Mogwai's 20th Anniversary and West End Festival All-dayer

Live review Mogwai 20th Anniversary gig, Barrowlands, Glasgow. 20 June 2015
Live review - West End Festival ALl-dayer, Oran Mor, Glasgow. 21 June 2015

This weekend there was a spectacular amount of good music performed in Glasgow, which I was lucky enough to see. Local heroes Mogwai are playing a series of 20th anniversary gigs just now and did two sold out nights at the Barrowlands in Glasgow. We pitched up early on the first of these nights, as they had added to a celebratory atmosphere with some excellent support acts.

First up was Pye Corner Audio, noodling away onstage as the crowd arrived. Good to see him perform but listening to it at home it has an old fashioned electronica, John Carpenter-style feel that is maybe better suited to hearing in a dark basement than the Barrowlands Ballroom. 

Without much time for chin stroking, Prolapse were up next. They are a band which passed me by in the early 1990s, their stated aim at that time "of being the most depressing band ever". If Mogwai are classified as post-rock, this was post-punk and probably the highlight of an entertaining evening. Playing together after a few years off they were tense and crackling on stage. "Scottish Mick"  Derrick and Linda Steelard prowled about on stage with the threat of pent up violence hanging over them the whole time. Thankfully they (just about) didn't come to blows on stage. 

Loop were up next, a band I remember more for their wavy flag logo than their music, but my pal accompanying me tonight is a big fan. They have also re-formed after a hiatus of a few years to tour again. Their looping guitars and droning noise place them somewhere between Motorhead and My Blood Valentine at times, but the grey haired, Paul Weller styled frontman, Robert Hampson, steers them away from this.

Mogwai on stage at The Barrowlands

If you've read any other blogs that I've written here you will know that I've seen Mogwai a few times over the years, so it was great to see them again. I'm delighted to read today that they plan to bring out a retrospective box set, "Central Belters" (nice title) in October too. I won't say much about their full-throttled set other than to note that they moved away from their stereotyped quietquietLOUD to give us two hours of loudloudquietLOUD tonight, no place for the likes of their recent gentle, and successful, Les Revenants soundtrack material. It is years since I have seen them play in the Barrowlands and it really is the perfect venue for them. Nice to see Aidan Moffat join them on stage for a rendition of "R U Still In 2 It" too.

One final mention for their excellent 20th anniversary T-shirts, featuring the original Star Wars arcade game, which I guess must be at least 20 years old too. This game (or maybe Moon Cresta) was my all time favourite to play in Treasure Island on Jamaica Street circa 1985 and I was great at it, so I had to get one.

Oran Mor West End Festival All-dayer

Having been very abstemious all night on Saturday as I was running the Men's 10k through the streets of Glasgow on Sunday morning, I was able to relax on Sunday afternoon at the West End Festival all-dayer. A mouthwatering array of local musicians was on offer across three venues within the venerable old church-come-pub and club.

Main auditorium, Oran Mor

Every time I have been to a gig in the main auditorium upstairs the performers on stage beneath Alastair Gray's spectacular murals are competing to be heard over the bar at the other end of the room, which itself is raised up on a slightly higher stage. It cannot be that this place just attracts the rudest of crowds, but has to be down to the shape and acoustics of the place. Fine for a wedding band maybe, not the ideal place to hear the quiet musings of recent Scottish Album of the Year Award winner, Aberdonian Kathryn Joseph. In front of a crowd of those curious to see her after winning the award, her ethereal singing and playing led me to buy her album to listen to it again more closely.

After that we grabbed some food then headed downstairs to The Venue in the basement to hear Man Of Moon, who describe themselves as a "psychedelic two piece". Wearing their influences on their chest, with a Lou Reed T-shirt on, they managed to create their own sound and were good live.

Remember Remember perform for the last time

If Mogwai can conjure up a dark Winter's day in the West of Scotland with their music, then nobody does the sunshine of a Spring morning, sparkling on the early dew, better than the band Remember Remember. I  first saw Remember Remember when they were just Graeme Ronald playing spoons, scissors and various instruments through loops to build a sound picture. They progressed into an impressive instrumental band with three excellent albums to their name, but have now decided to call it a day and announced that their Oran Mor show would be their farewell gig. Lovely as ever and I'm sorry to see them call it a day. I headed home later with an 'E' that Graeme had chucked into the crowd to help me remember Remember Remember. 

Back upstairs to see the ever entertaining and former Scottish Album of the Year award winner RM Hubbert strumming his stuff. He took a more direct (and successful) approach to those who continued to chat away at the bar over his performance. Shouting "Will youse shut the fuck up!" is something I hope Kathryn Joseph doesn't need to add to her stage persona. Nice to see Aidan Moffat joining Hubby on stage to provide the vocals for "Car Song". Passing up the chance to see We Were Promised Jetpacks and The Phantom Band we headed back downstairs to see a great set by Stanley Odd. I haven't ever seen him perform before, although his song to his child, "Son I Voted Yes", was widely circulated after the referendum verdict. Scottish accented hip-hop is a niche market I suspect, but his energy is contagious and his lyrics sharp, witty and political. Fellow vocalist Veronika Electronika (do you think that's her real name?) has a fantastic voice too over various different styles. Nicely done.

