Chrysta Bell. Glasgow gig.

Live review - Chrysta Bell. Oran Mor, Glasgow. 8th April 2018

Brought to public attention by her role as special agent Tammy Preston in the latest series of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, Chrysta Bell seems a surreal presence on a chilly Spring evening in Glasgow. As a musician she has been performing since the 1990s and although her current tour is taking her all over the globe on the back of her recent acting turn for David Lynch, the audience for tonight's gig was on the rather meagre side. To compensate, the venue (Oran Mor) was set up with cabaret style seating, which lent an appropriately louche atmosphere to the gig. 

Chrysta Bell and band, Oran Mor, Glasgow. April 2018

I think the polite way to put it is that Chrysta Bell Zucht's acting in Twin Peaks: The Return was divisive. In the world of David Lynch and Mark Frost it can be hard to tell if the appearance they were after intentionally was of a plank of wood. If that was the case then she nailed the character of Tammy Preston. 

Introduced with projected eery visuals and electronic twangs that would not sound out of place in a Lynchian dream sequence, Chrysta Bell slinks on stage and launches into 52 Hz, all echoing vocals and electric drum beats before battering straight into Devil Inside Me, more breathy vocals and melancholy.

The night continues in the same vein, a coy "thank you" between songs and onward into another anthemic torch song. The three piece band are tight and well drilled throughout without ever setting the heather alight. An occasional twang of steel guitar lifts the music above the mundane.

We are never far away from Twin Peaks though. The kaleidoscopic projected visuals, Chrysta Bell's vampish presence and the unsettling songs which could all fit snuggly into the Bang Bang Bar playlist (one song is even called Blue Rose in case you don't notice). There is also songs like Down By Babylon co-written by David Lynch.

It's an engaging and slick performance, without ever appearing to get out of second gear. Many of the small crowd are here because of the Twin Peaks connections, which ultimately smothers any individuality from the concert. It felt like watching Jessica Rabbit covering some Chris Isaak songs, but then that just brings us back to Twin Peaks again. Isn't that right agent Chester Desmond? 

Chrystal Bell pub, Gallowgate, Glasgow - no connection

Charlotte Church's Late Night Pop Dungeon and Lloyd Cole's Classic Songbook

Review - A Nostalgic Week of Pop Music in Oran Mor Glasgow

Charlotte Church's Late Night Pop Dungeon - Oran Mor, 14th April 2017

Lloyd Cole's Classic Songbook (1983 - 1996) - Oran Mor, 11th April 2017

A co-incidental collision of nostalgic pop acts were on show in Oran Mor, Glasgow this week giving completely contrasting performances. As part of a tour promoting a new box set collection (Lloyd Cole in New York, Collected Recordings 1988 - 1996) Lloyd Cole pitched up for three nights in Glasgow. Coming back to the town he first arrived in as a student, and where he formed Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, his only nostalgia for the place was gratitude that the University Cafe still exists. A seated audience and an acoustic set, first hour alone, second hour accompanied by his son on a second acoustic guitar, it was never going to be a riotous affair. At the end of a six month tour, where the box set only materialised in the final weeks, there was a certain weariness about his usual hangdog demeanour. With almost 30 songs in the show, there were always going to be moments when only the superfans were singing along, but his songs were always lyrically interesting and his singing as clear as I remember from my days listening to Rattlesnakes. Only once did he forewarn us that his voice wasn't going to reach its former heights.


With the hits spread out through the evening we got Rattlesnakes and Jennifer She Said in early and later got onto Cut Me Down, Perfect Skin, Brand New Friend and Lost Weekend. The studenty literary references in the songs and tales of one night stands in the songs maybe don't fit so comfortably a man in his 50s singing with backing from his son, but the big songs have stood the test of time. They are his songs, and I would have enjoyed seeing if re-visiting them now brought him back to the younger man that wrote them, what was he thinking/ doing/ dreaming? But there was none of that, the songs were slipped on like a comfortable coat, then discarded onto the floor when finished with a brief "thank you" to the polite applause. His musical inspirations leaked into the guitar outros of some songs with brief chords from Bruce Springsteen, Prince and The Beatles thrown in there somewhere. With aspirations to be a mid-Atlantic Leonard Cohen I like the Americana in many of Lloyd Cole's songs, even if it feels artificial. None of the songs touched me in any emotionally way, but there were plenty to hum along to and tap my feet (clapping along was banned). A droll evening rather than one filled with clownish whimsy.


Clownish whimsy was the tone Charlotte Church and her Late Night Pop Dungeon were aiming at from the off. The venue was packed with a very mixed crowd as she came on stage, like her band, all spangley hot pants, wigs, glitter and foil. Keyboards, drums, guitar, bass and five backing singers made for a cramped stage as she battered through a 90 minute medley of songs. If there was any musical theme it was "anything goes". A song you sort of recognised would suddenly morph into something totally different. A song would start as a disco hit and end as Radiohead's Paranoid Android. Nelly's song Hot In Here, ended as Talking Head's Burning Down The House. We went everywhere, from soul and funk to rock music and Fleetwood Mac. Edwin Starr's "War" had a lively crowd pogoing away. Only nearer the end when she went for more mainstream songs could the crowd manage to start singing along, desperate to join in by that point, then she changed direction again with a melodious rendition of John Williams's theme from ET. Charlotte Church certainly has catholic tastes when it comes to pop music.

