The Barrowland is known locally as the Barras and they once obviously based a Taggart story around the venue and in the opening scenes a body was discovered in the doorway – Murder!
The venue remains the only one I have encountered thus far with a metal detector which identified that Uncle George’s keyring had a penknife enclosed which was summarily confiscated until after the gig. It was an astonishingly civilised venue bar with no hassle queueing and healthy banter.
Upstairs was the grand ballroom venue with 1900 capacity. The place had a great vibe about it with a good view from any vantage point. It was a big event for us and for the Glaswegian Mogwai boys as it was their first performance at their spiritual home. Pre-gig ‘God Save the Queen’ by Sex Pistols boomed out of the speakers.
Mogwai were in fine fettle and the set highlights were ‘Summer’, ‘Ex Cowboy’ and a thunderous ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’. The cheeky monkeys even turned off the sound system at the end and then briefly turned it back on for a couple of seconds which was a sensory shock!
Around that time, I had got into a habit of saying ‘God Bless You’ which nearly got me in a scrape in a nightclub later that evening! A couple of leisurely Sunday lunchtime pints in a plush bar with leather armchairs near Central station before the train home completed a fine weekend.
We have seen two further superb Mogwai performances at Barrowland on 22/12/11 and 21/06/15. At the latter gig I extended the stay at the Premier Inn for a further night as Gill headed up on the train for the second night.
For the first time we discovered that evening some fine bars in the West End including Oran Mor which was a short shuttle train ride out of the city. This is a grand bar in the style of the Piano and Pitcher pubs with a music venue upstairs, but I have never yet had a chance to see a band there. We also had a top Tapas meal that night at Café Andaluz, which also has another branch opposite the Wetherspoons in the city centre.
My one other attendance at Barrowland was to see the East Kilbride boys Jesus and Mary Chain on 23/11/14. We took Gill to one of the interesting local boozers across the road before the gig.
They were playing a 30-year anniversary tour of their seminal debut album ‘Psychocandy’.It still sounded fresh and vibrant though Jamie Reid was in a particularly truculent mood and it is highly unusual for me to state this, but the guitars were too loud as it tended to drown out his vocals. It was still an enjoyable gig though.
As you headed back into the city from the venue there was a late bar en route called Maggie Mays which we have visited before to ‘have one for the ditch!’. After the Mary Chain gig there was a band called Trembling Bells twinkling away in the corner.
