The Bluebells / The New Leaves, Celtic Connections @ Glasgow Barrowlands, Saturday 1st February 2025. Photos by Andrew McKenna
Are we witnessing the real heyday of The Bluebells?
After bringing out a new record and working with Last Night From Glasgow, the Bluebells have come on leaps and bounds. They’ve been playing ever larger gigs, culminating in this sold out night at the famous Glasgow Barrowlands.
“When we started in 1980 or 81, this place was mothballed. Nobody could play here. Then Jim Kerr and Simple Minds used it to film something and suddenly everyone wanted to play here,” Ken McCluskey told the crowd.
It was billed as their first Barrowlands gig in 40 years but from how he spoke it felt more like they’d missed out.
This gig had 12 classic songs and seven from the newest album ‘In The 21st Century’.
They went from their very first single ‘Forever More’ to their most recent ‘Gone Tomorrow’.
Songs three and six respectively.
Appearing as a seven-piece band on the night they had Campbell Owens on bass, Mick Slaven and Douglas MacIntyre both on guitar and John McCusker on violin, with the original trio of Bobby on guitar, David on drums and Ken on vocals and moothie.
David was hidden for most of the gig, either behind the other players or behind smoke or the bright shafts of the light that stage lighting was set up to cast.
He did however come out to the front and sing the second last song, ‘She Rises’.
Obviously they played the hits and they went down as well as you’d expect them to but for me it was some of the newer material that I really wanted to hear.
The last time we caught The Bluebells was at Record Store Day a couple of years ago and Oor Betty wrote the words about it. On that day it was like an unplugged set where they performed a handful of these songs and explained some meaning behind them.
Their love song for Scottish Junior Football ‘Stonehouse Violets’ was the one I wanted to hear and it didn’t disappoint. Written we were told as a way for Ken to pass the time while waiting to “pick the wean up for the fitba” in the car parks of these Juniors teams.
“You kissed my face at Dunipace it’s then I knew my love was true”. There aren’t many songs that reference my hometown let alone the home town team. (Although I feel I should point out that the ‘Pace are a seniors team now and are more than holding their own in their new league.)
‘Daddy Was An Engineer’ is the other song that I wanted to hear and it came second after ‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool’. I just find such an oddly catchy song.
Support on the night came from The New Leaves who hail from County Down. I’m not that familiar with them although they are putting out records through Last Night From Glasgow.
They’re a sort of indie folk band with a bit of a country feel to them. Or maybe the choice of their headwear influenced me to write that. They look like a country band but aren’t really.
I enjoyed ‘Away With The Fairies’ which was about Ireland being a weird place where folk still believed in things like that, and also enjoyed ‘Donaghaguy Reservoir’ with the lovely vocal harmony thing they have going on through it. They’re an interesting little band and are playing in the Glad Cafe in Glasgow on the 19th of July 2025.
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