A music course at East Kilbride Art Centre approximately 25 years ago

I was using Twitter this evening and said 'hi' to Davie Scott of the band The  Pearlfishers. He had tweeted a link about Brian Wilson and that brought back memories of a music production course that I attended about 25 years ago (roughly) that Davie taught in the East Kilbride art centre. I loved that course, I learnt a lot and even though I seldom make music nowadays it was a valuable experience.

At that time there was a small digital recording studio in the Art Centre and Davie recorded local bands like Gods Boyfriend. I was a music addict back then and I played in my juvenile punk band with some of my pals. My best friend from school and I signed up to the course to learn more about making music and it was great.

Davie had done some good stuff with the Pearlfishers as well as his earlier group (love and money I think  CORRECTION - hearts and minds!) and he was spreading the gospel of perfect pop to the grunge addled minds of EK. He was not the only person of interesting the course.  There was an older guy, a drummer, a contemporary of the Jesus and Mary Chain, who had apparently played in an early permutation of the Mary Chain and some band with the guy out of the Wildhearts and sadly suffered from mental health problems.  The bloke was a really nice guy with great stories but in retrospect some of his stories may have been delusions.  Back then I didn't know much about mental health problems and in the 25 years since then I've learned more through my various professional studies and personal contacts. I like to think that his story was true and he did play with the Mary Chain and that Never Understand was indeed about him trying to explain his psychotic episodes to William Reid.

Davie Scott himself is a man with a deep love and understanding of music and he was able to clearly explain this to the class. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was his hero and he taught us about various production techniques, arrangements and the rivalry between Wilson and the Beatles. I remember one session when Davie went through God Only Knows from Pet Sounds chord by chord, explaining harmonies, melodies, lyrics and arrangements, presenting to us a great argument that Wilson had created the perfect pop song. He may be right although 'Wouldn't it be nice' is a bit more catchy.

Music has been important in my life. It is not all of my life but it has been a major theme and a source of pleasure. I've played my guitar a few times this week for the first time in ages, just for fun. I always mean to write and record some songs  again but real life and its associated pressures always gets in the way.  I have a lot of passions, my girlfriend, music, comic books, neurology, art. I'm a lucky man.  I'm lucky to have had such a rich life so far.

East Kilbride was special at times. I remember playing concerts in the Arts Centre, seeing the great Alex Chilton of  Big Star play there and seeing my pals play there. My teenage life was at times electric and colourful and it is nice o remembered the good bits.

things that happened that I would not have expected 20 years ago

The world is a strange place and you can't predict the future.  I've been about for a while now and I realise that a lot of unexpected things have happened.

Some of the oddest things - in no real order
Preacher being made into a TV show
Ant Man being a live action film
Guardians of the Galaxy being a live action film
7 Star Wars films being made in the last 20 years
Twin Peaks returning to TV after 25 years
Mogwai going from playing the Key Youth Centre in East Kilbride to playing the Hydro in Glasgow
Rangers Football Club going into administration
Woolworths and Safeways no longer being on the high street in Scotland
Netflix and youtube
Every song ever being available instantly on the internet
Me doing the job I'm doing and living the life I'm living

The world in a strange and brilliant place at times

Conor Oberst at the ABC in Glasgow 2017

This was the third time that I had seen Conor Oberst live.  I never managed to see Bright Eyes but I've seen him play solo shows and with Desperadicos.  I was slightly late to the Bright Eyes game, only really getting into their stuff in 2004 when I was living in Coventry but Oberst has soundtracked much of my life over the past 13 years.  I rate him fairly highly.

This is the third gig that I attended with my girlfriend/significant other/better half this month and it was possibly a harder sell as Oberst is not a big name.  I managed to get her to the show, overcoming her doubts, and by the second song she turned round and said 'this is amazing'.  She was right.

Oberst is a talented guy.  He writes great songs and he plays several instruments.  He sings like a dream and he does an excellent Bob Dylan impersonation.  He seems to have fun on stage.  He delivered an amazing apology for Donald Trump (combined with some Trump family history).  Beyond Conor himself the rest of the band was great too.

