Where Were You Twenty Five Years Ago Today?
A few weeks ago Stiff and I were reminiscing about the Big Day, 3rd June 1990, when the streets of the best city in the world were filled with between 250 000 and half a million people all intent on hearing some of the best and worst of Scottish music for free and this being Glasgow after all, more importantly having a party.
We spent a large majority of the day as I've mentioned before at Customhouse Quay listening to the likes of Billy Bragg, Natalie Merchant and Michael Stipe. But we did wander around the city, leaving the scooters parked up as the place was hoaching with police as you would expect and I illegally had my girlfriend on the back of the P2. The streets were absolutely mobbed and trying to get to George Square was a feat in itself but once we were there, jesus, we realised the scale of the event. My memory is quite hazy of who we saw there but what does vividly stick in my mind was hearing, as seeing the Kevin McDermott Orchestra, was not an option, play Mother Nature's Kitchen, the title track to one of the most underrated and criminally ignored albums of the late 80s and a track that just summed up the day to perfection.
I am not sure that we realised what was going on that day as there are virtually no pictures on the web that I can find and hardly any accounts outwith the Scottish press of the event even happening. Sure as shit had there been any violence which is the stereotypical view of the city it would have been all over the media. For those of you who were not there and were not aware that it even happened here's a link to an article from the Daily Record, not at the time but twenty years later. it's all I can find as nobody so far has been arsed to do a Wiki page. Typical Glasgow, if it had happened in Manchester there would have been t-shirts, books, TV plays and probably moody black and white films detailing it all in minute detail but as it was Glasgow most people's memory is probably a bit hazy as I suspect that there weren't many Haddow's offies with much in the way of supplies the following morning. Me and Stiff, well, we were sober.
See culture, we had it in buckloads in 1990.
Kevin McDermott Orchestra - Mother Nature's Kitchen
7 comments:
Kevin McDermott's Suffocation Blues album is a particular fave. If you don't own that it's worth looking for. There is a cd with it on out there.
Here's a crappy clip of Texas and Maria McKee. There has to be better documentation than this out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNd7AyMBLwA
Drew,
I have absolutely no recollection of this event. Are you sure you didn't dream it?
Either that or it was part of the alcohol years!
I may well have been standing next to you and Stiff at Customhouse Quay on that very day Drew. Seeing Bragg, Stipe and Merchant on stage together is till to this day one of my gig highlights. As you rightly say, best city in the world.
You are so right about mother natures kitchen lp
Thanks for that Someone Said, That was from George Sq.
We probably were Scott. I remember a girl fell from the top of a well and got a right sore one.
CC - A few times since I have thought that I did dream it as nobody seems to remember it happening.
FoRW - been playing the album all week.
Simon - I have and am listening to it noiw for the first time in a long time
Drew,
I remember being with at Glasgow Green that day. Bizarrely, all I can really remember seeing is The Chimes! Think I'd given up by the time Sheena Easton came on in her full Paisely Park phase:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSfU5Zmgioc
Would seem that some didn't take to her newly found mid-Atlantic drawl and literally give her pelters...
There was so much going on in Glasgow in 1990 that a lot of it becomes so hazy.
And I finish with a where are they now fact for you: Kevin McDermott now works as a museum guide at the Riverside Museum in Glasgow!
g. (howdoesthatonegoagain)
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