When the man who discovered Oasis declares you to be “the best Scottish band ever”, you better go out there and be the biggest, bestest, rockingest, most epic-sounding band you can be; and that’s precisely what Glasvegas have done with EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\, the follow-up effort to the eponymous debut album which in 2008 planted the Glaswegian quartet’s flag firmly into the pantheon terrain of modern British rock music.
Having formed and overseen the legendary Creation Records – home to Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Super Furry Animals, The Pastels, Teenage Fanclub, The Boo Radleys, Saint Etienne, Ride, Swervedriver, Fluke and Heavy Stereo and many more besides, not to mention the brothers Gallagher – Alan McGee knows a thing or two about genuinely life-changing rock music, so it came as little surprise to see Glasvegas fulfilling all of his early hype with their euphoric and heartbreaking (aha!) rush of dizzying feedback, universal melodies and bawl-your-eyes-out lyricism.
While support slots with Ian Brown, U2, Oasis, Kings of Leon and Carl Barat make for an impressive enough CV, one can envisage a not-too-distant future in which sharing a bill with Glasvegas will be an equally boast-worthy feather in a young band’s cap. As such, Sport.co.uk had much to ask bassist Paul Donoghue from a music point of view but, being as he is an avid Rangers supporter, we felt obliged to ask his thoughts on the previous night’s frustrating 1-1 Europa League draw with Sporting Lisbon at Ibrox.
Dour Rangers
“I was up at our singer James’ [Allan] and we managed to get it on the computer,” he tells us of a game in which Walter Smith’s men had looked set to successfully defend a narrow first leg advantage until a late leveller from Matias Fernandez. A semi-inevitable punishment for sitting back on a lead? “Yeah, well, that’s just the story of us in Europe. We managed to get to the final with nine or ten men behind the ball a couple of years ago, so I think we’re sticking with that.
“I think we were unlucky in the end but there’s always the danger of conceding if you play like that. I was lucky enough to have a season ticket at Ibrox when Walter Smith won nine [Scottish Premier League titles] in a row, so I’ve got nothing but fond memories of the guy.” Having said that, can he fathom the continued selection of misfiring front man Kyle Lafferty? “No I can’t and all of my friends who are Rangers fans just can’t seem to take to him,” he says.
“For the amount of money they paid for him, he’s got to do a lot more than he’s been doing and, if he wants to talk the way he has about Charlie Nicholas [‘I think he’s a joke’], then he’s got to do something to back that up. Charlie Nicholas was a legend; I’m a Rangers fan but I know the guy was pure class and trying to dismiss him when you’re not really firing on all cylinders is pointless.”
Going south
Another dismal 3-0 defeat to arch rivals Celtic on Sunday will have left Donoghue reeling but there is currently a bigger issue at hand: namely, the club’s financial future. “Yeah, everything seems to have died down since Christmas. We’ve not heard any more since [Dave] King, I think it was, came in to buy us. The only thing we’ve heard since then is that we might be getting hit with a massive tax bill so it is quite a worry as we could potentially go out of the game.
“But I’m sure there are plans put in place to make sure that never happens; we’re a big enough club. It’s just the way every club’s going nowadays.”
The long-mooted move south to England’s Premier League would not, believes Donoghue, make for an easy transition. “We’d get bigger money but I honestly think that Rangers would struggle to stay in the Premiership. I think the Rangers first team squad is only sixteen players and you could never compete for 38 games against top flight English clubs [like that] without expecting a defeat every game.
“I think it would be good for both Rangers and Celtic to go down there because it would mean more money and maybe that would have an impact on the field but Rangers couldn’t go there just now.”
Pally Ally
With Walter Smith set to stand aside in the summer, legendary Gers striker and current right-hand man Ally McCoist is being groomed to take over the Ibrox hot seat. Does he have what it takes? “I hope so. Ally McCoist has taken charge of some of the League Cup games up here and we’ve looked okay but Walter Smith is such an influence that, because he’s there just now, I think that really bleeds through when McCoist takes charge.
“I think Walter Smith is intelligent enough not to leave the club if he didn’t think McCoist was up to it and he’s got a good staff around him so, when he steps up, he won’t be alone. I suppose, when he was a player, he was always quite jokey but he seems to have knuckled down and his interviews are always quite positive and to the point.
“It’s something that a lot of people don’t really do and it’s one reason why I like Neil Lennon being the Celtic boss: he’s actually got something to say. The guy’s got a point of view and he puts it across, he doesn’t hide behind mediocrity. But yeah, I have been impressed with McCoist’s interviews.” Would he have preferred to see McCoist cut his managerial teeth at somewhere like Motherwell? “I don’t know. I just think it’s one of those things where you need to give the guy a chance at the club.
