Glasgow Music Scene

“Glasgow is a very Scottish city, the Dear Green Place (from the Gaelic glas chu) is a unique mix of friendliness, urban chaos, black humour and energy - but you may need to take an umbrella”

For me though, Glasgow is a Confident city, almost smug in fact, but slightly reticent with it. – We have our own aspirations and we like what we like. When you first visit Glasgow you may be forgiven for saying ‘is this it?’ what’s all the fuss about then eh? Architecturally Glasgow is beautiful, there is the usual tourist pish, Galleries, open top bus tours in the rain, and fabled deep fried mars bars (which I have yet to see by the way), so for the momentary visitor, apart from eat and drink yourself silly with the locals, the best attraction in Glasgow can oft be the next train to the aesthetically pleasing city of Edinburgh. In fact the more travel journals you read posted by the occasional Ozzie or American who dares travel this far north often say the predictable.

Pity. That’s because Glasgow is no Edinburgh, 40 miles away but worlds apart. In fact there is a saying on the west coast which goes, ‘you get more fun at a Glasgow Funeral than at an Edinburgh wedding’, the awful truth is, I have never been to an Edinburgh wedding.

Glasgow is subterranean where Edinburgh is beautiful, brash and in your face. Edinburgh is the cute girl at school everybody fancied, where Glasgow is her ‘decent-ish’ looking mate that had the better personality. And like the seeing the beauty in the less beautiful of the two it takes someone who knows their own mind that is not as easily influenced by popular opinion to like one over the other. That’s just what Glasgow is about, a developed attitude, a sense of self, unapologetic and gritty. This is why we have the music industry we have and the bands coming through that we have. We will have the music in spite of what’s in fashion and not because of it. As one writer put it “"People down in London, aren't really impressed when they hear, 'Oh this band are really big in Glasgow.'" "But then again, London bands suck." That kind of attitude will keep Glasgow rocking long after the current wave of A. and R. men has moved on to the next hot town.

No Aires and Graces – If its shite – its shite. The infamous Glasgow audience.

To understand what makes a great Glasgow talent and where this personality comes from you need to understand the Glasgow audience. Often the audience will become the performer.

In 1994 I went to the very first T in the Park at Strathclyde Country Park. Headlining were Rage against the Machine, Bjork, Cypress Hill, Blur and The Manic Street Preachers all on the main stage, with little up and coming bands such as Pulp and Oasis all packed into the King Tuts Tent. Robbie Williams turned up to hang out and play football and Oasis proclaimed that this was their best ever performance. An unknown band called Glass Onion ­ who later changed their name to Travis - played the New Talent Stage… What an inaugural line-up – this was faultless planning I thought. This was before I had the benefit of hindsight and noticed that some mug made the mistake of organising a comedy tent. Comedy has its place but for me it’s not at a music festival. Having said that I went along to see this new concept on day one and at very best there were a few mild laughs with very average comedians not matching the musical ambition going on outside. This included the woeful Charlie Chuck as master of ceremonies.

The Saturday weather was brilliant, so good in fact Bjork was dancing on top of the Portacabin to Rage against the machine, and the now customary heckles of ‘Oi! Bjork! Get yer paps oot doll!!’ were flying thick and fast - Clever.

Day 2. A deluge. We were in real festival stuff now. Later that day, with a lull in the schedule, a few threatening clouds had us again seeking refuge in the tented areas and everyone piled into whichever tent was closest. In my somewhat drunken haze I was back in the groundhog tent with the same comedians as yesterday apart from one addition.

Charlie Chuck was once again launching a few careers on stage by introducing the acts. On comes act one – some American with a prop of a kids plastic doll. He pretends to be shagging it. Not a word spoken yet. He then speaks a few words into the mike and returns to frantically shagging this cheap kid’s doll. Some paedo gag on its way perhaps? Eyebrows rose all around, looks were exchanged by strangers, looks that said ‘are you going to tell him or am I?’ I reckon it was 20 seconds from entrance to first heckle. “Yer shite!! Fu- coff!!” a young man did loudly observe, and obligingly ‘coff’ he dually did go. A mistake and no question as the audience now knew they now had the power, they knew they had a live Vocal remote control!

