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.

Review. Steve Reich in Glasgow, March 2013

One of the most influential composers of the 20th century, Steve Reich is now 76 years old and still as busy as ever in the 21st century by all accounts. Last year Bang on a Can and the London Sinfonietta performed some of his music in Glasgow as part of the "Minimal" series at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Now 12 months later the man himself was in town to perform a weekend of his music. His name is usually associated with minimalism, the use of tape loops, field recordings, repetition and hypnotic rhythms which often move apart and come together again and their were plenty of fine examples of this over the weekend.

The Saturday night concert promised a "full night of Reich, including a performance by the man himself". With two intervals and 4 hours to cover pieces from 1967's "My Name Is" to the recently commissioned "Radio Rewrite", premiered last week in London, a full night was definitely provided.

The first part of the evening  was performances by Powerplant with Joby Burgess. He is a percussionist who has often worked with experimental electronic artists and previously recorded versions of Steve Reich's work, which formed the core of his set here. However he didn't get off to the best start as his attempts to record audience members saying "My Name Is..." was thwarted by his computer crashing. Steve Reich managed to do it in the 60s with a tape machine, but the computerised version flopped. I also thought it was a bold move for a man called "Joby" to ask a Glasgow audience "What is your name?" but nobody turned the question back to him. With a 10 minute pause whilst they farted about with their computer one irritated chap tried to start a slow hand clap, but got nowhere as someone at the back of the hall replied to him in the style of Steve Reich's "Clapping Music" which was due up later. The version of "Electric Counterpoint" using his xylosynth, a halfway house between a xylophone and a synthesiser worked well and for someone my age awoke memories of "Little Fluffy Clouds" by the Orb which sampled Reich's original guitar version of the piece. Where the xylosynth really came into its own was on Graham Firkin's "Chain of Command" using samples of speeches of Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush looping like the droned music played in Guantanamo to wear down prisoners. It is very much a "Oh, I'd like to play with that"-type of instrument.

Next Steve Reich himself, peaked cap as ever, came onstage with percussionist David Hockings to perform "Clapping Music" before taking his seat back in the hall to watch the rest of the performances. It was interesting looking back at performances of the same piece on YouTube. When performed tonight, although the rhythm is the same, the softer clapping of a 76 year old man changes the sound and force of it all. "Electric Counterpoint" was performed again, this time with the guitar playing of Mats Bergstrom, which held the attention throughout playing live over the recorded sounds of him playing the other 10 guitar parts. Then 5 members of the London Sinfonietta played "2x5", which I had seen last year and was frankly disappointed with it. This performance was much sparkier and more lively, and steered away from classically trained musicians trying to be funky. However as a piece of music, I still find it drags a bit and this maybe reflects my ambivalence to electric guitars more than anything else.

During the interval Steve Reich was signing autographs and chatting to audience members. He seemed unfazed by being asked to sign someone's stookie (or plaster cast if you're not from round here). The queue of people waiting for signatures showed the same childish excitement in their faces that my 10 year old son had shown earlier today when he got his match programme signed by Partick Thistle's Chris Erskine. There can't be many modern composers that get this rock star treatment. Next up was the newly commissioned piece "Radio Rewrite" which he wrote based loosely on the Radiohead songs "Everything in its Right Place" and "Jigsaw Falling Into Place". I was hard pushed to discern any Radiohead in there, but I don't really know these songs well enough but it ebbed and flowed, fast and slow, through them and was one of the highlights of the evening. For a finale 12 musicians from the London Sinfonietta played "Double Sextet", two sextets of piano, vibraphone, flute, clarinet, violin and cello playing against each other. This was the real high spot of the night for me, an excellent performance of a superb piece.

 

The second part of the weekend started with a talk from Steve Reich in the concert hall's auditorium. I hoped he would expand upon the mad-sounding removal firm that he mentioned in a recent interview that he used to run with Philip Glass. However before that, big Joby was back to try again to perform "My Name Is" which was defeated by technical glitches last night. Firstly we cleared up the fact that his name is pronounced to rhyme with Toby, and the piece itself was worth making the effort to create, the effect of accents and technology making it a very lively work, the throbbing rhythms of peoples voices and names being looped.

