Gig preview: Homecoming Live – The Final Fling

Published on Saturday 21 November 2009 20:00

IT'S a night out celebrating decades of Scottish music from Deacon Blue to Tommy Reilly, Evelyn Glennie to Eddi Reader, and Teenage Fanclub to The View. As a snapshot of Scotland's music scene over the past 30 years Homecoming Live – The Final Fling is a strong sell. OK, some of the bigger names such as Annie Lennox or Franz Ferdinand might be missing, but sweeping in at the tail end of the Year of Homecoming, here's a festival of Scottish heritage that digs guitars and post-punk rat

And yet it hasn't exactly been an easy sell. Homecoming Live was originally going to take place across the SECC in Glasgow on St Andrew's Day. In the past fortnight, however, it's been scaled down to smaller venues in the complex due to disappointing ticket sales. The cause? Recession, yes, but then came the mutterings about the event – and Homecoming in general – being hijacked by the SNP. Was this a gig or a political rally with bands?

"I feel as though it has been a bit victimised," says promoter Geoff Ellis. He has downsized gigs in the past, Radiohead and Blur included, following poor ticket sales and no-one batted an eyelid. This time, it's made front-page news. "If you're a ticket-holder coming to Homecoming Live you'll be wondering what all this talk is about politicisation. There is a perception that it's been hijacked but I don't think it has been. It has been blown out of all proportion. It is not a political event."

John Lawler, frontman of the Fratellis and Codeine Velvet Club, agrees, insisting that "no-one going to a gig pays any attention to that". Instead he blames the broad sweep of the line-up. His new outfit, Codeine Velvet Club, are playing alongside indie bands including The View, Teenage Fanclub, Idlewild, King Creosote and The Vaselines. Meanwhile, over in the Clyde Auditorium, it's a more grown-up affair with the likes of Midge Ure, Hue & Cry and Lloyd Cole heading up proceedings.

"How does Midge Ure fit in with us or The View?" ponders Lawler. "It's a tricky one to get right and I guess that's why it's been slower than people thought. They could have just filled it with new acts that they knew would pull in a younger crowd. It's actually pretty brave."

Ellis isn't convinced, though. "If you're a fan of The Vaselines then you're probably someone who is still going to gigs and might see The View or Codeine Velvet Club," he argues. "Groups like them are reference points for young people in bands. Twin Atlantic said they can't wait to play with Idlewild because they've always looked up to them. And Teenage Fanclub have been an influence on so many Scottish guitar bands. It's going to be a fantastic night, the kind you won't see again with this combination of great musicians coming together."

Such a diverse bill doesn't necessarily reveal a specific Scottish sound, Ellis continues, but it does show how bands have influenced one another over generations. "We were quite conscious of that when putting together the programme," he says. "A new artist like Tommy Reilly fits in with Deacon Blue, Hue & Cry and Lloyd Cole. We would have put Paolo Nutini in there as well. Paolo liked the idea but he's on tour." It was a similar story with Annie Lennox, Simple Minds, Belle And Sebastian, Amy Macdonald and Glasvegas. Ellis stresses that they were all keen to be involved but touring schedules and recording commitments meant they had to turn the offer down.

What the line-up does show is how the Scottish music renaissance of the 1980s, which propelled the like of Deacon Blue into the charts, is repeating itself. Bands such as The View, and others absent from the bill such as Biffy Clyro and Glasvegas, are huge successes. If we're talking about celebrating Scotland's music surely this is the point? "We've started to get bands coming out of this country who are really doing well for themselves in a mainstream way," says Lawler. "We haven't had that for a while. I guess it started with Franz Ferdinand." He pauses before adding: "And maybe The Fratellis."

When Lawler started playing gigs with The Fratellis a few years ago, he noticed a change. "The London music industry used to be scared of coming up here," he says. "It changed three years ago. It had been a year since Franz Ferdinand broke and A&R men down south suddenly started to take notice." The Fratellis had been playing showcases in Glasgow attended by one talent scout from London, two if they were lucky. Not any more. "Suddenly we played a gig and there were 27 record labels there," Lawler recalls. "But it's not like the bands suddenly sprung up. They were here all along." v

SECC, Glasgow, Saturday www.homecominglive.com

• This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday on 22 November 2009.