Southside Scorcher

Well, the Southside Festival has fairly grown up! It can't be more than 5 years ago I stood with handful of others and a family of ducks on dreich and sodden Saturday afternoon to watch the band play on the back of a lorry in Queens Park.. well not anymore...

The 2012 festival followed hot on the heels of the Southside Film Festival and with it marked what hopefully is the start of the summer. The sweltering hear and blazing sunshine enhanced the colours and atmosphere that the procession of dancers, drummers, musicians. old buses and fire engines not to mention the bloke with his Alsatian, parker jacket and Lidl bag ( it wouldn't have been a true Glasgow festival without him!) brought to the southside of Glasgow at the weekend.

I couldn't help but notice a swarm of people frantically following the Tunnock's van as it ejected caramel wafers at passers by, some of whom were lucky enough to get hit with the fantastic Scottish treat.

The precession looped around Queen's Park and into the main park area, which was filled with live music, food stalls, bouncy castles and dodgems, fencing competitions, face painting.. and tons more. Enough to keep people out in the sun all day until an emergency visit to the Victoria Hospital for 3rd degree burn treatment was required, going by the amount of flesh on display.

Great to see a good turnout for the festival, highlighting the culture which is all too alive and well in the Southside, a far cry from my initial introduction to the festival.

Celtic Connections

As most of the country retreats indoors, bolts down the hatches and prepares for the onset of post new year blues that comes with the month of January, Glasgow promptly shakes of the hangover, comes alive and parties with Celtic Connections. Every year I say I'll take it easy, not stay out too late and every year I get carried away and and quickly forget my foolish resolution!

There are always some great collaborations of musicians performing different takes on well known songs - see the excellent Jack Bruce & Lau version of Sunshine of Your Love below. Unfortunately I missed the Tribute to Gerry Rafferty due to playing my own gig, but there were performances of his songs by the likes of Rab Noakes, The Proclaimers, Ron Sexsmith amongst others, I am told it was a thoroughly good night.

Paul Kelly was a rare treat for me as the Australian songwriter performed an acoustic set of well crafted songs to the crowd at Oran Mor, he is a huge name down under and deserving of a large following this side of the hemisphere.

View Farka Toure -  was unleashing some fine African rhythms in The Arches with elements of John Lee Hooker and Albert King from his piercing electric guitar, fantastic show.

Showcasing some local talent was the Hazy Recollections shows at the ABC. I managed to miss the start of the show due to the bouncer taking a dislike to my camera (blog to follow) but caught excellent performances from Doghouse Roses, Foy Vance & Finlay Napier & The Bar Room Mountaineers

I'll take it easy throughout February.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/celticconnections/2012/ for video clubs

Zoo Station

As another August has been an gone it takes with it any chance of a decent summer and another Edinburgh Fringe.

I had another great time performing at the Fringe this year and very thankful to all those who came along on the nights.

Performing at the fringe requires a whole set of planning, organisation and marketing skills, the most important being transport to and from the venue.

Everyone will be aware that driving in Edinburgh is a no no, particularly during the Fringe, however when faced with the alternative of The Last Train Home, these 2 options are close contenders for which is the lesser nightmare.

This year i chanced both options.

My first attempt to visit Edinburgh for a comedy show this year failed due to inclement weather (flash floods on the railway lines). As a result trains were cancelled, roads were blocked and i missed the show.

so.. for my first gig i though it better safe than sorry and decided to take the car. However due to my planning expertise, I had chosen the date and time of my gig to coincide with Hearts biggest european game in decades - Hearts vs Tottenham at Tyncastle - only 500m from the venue. This resulted in huge traffic congestion, nowhere to park and 1hr 40mins journey time from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Major headache.

The following week having learned my lesson, I opted for the lottery of train travel.

I had to fight my way through hordes of zombies, not unusual for a Friday night in Glasgow, however this was due to the filming of the Brad Pitt film World War Z. Apart from that,  45 mins on the train, no bother!

Great gig, a few beers and it was time to head home. We decided to get an earlier train to avoid 'The Last Train Home' however this was soon to be regretted. It turns out that the 11pm train stops aeverywhere on  the way home!. 1hr 30mins, and 1 severely zombied escapee with a sore head who awoke on the train in Edinburgh (having fell asleep and missed his stop) meant that every single passenger was on a red alert for their own safety.

It seems the odds are stacked against you when trying to get back late at night to Glasgow, although traveling by public transport means there is no need to visit Edinburgh Zoo, or indeed watch Brad Pitts forthcoming zombie film.

Winter Fest

So that's us well into the 2nd week in January already! This normally marks the start of the bad weather and people retreat indoors to a warm place by the fire to weight out this bleak month - however it seems that this year, winter arrived earlier than normal leaving us free to enjoy the onset of Celtic Connections. Quite possibly the only redeeming feature of January in Scotland?? and the best cure for the post new year hangover. What else would you do in Scotland in January?

I'll be hoping to catch a few shows this year and will report back on any that I manage to see. A few highlights are: the long awaited reunion gig of Love & Money, The Waterboys, Richard Thomson, perhaps the oldest group in the world - The Blind Boys of Alabama aswell as some of the best UK grassroots level artists at Hazy Recollections.

There are always too many too choose from (over 1500) but I am not complaining, so bring on the best part of winter - Celtic Connections.

Glasgow Americana Festival 2010

Keeper of the Americana flame in Glasgow  - Kevin Morris of The Fallen Angels Club has just delivered 5 days worth of Americana music to the city of Glasgow as part of the 4^th Glasgow Americana Festival.

I only managed to make it along to a few shows but enjoyed them all. One of which was that of Northern Irish songwriter now based in Nashville - Ben Glover, who had jetted in to open for Tift Merritt. Ben gave a storming performance of songs from his album Through The Noise, Through The Night with a brilliant version of Atlantic City thrown in to the mix for the CCA crowd. His cd is hot property in my household  - I love the lyric ‘she’s got the same last name as a well known whisky’ from the track Full Moon Child  - I’m convinced the surname in question is Grouse.

It was also good to see 2 Glasgow based acts take part in the festival on the final night at Stereo. Adriana Spina, who I’ve previously only seen as a solo performer, filled the venue with some glorious vocals complimented by some fine accordion and Cajon playing by her 2 bandmates. Going by what I heard, her soon to be released new album will be good’un.

Local lads Woodenbox and a Fistful of Fivers pack a mighty punch with their trademark live shows and they did not fail to disappoint. I’m convinced they caused some structural damage to the basement of Stereo such was they accuracy of their shooting high energy Mariachi flavoured songs into the crowd – definitely worth a few fivers more.

The screening of ‘The Duct Tape Messiah’ a documentary on Texas songwriter - Blazey Ford at the GFT brought another dimension to the festival and highlighted again the popularity of the Americana scene and its appeal to the Scottish audiences- long may the festival run.

This years acts included-

Tift Merritt
Eilen Jewell
Frazey Ford
Kevin Welch & Alana Levandowski
Gurf Morlix
Girlyman
The Southern Tenant Folk Union
Brian Houston & Yvonne Lyon
The Porch Song Anthology
Roddy Hart
John Taylor
John Alexander (yes me)
Full Tonne Kid, Stephen Maguire and Paul McLaughlan
Jake Cogan and the Liberty Roses
www.glasgowamericana.com