A Play, A Pie and A Pint. - Jocky Wilson Said.

Jocky Wilson Said. Oran Mor, Glasgow. March 2017

Jocky Wilson Said by Jane Livingstone and Jonathon Cairney. Theatre review.

When Dexy's Midnight Runners appeared on Top of the Pops in 1982 playing their version of the Van Morrison song "Jackie Wilson Said" instead of a picture of soul legend Jackie Wilson, behind them on stage was a large picture of Fife's own world darts champion, Jocky Wilson. This is often cited as a famous television mistake, but the truth is more mundane and it was actually done on purpose as a joke, with Jocky Wilson a very well-kent face at the time. Now he is maybe more well known for that incident than for his darts playing. 

He looked an unlikely sporting champion, which was a big reason that people warmed to him. Short, overweight, toothless, and smoking and drinking between throws, he had the appearance of the archetypal bloke from the pub darts team who goes on to be champion of the world. He did that twice, in 1982 and 1989, in the days before there were two rival darts championships.

Jocky Wilson

This week's play at Oran Mor's A Play, A Pie and A Pint series, twists the Dexy's song title to present a monologue with Grant O'Rourke as Jocky Wilson. It is based on an episode in his life in the days before he was world champion and finds him stranded in the Nevada desert, 180 mile (get it?) from a competition in Las Vegas he should be at. Trying to hitch a lift he chats to "Spike", a roadside cactus and brings out fascinating stories from his early life that were all new to me. With a glass half full attitude he looks back to his early days in an orphanage with his brother, his previous work including days in the Seafield Colliery and his time spent in Kirkcaldy's Lister Bar, where he first took up darts. His arguments with darts officials, temporary ban for punching one of them, and the grief his Argentinian wife Malvina got at the time of the Falklands War also add to his colourful past which I knew nothing about. 

Grant O'Rourke, who acts in TV series Outlander, makes a good Jocky Wilson, and also does decent impersonations of other characters, including a haughty Eric Bristow. Some of the best lines are direct lifts from Jocky Wilson's autobiography, such as

"I can manage just about anything with my gums. I can chew a steak provided it's well done. I can even eat apples. Great Yarmouth rock and nuts are the only things that defeat me"

The play gives you a rounded picture of Scotland's first ever darts world champion, without the later downward arc his life took. A man fondly remembered by many, and in his home town also with a wee display in his honour in Kirkcaldy Galleries. 

Emma Pollock and Grandmaster Flash. January 2016

Emma Pollock and Grandmaster Flash. Live gig reviews. 29 January 2016. Glasgow.

Appearing on the same blustery night in Glasgow, but sadly not on the same stage, these two acts performing in two recycled church buildings 200 yards apart probably reflect why I love the live music scene in Glasgow so much. There is always something happening, and something for all tastes.

Emma Pollock. Oran Mor. January 2016

Oran Mor, Glasgow

On the final weekend of the Celtic Connections festival Emma Pollock, accompanied at times by 11 other musicians, launched her new solo album, In Search of Harperfield. Her third solo album since The Delgados split up 10 years ago, with much energy in that time being put into running the Chemikal Underground record label that seems to single-handedly power Scottish indie music. She was performing in Oran Mor, the former Kelvinside Parish Church built in 1862, the bar-come-venue-come-theatre space, now adorned with some of Alasdair Gray's finest works.With a nod to the usual noisy chatter from the bar that often overwhelms the sound from the stage in this space, she acknowledged that any gaps between tracks as they undertook this ambitious set, would be covered by the bar noise. However she had nothing to fear in this regard as she fully held the attention of a rapt audience. Accompanied at times by (what is becoming her house string section) The Cairn Quartet, singer Siobhan Wilson, RM Hubbert (who wrote and performs on one of the new album tracks) and BDYPRTS as backing singers there was a bit of shuffling on and off stage, but it was a gig that felt like a family party with a congenial host. At the heart of it are some mighty fine tunes. House On The Hill, written during her Burns Unit days, shows what a great voice for folk music she has if she chose to go in that direction. Intermission, Clemency and Parks and Recreation are stand out tracks for me.

It is a great album, go buy it here.

Grandmaster Flash. Cottiers. January 2016

Cottiers Theatre, Glasgow

We dashed away before the end of the Emma Pollock gig to go 200 yards away to the former Dowanhill United Presbyterian Church. Designed by William Leiper and built in 1866. With fine stained glass and interior decoration by Daniel Cottier, the vacant church has been running for 30 years as Cottiers. A bar, restaurant and theatre space the owners, the Four Acres Charitable Trust continue to slowly restore the church to its former glories. This year they have re-instated the old church organ and perform afternoon concerts on it.

