MUSIC | Previews 74 THE LIST 13 Nov–11 Dec 2014
SHOEGAZE / ALT-ROCK THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN Barrowland, Glasgow, Fri 21 & Sun 23 Nov
It’s possible to identify only a few true Big Bang moments in British music and Psychocandy was one. With an echoey boom-thwack of Bobby Gillespie’s rudimentary drum kit, a beautiful hiss of guitar fuzz and feedback, and a shy drawl of Jim Reid’s sublimely pained vocals, a whole universe of incredible music was born and still grows. The Jesus and Mary Chain’s 1985 debut album in many
ways cast the die for the next ten years of indie, put Creation Records on its path to glory and notoriety (Psychocandy came out on Blanco y Negro, but JAMC were still managed by Alan McGee), and effectively marked the end of post- punk by reimagining the Velvet Underground as produced by Phil Spector, ushering in a new era of impassioned pop reconstructivism. The Mary Chain arguably never made another truly great album in five attempts, but hey, who cares? It’s debatable how much of Psychocandy’s awesome
romance will be captured by these two classic-album-in-full shows at the Barrowland, as it’s toured in its entirety for the first time almost 30 years on. The Reids of 1985 – East Kilbride brothers Jim and William, the band’s violently volatile nucleus – would probably throw up at the idea of their older selves doing these inherently youthful songs of love, lust, rage and stoned confusion for a politely reverent adult audience. But then, such was the fighty infamy of their mid-80s gigs, thanks to Alan McGee’s Malcolm McLaren-cribbed love of flash-bang publicity, the record’s release was rather drowned in a torrent of hype, drugs, drink and riots. If the Mary Chain of today can do careful justice to Psychocandy’s more fragile, lesser- recognised gems like ‘Cut Dead’, never mind noisy marquee numbers like ‘Just Like Honey’ and ‘Never Understand’, then rock history might just be momentarily reconstructed once again. (Malcolm Jack)
SEASONAL EVENT WINTERSONG Platform, Glasgow, Sat 22 Nov
‘Winter is my favourite season. It has such a desolate beauty to it,’ says RM Hubbert, who’ll be performing a specially composed set at Platform’s Wintersong event. ‘I’ve been thinking about the comparisons between those winter landscapes and the chronic depression that I have. Both come in cycles. Both foster isolation. Both inevitably end with a hope for a better day to come.’ Joining Hubbert are visionary folk bard Alasdair Roberts, the mercurial Richard Youngs, pastoral
synth-wizards Grumbling Fur, bass maestro Howie Reeve, Northumbrian troubadour the Horse Loom, Sussex experimentalist Plinth and Louis Abbott of Admiral Fallow. Roberts associates the season with growing up in Perthshire, where the natural world influenced his early songwriting. ‘Walking then in the hills, in the forests and by the lochs . . . it seemed to me that they teemed with the unseen spirits of tutelars; there was a deep sense of something numinous afoot.’
For Grumbling Fur’s Alexander Tucker, ‘winter means high electricity bills and cold feet’, yet he finds it can be a spur to creativity. ‘The early darkness often encourages one to nestle into a warm space and write some transportative music. People often refer to my solo output as winter-y, so maybe a little of this creeps into the Fur.’
‘I’m a sucker for Christmas music,’ says Youngs. ‘I remember wandering round Krakow and hearing Wham’s “Last Christmas” out of a cheap speaker in the market area, and finding it very moving.’ (Stewart Smith)
ROCK JACK WHITE The Hydro, Glasgow, Tue 18 Nov
The saviour of garage rock circa 2001 has come a long way in the past decade. He’s achieved a red carpet status, appeared on primetime chat shows and is now embarking on a bona fide arena rock tour, all without compromising the passionate ideals which have made him such a single-minded champion of analogue recording and vinyl records. If anything, Jack White is a more formidable live force than he has ever been. Firstly, that catalogue goes from strength to strength. Rotating setlists on the tour so far have included a generous smattering of White Stripes songs, plus Raconteurs and Dead Weather tracks, alongside eclectic material from his two solo albums to date, Blunderbuss and Lazaretto.
And then there’s the band. If the White Stripes sounded like a seven-nation army with just guitar
and drums, imagine the bone-rattling force of his current six-piece, comprising a pick’n’mix of the two bands – one all-male, one all-female – he toured with in 2012. Mostly the guys, though, it must be said. Sadly, White will be a crucial man down on this outing, following the death last month of
keyboard player Isaiah ‘Ikey’ Owens, previously the purveyor of audacious licks for the Mars Volta and others. His able replacement is Dean Fertita, celebrated synthquake maestro in Queens of the Stone Age and the Dead Weather. Our prediction? These players could give the Bad Seeds some cold sweats in the righteous racket stakes. (Fiona Shepherd)