The Scotsman Sessions #242: James Allan

Welcome to the award-winning Scotsman Sessions. With performing arts activity curtailed for the foreseeable future, we are commissioning a series of short video performances from artists all around the country and releasing them on scotsman.com, with introductions from our critics. Here, James Allan of Glasvegas performs Cupid’s Dark Disco from the band’s new album, Godspeed

Even in the throes of a global pandemic, there are certain rock’n’roll standards to be upheld. In times of uncertainty, it is reassuring to note that Glasvegas frontman James Allan remains committed to the wearing of indoor shades in daylight hours, as evidenced by his sonorous Scotsman Sessions performance of Cupid’s Dark Disco, a suitably shadowy track from the band’s new album Godspeed, beamed from the spare room of his Glasgow home.

“I wanted to play a song from the new album and just felt like this was the one to do,” says Allan. “Me and [Glasvegas guitarist] Rab tried it out a couple of times at soundchecks for our acoustic tour in 2019, but never went on to actually play it. Then we did it for a streamed gig in April and I really like the way it sounds. But I miss my big sweetheart Rab this time…”

In addition to finishing and releasing the long-awaited Godspeed earlier this year, Allan’s lockdown workload also included writing a score to accompany the ITV documentary Return to Dunblane with Lorraine Kelly, marking the 25th anniversary of the Dunblane shootings.

Next on his perpetual creative schedule is “some other wee bits and bobs musically. I want to go the other way for the next music we release and try to get it out quite fast, because there’s a lot of things I’ve been working on in the background that I want to share.”

All being well, the band’s planned 2022 tour will be preceded by a number of festival appearances this summer. “As we get out of the pandemic we’re really looking forward to playing live again,” says Allan. “I knew I loved playing live, but being without it for all this time has really shown me how much I love it.”

Godspeed is out now on Go Wow Records, see https://glasvegas.net/

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