Let’s be honest, it was hardly Britain’s finest weekend. Even for an island that’s had its fair share of garbage days in the past decade, the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of August were particularly mean-spirited, miserable and frightening. Race riots, looting and the thought of grifters lining their pockets safely tucked away behind secure lines while the people they’ve worked into a frenzy behave in a way that might ruin the rest of their lives. It’s enough to make you think what’s the point of it all?
There were some good points though. Proper football was back (okay, some of you are still thinking negatively here) and Belle & Sebastian’s Glasgow Weekender was a wholesome and friendly event. The Saturday brought old and young (on stage and in the audience) together, and anyone looking for a family-friendly way to escape the horrors of the modern world for a few hours would have enjoyed themselves.
And what better way to get our day underway than with The Cords, a duo firmly at the youthful end of the musical spectrum. They’ve been clocking up plenty of experience though and this set, in front of what they say was their largest festival audience, will stand them in good stead. When you’re peering out into the daylight, your instruments glistening as Glasgow swirls sunshine and light run as it only knows how and you have thousands of people staring back at you, you grow up quickly!
Thankfully, the music was the sound of energetic, thrashy pop, the sort that never grows old or goes out of fashion. As long as new musicians have drums, guitars and something they want to holler into a microphone, there’ll always be new music that fills your heart with hope.
For now, let’s let The Cords meander at their own pace and see where it takes them, it’s sure to be an interesting journey.
Moving inside, such are the benefits of the SWG3 setting, you see stalls, proper bars, proper toilets and a proper stage set-up with sound-system. No need to worry about the wind and rain messing about with the performance when you’re indoors. And given the next artist on holds one of the finest singing voices the country has ever produced, the indoor setting was perfect.
That’s not a boast to make, or take, lightly. Regardless of how patriotic you are, you’d be a fool to suggest Scotland hasn’t gifted a multitude of great singers and vocalists to the world. She might not have the record sales or streams that some of the nation’s best loved acts have, but when you hear Monica Queen sing, you realise numbers don’t matter.
The crowd might not have responded warmly when asked if they liked country music, but the set flowed strongly. A formidable backing band made for a hugely entertaining, yet short, set of familiar yet unknown tracks.
Some stronger songs, perhaps one heart-breaking chorus with a catchy vibe might have propelled Monica into a different stratosphere. As it was, she’s made a living and a life out of making people happy, and anyone looking to pick holes in that sort of existence needs to question what’s important in life.
And for those of us old enough to recall Monica from her Thrum days, another treat from the past was in store as we made our way back outside. It’s nearly 40 years since The Vaselines formed, just shy of three decades since they were catapulted into the limelight thanks to Nirvana covering them in their MTV Unplugged performance.
Admittedly there’s a bit of new blood propelling the band forward, with Carla J Easton on keyboards, and a horn at one point, Graeme Smillie on bass, Simon Liddell supporting on guitar, and Michael McGaughrin on drums. Then again, it was Frances McKee and Eugene Kelly that people wanted to see, still as bright and breezy as ever. The chirpy feel of relatively recent number (in relative terms) ‘High Tide Low Tide’ was an early highlight, but with ‘Molly’s Lips’, complete with the aforementioned horn, the set stepped up a gear. Francis laughed saying Eugene didn’t want to play that song as he admitted she was right, to polite applause. Again, it was a short set, but these worked well. Bands had enough time to get on warm up and make their way to a strong finish without losing anyone or fearing about dips.
An artist who doesn’t need to concern himself with dips is Callum Easter. An intense performer, who many of you might recognise from Young Father live shows, Easter injected a sense of purpose and vigour to a day that was puffing along pleasantly, yet sedately. The blend of rockabilly strut with electronic vibes and a bucketful of percussion makes for an engaging half hour that zips by quickly.