This made it a seemingly incongruous place to find one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing and mixing on a wet Friday night, however Grandmaster Flash seemed quite at home. He probably isn't the first grandmaster to stand where the alter previously stood in this old church, but it was just appy, nostalgic fare he was dishing out. No longer accompanied by the Furious Five he stood in front of the Cottiers apse with his turntables, playing like the world's cheeriest wedding DJ. He may well have been mixing and scratching with gusto, resplendent in his bespoke Puma gear, but it was hard to see past a crowd of sweaty Glaswegians who were kept bouncing and clapping by their MC. We had a short David Bowie section keeping it topical, someone he spoke of having a lot of respect for. "Glasgow. Let's Go" and "Here we go, here we go, here we go" were as close to any chants or rapping on display, but that was never what he brought to the music he worked on. A quick encore brought us his own tune, White Lines, mixed into White Stripes song Seven Nation Army for a finale. I left with a big smile on my face, as did he I think.

Grandmaster Flash performing in
an old church in Glasgow. Bit weird.

Two old Glasgow churches, two diverse performances by two masters at their game. It's the future for our places of worship.


live review, gig review, Emma Pollock, Glasgow, Cottiers, Oran Mor, Grandmaster Flash

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. 

Review : Mrs Barbour's Daughters, A Play A Pie and A Pint, Oran Mor.

Theatre Review : Mrs Barbour's Daughters, A Play A Pie and A Pint, Oran Mor. Oct 2014

I'm only after writing about Glasgow's radical past last week, when one of the people I was reading about, Mary Barbour, is remembered in a play at Oran Mor's A Play, A Pie and a Pint series a few days later.

In "Mrs Barbour's Daughters" by A J Taudevin (which is on in Glasgow this week before transferring to the Traverse in Edinburgh) an 87 year old woman is facing eviction from her crumbling tenement. Libby McArthur plays her carer niece and whilst they talk about the present day and worries of the Bedroom Tax, Mary, played by Anna Hepburn is overwhelmed with memories from her early family life. With a clever bit of direction they easily flit back and forwards through the decades as Mary remembers her more politically minded sister, played by Gail Watson (who plays Katie Morag's mum on cbeebies, and showed her singing prowess previously in Oran Mor's "A Bottle of Wine and Patsy Cline").

It is easy to see the modern day comparisons, with Mary Barbour getting woman politically motivated in the rent strikes of the 1915 and modern day women becoming a force for change in the mass meetings of the Women for Indy campaign recently. Mary in the play feels that she was taken for granted and missed out on a life, whilst her mother and sister were off campaigning and living theirs, but she still has a stubborn glint in her eye.

The whole play is lifted by two musical moments. Once when Gail Watson raises the spirits with a rendition of "John MacLean's March" and then in a rousing finale that brought a wee tear to my eye. Libby McArthur also does a standout turn as she becomes Mary Barbour, delivering a speech urging us to fight (she looked uncannily like her I thought). It was a clever way of portraying a time just beyond living memory.

The only issue I had with the play was that it felt incredibly positive and optimistic at the end, which just isn't something that sits comfortably with a Glaswegian like me.

Like a couple of my great-great-great grandparents, Mary Barbour was the daughter of a weaver from Kilbarchan. She became politically active during WW1 when she led the rent strike campaigns in Govan. In 1920 she stood as the Labour candidate in Fairfield ward and became one of Glasgow's first woman Councillors, where she continued her campaigns. If you want to find out more about Mary Barbour and the campaign to get a lasting memorial to her in Glasgow look here at RememberMaryBarbour.
My reflections on Glasgow's other neglected radicals is here.

Sophocles and The Brothers Grimm - Theatre Review, Glasgow, Nov. 2013

Antigone, Strathclyde Theatre Group, Cottiers Theatre, Glasgow

Guilty, Play a Pie and a Pint, Oran Mor, Glasgow

I have been off work this week and am meant to be doing Christmas shopping. Fortunately there has been plenty of stuff on in Glasgow to let me avoid doing much of that. So pretending I was researching for our holiday in Greece next year I went to Cottiers Theatre, where Strathclyde Theatre Group are performing Sophocles classic play, Antigone. STG are a community theatre group/ amateur dramatics society that has been on the go for 40 years, and certainly has an ambitious programme, heavily flavoured with classics that appeal to people wanting to see a play from their exam syllabus, from Arthur Millar to Shakespeare. They lost their usual home in Strathclyde University last year when they had to move on from the Ramshorn Theatre there and seem to be regulars in Cottiers now. One advantage am-dram can have over professional theatre is in being able to call upon enough willing volunteers to fill every part in a large cast, or a Greek chorus.

As well as seeing this as research for trip to Thebes in the summer, I was also interested in seeing the play, as when I was assistant stage manager at our secondary school drama club, for some bizarre reason Antigone was one of the plays we did, with Rosemary from my year in the lead role.