The highlight of the weekend was the talk from Steve Reich. The clarity, sincerity and honesty of what he had to say was refreshing. His enthusiasm for African rhythms and music shone through and his desire that people find joy and ecstasy in his music was heartfelt. The insights gained from hearing him talk with such keenness and oomph will send me back listening to his music with new ears. WTC 9/11 in particular I'm keen to seek out and I'll be listening to "Different Trains" again with new perspectives.

I didn't have long to wait for the first opportunity to listen to his music performed again as rattling along next up was a performance of "Variations for vibes, pianos and strings" in the foyer with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and the London Sinfonietta.

The Colin Currie Group then took to the stage with "Drumming". The grand praise heaped upon them earlier by the composer was well deserved. I've heard this piece in recordings before but was blown away hearing it performed live. Your ears pick up the altering beats more easily than your eyes can discern any changes in the blurring sticks of the percussionists. By the time that there were nine musicians on the marimbas the hall was echoing to their droning bell sounds. I'd taken my kids along for this part and despite their normal reaction to music which I enjoy being "hmmmm" they too did really enjoy the performance.

It was a invigorating end to a fascinating weekend.

Sigur Ros, Blanck Mass. Gig Review SECC, Glasgow

Sigur Ros were back in Glasgow again this weekend. Last time that I saw them they put on a great show at the Carling Academy. Tonight it was the less atmospheric setting of the SECC but as Partick Thistle had beaten Dunfermline 4-0 in the afternoon I started the evening in a good mood, ready to forget these things.

When I saw the "Valtari Film Experiment" recently, a collection of random films to tracks from the latest Sigur Ros album, to be honest I was glancing at my watch a few times to see how long there was to go. I don't know if this was the fault of the films or the music from Valtari which I found to be a bit on the bland side. Maybe the band agree, as tonight's show only featured a couple of tracks from their latest album, included 3 new tracks not yet released, and a mixture of stuff from previous albums such as Takk, Hvarf/Heim and even Agaetis Byrjun. The line-up has shifted a bit too with Kjartan Sveinsson having left to pursue his interests in scores for films and classical composition, and the band have promised that their next album due out in 2013 will see a change in direction.



Blanck Mass, noodling away behind the mosquito net

First up was Blanck Mass, Benjamin John Power off of Fuck Buttons, doing his solo electronic thing. Twelve months ago when I last saw him in a wee basement room in almost total darkness at the Art School I felt he struggled to get much of an atmosphere going, so I feared that his introspective set that night would vanish in the SECC's main aircraft hangar hall. To be honest I think it worked better in the big space, despite him spending the whole time hunched over his laptop shrouded behind a giant mosquito net. However the ambient, almost whale sound of his stuff, as he nods his head over the laptop is going to make it hard to engage with any crowd which isn't completely stoned. Without the frenetic rhythms of Fuck Buttons it becomes music to stroke your chin to. I like his album and often listen to it if I've got to do a long drive or I'm reading but I just find that when it is performed live it leaves me cold.

Jonsi, playing guitar with his bow as usual, and Sigur Ros came on stage next and the reason for the mosquito net became apparent as they performed the first few songs surrounded by it whilst clouds and forest were projected onto it. 

Sigur Ros, amidst the shrubbery

They don't go in for much chit-chat but hold your attention by providing a complete 'son et lumiére' show, with the big screen behind them on the go once they dropped the netting. It looked like about 11 musicians on stage, including strings and a brass section. They played all the crowd pleasers - Hoppipolla, Vaka, etc and finish on a full bloodied Popplagid. The new songs were interesting, but veering dangerously close to Muse at times when everything was getting chucked in on them (particularly Kveikur), but I think they sound like a step in the right direction away from Valtari which at times becomes a bit characterless. They were on stage for about 2 hours, put on a great live show again and I await their next album with interest.

10km Run Around Renfrew's History

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about a convoluted jog that I ran tracing the history of Partick Thistle Football Club, which is at risk of becoming part of an occasional series on my blog here (eg 13 miles around all Glasgow's major football venues ). As I've said before, I started jogging a couple of years ago, and to break the monotony of doing the same old training routes I sometimes try to think up a wee route that lets me look at places that you don't often get to visit. Usually I'll tag on some football related theme, as for over a century grassroots football in Scotland has been linked inexorably to an area's social history.