Then it was CMAT, a big personality, a star on the rise and the first performer of the day who you felt brought their own crowd with them. To this point, it had been a festival gathering, people looking for a good time and happy to make the most of who was in front of them. Here, you felt there were people in attendance purely because CMAT was in town, and she didn’t disappoint.
When you get around 98% of your outdoors audience to shimmy sideways like the initial days of a line dancing tutorial, you’ve got a bit of star power about you. The songs were all there, as were the emphatic tales of empowerment and encouragement, but there was a huge element of show attached to the set too.
Fans (of all ages) were always going to love it but the non-stop energy and positivity from CMAT, even as the rain made a strong appearance, was infectious. She made her way into the audience, she shouted out individual fans around the arena and yes, there was even a rainbow. It’s easy to see why CMAT has won so many people over of late, and there’s no sign that will slow down.
Bis were next up indoors, beneficiaries of the rainfall and dip in temperature as many people gathered inside for a little bit of shelter.
And if The Cords think they’re taking big steps now, we’re moving quietly towards the 30th anniversary since Bis played on Top of the Pops. And kids will ask what was Top of the Pops!! They sounded loud, fast and in good fun form, but of course, by this time, minds were wandering to the main stage, with feet following not far behind.
Given B&S headlined both nights of the weekend (Friday and Saturday), and there’s a good chance a lot of fans attended both days, a changed setlist from the Friday was always likely. You’re never going to please everyone and while there were a couple of songs from the Friday this writer would have loved on Saturday’s bill, there was no complaints about the setlist.
Simply adding a list of songs played in a review is lazy and fails to give any true insight into how the show started. Then again, playing ‘The State I Am In’, ‘I’m a Cuckoo’, ‘Step Into My Office, Baby’, ‘The Stars of Track and Field and ‘Like Dylan in the Movies’ is a ridiculous state of affairs for any band to open up with, let alone juggling a setlist across two nights. However, it was surely that sort of event, it wasn’t a standard festival show with the headliner trying to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, this was a band playing to their people.
‘Sukie in the Graveyard’, ‘Piazza, New York Catcher’ and ‘Seymour Stein’ followed not long after.
Through it all, Stuart Murdoch chatted breezily, shimmied and made everyone feel at home. At times there was a political and economic undercurrent to Stuart’s chat, and these are hard times. There was also an introduction to ‘Like Dylan in the Movies’ which maybe ventured a bit too close to its origins given there was such a young audience. Mind you, it was after 930pm by this point! There was also the fun interlude featuring Stevie Jackson’s mad dash to get here, foiled by motorway diversions and traffic on a Saturday night.
And through it all, the darkening sky, the cold night air, the rain, Belle & Sebastian were as warm and as friendly as you know and expect. It’s easy to get bogged down right now, but this group still makes folk want to dance and smile. Sometimes this happens on stage, which we’ll skip by because this writer is seemingly a grumpy git with no time for raucous fun of this nature, and focus on ‘I Didn’t See It Coming’. Let me stop you here by saying I consider this a recent B&S song, so learning its 14 years old doesn’t please me, not one bit. I can handle the 30-year anniversaries, those days are a fond but distant memory, none of us should live there anymore, even though they’re fun to recollect.
But ‘I Didn’t See It Coming’ with Sarah Martin at the helm and the sense of optimism, hope and joyous climax, that’s modern-day life surely? These things creep up on you…but it’s still a lovely song, especially when Stuart chimes in with “make me dance I want to surrender”.
And…okay, there was a slight fumble on ‘Lazy Line Painter Jane’. If there wasn’t the hint that Monica was coming out to sing, it wouldn’t have stung when there was no guest appearance. A perfect example of ‘if I never saw the sunshine, I wouldn’t mind the rain’, but the band seemed as spooked as the crowd was! Not to worry, it would have been sweet, but as the Glasgow Weekender ended, you couldn’t think anything but Belle & Sebastian are a special band we should all have time for in our hearts.
Words by Andrew Reilly
