Stealth Day of Christmas

This was a gig to celebrate two decades of Stealth Recording Studio in the East End of Glasgow and to showcase some of the artists who’ve recorded there recently.


It would also double up as a soft album launch for one of them.

Set up by Eddie Macarthur, Stealth Recording Studio is located in a little corner of Dalmarnock.

You come out of the train station and turn left then left again, or is it right and right again?
The Commonwealth Games developments moved the entrance to the station and my sense of direction never recovered from that.

The studio is a cool little facility based in a converted school building and I’ve actually been there a couple of times and watched Eddie doing his thing.

To have survived for two decades is quite an achievement considering everything that we’ve all had to endure through that time.
Most of the neighbourhood the studio is based in didn’t even survive those twenty years.

Tonight’s gig in Ivory Blacks has six bands performing.
Or in reality, six different acts with some sharing of musicians and enough pre set up to enable quick turnarounds between bands.


I wasn’t able to make the very start of this gig so unfortunately I missed the first performance of the evening which was from Rowan J Parker.
I know that Rowan performs symphonic type compositions and apparently I missed a treat and the sight of him playing both guitar and keyboards simultaneously.
Which I would have loved to have caught. Not to be this time unfortunately.

The second band of the evening was called Lemontree and I did catch them.
They are a kind of jazz duo playing bass and drums.
I think everything they played was a cover version and was rearranged into a Jazz style.

Sort of pop songs arranged and performed as jazz.
Nothing they played sounded familiar to me so they’ve either covered songs I don’t know or have changed them so much they may as well be originals.
The only song I knew was the last one which was a version of ‘Englishman in New York’.

Next up was Ruth Campbell and her band of Susan Stirling on violin and Tim Ness on whistles.
This was a real change of pace and possibly the odd band out on this line up.
They are very much a Celtic folky band centred around Ruth’s voice and songwriting.
They played the Burns song that you all know and some original compositions that you don’t.

The stand out song for me was their Christmas song called ‘Immanuel’.

Shock Horror. A Christmas song that’s actually about Christmas!

I’ve seen some pretty messed up things in this venue in the past and I think this might be the most wholesome band I’ve ever seen gracing that stage. 
I really enjoyed them.
Talented players and a singer with a beautiful voice.
Make good use of those two things and you’re onto a winner.
Ruth and Susan would return later joining the last band of the evening to perform a couple of songs with them.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Next up was Ferri & The Fevers.
I really love this band and I have known them for a few years. I have enjoyed watching them develop their punky garage rock sounds.
They have that classic power trio thing going on with Lisa on vocals/lead guitar, Martin on bass and Craig on drums. Lisa is a really good front person for a band despite being someone who didn’t want to do it originally and their tunes are catchy and punchy.

They’ve just released their first album which is self titled and they performed a few numbers from that including their last single ‘I Want One of What He’s Got’.
Lisa told a story about recording at Stealth for the first time.
Of how they went into the studio with half an idea or half a song and Eddie somehow managed to draw the rest of it out of them.
Literally saying we couldn’t do this without you. Which is a lovely tribute.

Lisa stayed on and played lead guitar with the next two bands.
The Eisenhowers were up next fronted by Raymond Weir on acoustic guitar and flanked by the rest of the musicians who would stay onstage for the rest of the show.
His songs have a lovely subtlety to them with intelligent lyrics and catchy hooks.
They were a little bit political. But in a choose your own adventure sort of way.
Songs like ‘You’re The Big Man Now’ is about that politician that you hate with the audience left to fill in the blank of who that referred to. 
’Angry Boy’ was another song that stood out for me.

All the same musicians would stay on to perform as the Sound of Water and it’s surprising how all the same players can sound so completely different.
This time the band was focused around the keys and vocals of Ross Alcock, formerly of ’80s Glasgow band H2O.
After their few years of commercial success in the 1980s I believe that Ross retired from music. Now somehow he has been coaxed back and has one album released as Sound of Water with another imminent.
It is this album that the gig would be double up as a launch for as I mentioned at the beginning.


I am not familiar of what the former band did so I cannot compare these new songs to their ’80s works but what I can say is that they were really well-constructed songs. As with Raymond’s songs earlier they have a lot of craft and care put into them. Although completely different in style and tone.
The band performing them was a little bit makeshift although it did feature some of the players that are on the record.


‘Gravity Town’ and ‘Pirates Gold’ with Ruth and Susan from the third band of the night were absolute winners.
I felt there was a definite ELO vibe to some of these songs and to prove my point they finished with a cover of ‘Mr Blue Sky’.
Which might be the only time I’ve ever seen that song covered properly. Complete with the strings bit at the end and the distorted synth vocals.

This was a fun little gig to go to and a great showcase.
Studios like Stealth are important places.
Eddie has done really well to have kept this going for twenty years when I know so many who have tried and failed in that time.

I wish him many more years of creativity.
And I’d quite like to see all these bands again soon.

Much is made of supporting local venues and independent grassroots music.
But that includes the little studios and rehearsal rooms and all the bands that emerge from them.
You might even find some of them that you will enjoy.

Visit www.stealthrecordingstudio.com

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Andrew McKenna

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