Knightswood Secondary School does Antigone

Antigone is set in Thebes, the greatest city state in Ancient Greece before Alexander the Great conquered the land and destroyed the city. Thebes was also the mythical setting for stories of Dionysus, Heracles and Oedipus. The two brothers of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, have died on the battlefield on opposing sides. King Creon has proclaimed that one shall be mourned as a hero, the body of the other to be left on the battlefield, as carrion, disgraced. Antigone refuses to accept this, disobeys the king and buries him herself. She is caught and sentenced to death. Creon's stubborn pride leads to tragedy for his family, punished by the gods he displeased. This production seemed to be set it in the middle east or Egypt going by the the costumes and music, which jarred a bit for a Grecophile like me. Christian Zanone, as the sentry who discovered Antigone, put on a fine turn, and Creon was suitably proud, stubborn and chastened. The blind prophet Tiresius was kind of played as a transsexual, but on reading up on it later I see that Hera turned Tiresius into a woman for 7 years, so that's that explained. Anyway I enjoyed the story, if a few mumbled lines made it hard to work out exactly why Creon and his son suddenly fell out and how Antigone and Haemon met their end exactly. As tragedies go, Antigone is pretty tragic, and my sympathies lay with the heroine rather than the foolish king. The moral for him is to learn from his mistakes.

My son did the Wizard of Oz in his school's drama club last year. Obviously when I was at school in the 80s drama teachers were a bit more ambitious.

From a cast of sixteen to a cast of two as Lesley Hart and Louise Ludgate take their turn doing a lunchtime play for Oran Mor's flourishing A Play, A Pie and A Pint. This was another co-production with Aberdeen's Lemon Tree Theatre and will be on up there next week. Detective Black is questioning Blanca, who has recently left home to lodge with some geology students, about her missing step-mother. Lousie Ludgate in her lovely north-eastern dialect is stroppy, bullying and just a wee bit scary. As my kids for years have delighted in reading the grim endings of the original versions of well-known fairy tales, I could see what way the story was going but it was good fun watching it get there and a full house of Glasgow's west-end, lunchtime pie munchers was chortling away throughout (quiche is also available though tastes rubbish with gravy or brown sauce I imagine). The jousting of two fine actors, a pie and a pint of Guinness - a bargain at £8 on a Wednesday.

Ben Watt, Oran Mor, Nov 2013

Ben Watt, Oran Mor, Nov 2013

Bernard Butler and Ben Watt at Oran Mor, Glasgow

Everything But The Girl were the kind of intelligent, sophisticated band that it is hard to see any record company bothering with these days. When I first saw them play, it was in the bizarre setting of a foyer in a Moscow hotel in 1985. I was 14 years old and trying to avoid the attentions of a lively bunch of East German girls who found my kilt highly entertaining. We were all attending the World Festival of Youth and Students, me as a delegate from the Glasgow West branch of Youth CND and I was sharing a room with a bagpiper in the Cosmos Hotel. Misty In Roots musically made a bigger impression on me on that trip, but EBTG were there as part of Britain's cultural delegation to the event. Thatcher was in government here and Gorbachev, who spoke at one of the events I attended, had just become leader in March 1985 of the Soviet Communist Party. The Cold War was in full swing. During the days we attended various meetings and festivals, and each night ended with partying in the hotel foyer. Looking back it seems a ludicrous trip to have ended up on without my parents, and some of our interpreters took me under their wing a bit. My memories of it are all happy ones. Forever afterwards seeing Tracey Thorn or Ben Watt takes me back to Moscow.

Ben Watt started as a solo performer before forming Everything But The Girl with Tracey Thorn at Hull Uni. They later married and he has since become a dance music DJ and producer, ran his own record label and written a book about about his near fatal auto-immune illness. Now he has written another book, which will be out in the new year, about his parents Tom and Romany Watt. His dad, he tells us at his gig in Oran Mor last night, was a jazz musician, born in Partick before living in Knightswood and Anniesland. I hadn't heard this before, but was living in Knightswood myself at the time of my Moscow adventures so will definitely be looking out for his book. In researching the book, he started putting some of his thoughts down as songs and has recorded an album, which will be out in 2014. So tonight he didn't have anything to sell, but is trying out his solo stuff live and was accompanied by friend and collaborator Bernard Butler. There was just the two of them on stage, plus a Wurlitzer keyboard and about a dozen different guitars. Almost everything played was new, although he did play a lovely song he'd got Robert Wyatt to record with him when he was 19 years old. ("I thought I lived in a Bohemian household, but that was nothing compared to Robert's.")

Many of the songs were melancholic, or connected with personal memories or an "Old Flame". The storytelling in "Bricks and Wood" of re-visiting his childhood home and "Nathaniel" of a roadside sign seen in Oregon were especially touching. The guitar playing of Bernard Butler, fringe flick and all, was mesmerising in that song in particular, although I did have echoes of Jeff Wayne's "oh no Nathaniel" at the back of my mind. Despite reflecting on the past in these songs he was clear that he'd "rather play new material to 200 people than play the old stuff to 2000."