“When Walter left the first time, we brought in Dick Advocaat who had great experience, had done really well as a coach and had a lot of money to spend. Then we brought in Paul Le Guen who had success with Lyon in the Champions League and won umpteen titles. So experience isn’t always necessary, especially in Scotland. I don’t know but I’d rather him managing Rangers than managing a team playing against us.”
Oh, Gino
There are scathing words for a former Ibrox favourite who recently made headlines on these shores for the wrong reasons. “I actually watched the game [AC Milan vs Tottenham Hotspurs]. As I said, I had a season ticket around that time so I saw [Gennaro] Gattuso play for Rangers and he’ll always be held in high regard by Rangers fans but that was diabolical, man. I really wish Joe Jordan would have just thumped him. I suppose Gattuso was trying to gee the crowd up, he was having a go at [Peter] Crouch and Joe Jordan was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But it was a little bit childish.”
Life in a band, he says, precludes him from following his beloved Gers from the closest of quarters. “I haven’t been to a game in years now,” he says. “We’ve been on the road for two years and we’ve been writing the second album so I’ve not been in Glasgow for a great deal of time. I’ve got friends who can get tickets but, usually, you organise it and then something comes up, like I have to go down to London or I have to go on tour.”
...from the new album...
Right; now we’ve covered the football side of things, Sport.co.uk enquires as to what we can expect from EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\, which will be released next month. “I think we’ve evolved musically and we’re not afraid to try different things, like keyboards and stuff like that. Before we were kind of penned into the one sound where the guitar was kind of like orchestral but this time we’ve let the reins go a little bit. I saw a review of it that said it sounds ‘epic’ and that’s always a good thing for us.”
“Epic” is one word for it; “genius” is another, especially if you happen to be Alan McGee, who has been using the medium of Facebook status updates to praise the band and their output so effusively of late. “Yeah, we were talking about that last night,” says Donoghue. “That’s the reason why people are hunting James in bars in Glasgow: it’s because of what McGee’s saying!
“He’s like an enthusiastic uncle to us; he inspires you so much. The first day we were in the studio in London, Alan came along and they’d just finished making the Creation film [Upside Down] and he let us see a preview of it. It was just the perfect way to start making the album, getting to sit down with Alan and watch all the madness that happened in his life.
“It’s always a compliment when Alan says stuff because Oasis are the reason we got into music. Even all the other stuff he’s done, like The Boo Radleys and Heavy Stereo and that, it’s something we respect. Even with the way Creation was run, it’s something that people respect and, for someone from Glasgow to do all that, it means a lot to us.” Ah, Sport.co.uk favourites The Boo Radleys: now there’s one vastly underrated band. “Yeah I know, man. It’s not until Alan showed us that movie that I got into them. I was really surprised by how good they were. I can see why Alan put his neck in and put their records out.”
Multitude of good
Those huge waves of soaring guitars common to so many of those Creation Records artists is also a primary factor of the Glasvegas sound. Donoghue, though, insists that this characteristic was already present and not at the behest of McGee. “A lot of people think Alan manages us but to be honest he’s just our friend,” he explains. “Alan likes art to be what it is; he knows that we’ve got our own intelligence to shape the way that we do our own band and I think that’s what he loves.
“He’s never suggested that we try anything or anything like that. He’s given us advice in the past but he just likes to sit back and enjoy himself.” Sitting back and enjoying yourself, it transpires, is something that’s been hard to come by for lead singer James Allan, whose status as face of the band and natural rock-star-ishness (it’s a word now) have, according to McGee, made his life a bit of a struggle at times.
“Yeah, you do notice it,” confirms Donoghue. “I’m quite lucky; I don’t know most bass players out of bands so I can go to pubs and the only people that come up are big fans of Glasvegas who just want to say well done and all that. James is a little bit different because he’s the front man and the mouth of the band and I think a lot of people in Glasgow are a little bit jealous of him so he has had some trouble.
“We pretty much now can’t do gigs in Scotland or even go to gigs in Scotland without James having security. So he struggles with that a little bit but obviously he would never change anything because it’s one tiny little bad thing that happens against the multitude of good things that have happened to him.”
Drummer drama
Was such public attention one of the factors behind last year’s departure from the band of drummer Caroline McKay? “We were in Santa Monica for four months writing the album [when it happened]. Caroline had never been a drummer before and suddenly she went from us saying ‘hit that drum, hit that drum!’ to playing on a stage with U2. I think that came as quite a shock to her and she missed home a lot more than me, Robert and James did.