The set included 8 Bright Eyes songs including a duet on Lua with Adrianne Lenker, singer from support band Big Thief.  Another 8 of the songs were from the Ruminations/Salutations set that has come out over the past year.  The more recent stuff is amongst his strongest material in recent years.

Basically, this was a great show.  I want to hear more new music and see him play again at some point in the near future.  Oberst should be much more successful and famous.

The Pixies at the Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow

I started listening to the Pixies in 1991 or 1992 around the time that they broke up.  I initially heard Doolittle on tape, borrowed from the library in East Kilbride.  A neighbour gave me a copy of Trompe Le Monde and I bought a second hand copy of Surfer Rosa, looking for Big Black style Albini kicks.

They didn't click with me immediately.  I got the REM and Velvets references on 'Here comes your man' but it took a while to fall in love with them. Eventually I got there.

I first saw them live in 2004 at T in the Park and since then I've seen them in the SECC and at Primavera in Barcelona.  Generally they deliver and I was keen to see them again at the Kelvingrove Bandstand which is a great venue and usually ned free.  Sadly there was a bit of a ned problem last night which is often an issue in Glasgow.  Drunken twats are like scabies in Glasgow and I encountered one last night.

The pixies played a great 31 song set, starting with 'where is my mind?' and including 'wintering', 'caribou', 'nimrod's son', 'broken face', 'wave of mutilation', 'here comes your man', 'gouge away', 'planet of sound' and 'debaser'. They also played a bunch of new stuff I didn't recognise.  They were tight and the new bass player did well.  We also bumped into a bunch of pals which was nice.

Sadly our personal space was invaded by a drunken twat who thinks it is ok to be verbally aggressive to women.  Another concert goer was wearing a 'rudimentary peni' t-shirt and on reflection, I feel that it should be gifted to that drunken idiot as a warning to the general public.  After some razor sharp with and repartee, we left the venue during the last song to avoid me getting my ass kicked by the aforementioned intoxicated misogynist.  We listened to the encore of 'into the white' from the car feeling sorry for anyone who needs to interact with that dude on a regular basis.

The pixies were good and assholes are, sadly, everywhere.  Even at pixies concerts.  If wankers could fly we would never see the sky.

Minimum alcohol pricing may well make Scotland a better place.

Brian Wilson at the Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow

When I saw that Brian Wilson was playing an outdoor concert in Kelvingrove Park I decided to buy tickets.  They were a bit pricey at £67 each (including fees) but he is a legend and he is one of the last musicians from his era that still play.  The Kelvingrove Auditorium is a great venue and it's unusual to attend any sort of outdoor concert in Glasgow.

I felt a bit sorry for Wilson.  He's an old man, in his mid 70s, and he has had problems with his health for 50 years.  It's a shame he still needs the money from playing concerts and I do hope that he enjoys the live performances.  His band is great and includes fellow original Beach Boy, Al Jardine, as will as well as his son, Matt Jardine.  Jardine Jr has an amazing voice and did a lot of the tricky harmonies in the songs.

Generally Brian would sing the first verse of a song and then the rest of the band would step in and take over with Brian just adding a bit of keyboard and occasional vocals.  The 12 piece band take a wall of sound approach to the classic songs and the arrangements are great.

We got two sets and a six song encore.  The first set included California Girls, I Get Around and In My Room as well as about 16 other Beach Boys classics.  After a short break they came back and played all of Pet Sounds before the final encore which included Good Vibrations, Surfing USA, Barbara Ann and Love & Mercy.  Wilson seemed re-energised for both Pet Sounds and the encore.

His voice is shot now, he sounds a bit like Dylan and he looks tired but he wrote these fucking amazing pop songs and I feel lucky to have seen him and a competent band knock these tracks out in a Glasgow park.  We went home smiling and singing Beach Boys songs.  I don't know if Wilson will ever play in Glasgow again but I'm glad I splashed out for the tickets.