Glasgow Kisses

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. 

Lazy Line Painter Jane

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. 

Happy When It Rains

I Belong To Glasgow

Well, that was a lot of fun. Myself, Drew (Across The Kitchen Table), JC (The Vinyl Villain), Stevie (Charity Chic Music), Dirk (Sexy Loser), Brian (Linear Tracking Lives), Walter (A Few Good Times) plus various friends of JC's (Aldo, Colin, Carlo) and Drew's (Stiff, William) managed to pull the bloggers weekend off, a bunch of middle aged men loose in Glasgow city centre. I think we all had moments leading up the weekend when we thought 'will this work?' and 'what if we don't get on?', and had people say to us 'you're going away to meet men you only know from the internet- are you mad?'. Dirk and Walter flew in from Germany. Brian came from Seattle. Seattle! I drove up from Manchester. The Glaswegian contingent were generous and genial hosts. We stopped in various pubs and bars. We shopped for records. We did football and culture. We saw Glasgow in glorious sunshine. All was good. It just goes to show that friends you make on the internet can become friends in the real world too. It will definitely happen again sometime.

There's a post over at The Vinyl Villain today featuring a band who won't have cropped up too often on our music blogs, an Imaginary Compilation Album for Coldplay, that is partly ribbing us music bloggers and our obsessions (and quite right too, we take music far too seriously sometimes). While sitting outside a pub on Saturday lunchtime it was suggested that we could all follow suit and post songs by Coldplay today. It may even have been me that suggested it. But I don't think I can do it. Sorry. Actually, I'm not sorry. I'm not posting anything by Coldplay. Is this any use? Cold (cut)...

Kick Out The JamEs (Speng)

... and (Kid 'n') Play

Last Night

It Don't Bother Me

After work tonight I'm heading up the M6 for the first international bloggers summit in Glasgow where a weekend of middle aged men talking nonsense and drinking awaits. Tomorrow afternoon some of us are going to the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie to watch the mighty Diamonds play Queen's Park and hopefully secure their position in the play offs. Before that, record shopping at Monorail (and maybe a pint or two).

I have been to a Scottish football match before I now recall, on a 6th form weekend away in Edinburgh in 1987. A bunch of us went to Easter Road to watch Hibs play Aberdeen. We wandered down to pay on the gate, avoiding various scuffles on the way between supporters of Hibs and the Dons. At half time almost every single person on the home end pissed through the fence onto the steps that led up to the turnstiles. An elderly man standing next to me shouted abuse at Aberdeen keeper Jim Leighton all the way through the second half. Truly, these were the days. I don't know what Jim had done to earn this abuse other than be in goal. The old man made repeated reference to Leighton's bandy legs in conjunction with a part of female anatomy. Within weeks Jim Leighton signed for my club Manchester United where he kept goal until being dropped for the 1990 FA Cup Final after one howler too many.

Bert Jansch was born in Glasgow in 1943 and is widely regarded as the king of British folk guitar. This track has just surfaced online ahead of some re-issues, a song recorded with Johnny Marr, the king of indie guitar, in the early 2000s. Lovely stuff.