latest album is a moody, thoughtful piece of work that’s sure to delight those who love to boogie on down to sad music."
★★★★ - The Skinny
"Another monumental achievement by a singular and truly original artist."
★★★★½ - Is This Music?
M. John Henry is the solo guise of Lanarkshire singer-songwriter Martin John Henry.
Henry cut his songwriting teeth in the band De Rosa who released three critically acclaimed albums on Glasgow’s Chemikal Underground and Rock Action labels between 2006-2016. He has since released solo albums The Other Half of Everything and Strange Is The Way on Gargleblast Records.
Henry cut his songwriting teeth in the band De Rosa who released three critically acclaimed albums on Glasgow’s Chemikal Underground and Rock Action labels between 2006-2016. He has since released solo albums The Other Half of Everything and Strange Is The Way on Gargleblast Records.
Henry has collaborated with Malcolm Middleton, King Creosote, Barry Burns of Mogwai, author Michel Faber and renowned harper and composer Gillian Fleetwood.
He is currently in Whin - a duo project with Life Without Buildings guitarist Robert Dallas Gray - and sings in the Scottish electronic pop group Jewel Scheme. Early Songs, Of Late - a new album of reworked versions of his early De Rosa material was released in early 2026.
DJ Sets on the night will come from our all time favourites, The Funky Gunners, a DJ collective with the policy of "all vinyl, all night, always".
This is a Bring Your Own Bottle and all ages event.
As always, we will be collecting for the Taybridgehead Foodbank at the gig.
This is a Bring Your Own Bottle and all ages event.
As always, we will be collecting for the Taybridgehead Foodbank at the gig.