Spectator Sports in Glasgow, Part Six - Boxing.

"History in the Making" - Ricky Burns vs Michele Di Rocco

The SSE Hydro has always looked like the perfect stage for professional boxing contests, and last night it was the venue for local favourite Ricky Burns's attempt to claim his third world title. He was the headline act on a night of boxing laid on by Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing organisation and shown live on Sky Sports. The 10,000 seater arena has good views from every seat in the house and can create a great atmosphere when the entertainment is right, with the seating banked up steeply on three sides.

The SSE Hydro arena, Glasgow

The Hydro has been used for boxing once before, when it was home to the boxing events at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. I saw some of the finals here and was very impressed with the organisation and the performances. I enjoy watching boxing on TV but have rarely went to see professional bouts. When I have bought tickets recently the events have been cancelled at short notice for various nefarious reasons. Prior to that I have taken in the odd evening of amateur boxing in Glasgow, which can be anywhere from the Fairfield Working Mens Club in Govan to the function suites at Hampden Stadium. With the demise of the Kelvin Hall as a sporting venue, where Benny Lynch and Jim Watt have previously fought, the Hydro has been a welcome, and well used, addition to the city's venue options. As a child I remember our annual trips through to Edinburgh for the Miners' Gala, where one of the most memorable events was the big tent in Holyrood Park hosting amateur boxing bouts, so I was looking forward to this night.

SSE Hydro in 2014 for the Commonwealth Games boxing finals

The big problem faced by professional boxing is that those running it are all in it to make money for themselves. Why else would there be so many championship divisions with WBA, IBF, WBC and WBO champions on the go at present? Then you can get "regular" and "super" champions of some bodies to add to the chaos. Promoters cherry pick fights their man is likely to win in order to guarantee the next payday.  It is a big turn off for many, and you watch so many fights unsure if you are watching a true contest, or some fall guy stepping in to make someone else look good. 

At end of all this, a successful boxing career, such as Ricky Burns has had, can in end in bankruptcy and contract disputes with promoters. After slowly rebuilding his career after splitting from promoter Frank Warren, Ricky Burns, now promoted by Eddie Hearn, has stepped up a weight division to try to grab the vacant WBA World Super-Lightweight title. The "History in the Making" tag is to mark this achievement, as it would make Burns a three-weight world champion, having previously held Super Featherweight and Lightweight titles.

With the main fights of the evening going out live on Sky Sports, the boxing was listed as starting at 5.30pm with a preposterous 12 or 13 fights listed to go ahead. For the majority of the early bouts, they played to a sparsely filled hall. Joe Ham taking on Paul Holt drew more punters away from the bars, fighting 6 x 3 minute rounds at bantamweight. In his eighth fight since turning professional after the 2014 Commonwealth Games he took a comfortable points victory. The personable Glaswegian has been a regular supporter of the campaign to build a statue in the city to honour Benny Lynch and is building up an impressive record of victories now.

Joe Ham vs Paul Holt

"...and still undefeated...Joe Ham"

More of a brawl came from former British Champion Jon Lewis Dickinson and Belfast's Tommy McCarthy with McCarthy emerging on top after 10 x 3 minute rounds in a British Cruiserweight Championship eliminator. Evenly matched at the beginning, McCarthy began to pull ahead and won by a unanimous decision as he makes steady progress in the division.

Jon Lewis Dickinson and Tommy McCarthy

Conor Benn, son of Nigel Benn, fought his second professional bout high up on the billing, a workaday four round fight against Halifax's Luke Keleher. Clearly the promoters trying to build him up, but it was a shame Charlie Flynn wasn't given the chance at this point on the night to fight in front of a big home crowd.

