THE FRONT ROW

Brògeal’s latest single Vicar Street Days is a love letter to their misfit youth, a swaggering, bittersweet slice of nostalgia that’s part punk poetry, part folk confessional. Released via Play It Again Sam and produced by Richie Kennedy (Cardinals, Cliffords, RIDE), the track captures the band at their most melodic and reflective, without losing the rough-edged charm that’s made them one of the most exciting live acts emerging from Scotland’s alt-folk underground.

Where earlier singles brought fire, Vicar Street Days brings heart. It’s a track steeped in memory, nights of chaos in a Falkirk dive bar, shared smokes, missed deliveries, free pints, sticky ceilings, and friendships that burned brightly before disappearing into the fog. The band’s signature instrumentation, banjo and bouzouki, is still front and centre, but here it’s harnessed for something more contemplative. Less rebel raucousness, more rowdy reminiscence.

Lyrically, it’s pure storytelling gold. “The ceiling got sticky with an aura of hell / and the queue for the toilets like a carousel”, lines like that don’t just paint the picture, they drag you into it. There’s a lived-in grit to the verses, a diary-entry honesty that doesn’t glorify the debauchery but holds it close with a grin and a sigh. The song plays out like an old friend telling tales at closing time, equal parts humour and heartbreak.

The track’s chorus lands with quiet weight: “Well the years, they start to fly / And sometimes friendships die / And sometimes they go to heaven and you don’t know why.” It’s a gut-punch moment that elevates the song beyond just a local scene anthem. Brògeal aren’t just looking back at old antics, they’re reckoning with the people they were and the people they’ve lost along the way.

What makes Vicar Street Days shine is how effortlessly it balances mischief and maturity. You can feel the band’s growth without losing the essence of what made them so compelling to begin with. It’s all there, the camaraderie, the chaos, the chaos again, but now there’s a little more space to breathe between the chords.

Coming hot off the back of a packed-out UK tour – including a sold-out SWG3 and a rowdy headline at the Dublin Castle – Brògeal are clearly riding a wave. And this single cements it: they’re not just another folk-punk band with a good live show. They’re songwriters with substance, stories, and scars.

If Friday On My Mind hinted at a band settling into their next chapter, Vicar Street Days kicks the door open and welcomes you inside. It’s honest, it’s raucous, and it’s beautiful in all its rough-edged, whisky-sodden glory.

For fans of: The Mary Wallopers, Fontaines D.C., The Pogues, early Arctic Monkeys

Out now on Play It Again Sam. Don’t sleep on it.