GLASVEGAS-GLASVEGAS.
GLASVEGAS-GLASVEGAS.
In a previous article I wrote about how groups are never really an overnight success, and how usually, it takes many years for a band to make a breakthrough. The band this article is about, Glasvegas, are a good example of this. They were formed back in 2003, and five years later, released their debut album Glasvegas. I’d been aware of Glasvegas from day one, and over the years followed their progress closely. So when they finally made their big breakthrough I was really pleased. Before the album’s release I wondered how their music go down with audiences outwith Scotland. Many of their songs are based around life in Scottish “schemes,” large social housing estates, and what goes on within them. On the album, are songs about “square goes,” fights, social workers, absent fathers, S.A.D, sectarianism and racism. However, I needn’t have worried, their tales of gritty urban life in Scotland, seemed to strike a note, and Glasvegas sold really well. Many people reading this article, may not have heard of Glasvegas, so I’ll tell you about their career, and what made their debut album so successful.
Glasvegas were formed in 2003, by two cousins James and Rab Allan, during the summer of 2003. They were joined by Paul Donoghue and drummer Ryan Ross. In May 2004, the band managed to finance a double A-side single which featured I’m Gonna Get Stabbed and In Lvs Rab. The single was well received locally, and was played on local radio. Later in 2004, Ryan Ross left the band. This lead to the band being put on hold until a new drummer could be found.
By early 2005, Caroline McKay joined the group as drummer. There was one minor problem, she couldn’t play the drums. James Allan had hired her because she looked “cool.” Quickly, she learnt to play the drums, and the more difficult parts were played by a drum machine operated by Rab Allan. As her drumming improved, the drum machine was used far less.
At a concert in October 2006, former Creation Records founder Alan McGhee first saw the band in Glasgow. McGhee was accompanied by former Libertine Carl Barat. Barat offered the band a support slot to his new band Dirty Pretty Things. For much of 2006, Glasvegas toured with Dirty Pretty Things. 2006 saw the band release their second self-funded single. It featured Go Square Go! which appears in their debut album. After a concert at Polmont Young Offenders Institute in December 2006, the band decided to stop using drum samples. This was an important turning point for them musically.
Alan McGhee appears again in the Glasvegas story, during February 2007. The band wanted to make a video for one of their demos, Daddy’s Home. With McGhee’s help the video was shot in Glasgow’s east end and in London. This video was crucial in helping increase the band’s popularity. An idea by James Allan would also increase the band’s profile and popularity. He decided to release the band’s demos as a free download on MySpace. Quickly, the word spread about Glasvegas, and their popularity soared. After this, every concert was a sell out.
Having played numerous concerts, many of the high profile, during 2007, 5 November saw the release of Daddy’s Gone/Flowers and Football Tops. After that, interest in Glasvegas started to grow. Soon, record companies, majors and indies, were trying to sign them.
February 2008 proved to be a huge month for Glasvegas. On February they released their third, and final, limited edition single It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry. A week later, on Valentine’s Day, the band decided to sign to Columbia Records. Then, on February 28, Glasvegas won the Philip Hall Radar Award at the NME Awards.
The band headed to the Brooklyn Recording Studios, in Brooklyn, New York to record their eponymous album. Producing the album were Rich Costey and James Allan. Costey had a good track record, having previously worked with My Chemical Romance, Doves and Franz Ferdinand. On their return from New York, the band filmed the video for their single Geraldine, before embarking on a sixteen month tour. During that time, they played at Glastonbury and T In the Park back home in Scotland. Glasvegas also supported both Muse and Kings of Leon during this sixteen month schedule.
September 8 2008 saw the release of Glasvegas debut album Glasvegas. On its release, it was critically acclaimed, and sold 56,000 copies during the first week of its release. The album went on to sell over 300,000 copies, and was certified platinum by the BPI. Three singles were released from the album Geraldine, Daddy’s Gone and Flowers and Football Tops. Throughout 2008 and 2009, Glasvegas toured extensively, promoting their album.