Sorry, but whenever we see Bill Wells perform I immediately
see Raymond Briggs's Father Christmas

I finished my weekend of music with Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells playing songs from the two albums that they have collaborated on. Accompanied by a great band of musicians playing assorted instruments, there was Bill on piano and Mr Moffat out front with percussion and vocals. They played a subdued set with a delicate, jazz-inflected atmosphere and it was nice to hear one of my favourites, "The Copper Top" again alongside material from "The Most Important Place In The World". A lovely way to end a great weekend of music. 

Eclectic Glasgow Entertainments #26

Reviewing some Glasgow theatre offerings, poetry and music from this week

Alasdair Gray gave an interesting interview in The Observer at the weekend, talking of his feeling of running out of time to do all the things he has wanted. He seems more productive than ever at present with his decoration of the Oran Mor interior, a new collection of his short stories released this week and his tiled wall at Hillhead subway station unveiled recently. He is often described as a polymath; playwright, author, artist and activist. He grew up in an environment in Glasgow where artists could meet up, share ideas and try them out. One place you see young artists mixing with old hands and getting to try stuff out is at Oran Mor's A Play, a Pie and a Pint.

One person who I've seen giving a reading alongside Alasdair Gray recently is Alan Bissett, a man with many strings to his bow. He is an author, performer, has written plays for Oran Mor's A Play, a Pie and a Pint and is active in the 'Yes' campaign for independence. He has admitted light-heartedly on Twitter to being exhausted by his role in the independence campaign but he brought plenty of energy to his one man show "The Red Hourglass", which reached The Arches last week. Originally performed at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer he played the parts of several spiders being observed in a St Andrews research facility. The parts were individually well written and performed, but the pieces struggled to hang together to make a coherent point, despite the final summing up by the research scientist. He has often collaborated with others through Oran Mor and seems not to be lacking in confidence or ambition. The artistic community of Scotland isn't enormous though, and contributes so much to defining us, entertaining us, making us think. Like your corner shop, unless you use it you will wake up one day and find that it has gone and all you have left is that huge, bland multinational brand you've got to drive to. I guess that is the point I'm trying to make in blogging all these events, trying to help people see what things are going on.

This week a A Play, a Pie and a Pint has a class act in town with Bill Paterson as writer and performer in Astonishing Archie. I think I'm right in saying it is based on the bones of a 30 minute piece he wrote as a radio play a few years ago to perform with Stanley Baxter. Sadly Richard Wilson had to withdraw from this performance for health reasons. He is ably replaced by Kenny Ireland, who recently directed The Cone Gatherers which I saw in September at the Theatre Royal. Sharon Small of Inspector Lynley Mysteries fame and the voice of Alex Norton also feature. The star qualities of Bill Paterson has drawn a larger than usual gaggle of Kelvinside ladies and gentlemen to Oran Mor and the place was packed when I went there on Tuesday, and I can confidently say that I was about 30 years younger than most of the other spectators. Two brothers born either side of the war view the world (and music) differently and fight it out over their pal Archie's farewell funeral music - Sinatra or Elvis. Bill Paterson's Allan and the script are warm and witty. A tale of sibling rivalry fought out through the medium of musical tastes, it is brought together nicely by Sharon Small's Church of Scotland minister. It's good, gentle fun and I could see it working well on BBC Scotland as a 60 minute play, early evening on Hogmanay before Only an Excuse.

Tam Dean Burn

Cross pollination was in evidence again down at SWG3, in the Jim Lambie built "poetry club". On Thursday night monthly Edinburgh arts project "Neu! Reekie!" visited Glasgow for its second outing here, its 26th edition in total. This Edinburgh scheme describes itself as an 'anti-cabaret' and keeps itself so under the radar that this is the first time I've come across it (which maybe just shows how Glasgow-centric I am). Whoever put this evening together chose well. First up Kevin Williamson (Rebel Inc founder) and Michael Pederson introduced Tam Dean Burn performing a Bertold Brecht poem on New York boom and bust, today on Thanksgiving Day. All very cool to a soundtrack by JD Twitch, a Gershwin Dub.

Graeme Ronald, in solo Remember Remember guise did his ephemeral, wistful stuff in a beautiful 30 minute set (I could happily have had the same again). He's a multi-instrumentalist who started off doing his stuff as a soloist, looping and repeating sounds as diverse as guitar chords and bubble wrap pops to make atmospheric, melodic tunes. Playing electric guitar with interference from an iPod tonight was a new one for me. If you haven't picked up their album (as a band) The Quickening, go get it now.

Next up was the ever entertaining Liz Lochhead, who changed her readings to follow the vibe of the evening, reading "Ira and George" (Gershwin). It was also nice to hear her powerful poem "Listen" again, the voice of a kid at a Children's Panel. She is a great advert for poetry as an aural rather than a written form and a great reader. Her corbie (crow) says 100 times what Ted Hughes's manages in its opening speech from her play Mary Queen Of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off.

Liz Lochhead

Scottish BAFTA winner and now Oscar long-list nominated animator Will Anderson then introduced his film "The Making of Longbird", a graduation project from Edinburgh College of Art which was a highlight of the evening. Look out for the Longbird, funny, clever. Very entertaining. Low Miffs front man, Leo Condi and a three piece band finished off an eclectic evening with some songs by Bertold Brecht and Jacques Brel and we finally got to see the Flying Scotsman sculpture/ smoke machine high up on the wall in action. Bit jealous of Edinburgh getting these Neu! Reekie! evenings on a monthly basis and I'll look out for the next Glasgow one now.