Looking forward to his new book and the new album, and great to see Bernard Butler in such an intimate setting.

Theatre Review: A Play, a Pie and a Pint : Doras Dùinte (Closed Door)

When I've got a day off I regularly spend my lunchtime at Oran Mor enjoying a pie with gravy, a pint of Guiness and a 45 minute play (on Mondays for only £10). This week, after now having done a few hundred plays, was their first attempt to do one in Gaelic. This seemed appropriate as the Mòd was in Paisley (or Pàislig) last week and we were informed subtitles and animation would make it accessible to all.

My Scotch pie, though obviously
 not one from Oran Mor

Written by Catriona Lexy Campbell the play, Doras Dùinte (Closed Door), involved an agoraphobic woman in an isolated cottage looking for a lodger, who turns out to be not quite as he seems. The set up was fine, but after that the story made not a lot of sense, and the denouement seemed to come suddenly, was rather confused and inconclusive. At the end my reaction was "Eh?".

I had hoped to say that it was an unparallelled success, but it wasn't. The actors were speaking in Gaelic, as advertised, but the idea of having the subtitles (and then only every second or third line) projected behind the performers made no sense. As the actors were pretty static on stage, they obscured almost all of the lines for the audience. This meant you were no longer following them, but juking left and right trying to make out the odd word. Even then, I'm not sure I missed much of the plot.

Maybe if you speak Gaelic the whole story made more sense, but it seemed a bit half-finished. A work in progress maybe?

Serial Killers and Mad Doctors

Driving Manuel, at Oran Mor by Denise Mina

Harry Hill, Sausage Time, King's Theatre, Glasgow

Just a quick review of two shows that I've been to this week in Glasgow which maybe highlights the rather random and scatter gun way that I decide what to go and see.

I often end up going to Oran Mor for a lunchtime "Play, a Pie and a Pint" on my day off from work and one of the best plays that I've seen there was by author Denise Mina ("A Drunk Woman Looks At The Thistle"). Also, you've got to acknowledge that she is a person with some taste, making one of the characters in the book Garnethill a Partick Thistle fan (although if memory serves he didn't survive until the end).

I think if she were writing that book today though, after we've just stuffed Livingston FC 6-1, she would have to change a couple of lines from this paragraph. "Partick Thistle FC, known as The Jags, is one of the few Glasgow football teams not associated with either side of the Protestant/Catholic sectarian divide. Their fans are known locally for their passive but exceptional eccentricity and the team are known nationally for being crap". I digress.

Denise Mina had another play on this week, Driving Manuel. The play centres on the true story of Peter Manuel, a serial killer in Glasgow of the 1950's and his bizarre meeting one evening with a relative of three of his victims, William Watt, who the Police of the day believed was responsible for the crimes. It is an intriguing story but it seemed mis-cast with Andy Gray as the malevolent killer, more famed for his hammy comedy acting. At times lines were played for laughs, whilst we were at other times presented with the horrific violence of his crimes. The mood was therefore rather uneven and it felt more like a work in progress that the finished article.

The Glasgow Comedy Festival is in town just now, so when we had the chance of a baby-sitter on Friday night it was a case of seeing who was performing that evening and giving it a go. This had the added bonus of us not having to endure the pain of watching the Scotland team in action against Wales. We plumped for Harry Hill off of the telly, touring just now with his new live show, Sausage Time. I have to say there weren't many belly laughs, but it was spectacularly bonkers in the best traditions of meaningless nonsense such as Vic and Bob and the like specialise in. How exactly do you start off training to be a doctor then end up trying to play James Bond tunes on a trombone, drinking a bucket of water whilst bouncing up and down in a paddling pool? You do feel for the poor souls dragged on stage for these things, who are on a hiding to nothing, but when one of them is a scientist who works on kitchen sinks it almost sounds as if he was a planted Harry Hill character.

As it turns out we made the right choice for our evening's entertainment with Scotland losing 1-2 in the end. That, at least, was predictable.

There Can Be Only One

A Play, a Pie and a Pint.

The offering at this week's Play, a Pie and a Pint at Oran Mor is a collaboration with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh (where it'll be next week), "A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity" by Douglas Maxwell. I've already enjoyed "Thank You" featuring Colin McCreadie in the current season (Herald review here) and there are plenty of other tasty looking morsels to come. However it has to be said that in my opinion the current Scotch pies (sponsored by McLays) aren't quite up to the steak pies from before. I like a Scotch pie as much as the next person, and when I'm at Firhill I wouldn't dream of buying a steak pie. Conversely I wouldn't dream of buying a Scotch pie in a chippy but often have a steak pie supper. In my mind when I'm in Oran Mor I feel the old steak pie fits the bill,  buy hey-ho things change and I guess it's horses for courses, as it were.

