I spent three days in Glasgow last week in the company of JC, The Vinyl Villain, who showed me the city in all its glory: the south side of the city, Queen's Park and Pollockshields; the West End, Kelvingrove, the bandstand, the university and Byers Road; the east end, Barrowlands and St Luke's; the city centre, its pubs and bars including the legendary McChuills and the Laurieston (both pictured below, McChuills top and the Laurieston below), a superb photography exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art, and the Admiral Woods bar; the sites of local musical history (including the two places where The Clash performed on their 1985 busking tour- venues The Clash played becoming a theme of my summer), venues that Andrew Weatherall frequented as a DJ, acid house/ techno clubs the Sub Club and the Arches; and in a rush of blood to the head, a bus ride to East Kilbride and back, to see the 1960s new town that Roddy Frame and the Reid brothers were so keen to escape from.
On Wednesday night we watched the England game, the semi- final that led to defeat against Argentina. I wasn't the only England fan in the room but we were very much outnumbered by the Argentina fans. The sun shone, the beers flowed, England collapsed with twenty minutes to go. The following night we met up with Aldo, Comrade Colin, Stevie (from Charity Chic Music) and Carlo (Strangeways), some of whom I hadn't seen since the international bloggers weekend in Glasgow in 2017.
It was fantastic. Glasgow is a city that is alive, gritty and energetic, where music and culture and football rub shoulders all day long with the people who live there. I saw this advice on the flagpole on top of the hill in Queen's Park and it felt apt...
Some music from Glasgow's extensive back catalogue starting with Simple Minds and an extended version of the title track from their 1984 album, added drums and running time, a glorious song from the mid- 80s.
New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (German 12" remix)
Belle and Sebastian's Lazy Line Painter Jane, their second single back in 1997 with Monica Queen on guest vocals, a Northern Soul/ indie rock crossover with a still startling line about getting a dose of thrush from licking railings.
And finally, from East Kilbride, the new town they built eight miles from Glasgow, in theory a short drive from East Kilbride to Glasgow city centre but it might as well be a hundred miles, over the hills and far away. On a gloriously hot and sunny day it was a little difficult to imagine the teenage Jim and William Reid, sheltering from the wind and the rain, convinced they were the only Velvet Underground fans in East Kilbride, antisocial, isolated and alone, experimenting with the local LSD and dreaming of escape, black jeans, winkle pickers and a mess of hair. Everybody comes from somewhere.
4 comments:
I see what you did there with the post title!
It was either that or Glasgow's Miles Better-that might have been better actually in retrospect.
No side trip to Yoker? Mindboggling.
Sorry Swanditch- couldn't fit everything in in one trip.
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