“I think that was a big reason, that she missed her family and her friends too much, but she left on good terms. Me and James haven’t spoken to her in a while but Robert still keeps in touch with her and says she’s doing really well. I’ve also met a few mutual friends who say she’s doing amazing as well.” And how has replacement Jonna Löfgren settled in? Indeed, where did they find her? “It was Robert that put up the bat light; he said to our management that if we were going to get another girl drummer then he wanted her to be Swedish!
“We were calling him a pervert for a while but then Jonna turned up and she just fitted in perfectly and has done since. I think she got a little bit homesick on her first tour with us which was understandable – I don’t think she’d been in a band before, although she played drums at college – and she comes from a little town in the far north of Sweden so it came as a bit of a shock to her to come into the circus that we roll through the country.
“But she’s clicked with it now and the last few months with her have been amazing. And she’s a frightening drummer. We were really surprised. We asked her over when we were recording in London and we flew her over to meet us. She thought it was an audition but we’re not too bothered about technical ability; it’s more about the feel and the electricity between us and we knew right away that she was going to be in the band.
“But she went back home without playing any drums so she was thinking, ‘They don’t want me and that’s that.’ So she was quite surprised when we phoned her up and it’s been amazing having her in the band, although she is making fun of us a bit too much these days. She’s accused me of having fake trainers, which I still have a thorn in my side about.”
Supporting chance
Onto those aforementioned stints supporting the great and legendary. Is it true that Ian Brown asked them to support him himself? “Yeah. We’re managed by James’ sister Denise and she was on the bus to work when the phone went. She answered it and he said, ‘Alright, it’s Ian Brown.’ She was like, ‘Yeah right, who is it?’ ‘It’s me, it’s Ian Brown.’
“He asked us to do five shows with him. I’ve got a lot of respect for Ian for what he’s done in the past. The first time we met, he came up to us and said, ‘Youse look like a f***in’ band!” I didn’t realise how important your style and the way you look can be to your music and that was kind of the thing that confirmed it for me: it’s not just your music, it’s the whole package. Ian’s the master of that, the king monkey.’
Sport.co.uk mentions that we were lucky enough to get to interview Brown the other year and were, given his reputation, surprised by just how jolly nice he was. “He’s a beautiful guy,” agrees Donoghue. “I can understand why people might be intimidated because when he talks to anyone, even James’ mum, he stands nose to nose with them.
“Even when he’s being really friendly, that’s just the way he talks to people. I think sometimes people read that the wrong way, as if he’s being confrontational, but that’s the last thing on his mind.”
Close to The Edge
Does he know who it was that gave Bono a copy of their debut album, thus leading to Glasvegas supporting U2? “I think it might have been the singer from Interpol,” comes Donoghue’s delightfully rock and roll response. “We heard that U2 liked us because the singer from Interpol was at Bono’s house and he told Rich Costey, the producer of our first album, who also does Interpol.
“I can’t remember where Bono first got it but it’s such a sweet thing for us because we’re huge U2 fans. To hear he was listening to it and then he actually came out in NME and said that ‘It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry’ was one of the greatest love songs ever written: that was a huge compliment. To then do shows with them, there were a few squeaky bums!
“The first show we did with them was in Dublin, their home town. We came in the dressing room after our set and they’d sent us a crate of Guinness and two bottles of champagne with a note to say they were really sorry that they couldn’t spend any time with us, because their families and that were there, which we totally understood.
“But we met them at Hampden [Park] just before they went onstage and again they were really sweet guys and their geniuses at what they do. The show that they give people is so inspiring.”
Did Oasis complete the holy trinity of niceness for him? “Yeah, they did. Funnily enough, it’s probably Liam that was the nicest guy. We played maybe eight or nine shows with them and, in Paris on the last show of their tour, Liam came into our dressing room; James’ mum and her husband were there and he was talking away to them for about an hour and a half.
“Then we went over to Oasis’ dressing room and everyone was so lovely. We knew Andy Bell for a while because he deejayed at one of our gigs years ago and he’s kept his eye on how we’re doing ever since. We’re going to the Beady Eye gig in Glasgow next week so it’ll be good to catch up with them.”
Beer pumped
In 2009, Glasvegas are reputed to have had a spell of playing nine different festivals in just three weeks. As it turns out, those figures somewhat undersell the madness. “We were in ten different countries in two weeks,” says Donoghue. “It’s a bit mad but somehow your body adapts to it. We weren’t looking after ourselves the best we’ve ever, a few too many beers after shows and that, but you do adapt to it and it just becomes normal life.
“The hard thing is when you come home and, at around 9pm, your adrenaline starts pumping because you’re so used to going on a stage. So you’re sitting in your house and you’ve drunk four beers in ten minutes, you’ve been to the toilet five times and you’re thinking, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ Your body gets used to producing adrenaline at a certain time and it’s hard to calm back down when you come back to normal life.