Renfrew Town Hall

I decided to do a wee 10km run around Renfrew and was blown away by some of the stuff that I found on a wee bit of preliminary research. I parked behind the Co-op superstore and started at the recently renovated Renfrew Town Hall, which has a good local history museum in it if you are passing this way. From here I headed back around the building westwards onto Fulbar Street to catch sight of what goes wrong to a town when big money gets involved in football, or when big money footballers get involved in buying a pub.

Mark Hateley managed to keep it going for only 18 months, but made a loss and had to close it. This report highlights that it is an unsustainable model to rely on just old firm fixtures to generate a financially viable business. A lesson for us all there. Over 4 years later nobody has decided to take it on, despite the beautiful decor.

I then headed down Bell Street and turned right, away from the Victory Baths, a shipbuilder's gift to the town in 1921. I've never been allowed to go here for a swim as my mum got banned in the 60s as a teenager for wearing a bikini. Apparently it's haunted too (though not by my mum).

The next high spot you'll pass is Western Park, home of Renfrew Football Club, who've played here in the Junior leagues since 1912.

Previously Renfrew Victoria had played at the ground and when they were wound up Renfrew FC took over. I first came across the Renfrew Ferry to see a match here when my big cousin won some cup here with Milngavie Wanderers about 30 years ago.

Carry on along Inchinnan Road and you'll come to the Normandy Hotel. Go through the wee arch thing on the side of the pavement and you'll follow a very short path to large stones in an overgrown railed enclosure. One is St Conval's Chariot, which either floated him across the Irish Sea, or was the first rock he stood upon in Inchinnan when he arrived to set up a community of monks here in the sixth century, whilst St Mirin was doing the same up the road in Paisley. One of them got a football team named after him, the other had centuries of sick people hoping to get healed by the water gathering in the hollows of his stone. The other stone, the Argyll Stone, is said to have red streaks in it from the blood of the Earl of Argyll who was captured here in 1685.

Next you'll pass over the Inchinnan Bascule Bridge, built in 1923 to allow boats to pass up the White Cart Water to Paisley without lowering their masts. This seesaw bridge still actually works, though I don't imagine many people take their yachts to Paisley these days.

When you start to see the end of the runway at Glasgow Airport ahead, turn right and cross the bridge over the Black Cart Water. Enjoy a quiet run through the fields for 1km (unless you get buzzed by an Emirates jumbo jet landing). I'd suggest it is worth veering right next, briefly into Inchinnan, onto Old Greenock Road, until you see the modern tower of St Conval's Kirk. St Conval's monastery stood where the bridges over the Cart now are, around 600AD. Subsequent churches were built here by Knights Templars and others, until the last church there was flattened in 1965 as it was too near the proposed new airport runway. Thirteen old stones from these churches are kept in the new church and you can peer through some railings at three of them, old 10th century grave slabs with nice carvings, at the church.

I turned around here and went back to Inchinnan Road and ran on a wee bit further to the art deco India of Inchinnan building. The site here was previously used by William Beardmore's to build airships. They closed in 1922 and in 1930 the India Tyre company built their swanky modern office block on the main road and made tyres here until 1981. Aircraft came early to Renfrewshire with Beardmore’s testing their planes built over in Dalmuir here at Inchinnan and Renfrew. They also built the famous R34 airship at Inchinnan,which made the first return trip across the Atlantic in 1919, only 2 weeks after the first trans-Atlantic aeroplane flight by Alcock and Brown. It left from East Fortune airfield near Edinburgh , arriving at Long Island, and then landing in Norfolk on the return trip. This photo below is of the plaque at East Fortune airfield from where it took off, now the home of the National Museum of Flight.

Okay, back up now and return to Renfrew. After re-crossing the Bascule Bridge I then zig-zagged through the streets on the right to come out at the bottom of Robertson Park and turned right onto Paisley Road to seek out the next part in Renfrew's aeronautical history.