Scotland's Willie Limond has been boxing professionally since 1999 and the 37 year old was intent on having one more big title push. His hope as stated in the programme, was to take the British Super-Lightweight belt from Tyrone Nurse tonight, aiming to set up a world title fight in Glasgow later this year against Ricky Burns if the pair of them ended up victors on the night. The crowd were getting right behind every punch he threw in some lively early rounds, despite a large section on the floor of the hall being distracted by trying to get selfies with American Heavyweight Shannon Briggs who ambled into his ringside seat during the first round.

Limond seemed to run out of steam as the fight went on and it was stopped in the ninth round when the referee decided that he had had enough punishment from the reachy Tyrone Nurse. After a long and impressive career, it may be time for Willie Limond to hang up his gloves.

Willie Limond vs Tyrone Nurse

There were still three fights on the undercard to be fought when TV schedules required us to skip to the main event, Ricky Burns vs Michele Di Rocco. The 34 year old Italian, recent European Super-Lightweight champion has an impressive record with forty victories and only one defeat, and is more comfortable at this weight than Burns, making him slight favourite in some people's eyes. The hope of many in the home crowd was that they could help push Burns onwards to victory.

The hall was full by the time the ringwalk started for the Burns vs Di Rocco fight and it was clear this would be a partisan crowd. It was also clear that signs of some "over-exuberance" were breaking out all around the arena before a raucous and shambolic rendition of "Flower of Scotland" was bawled out by the crowd in the Hydro. 

Ricky Burns and Michele Di Rocco take to the ring

Ricky Burns rolled back the years to put on a performance that he has previously shown he is capable of, as he went at Di Rocco from the first bell. With an impressive performance, his jabs repeatedly hit home and the lively crowd were lifted to their feet from early on. The Italian looked as if he was taking it though until he was knocked to the floor in the eighth round. Although he got back to his feet he was clearly in no state to continue and the referee brought it to an end. 

It was an imposing performance and makes Ricky Burns the first Scottish boxer ever to have won titles at three weights. As we approached midnight I headed home with most of the audience, with chants of "Ricky Burns...Ricky, Ricky Burns" to the tune of KC and the Sunshine Band's Give It Up echoing out. Three fights, including Scottish Commonwealth Lightweight Champion Charlie 'mailman' Flynn taking on Pole Norbert Kalucza were still to come in an emptying hall, which seemed incredibly unfair on the boxers promised their arena exposure. Charlie Flynn later won his eighth professional fight, on points.

Ricky Burns is declared the new WBA Super-Lightweight World Champion

On a night like this with a partisan crowd there can be a great atmosphere at the boxing. However early in the night the hall was almost empty and later on a decent proportion of the crowd were marockyoolusly drunk. Obviously fights can have varying lengths but the programme was always fairly fluid as we danced to the tune of TV audiences, and seemed cobbled together at times. As a result crowds of people ebbed in and out between the arena and the bar as we waited for the headline act. A leaner, meaner line up may have helped engage the crowd in the hall but I guess we are just window dressing for the TV audience. The people sitting around us were absolutely pished by the end of the night. As one guy with a mop cleared up vomit a couple of rows in front of us another group beside us seemed oblivious to the fact Ricky Burns was fighting down below us. They fell back on the only tunes they could think of to shout as a crowd "Waghorn's on fire, your defence is terrified" and "Fuck the IRA" and thankfully headed off before the fight finished.

Many people were here for a night out, rather than for the boxing, which is fair enough but the stewards were clearly being kept busy by scuffles threatening to break out here and there. At times it was just as entertaining to watch the audience as to watch what was going on in the ring. However there are few venues that you can get away with that level of drunkeness and not get ejected.

It was an excellent night of boxing, but I'm not sure that having a vague feeling you might get lamped if you looked at someone the wrong way added much to an excitable atmosphere. With that and the dolly-birds tottering around between rounds with the the cards above their heads, it feels like boxing needs to raise its game a wee bit and come into the 21st century. It is an expensive night out, and the amateur boxing at the Commonwealth Games was laid on in a much more professional manner. It was better organised, had a sharper schedule, big screens above the ring to help watch the action and MCs talked to the audience, rather than spending all night with their back to you as they faced the TV cameras with you as a backdrop.

