Forgive me. I’m going to go all a bit ‘I Saw them first here’ it is kind of intentional but I don’t mean it in the normal wanky way. I promise.
I first saw Glasvegas in a small pub in Exeter, two days before they had released a record. It was the first night of something called ‘Club NME’. A short lived adventure in which a DJ gets a night sponsored by the NME and they help them run the night by giving them access to some of the breaking acts of the age. Sounds like a pretty good idea to be honest. The problem was the pub they chose was terrible, the sound was terrible, the stage was terrible, the beer was terrible, the toilets were terrible, in fact by and large the bands were terrible as well.
The only night I ever went to was Glasvegas, and even then I only went because it was Glasvegas, a band that I had been listening to via the medium of My Space (remember that), and Steve Lamacq’s radio show. Glasvegas that night were incredible, they did a thirty minute set, clouded in smoke, and covered in feedback barely uttered a word to the audience (numbering around 60 people) and then vanished at the end.
I loved Glasvegas when the first appeared on the scene. There they were with their drummer that stood up, all clad in black, singing sulky songs appear rejection, addiction, racist murders, getting stabbed and pretty girls on Saltcoats Beach. For about five months, they were the ‘Greatest band in Britain’ and frankly if they hadn’t disappeared up their own bottoms trying to be U2 on their second album, they might have continued to be so.
The Five Songs that have been played the most on my iPod are as follows:
1 – Daddy’s Gone – which still sounds as majestic and as wonderful as it did the first time I heard it – which as it happens was on the Jo Whiley radio show
2 – Geraldine – Which is possibly the finest four minutes that the band ever recorded.
3 – The World is Yours – Well, its bloated stadium indie rock for Stereophonics fans, but, you know, acceptable.
4 –It’s My Own Cheating Heart….- Which, the first time you heard it, should have made you blub like a boy whose heart has just been broken for the first time, that is if you are any kind of sensible human being.
5 – Lonesome Swan – Which is also taken from the first album – I sense a trend developing here with this series. Still at least its a good first album.
Oh and this is our first month anniversary. Thanks for reading, we hope that we are doing ok. It’s still work in progress.
The Sound of Being Ok 
I first saw them when they were fourth on the bill at a gig for the closing of the West End Festival, the headliners were Camera Obscura, the other two were the Dykeenies and My Latest Novel. I came home raving about them to anybody who would listen but all anybody would say was, “pish name” which I thought was rather harsh, I quite liked it. My favourite tracks are Flooers and Fitba Taps and The Prettiest Thing On Salcoats Beach. Sadly, for me, nothing that came after the debut album lived up to that and the early singles.
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I’m with Drew with Flowers and Football Tops (the English translation) which became pretty poignant in Glasgow following a terrible race motivated murder of a teenage boy
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A couple of tracks from the second album made it on to my iTunes, but my most played are all from the first and it’s the already twice-mentioned F&FT that leads the way on mine.
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I liked Geraldine. Always wondered what became of the band, but now that I know I won’t go looking for them.
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The third album is worth an hour of your life.
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I saw them on the tour to promote that third album and they did manage to recreate some of the magic from when they first burst onto the scene.
They were great to bloggers at the outset – sending out all sorts of things and encouraging that the music be made available freely. The pity was that the major label they ended up on didn’t see things the same way and some folk I know got really upset when postings were taken down under the DMCA nonsense – despite the bloggers having written support from James; it turned out that even the author of the songs was powerless in the face of the corporate juggernaut.
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