During much of 2010, Glasvegas set about recording their second. This took place in Santa Monica, California, London and Glasgow. Eventually, earlier this year, on April 4 2011, Glasvegas released their second album Euphoric Heartbeat. It was quite different to their debut album, but like Glasvegas, sold well. Although not as successful as their debut album, it reached number eleven in the UK album charts. After the album’s release, Glasvegas started touring the album in late April. Many of the dates sold out straight away. In the space of eight years, Glasvegas had come a long way.
Having told you about Glasvegas’ career so far, I’ll now tell you what made their debut album Glasvegas so successful. Flowers and Football Tops opens the album. Before telling you about the song, I’d better explain the phenomena of flowers and football tops. In Scotland, and now other parts of the UK, if a tragedy of some kind occurs, some people pay tribute by laying flowers and football tops as a tribute to the person involved. A dark, broody, sound emerges slowly from the distance. Then drums pound, a wall of guitars chime. James Allan sings loudly and passionately, about every parents worst nightmare, realizing that their son isn’t coming home that night, that tragedy has struck and they’ve been killed. During the song, he articulates perfectly the feelings that a parent must feel in such a situation. His delivery of the lyrics is perfect, full of passion, as if he’s been there, experienced the pain. He tells the real story behind why people leave flowers and football tops. Behind him, the rest of the band harmonize. Later, the sound grows, becomes much fuller and louder. There are shades of the Velvet Underground in the arrangement, at this time with the wall of sound that assaults you. Whilst this noise assaults you, he ad-libs, singing an excerpt to “You Are My Sunshine,” which fits the rest of the song. As this ends, guitars screech and growl, and the song ends. It’s a powerful song of epic proportions, about what is sadly, an increasingly common event.
My favorite song from the album is Geraldine, a song full of hooks and harmonies. It opens with chiming guitars, drums pounding away at the front of the mix and James Allan’s vocal. When Allan sings, he gives one of his best performances on the album. Maybe this is because of the great lyrics, or maybe it’s the rest of the group harmonizing brilliantly. In the lyrics, Geraldine is social worker, and rumor has it that she gave up her job to follow the band around. Talking of the lyrics, they are the best on the album. Two different lyrics especially: “when you’re standing on the window ledge, I’ll talk you back from the edge,” and “my name is Geraldine, I’m your social worker.” The first time I heard Geraldine, I realized that this was a great song, it’s laden with hooks and has a good arrangement.
The next track is It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry, and it benefits from a bigger, fuller arrangement. The arrangement see James Allan having to really force his vocal against a wall of guitars and drums. His voice is a mixture of anger, despair and frustration, as he sings about infidelity and cheating on his wife. In the song, he references his former profession football, when talks about meeting women after football training. He talks about the guilt he feels, and how ecstasy makes it feel worse. This song see James Allan lay bare his past, and the combination of Allan’s vocal, great lyrics and the arrangement make this one of the album’s highlights.
When Lonesome Swan begins, it has a nineties guitar band sound. That isn’t a bad thing, just an observation. The guitars are at the heart of the glorious sound on the track. That, and the usual drum sound. James Allan’s vocal sounds weaker against this louder backdrop, but is just as effective. Here the lyrics are about a lonely woman, who in her younger days, was admired by all, but now sits alone. Even with a retro sound, this guitar heavy track is another masterful mini-drama from Glasvegas.
Like Flowers and Football Tops, Go Square Go requires some explanation for people unfamiliar with the Scottish vernacular. A “square go” in Scotland is a fight, and when someone challenges someone to a square go, they want to fight them. Go Square Go tells a familiar tale for many an adult male who had the misfortune to go to school in Scotland. Many a Scottish male will remember being challenged to a square go after school. This song tells all these men’s story, about what, and how you feel, the sense of anticipation, the adrenalin rush and for some, the fear. Guitars play as the song begins, James Allan sings and drums and bass play. Suddenly, the track explodes, the bass throbs, drums are pummeled, threatening the skin’s safety and guitars scream. Literally, it’s a wall of sound, with James Allan half singing, half chanting. He seems caught up in the memory and enjoyment of a suddenly remember square go. Whether Go Square Go is autobiographical, who knows? What I do know, is that Go Square Go is a great song, albeit one that will bring back long forgotten memories to many a Scottish male.