Saint Etienne, Young Fathers and Belle and Sebastian. Glasgow gigs , May 2015

Glasgow Gig Reviews - May 2015 

Saint Etienne, Glasgow Film Theatre. Young Fathers, Glasgow School of Art. Belle and Sebastian, SSE Hydro

Rather spoiled for choice for live music in Glasgow this week. Here are a couple of brief live gig reviews of some of the bands that I took in.

It is a real treat to see Saint Etienne and Belle and Sebastian play within a few days of each other, two standards on any playlist I would put together in my student days. Both bands demonstrate their "indie" credentials by being named respectively after a French football team and a French children's book of the 1960s. Between these two gigs I also this week got the chance to see the excellent Young Fathers again, who seemed like a sharp, refreshing double espresso between two sweet cups of cappuccino.

Saint Etienne

I have always kept an eye out for Saint-Étienne the French Ligue 1 football team ever since they played a European Cup Final in Glasgow in 1976. I was only a wee thing, but my parents put me up to speaking to some of the 25,000 French fans in town, chanting "Allez Les Verts!" to them. Despite my support, Bayern Munich (and Hampden's square goalposts) beat them 1-0 that day. When a band of that name emerged in the 1990s I was drawn to them by the name, and stuck around to listen to their groovy, indie-dance sound. They were in Glasgow to perform live the soundtrack to the film "How We Used To Live", a documentary edited together by one time band member Paul Kelly, largely from BFI archive footage. (If you want to gaze through the archive yourself you can do so along at Bridgeton Olympia Library in Glasgow.)

There is a lot more interest in the nostalgia days before every aspect of our lives was recorded and shared with the world, but I found the film itself a bit sentimental. It recalled London from the 1950s to the early 1980s with Ian McShane's jocular narration. There were interesting wee nuggets, a well dressed woman tottering in high heels through a demolition site, steam trains being dismantled during the Beeching cuts, but the music and pictures were creating an atmosphere, rather than telling a story. It all felt a bit clean and wholesome. I think we've just been spoiled a bit with King Creosote doing a similar thing alongside Virginia Heath with their film From Scotland With Love. That film, made from Scottish film archives, seems to much more successfully capture real people and real places, with no cod narrator, but the music providing a strong element of storytelling.

Saint Etienne at Glasgow Film Theatre

This was followed by the band, fronted by Sarah Cracknell playing a fair few from their back catalogue. Great though their tunes are, it was funny to hear songs that I used to dance along to in Level 8, whilst sitting in a comfy seat in a cinema watching the band play on the carpeted area below us. It was a bit too much for one or two middle aged male groupies who squealed nonsensically at Sarah Cracknell, who didn't have the height a stage would usually give to allow her to be kept away from them. I cringed on her behalf as she politely tolerated it. Their tunes have stood the test of time however and were great to see performed.

Young Fathers

Edinburgh's finest pop/rock/hip hop act, Young Fathers arrived back on these shores again after a recent tour in the USA. Their latest album, White Men Are Black Men Too, is a fantastic listen, but seen live they take it up a notch. The surprise, but deserved winners of the Mercury Music prize last year their music is as hard to categorise as they are. A mish-mash of influences is what you should expect from a band consisting from a boy Drylaw, a Liberian who arrived in Edinburgh via Ghana and a Edinburgh-born son of Nigerian parents. Their "Young Fathers" moniker apparently comes from the fact that they all share their father's first name, a clever play on words that their songs enjoy too. They are angry, sweaty and have got something worth listening to. Driven on by their energetic drummer they barely pause for breath. I think this is the third time that I've seen them live, and in the sold out hall at the Art School in Glasgow they now seem to have a following that knows their music, and wants to singalong. They battered through a slick, well rehearsed set, dropped the mic to the stage, then walked off. No chit chat, no laughs, it's all about the music. 