Next on was some other non entity whose name escapes me - stage act 2. Two gags in and people were shouting out his punch-lines recalled from yesterdays lame show. “Aye to get to the other side! We know! We’ve heard it; it was shite then and its shite noo!’ ‘Aff ye get fanny baws!!’ and Fanny baws like his predecessor did adhere to such sound advice and did cordially toddle off too.

So here we were two acts in and about 90 seconds to 2 minutes gone. The rain hadn’t even started yet and we had all this time to kill. An impromptu appeal from Charlie Chuck to the state of mind within the tent saw a momentary thought process ripple through the crowd only to return with a unanimous verdict - No chance- if its shite its shite! And after his own warble for 5 minutes, the best of the lot it has to be said, he too trundled off under a blanket of massive cheers. Now that could be construed as cruel, but for me it’s honest. If more people were as honest we wouldn’t be watching disillusioned kids die a death on national TV talent contests thinking they have what it takes, simply because no one told them they are in fact actually red rotten rank!!

This is how we produced our bands. This is how we produce our people. (apart from the NEDS but that’s another Encyclopedia entirely)

Access all Areas!

Keeping the above in mind it’s easy to understand therefore that in Glasgow just because you can play a guitar it doesn’t make you ‘all-that’. From memory my brushes with Glasgow’s Music Gentry were few but distinctly ordinary affairs. This is not to take anything away from anyone as each one had charisma and talent by the bucket load, however they also to a man seemed to have been in that Glasgow audience at one time and knew that if they too sucked they would be told to ‘coff’ just as directly. But they knew they were good enough. And sure as hell, they were.

I used to often drink in the Horseshoe bar where Fran Healy would be serving the pints of a night, while on nights off would be upstairs practicing with the glass onions who as I said went onto become Travis. I saw the Glass Onions at a Christmas ball Uni all-nighter and they were mince. I think they knew it from the sparse audience. But like a load of other bands they kept on quietly plugging away while no one took notice. I bumped into Norman Blake one day in Woodlands road and he was telling me all about Teenage Fanclubs fan base in Japan and how they were headed back that way soon. At Least the Japanese knew their potential as here in the UK apart from a strong following in Glasgow they were also-rans in the UK Indie scene. Pick up a Fannies CD now and you realise how far these guys should have gone. But the focus wasn’t there. Money had taken over and their face didn’t fit. Not to worry – I did mention Smug. Money was not the motivator anyway. It was all about the music. Time magazine called Glasgow one of Europe's "secret capitals" because of its contribution to rock, pointing out its long history as an underground incubator of talent then subsequently voted it in its top ten coolest cities musically.

Glasgow as a city has always been accessible and underground. To know someone here is to enjoy the city. It has its little hiding holes and ‘in–the-know’ outlets of sheer brilliance. While working for a wine retailer in a posh part of Glasgow a regular customer of mine was one named Stuart Clumpas. One day he was telling me how frustrated he was at the Glasgow Music scene and that he wanted to set up his own venue to showcase the great talent he knew was out there. He was bored of what Glasgow was doing up front these days; this was after all the days of Wet Wet Wet, Deacon Blue, Lloyd Cole and Del Amitri, trendy wank music at the best of it when Manchester was producing the Smiths, Inspiral Carpets, Stone Roses and the Mondays. He wanted a new place for bands to do their stuff. Little did I know then the impact he was about to have on the Scottish music Scene. To some intent and purpose he was Glasgow’s Tony Wilson. He of course went on to set up King Tutts Wah Wah hut which then went onto create T in the Park and a new scene was launched. Suddenly Glasgow had a CBGB of sorts. And in true Glasgow fashion for those of you that know it, KTWWH is hidden away next to…well nothing. Closed offices and a church. That’s about it. But it was here Oasis was discovered (as if they needed discovering) and dozens of new bands went onto set up what we know now as the Glasgow scene. Where one led, others followed and the 13^th note opened up in another back street and nice and sleazy added to make these gig-tastic times to be in Glasgow. Tutts now have launched their own Record label with the Dykeenies New ideas as it first launch in July!!