The play starts with the recently widowed  Annabelle Love (Joanna Tope, who used to be Dr Clare Scott in Emmerdale) meeting a swearing employee of her husband at his funeral. She becomes intrigued by a man who can swear away casually like her husband used to, and gets him to teach her how to do it. Around this there are a lot of funny lines, but also there is a recognition of the use of language to restrict people, demean them, draw class distinctions. It is also about her grieving and how this man that reminds her of her husband's youthful days helps her. Anyway she has a go at a manifesto of 'down with small talk, up with swearing'. It is good to see someone take the time to think about language this way, because many people (most people?) swear unthinkingly, it is part of expressing yourself yet there is so much faux outrage at misplaced expletives. As James Kelman (a man whose use of working class language seems to wind people up endlessly) said in a recent interview "People can use swear words to emphasise the beauty of something – so it's not really a swear word at all. If you say something is 'fucking beautiful', how can it be swearing, because you're emphasising the beauty of something."

I like to ponder the way that people unconsciously use language to show that they are better than others. At school we had a great English teacher who used to encourage us to use the Glaswegian colloquialisms and grammar in class that we used in the playground (although he drew a line at swearing), yet now we can be upbraided by snotty youths if we unthinkingly use phrases such as "have did" in conversation. Anyway the play is funny and thought provoking, and there is plenty of mileage in this simple premise. There is one part where she is trying to invent her own swear word for the part of the male body that still has a racist term which hasn't gone out of use. One person in the audience guffawed as she worked it out before the actors revealed the answer, a kind of "Eureka" moment as it were.

Glasgow Film Festival

Trundling on until the 24th of February is the Glasgow Film Festival. I haven't really been able to see as much of this as I'd hoped, in particular I was kicking myself that I missed the Sonic Cineplex day at the Arches. Jane Birkin's concert and documentary screening was part of it and a very pleasant way to spend an evening.

I also went to see the latest Studio Ghibli film with my kids, From Up On Poppy Hill. It was beautifully drawn, a million miles away from the usual CGI animation. The story is less bizarre than some other Studio Ghibli films, but does take a few odd turns before landing on safer ground. It is set in a 1960s Japanese High School as they try to save the good things from the past in a Japan determinedly looking to modernise, much like cinema animation I suppose.

My other highlight from the festival was a showing of Highlander on the big screen. If you don't know it, where have you been hiding? In this the French accented Highlander (Christopher Lambert) battles the other immortals, which include an Egyptian called Juan Sanchez Villalobos Ramirez, chief metallurgist to the King of Spain, played by Sean Connery, to win "the prize". Released in 1986 I went to see it in the ABC on Sauchiehall Street when it was still a cinema, with three girls from school, oddly enough, and have watched it repeatedly since on VHS and nowadays on DVD and ITV2. It is unadulterated hokum, but endlessly quotable and you either get it or you don't. Graeme Virtue, who introduced it at the festival, gets it. Two of my friends who un-ironically named their sons Connor after the main character get it. The fact that there were numerous (duff) sequels made, a TV series, manga, cartoons and I believe a remake is in production means that there are plenty of other people who get it. Not everyone gets it, strange as this may seem. I've watched it so many times I can almost recite it word perfectly and can spot all the continuity errors before they happen, so it was fun to have them again up on the big screen. Despite the best efforts of many of the post-pub audience to find laughs at the most anodyne sequences, they still didn't manage to ruin it for me. I felt sorry for the couple sat in front of me who walked out after 15 minutes of the guffawing, but for those who could ignore them they at least kept it to a gentle giggling during bonnie Heather's demise. It's fine to have fun, but a bit bullying to decide this is the way everyone is to have fun.

As Annabelle Love may have said, "Fucking arseholes".

NB - my Highlander fact you mightn't know unless you are as sad as me, Clancy Brown was excellent as the Kurgan, he is just about recognisable as the horrible guard in Shawshank Redemption, but did you know that he is Mr Krabs in Spongebob? Aha!

 

Slow Club, Oran Mor and Reviews of Other Festive Glasgow Happenings

Glasgow Santa Dash

Partick Thistle Christmas Party

Handel's Messiah, Dunedin Consort

Valtari Mystery Film Experiment

Slow Club, Oran Mor

Time for my kids to dig out the Playmobile Nativity Set, plus their own additions

An old pal has returned to Glasgow for a couple of weeks after meandering around India for the past 18 months. They've been keeping a blog of their exploits, although having to censor it to keep it suitable for a PG audience as a nephew shows it in primary school from time to time. I also suspect collusion with the Indian Tourist Board, by making no mention of hospitalisations with Dengue Fever, etc. Before going back next week he has been craving two things from Scotland - meat (in large quantities) and live music. So the pressure was on to try to take in a couple of gigs whilst he was here. As I was introduced to the likes of Gavin Bryars and Otomo Yoshihide by him, the suitable Glasgow Christmas live music offerings along the lines of Lionel Ritchie and Stooshe has presented slim pickings.

Dunedin Consort's Harpsichord. (Black Keys
were also playing in Glasgow this night) 

I decided not to get him a ticket for The Dunedin Consort doing Handel's Messiah in the main hall at Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Performing the 1742 Dublin Version on authentic instruments was very evocative in the gallery surroundings. The singing was outstanding also, but I did find the seats here a little uncomfortable once I'd been sat there over 2 hours. It left me urging Handel to spice up the story a little, you know, make it a bit more pacy.

