I walked this week through the perfect Glasgow Christmas scene: a narrow street flanked on either side by tall, majestic tenements with brightly lit Christmas trees in dozens of windows.
Staggering along the street was a chap who seemed to be having a very merry Christmas indeed as he sang his own uniquely Scottish version of the old Cliff Richard tune: “It’s Christmas time, Buckfast Tonic Wine”. I think old Cliff missed a trick with that lyric.
With Christmas Day only a matter of days away, a very busy social and musical calendar for Gaels in Glasgow has finally come to an end. And what a year 2023 has been.
From Celtic Connections in January, right through to the Hoolie in the Hydro in December, the past year has proven that traditional music is alive and well within this city – despite everything the previous two years threw at the wider music industry and, of course, the world as a whole.
The Reeling, a new festival in Rouken Glen Park back in June, saw thousands of people gather in the south side to hear the country’s best traditional acts perform in the summer sun. Only a week later, though in less favourable weather conditions, I played quite possibly my favourite gig ever with Tide Lines in Queen’s Park, which was my personal highlight of 2023. Almost five thousand people came out to hear us in a big top tent with the rain absolutely bucketing down outside.
I am going to leave you this week with a tale from that night which I only heard recently and which I have been keeping up my sleeve for the appropriate week.
Scott Harvey, a good pal of mine and a superb singer and banjo player who readers will know from his regular appearances in the Park Bar, attended the gig with his daughter, Kirsteen.
Before I tell the story, it is worth mentioning that Kirsteen is an extraordinary, up-and-coming singer/songwriter in her own right whose new EP, Unpredictable, has been all over BBC Radio Scotland in the past fortnight, and deservedly so.
Kirsteen is 24, so Scott perhaps felt like the old father figure as he took in our gig at Queen’s Park with a large squad of Kirsteen’s pals. After the show the group made their way to the nearby pub, Church on the Hill. There, Scott went to the bar and ordered the round. As he did so, his eye was caught by a fridge full of ice cream, so he added a tub to the drinks order.
Sitting back down the table feeling very satisfied with his acquisition, he tucked into his ice cream – much to the hilarity of his daughter and pals.
“Dad,” Kirsteen exclaimed. “That’s dog’s ice cream!”
Readers, take that as a warning. Before you chuck a dollop of ice cream onto your Christmas pudding this year, make sure it’s the stuff made for humans!
Have a merry Christmas, everyone!