Tag: Jesus and Mary Chain

Glasgow Barrowland – Part 2

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!

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Barrowland Main Hall. Image Credit barrowland-ballroom.co.uk

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.  

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William and Jamie Reid from Jesus and Mary Chain. Image Credit Consequence of Sound.

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.    

Manchester Venue 16 Academy 3 – Part 2

In totality, I have attended Manchester Academy 3 nineteen times thereby placing it in 6th place on my most populated venues list.  

Early in 2001, I began to become aware of the Strokes who released their terrific first album ‘Is This It’ later that year. I adore the way that record is recorded, sounding like they are in a New York basement, in a good way. I read in the NME they were playing Manchester and was fortunate to obtain four tickets from Piccadilly Records to a much-touted band for a sold-out gig.

John, Uncle George and Gill were in attendance on a filthy Thursday night in June. Walking up the steps to the top floor we passed Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy). He was later ensconced adjacent to us at the bar where a cliched fanboy approached him with the snappy refrain ‘love your album dude…’

The support band was Moldy Peaches followed by the main act who looked nervous initially, but they were excellent and had such admirable poise beyond the tender years.

I was perfectly content in the mosh pit when out of the blue somebody unseen threw a haymaker catapulting me halfway across the pit. Even the band looked taken aback. The assailant must have had a ring on as I had a proper bruise the next day.

Now I am a very chilled chap, but I was incandescent with rage at the sheer injustice of this unwarranted attack. There are unwritten rules for mosh pit etiquette and they were emphatically breached by this muppet!

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The Strokes. Image Credit NME

In April 2005 John Peel faves 65 Days of Static were in town. They had a couple of entries in the previous year’s Festive fifty and were supported by Sons of Slaughter. They were decent live but a tad Mogwai lite.

A couple of years later we headed over to see Goldblade supported by the punk poet Ted Chippington. Everything about that gig was loud including John Cooper Clarke booming out of the speakers in between acts.

Goldblade were thunderous with John Robb vamping it up in his inimitable style. I had imbibed a few sherbets, so when they offered ‘Iggy Pop’ style for punters to enter the fray I grabbed a rare opportunity and leapt on stage with many other like minded folk.

Implausibly, it was even louder up there, and I found myself next to the drummer so proceeded to assist him by slapping away at the drums for one track which was very exhilarating! Another new nickname was christened – ‘Jimmy the Sticks’.

On 22/11/07 an exceedingly rare event happened, namely me driving to a gig! The reason for this unusual anomaly was that we were driving to Centreparcs at Penrith the following day for the weekend.  

We landed in the venue just to catch the last two songs of a rather poor support act Son of Albion and somewhat cringingly for the band you could hear a pin drop when they finished, not even a polite smattering of applause!

The main band was the Raveonettes, a duo from Copenhagen with their fabulous names of Sune Rose Wagner on guitar and Sharon Foo on bass with the assistance of a drum machine. They excel in fuzzed up Mary Chainesque (made up word but describes it perfectly!) sound with gorgeous harmonies but with the additional bite of razor-sharp lyrics.  

To exemplify those contrast shades, they have in their cannon a sugary sounding track in the vein of Strawberry Switchblade, but it then contains contextually the understandingly brutal title ‘Boys Who Rape Should Be Destroyed’. They have produced a suite of excellent albums across their lineage.

They were a captivating experience in the live setting and were immensely enjoyable.

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The Raveonettes. Image Credit Ents 24.

When approaching my 42nd birthday I fancied attending a gig on the day so instigated a search and found that Against Me, a Florida punk band, were playing that night. Uncle George, Dave Keane and I sallied over on the quick train.  

This remains one of the four gigs I have attended on my actual birthday, Neil Young on my 19th and I saw a band in Liverpool and Manchester respectively on my 43rd and 51st birthdays.

They were one of those bands that seem to instil intense loyalty from their fans and that was evident in the fervent atmosphere at the gig. They had an individual sound and it was a fun night.