I did get tickets for us to see Sigur Ros's "Valtari Mystery Film Experiment" which was shown in various cinemas around the world on its day of release, including the GFT. The films are all available online I think at the band's website. The idea was that the band gave a dozen filmmakers the same budget to do whatever they wanted to do with music from the latest album, Valtari. The end results had the same problem as the album itself when it was released, interesting rather than exciting. Too many times the same music was used, and not enough imagination was deployed. The films which worked best were the choreographed ones with dancers. There was also a strange appearance from actor Aidan Gillen in one, which involved a decomposing fox. One problem I think is that their music is now so widely used in TV that subconsciously we expect soaring nature footage and David Attenburgh's hushed tones. Again I'm afraid I was checking my watch near the end of this.

Getting ready at the start for the Santa Dash

Earlier that day I had run 5km through the streets of Glasgow taking part in the Santa Dash with my 10 year old son. It is a surreal sight, hundreds of people dressed in Santa costumes acting as if this is perfectly normal. I think anything after this was going to seem a bit mundane, so maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind to appreciate the Sigur Ros film makers' visions (or maybe they were all just a wee bit bland).

Partick Thistle players at the children's party

Another Christmas-y event earlier this week was the Partick Thistle children's Christmas Party at Firhill. Ian Maxwell was the genial host and almost all the first team and youth players pitched up, alongside manager Jackie McNamara. They were all very happy to be pestered all night by excited children (and more excited parents), signing calenders and joining in the kids' games. Best of all it didn't knock them off their stride and the players came from behind to beat Raith Rovers today 3-2 and go 2 points clear at the top, with a game in hand. If you haven't been to Firhill in a while, get yourself along. It is great stuff this year. Even David Shrigley has now got himself a season ticket.

Slow Club

Most successful event of the week was last night's jaunt to Oran Mor to see Slow Club play the first date of their short Christmas tour. The audience and most people on stage were kitted out in comfy jumpers and beards were very much the order of the day too, so it was no surprise to see Aidan Moffat turn up to see them play. Because this Sheffield duo consists of a man and a woman, and she plays the drums occasionally, they are oft compared to The White Stripes. However their musical influences seem to be from all over the place. When alone on stage singing with guitars there were hints of Tammy Wynette and when the band and excellent saxophonist were playing along to the rockier numbers touches of ska were coming in. I do like a band where two sets of drums are being banged. Always makes me think of Adam and the Ants, made my pal think of The Grateful Dead (guess which one of us stayed in Glasgow and which one floats about India). They finished with a festive encore of their own Christmas TV and then a rousing rendition of Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". Rebecca Taylor's vocals are spectacular and they put on a great show. Their latest album, Paradise, is available here.

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.

Demons, Birds, Sisters and Passion

Demons at Oran Mor, Ugo Rondinone at The Common Guild, Guid Sisters at the Kings and Arvo Part's Passio at Kelvingrove

 

I'm a big fan of Dave McLellan's Play, a Pie and a Pint at Oran Mor and do try to get along whenever I'm at a lunchtime loose end. The £10 is on the steep side, but you do get a pint or a glass of wine, a steak pie and as much gravy as your plate can take, plus I suppose you save another 50p if you pick up a free Evening Times there, as they are one of the sponsors. The main attraction however is seeing a complete variety of performances, plays, styles, actors and writing from old pros to new young writers. This week was a companion piece to the 250th play, Jean-Jaque Rousseau Show, which was written by a group of writers, a piece of musical/ comedy/ cabaret. The team involved felt they had more that they wanted to say which lead to "Demons", again 5 actors singing, rotating through various musical instruments and sketches in a political cabaret. The peg it is hung upon is the quote from Owen Jones's book, Chavs,  "Demonization is the ideological backbone of an unequal society." In a variety of sketches they illustrate the point that the poor are being made the scapegoat for the bourgeoisie, as explained by Marx and Engels as the (Groucho) Marx brothers. It finishes with John McGrath's song from the Wildcat days ‘Get them out, make them work, They don’t own us, whatever they say." It all needs saying, but it is hard not to be a wee bit saddened by the fact that political theatre has had to dust off the old songs a quarter of a century after they were written. At least there seems a group of young actors and writers looking to do this stuff.

 

Ugo Rondinone, 'primitive'

On Friday evening we  swung by The Common Guild up on Park Circus to see their current exhibition, an installation of little bronze sculptures of birds, scattered throughout the building by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone.

They are all individuals, but simply made and quite comical. As you carefully step through them it's hard not to think of the malevolence in Hitchcock's film, The Birds, rather than the benign wee innocent faces of Anthony Gormley's terracotta figures in 'Field'. It is a lot of fun, and our three kids loved it. 