The Godfathers and mutual back scratching

But Glasgow bands help each other out. They keep their feet on the ground knowing that the city is the inspiration behind their song writing. About three years ago I saw Belle and Sebastian busking in Ashton lane for fun, with only 3 or 4 other people recognising the reclusive lot. They were a worldwide cult hit but here they were just enjoying the music and the city again. As it is, Stuart Murdoch still helps out at his local community centre in the west end, singing in the church choir and mingling with the chosen people. This has led to World Wide fans turning up and popping their faces in just for a view, worshipping false gods before the alter of the Christian Church! You couldn’t buy it!. The church claim they like the new faces although I am not sure its all that healthy when in one instance a Canadian fan has moved here and attends church weekly just to be next to their idol. Get thee behind me Gordon!!

The Glasgow music scene like many others has incestuous roots. The American Elephant six recordings spring to mind where one band will nurture, evolve or collate. The Reindeer Selection was a good example of that with Gary Lightbody & Iain Archer (snow Patrol) on vocals, Lee Gorton (Alfie), Eugene Kelly (the Vaselines, Captain America and Eugenius) also on vocals; Charlie Clarke; Willy Campbell & Gareth Russell ( the much under-rated Astrid), John Cummings (Mogwai), Bob Kildea (Belle and Sebastian) , Roddy Woomble (Idlewild) Malcolm Middleton & Colin Macpherson (Arab Strap), Jenny Reeve (Eva) Stacy Sievwright, John Quinn (Blacklight). Released the acclaimed album son of an Evil Reindeer in 2002. Dubbed the Scottish Super Indie Group. A sort of traveling Willburys of Scotland, except mostly alive. But this is how it has evolved. From the relationships between BMX Bandits with teenage fanclub to the Vaselines to the Pastels and back round again. It continues to thrive and I think the interview with Alex Kapranos summed it up best during an interview played just before they scooped the more credible Mercury music prize in 2004. he said ‘people often say to me Glasgow is becoming a cool city for music, and I say to them that it has always been a cool city for music but you just need to look deeper’. And he put his prize money into forming a Glasgow music Centre so he should know. That’s the way it is. Its no fad, it may fall out of favour, but know what? That might be a good thing. Long live the Weegies!! .

Some more famous - Glasgow bands

Supernaturals

Astrid

Mogwai

Strawberry Switchblade

Belle and Sebastian

Dykeenies

Looper

Camera Obscura

Urusei Yatsura

Delgados

Teenage Fanclub

BMX Bandits

Vaselines

Eugenius (aka Captain America)

Orchids

Close Lobsters

Superstar

Travis

Mull Historical Society

Travis

Wet Wet Wet
Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Primal Scream

Simple Minds

Texas
Snow Patrol

Franz Ferdinand

Bis

Deacon Blue

Jesus and Mary Chain

Aberfeldy

Shamen

Skids

Dogs Die in Hot Cars

Cocteau twins

Blue Nile

Average White Band

The Pastels

Associates

Arab strap

Fire Engines

Eddi Reader

Goodbye Mr Mackenzie ( went onto be Garbage)

Aztec Camera

Orange Juice

Del Amitri

My Latest Novel

Frattelis

Mother and the Addicts

Kazzoo Funk Orchestra

Ronelles

Hussys

Isobelle Campbelle

Big Country

God and so on…to be honest…look them up yersel!!

Related Articles

http://www.time.com/time/europe/secret/glasgow.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow#Music_Scene