The first of two consecutive nights for me at the Barrowlands, Scotland's best music venue: a sold-out gig of reformed 90's band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie.
Getting parked easily, close to the venue, I sit in my car then wait till showtime to head down to catch the support act, Seil Lien. There's not much of a queue but while I wait, a youth from the bar next door leaves the group of fellow smokers to enquire who was playing. Another gig-goer tells him 'Goodbye Mr Mackenzie' and the youth asks her to repeat the name. She does so and he still draws a blank. 'You're too young, sonny' she says, as he heads back to his mates none the wiser.
The metal detectors are flashing as fast as Christmas lights and everyone is getting patted down, searched thoroughly for sharp objects. When asked if I am carrying any, I resist saying "Just my wit" and I head upstairs. After a quick visit to the gents (which retains an endearing charm, walled on three sides by one urinal trough), I find the dancefloor mostly devoid of punters and get to select where I want to stand for the gig, just off centre, slightly forward of the middle.
At 8 pm, Seil Lien comes on and after one song, I'm wishing for a skip track button. Her voice is okay but her songs are doing nothing for me. She finishes with a cover of 'I'm in Love with a German Film Star' by the Passions and makes it sound even more mournful than the original. I'm glad it's her last.
Just before the Mackenzies take the stage at 9 pm, the tall punters appear from the fringes and my carefully chosen short-person-in-front-of-me position now has one in front of her. There are others around me so I'm boxed in. I hope when the band appears they all move forward.
Big John, the band's original guitarist, using crutches because of his MS, is helped on stage first and gives a defiant salute with them before settling onto his support stool. The rest of the band come on and open with 'Open Your Arms", which one lanky fellow beside me takes as an instruction for the rest of the gig. He's drunk and is enjoying the gig on a whole different level to me, exhibiting his passion with great flourishes. I fear for my spectacles and have to raise my arm often in protection. (Make up your own personal insult towards him here.)
It spoilt an otherwise okay gig. Siel Lien may have stepped into Shirley Mason's shoes but she hasn't filled them. The lighting show seemed improvised with an excessive love of strobe lighting and the sound mix was muddy, with the band sometimes gesturing for their instrument to be louder. Martin's vocals weren't strong but his performance was still mesmerising. He's a great frontman. Obviously, I still love the songs and am glad I went but it wasn't special.
Setlist
Open Your Arms
Wake It Up
His Master's Voice
Goodwill City
Candlestick Park
Dust
You Generous Thing
Good Deeds Are Like Dirty Rags
Normal Boy
Green Turn Red
Here Comes Deacon Brodie
Face to Face
Goodbye Mr Mackenzie
The Rattler
Encore:
The Way I Walk (Jack Scott cover) (Big John on lead vocals)
Blacker Than Black
Now We Are Married
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