Saturday night was meant to be me watching rubbish on TV and getting an early night as my children don't get the concept of clocks go back an hour (as I expected Sunday breakfast started at 5am). Meanwhile my wife and her mum went to the Kings Theatre to see The Guid Sisters starring Karen Dunbar, a Scots version of the French Québécois play, Les Belles-soeurs by Michael Tremblay. They'd been looking forward to it for a while and it had great reviews (Herald****, Scotsman****, Guardian*****, The Observer****) so I was surprised when they came home at the back of 9pm. My initial fear was that they'd been driven home by all the people roaming the streets of Glasgow that night dressed as zombies or schoolgirls,. However the truth of the matter was that they'd walked out at the interval. Sadly they did not enjoy it at all, finding it almost impossible to hear what was being said in a jumble of mixed up accents by the numerous characters talking and shouting over each other. What they could make out they found couthie and stilted. In the past year they've seen and enjoyed plays in similar Scottish scenarios (Men Should Weep and The Steamie for example) but this must have been a trial for them to have actually left. You have been warned!

Sunday night I went to the second half of the Arvo Pärt weekend, a further episode in the ongoing series of concerts in Glasgow under the "Minimal" banner. Whereas some of the others in the series are more commonly labelled as minimalists (Steve Reich, Philip Glass) Pärt's piece tonight is minimalist in the way that Gregorian chants are stark and minimalist. It is a choral telling by the Estonian composer of St John's Passion, sung in the Latin, accompanied by an oboe, cello, violin, bassoon and tonight by the organ in Kelvingrove Art Galleries. Maybe not everyone's idea of a great night out, but in the beautiful setting of the main hall of Kelvingrove Art Gallery with its echoey acoustics and grand surroundings it was fantastic. The choir was great and a joy every time they had a piece to sing, the baritone of Jesus and Pilate's higher tones were sung from up on the balcony alongside the organist, adding to the drama, the organ only really coming in as accompaniment to their voices. Really enjoyed this, brilliant performance, brilliant setting.

 

Shonen Knife and BMX Bandits, Oran Mor

Shonen Knife, BMX Bandits, cool poster.

A quick check to see what was on in Glasgow tonight to entertain me on my birthday found that it either Chris Isaak at the Royal Concert Hall, Disney on Ice at Braehead or Shonen Knife at Oran Mor. So with that to choose from it was up the top of Byres Road to see Osaka's best all-girl punk/rock/ pop band. Small Gang did a brave performance to an empty room with that ever popular 7pm stage time. For a change they got on with it and didn't just "harumph" for 45 minutes. The three piece from London I think between them maybe have some Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, Bloc Party and Nirvana records in their cupboards. They sounded more original and were at their best when singing over more drone-y guitars and had some solid drumming throughout.

Next up, Bellshill's finest (if we ignore the Soup Dragons, the Vaselines, Teenage Fanclub and most of Mogwai) BMX Bandits. Duglas T Stewart is still there up in front, with a line-up which has ebbed and flowed over the years. I think that last time I saw him perform it was after the River Detectives at a freebie thing in Kelvingrove Park a decade or two ago. However 20 years ago they toured with Shonen Knife, making tonight a kind of reunion gig. Noted as the band Oasis were supporting when they first toured the UK, they also famously had Kurt Cobain as a fan apparently. Whilst Kurt and Oasis are long gone, BMX Bandits still trundle on with their pleasant indie pop they've been doing since 1985. They opened with Serious Drugs and then carried on with their songs which could all be imagined with wee tweety cartoon birds circling the stage whilst Duglas or Rachel Allison sung. Nice, but he is not quite the 60s French teenage chanteur he imagines. I liked his Big Bird t-shirt but is it an anti-Romney dig, or just him showing how 'kooky' he is?

BMX Bandits

Anyway by the end of their set there were a few people smiling and swaying along merrily at the front. I'm just a bit too cynical to believe that someone can be jolly like that without being either a weirdo or a fraud.

Japan has a unique skill of producing smiley, plastic pop with enthusiasm and sincerity. As soon as Shonen Knife come on stage you know it is going to be good. With two smiling, head banging guitarists in pink and orange A-line dresses out front of stage and the similarly attired drummer behind them Shonen Knife are a fantastic live act. The sometime Ramones cover band are in the UK promoting their 19th or 20th album, Pop Tune, which as the name suggests has some brighter, cheery pop on it than some of their more rock efforts. From the new album they played the cover track and Osaka Rock City with as much bounce and head banging as the rest of the set. Giggling like schoolgirls after slipping and falling over in the opening number, it was a sure footed performance after that, highlighting the fact that they've been playing for years now in one form or another. Everyone on stage was nice enough to give it big "I love being in Glasgow, I love Glasgow bands", which always goes down well, but the audience were eating out of their hands from the off.

Shonen Knife

For a birthday night out they were perfect, bouncy fun, even if their chat hints at weird shadows on their psyche - "I am very ashamed, to sing about love, so I prefer to sing a song about a Rubber Band, a very useful item, to wrap up potato chips or bag of cookies"

Good honest cookies, not in the least bit affected kookiness. Loved it