Young Fathers on stage in Glasgow

Belle and Sebastian

By contrast to Young Fathers, Belle and Sebastian have never been about the energy levels, but more about the feeling of a shy friend talking about his life from his bedroom. The first time that I saw them live was in 1998 when they played in Maryhill Community Central Halls, a kind of warm up gig for a tour I think. It was an easy crowd, with their most adoring fans sat cross legged on the floor near the stage, and their aunties and uncles nearer the back of the hall. At that gig, occasionally they'd stop when one of the band made a mistake, they'd all apologise to each other politely and decide what song to play instead.

Next time I saw them was a few years later when they played the Barrowlands, a venue that suited them down  to the ground, packed out with adoring fans. The intimacy of their music worked well in that space, with local couthiness supplied by Gavin Mitchell coming onstage to do his Boaby the barman routine from Still Game.

Now on the home leg of their current tour they are playing the 10,000 seater SSE Hydro on a Friday night, accompanied by the Scottish Festival Orchestra. Their current album, Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance, takes them in a different direction, as if they have been listening to a lot of Pet Shop Boys music recently, hinting at a grander sound and performance. Like Saint Etienne, we start off with a nostalgic film as the hall is beginning to fill. The film, Glasgow 1980, is worth watching if you've never seen it. It was commissioned by Glasgow Corporation in 1971 like a propaganda film, looking forward to the brave new world ahead once all the slum tenements were cleared and we were all living in clean, airy tower blocks and getting about on motorways. It is directed by renowned photographer Oscar Mazaroli and produced by Bill Forsyth and can be watched on the Scottish Screen Archive website.

Belle and Sebastian at the SSE Hydro, Glasgow

The Hydro is a massive space which the band and their orchestra tried to fill with bombast, flashy video screens and enthusiasm. It was good to see Mick Cooke back with the band, as one thing that I missed on the current album was his brass playing. He seemed to have come back to help with the musical arraignments with the orchestra. They played surprisingly few songs from the new album, sticking to reliable old favourites. Sadly no room on the setlist for my own favourites (Fox in the Snow and The Stars of Track and Field) but The Boy With the Arab Strap was accompanied by audience and orchestra members invited onstage to dance. I really enjoyed the concert, sat with a smile on my face the whole way through, but 100-times over would have preferred to see them back in the Barrowlands. The vast standing area seemed to be filled with many people just standing, so I don't know what the sound or atmosphere down there was like, but it looked a bit flatter than you may have hoped. The best moments tended to be when you got some intimacy with the band, talking about writing Dear Catastrophe Waitress in the old Grosvenor Cafe, or another song on the number 44 bus (which used to take me home to Knightswood from the city centre - a bus route that seemed to attract eccentric passengers such as the woman who would sit her tortoise on her shoulder "as it likes to look out the window").

It was a great concert, they have a fantastic back catalogue of songs, but I am not sure they really should try to be a stadium rock band.

Running Route Around Glasgow Commonwealth Games Venues: Part 1

(Sept 2013 Part 2 here)
(June 2014 - venue update here)


The Commonwealth Games kick off in Glasgow in July 2014 and the deadline for the first batch of ticket applications is the 16th of September. Like many people I've put in a clutch of applications for me and my family and am waiting to see how many I've got before deciding whether to apply for some of the other sports on offer. It is an eccentric collection of sports that are in the Commonwealth Games, I guess the clue for that being the fact that these were originally the British Empire Games, but with countries participating including Jamaica, Australia, Canada, Kenya and Vanuatu there will be a host of top athletes on show.

Whatever tickets I get there will still be the marathon and the road cycling to be watched on the streets of Glasgow. The recent National Road Race Championships through the city streets showed what an entertaining spectacle these will be. Work is ongoing to get all the venues ready. As I'm running the Great Scottish Run half marathon in Glasgow in 4 weeks time the distances for my training runs of a Sunday morning are having to increase, and as I get easily bored, I devised a couple of wee 13 mile/ 20km routes around the Commonwealth Games venues to see what progress is being made on them. So if you want to run, cycle or walk around these places let me tell you what route I chose and what I saw.