Turning left along Newmains Road you reach a cairn on Sandy Road. It is dedicated to the men and women of the Scottish Air Ambulance Service who worked from Renfrew Airport (roughly where Tesco is now on Newmains Road). The Scottish Air AmbulanceService is the oldest in the world. It operated in Renfrew Airport from 1933 and was transferred to Abbotsinch/ Glasgow Airport when Renfrew Airport closed on 30^th April, 1966. The plinth on Sandy Road features silhouettes of the de Havilland Rapide aircraft on 2 sides, which was used by the Air Ambulance Service for many years. These planes flew to Barra, Campbeltown, Benbecula, Harris and stones from many of these places are at the foot of the plinth. It wasn’t just an occasional flight, for example in 1954 they flew 311 patients on 258 flights to and fromRenfrew.

The other side of the memorial to the Air Ambulance Service marks a darker episode in their history. On 28 Sept 1957, a BEA Heron G-AOFY plane called “Sir Charles Bell” came down on approach to Islay's Glenegedale Airport in terrible weather. Capt Paddy Calderwood, Radio Officer Hugh McGinlay and Sister Jean Kennedy, a native of the Isle of Coll were all on board trying to retrieve a woman seriously ill with diabetes. None of them survived the crash. Despite the weather another air ambulance was called out to Islay, but the patient died on the flight down to Renfrew. After this several procedures were changed to try to prevent a recurrence.

If you carry on along Newmains Road to the end from here you'll come to where the Renfrew Airport terminal building used to lie. There had been an airfield at Renfrew since 1916, both as a military and civilian facility. By the 1960s as there was no space to extend the runway for the new jet aircraft, a new civilian airport was proposed by converting the military airfield at Abbotsinch. The elegant terminal building of Renfrew Airport was eventually knocked down, so nothing now remains of the sight that greeted Sammy Davis Jnr, The Beatles and Cassius Clay when they stepped off planes here except old photos of the building.

A memorial to Renfrew Airport stands just outside Tesco, in front of what was once the old, swanky terminal building. Unfortunately the memorial has seen better days and looks like it has lost a tail fin. The old runway lies just south of here along where  a straight strip of the M8 motorway now is.

 

Wipe a tear away from your eye at the sad sight of "progress" and turn back along Broadloan, and up Sandy Road to the Town Hall again and, depending upon how many detours you took, I think you'll find that's about 10 or 11 Km and 1,400 years of local history.

 

(route on MapMyRun.com)
(photos on flickr.com)

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!

 

Jane Birkin performs The Songs Of Serge

Review: Jane Birkin performs The Songs Of Serge Gainsbourg and showing of film "Souvenirs Of Serge"

Arches, Glasgow 29.1.2013

This evening was part of the Glasgow Film Festival. The festival which started 8 years ago, this year is bigger than ever with over 300 screenings and has several strands within it. This was part of the "Glasgow Music and Film Festival" strand.

It was difficult to work out from the wee paragraph advertising it in the programme what shape this evening would take. Jane Birkin introducing the UK premiere of her 40 minute documentary, Souvenirs of Serge, and then singing with a band to "perform the songs of Serge". Serge Gainsbourg was a bit before my time, but years ago I had bought a couple his cds which were, to say the least, varied. Some songs jazzy, some classic chansons, then some reggae. He is the archetypal heavy smoking, hard drinking, tortured genius which the French are very good at producing and Jane Birkin was his "elusive muse and partner". Serge was an artist, poet, composer, singer, songwriter, actor and always a controversial figure (eg his interjection here to Whitney Houston). I didn't know much about him until I saw the French film of his life "Gainsbourg" last year, which I found witty and entertaining. Jane Birkin I knew even less about. Apparently she has a Hermes bag named after her. I knew that she and the older Serge were lovers, that she sang the infamous song "Je t'aime...moi non plus" that he had written for his then lover, Bridgitte Bardot, and that they had a daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg (whose album 5:55 is excellent, if you don't already own it, go buy it now). Anyway I was intrigued and so were many others as the Arches venue was a sell out.