Earlier in this article I mentioned Polmont, in the context of Glasvegas playing a gig there. It’s also a Young Offender’s Institute, where young Scottish men are sent to instead of prison. Polmont On My Mind, is a song about it. It tells of someone who has committed a terrible crime, and as a result, been sent their. In the song, they speak of their fall from grace, and only seeing the sun shining through the cell window. Again, what sounds like a wall of guitars playing opens the track. Drums ploddingly thud. There is a drama present in the track before it opens up. When it does, the song haltingly rocks along, as guitars chime, shriek and scream. This isn’t a track that flows nicely. Instead it’s very stop, start, all false starts and pauses. To me, although it isn’t a bad track, it isn’t the best track Glasvegas will ever record. Maybe if the arrangement was different, I’d like the song much better.
As we’ve seen, all of Glasvegas’ songs are full of social comment and are about how many people live in Scotland, and many other places. Daddy’s Home carry’s on this tradition, and is about an absent father. Along with Geraldine, Daddy’s Home is one of Glasvegas’ finest track, and once you’ve heard it you’ll realize why. It’s a dark, moody sound that opens the track, a throbbing bass playing. When James Allan sings, he sings of pain and anguish, not knowing your father, not being able to do things like play football with his father. In the midst of the anger and darkness, emerges some angelic harmonies that accompany him. Overall, a combination of a darkness and anger combine perfectly to produce a brilliant track.
Stabbed in easily the weakest track on Glasvegas. Listening to James Allan’s spoken word lyrics against a backdrop of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata doesn’t do it for me. Even though he is trying to make a serious point in the song, it comes across as almost comedic and pithy. Somehow, it reminds me of a sketch for a low budget comedy series. The only difference is there are no laughs.
S.A.D. Light deals with Seasonly Affected Disorder, and how it takes artificial light to change a sufferer’s mood. The song begins with drums playing. They play slowly. Guitars gently chime. James Allan’s vocal is quieter and subdued. By now, you feel underwhelmed by the sound, and hope the song improves quickly. It has a slightly lifeless sound and feel to it. Later Allan’s vocal gets louder, and the arrangement louder and fuller. Even then, I still feel underwhelmed by the sound. Maybe it’s Allan’s delivery, maybe the lyrics are quite as good. They’re certainly not helped by adding parts of a children’s nursery rhyme to the lyrics. At the end of the song, I feel a sense of disappointment at a disappointingly average track.
Glasvegas ends with Ice Cream Van. An organ plays as the song begins, Allan’s vocal is half spoken, behind the droning organ. In the song, Allan deals with the problems of sectarianism and racism, two of Scotland’s shameful secrets. This arrangement is quite effective, and the lyrics deal with these problems well. My only quibble is that the droning arrangement would put people of the song, especially towards the end when the song builds to an almost chaotic crescendo. When this happens, the sound jars somewhat. However, after two disappointing tracks, Ice Cream Van is a slightly better song. It’s neither the best song James Allan has ever written, nor the best track recorded by Glasvegas, but it deals with an important issue that bights Scottish society, and dare I say one that blight’s other societies too.
Having closely followed Glasvegas’ career from day one, I was really pleased when they released their debut album. When I heard it, I thought it was a good debut album. It only has ten songs on it, and lasts only forty-one minutes. Most of the songs are really good, and deal with many of the problems that blight not only Scottish society, but society in many countries. Poverty, infidelity, absent fathers, violence and loneliness are problems that people face, the world over. On this album, Glasvegas view these problems from a Scottish perspective. They’ve done this well, with a mixture of anger, hurt, contempt and even humor. My fear when the was released was people outwith Scotland wouldn’t understand some of the lyrics, and would struggle with some of the Scottish vernacular. For example would they understand what a square go was and what was Polmont? Thankfully that wasn’t the case, and Glasvegas have established a huge fan-base in Europe and further afield. If you’ve never heard this album before, it’s worth investigating. On it are some great songs played and sung passionately by Glasvegas. Standout Tracks: Flowers and Football Tops, Geraldine, It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry and Daddy’s Home.
GLASVEGAS-GLASVEGAS.
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