Route 1. Glasgow Venues North of the River. A 20km Loop

Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls Centre

I started at Kelvingrove Park, where the bowling greens present one of the most photogenic venues with Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Glasgow University in the background. The greens have all been re-laid and temporary seating will be in place for spectators during the games. As someone who goes out jogging through the streets of Glasgow regularly I am forever amazed at the number of bowling clubs that I stumble across hidden up various side streets in all parts of the city. I have messed about on these particular greens before, as like all of the city council run greens they are free to play on, so make a fine way to distract the kids for a wee half hour. They used to also let you play croquet on these greens. When I was younger I had to explain to the man in the booth that in my enthusiasm for this game, the rather violent rules we were making up ourselves, I had managed to snap their mallet.

The Hydro, Clyde Auditorium and SECC

Heading along Argyle Street and then south down Finnieston Street you pass the Hydro with the Clyde Auditorium (or Armadillo) and Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) hidden in behind it. Despite the recent fire damage the Hydro seems to be on course to open soon and like a Vegas casino on the Clyde, I believe they plan to have Rod Stewart as the resident entertainer 6 nights a week until the games start. Once the games do start it will host the Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics and the finals for the Boxing. The Armadillo will be home to the Weight-Lifting and Para-Sport Powerlifting and the SECC will play host to the Netball, Boxing, Judo and Wrestling. On at the SECC later today was Scotland Comic Con and even though it was only 8am when I was running past here, the costumed Pokemon and Japanese anime attendees to this were already queueing.

From here I headed over the Squinty Bridge (I think Clyde Arc is the official name) and headed east along the river, crossing back to the north bank at the suspension bridge before Glasgow Green. Running through Glasgow Green I stumbled upon the cyclists heading off across to Edinburgh for the annual "Pedal for Scotland" event. As they passed the MacLennan Arch they were piped on their way. This arch was once the entrance to the Assembly Rooms on Ingram Street, built in 1796 and designed by Robert and John Adam. When the building was knocked down in 1892 to make way for the Post Office building the archway was moved initially to Greendyke Street near to here, and then in 1922 it shuffled into Glasgow Green.

Pedal for Scotland at Glasgow Green

Carrying on through Glasgow Green eastwards you arrive (after about 5.5km) at the football pitches where the newly built Glasgow National Hockey Centre is found. It looks a lovely facility and I suppose it must be getting used at present since they turned the sprinkler on just as I took my snap on my phone.

Glasgow National Hockey Centre

Carrying on eastwards I was keen to seek out the new Athletes' Village which is being built here and then will be housing for the local community once the Games have left town. This is being built in a piece of land between Dalmarnock Road, Springfield Road and the River Clyde and lies just east of the Emirates Arena. It is a major development and one can only hope that they have learnt from Glasgow's poor record over the last 50 years with housing developments. Maybe this time they will invest some money maintaining the properties and plan facilities for the residents (shops, health care services, decent schools and potential employers). You can only hope.

Sun shines down on the Athletes Village construction site in Glasgow

Athletes Village, Dalmarnock, Glasgow

Across the road from here is the impressive structure that houses the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome and the Emirates Arena. That corporate naming thing I find grim. Are there many of the Dalmarnock locals that are going to wander past and think, "Oh, I fancy a 5 star trip to Dubai"? It just makes it suddenly seem something out of reach for those living in the neighbourhood, when it really is important it is a resource that the local people enjoy having and use. What would have been wrong with calling it the Dalmarnock Sports Arena? It is run by the council's arms-length "Glasgow Life" organisation so has a council run gym in it. Therefore you can go in for a nosey around the velodrome and the Arena, which can be used as an indoor running track. During the Commonwealth Games the Track Cycling will be held here and in the Arena, the Badminton competition.