As we took our seats the film started, a collection of home movies of Serge, a young Jane Birkin and their families at play, on holiday, walking the dog. Very relaxed, very cool, very private, with Jane Birkin giving a commentary of where they were and what they were up to. When the screen was pushed aside it was initially strange to see the girl on screen in her early twenties come on stage as a 66 year old woman, still slim and elegant, with a tousled mop of dyed brown hair and the same recognisable broad, toothy smile. She was supported by a jazzy four-piece of Japanese musicians; pianist, violin, drummer and muted trumpet, giving a jazzy backing to her gentle voice. She sang for over about 1 hour 40 minutes, from early songs such as 'Les Amours Perdues' to songs he wrote in his last months. A highlight was 'Comic Strip' with Jane Birkin singing Serge's part and the Japanese violinist emerging from the back of the hall to provide the "Shebam, Pow, Blop, Weee". She broke off singing to tell us about their lovely dinner in Cafe Gandolfi the night before (haggis) and their meal this evening across the road in Sloans where she was tickled by a bunch of old Glaswegian women blowing her a kiss earlier. I really hope she tried the Scotch pie, chunky chips and beans. She wandered through the crowd singing at times and was open, engaging and charming throughout. I'd happily have paid to watch her musicians alone as they were excellent throughout. She finished her encore with a rendition of a ska version of 'La Gadoue' (originally a hit for Petula Clark) and seemed to enjoy herself on stage and thanked the audience for giving her "the courage" to head to London to play there next.

I'm off to get a couple more Serge Gainsbourg cds I reckon. Jane Birkin felt "Histoire de Melody Nelson" and "The Man With the Cabbage Head" were his best, so that seems as good a place to start as any.

Cowboy Junkies, Celtic Connections 2013

Review - Cowboy Junkies, Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Celtic Connections, Glasgow January 23rd 2013.

I bought a very random selection of tickets this year for Celtic Connections, which has a great knack of turning up surprisingly random gigs. However, when I saw that Cowboy Junkies were playing I was genuinely and nostalgically excited. It is 25 years now since they brought out Trinity Session, their second album. It is often cited as the forerunner of all the alt.country stuff, with its lo-fi sound and Margo Timmins's languid singing. When I was in the mood for it I'd have many a night of playing that album over and over, maybe alternating with kd lang's "Absolute Torch and Twang" and 10,000 Maniacs, "Hope Chest". Their "Sweet Jane" was the one that I knew, long before I heard of The Velvet Underground.


Kelvingrove Art Gallery dressed up for a gig

The venue for this gig was intriguing, the main hall at Kelvingrove Art Gallery. I've heard baroque music here, choral music and the big organ of a Sunday. The echoey acoustics work brilliantly for those things. I was less sure if this would be the case for amplified electric guitars. First up was John Murry. He looked like a man who'd be happier playing in a darkened bar than the rather to the stilted, seated, middle-aged Celtic Connections audience. My fears about the acoustics were shown to be justified as soon as he started talking. His opening gambit of stating "I am not intoxicated!" was almost unintelligible and once he started playing the muddied acoustics did his confessional tunes no favours at all. About the only thing I understood after that was when he asked the audience "Why is there a Spitfire chasing an elephant?" which to be fair was a valid point. The atmosphere was pretty flat during his set, but he finally relaxed into by his last song and was chatty and relaxed at the merchandise stall. I'll buy his cd "Graceless Age" and try it again back home.

I was hoping that this had just been the traditional "don't give the support act much time for a sound check" thing and I had high hopes that Cowboy Junkies would temper their sound to the venue, after all the Trinity Session album had been recorded in a Toronto church.


A Canadian fan looks on from the side gallery

Although their more contemplative tempo worked better, they still struggled with the acoustics except when the bass player and drummer stood down and they did a few more acoustic numbers, such as Remnin Park. A lot of the set was made up from material from their "Nomad Series", 4 albums recorded over the past 2 years with common themes running through them. Late Night Radio and Damaged From The Start were stand out songs, whilst 3rd Crusade seemed to borrow and stretch a riff from "Play That Funky Music White Boy".


Cowboy Junkies on stage at Kelvingrove Art Gallery

They finished off with some of their earlier stuff including "Sweet Jane" and an excellent rendition of their "Blue Moon Revisited" and an encore of "Misguided Angel" confirming that Trinity Session stuff was what most of us had turned up to hear, and they ended with a Neil Young cover.

 

I enjoyed seeing them and she has a great and voice, but I am not sure if I'd pay to see another band play in Kelvingrove Art Galleries as the echeoy sound was entirely predictable and pretty disappointing.