The Chris Hoy Velodrome and "Emirates" Arena

Around the corner on London Road sits Celtic Park, where Partick Thistle will play the Glasgow Derby game this season on January 1st. Even at this early hour the place was a hive of activity as the stadium was hosting a sell out charity match later in the day, raising funds for Stiliyan Petrov's cancer charity.

Celtic Park, with the catering facilities for the Commonwealth Games being put in place

Celtic park will host the Opening Ceremony for the Commonwealth Games. Already some people are complaining that this may harm their chances of qualifying for next year's Champions League if they win the SPFL this year, as the early qualifying stages will have to be played elsewhere due to this. I presume that they could have said "no" to being paid for the use of their ground next July, but as Ibrox is hosting the Rugby 7's maybe they were wanting to get in on the act too. There is a precedent in the city for this venue-shifting not helping the "home" team . The first ever European Cup game played in Glasgow was at Partick Thistle's Firhill Stadium; Djurgardens IF vs Hibernian in November 1955. The Swedes used it as their home fixture as their own ground was frozen, but lost 3-1, and then lost the "away" leg five days later in Edinburgh 1-0.

Tollcross Baths, or Tollcross International Swimming Centre

Okay, so on to the last Commonwealth venue of this route. Go east along London Road for almost a kilometre and once you've passed 10km turn left up Maukinfauld Road, past the McVities biscuit factory and into Tollcross Park at the top. If you zig-zag north through the park you'll come out at the "Tollcross International Swimming Centre" as it is now named. Here Glasgow's 50m pool has been upgraded and is re-opened with the extra seating still being added along the rear end of the building today. Alternatively you can go instead to the excellent wee Children's Farm in the park, but the glasshouses are out of action.

Steam Hammer at Beardmore Park

From here you can go a wee bit further north and you'll emerge onto Shettleston Road near to the ground of the mighty Shettleston Juniors, where Tommy Docherty started his footballing career. Heading back west to get back to the start you'll soon come to a giant steel hammer at a junction, which marks the industry which turned the small weaving village into the Parkhead which exploited the local coal deposits and became home of the Beardmore's famous Parkhead Forge. Like somebody mocking this heritage a rather depressing shopping centre carries this name now. It sits like a spaceship which has thrown up a crater of wasteground around it on landing.  Forking left at the steel hammer you'll head down Westmuir Street and pass the beautiful Victorian buildings which stand at Parkhead Cross. Continuing east along the Gallowgate past the Eastern Necropolis (where the remains of Alexander Cruikshanks lie, a goalkeeper for Strathclyde FC, who died during a match in 1932), you will arrive at the Barrowland Ballroom. It always looks a bit sad during the day when its big glitzy light isn't on, but at this time on a Sunday the Barras market was on. A veritable League of Nations of eager customers was rushing past me to inspect the roll ends of linoleum and fluorescent shell suits that I spotted for sale along the streets.

Barrowlands Ballroom and the Barras market

Heading into the city centre I passed George Square after 18km which is presumably now getting its Commonwealth Games makeover. After Gordon Matheson got his controversial plans rejected to re-jig the square and make it a bit more corporate friendly, the council agreed to do what everyone wanted in the first place. Tidy it up a bit, remove the tatty red tarmac and put some of the grass beds back in place. Anyway I guess this is what is happening behind the barriers, to at least give visitors to the city centre a more handsome square to remember us by.

George Square and the Commonwealth Games hoardings

So head up St Vincent Street and that's you back at the bowling greens of Kelvingrove Park. It was heartening to see so much going on in town with the ComicCon, hockey players heading out to their pitch, cyclists off to Edinburgh, a full house at Celtic Park and the Barras market in full swing. The George Square hoardings remind me that I haven't found the table tennis and squash venues yet. So that is where I'm headed next.

(June 2014 - update on venues here)