“At that point we were quite new to it so we went a little bit wild at the time and enjoyed ourselves a little bit too much, I think. But we grew used to it and, even though we’ve only done a little tour of Scotland since then, it was much more chilled out. We don’t want to go nuts because we’ve got to put on the same show every night for two weeks straight and eventually it would be detrimental to the show, which isn’t fair on the people who’ve bought tickets.
“Money’s tight just now so if they do spend money on a ticket then they deserve the best show we can give them; and that means not turning up with a hangover and having bins on the side of the stage!” Of all the festivals Glasvegas have played to date, Donoghue picks one close to home as his personal favourite. “Probably T in the Park. We headlined the King Tut’s tent there in 2009; I think the tent holds twelve thousand and there were fifteen thousand people in it.
“So that’s always been really special to us and we were lucky that BBC Scotland filmed the whole show and broadcast it because it was good to watch it back and see so many people digging the music.”
As of next month, Glasvegas will have doubled their public reserves of highly dig-able music. EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\ by name, euphoric and heartbreaking by nature; no wonder then that they flock in their thousands to watch this potential institution of a band in action.
EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\ album trailer
Sport.co.uk Extras: Glasvegas’ Paul Donoghue on...
...his first game attended: “The first game I ever went to was when Rangers made it three titles in a row against Aberdeen [on the final day of the 1990-91 season]. I’ll always remember Mark Walters setting up Mark Hateley with one of the best crosses I’ve ever seen at Ibrox. Despite the trouble he had up here with the racism, he kept his head down and did his job and that’s honourable.”
...his best game attended: “The best game I was Rangers 3-3 Celtic at Ibrox and Arthur Numan scored a goal from about thirty-five yards into the top corner. That was something else."
...his worst game attended: “The worst game was the year Rangers could have made it ten titles in a row but we were defeated 3-0 by Hearts. Allan Johnston, who went on to Sunderland and then eventually to Rangers, scored a hat-trick. That was hard to take for Rangers fans because we were so used to success and it was Celtic that stopped us from winning ten in a row.”
...his top five favourite Rangers players: “Not in any particular order: [Paul] Gascoigne, obviously. When Gazza came, it was as if Christ had reappeared. Brian Laudrup as well; he was probably the most gifted footballer I’ve ever seen. Jorg Albertz; he was a big German left-back who developed a Scottish accent. Every time we got a free-kick against Celtic, it was a goal because their ‘keeper would just hide. If that ball hit you, you weren’t staying up, or it’s taking you into the net! There was an Italian [Negri]...no but I had my season ticket when he scored 32 goals before Christmas. My next player was actually Sergio Porrini and the story was that Negri and him were playing squash and apparently there was a fight and Sergio Porrini hit him in the eye; he hardly played again after that. And the last one would probably be Ronald de Boer; when he came to Rangers, it was like: this is a great footballer, man.”
...fellow Alan McGee favourites The Grants: “Ah yeah, they were great guys. They were another band that Alan was giving a bit of help to and we used to play his club night pretty much every month together. There always seemed to be some kind of chaos round them, always somebody thrown out the hotel or lost a guitar or locked in a van. They were proper rock and roll. Not like us, hiding in the corner drinking.”
...his love of practical jokes: “We just did a photo shoot today in a swimming pool and James had to come out of the water so I was tempted to just keep throwing him back in but he’s a little bit touchy about his hair and it was bad enough. I’ve not actually played a prank in a while; I should start again. I calmed down because the last one I did, one of our crew...you know how bad OCD is for some people? He had to make his bed a certain way; he grew up in a guest house so he had to make twenty beds a day before he went to school, so his bed was always pristine. So one night I came in drunk and messed it all up. I thought he was going to start crying because the OCD had got him so agitated. After that I thought, right, I need to calm down. Our engineer Kev hates cheese so there’s a cheese board in the dressing room that always ends up in his laptop case. I put a big bit of cheese in his pillow case once and it took him about two days to find it.”
...his favourite episode of The X-Files: “At that time we’d done a few in-stores and when you do them you get given vouchers so I bought every series of X-Files. There’s one they do in black and white [‘The Post-Modern Prometheus’, season five episode five] and it’s kind of like a b-movie, like a sci-fi film from the fifties and I really like the way it’s done. It’s about a disfigured guy who’s getting all the women in a town pregnant and he’s a massive Cher fan. It sounds weird but it’s actually quite funny. One of the reasons I like The X-Files is that there’s a lot of humour in it as well.(Sport.co.uk asks Donoghue if he watches The Outer Limits) Yeah, I used to watch that when I was younger but I got a bit scared of the guys with the black heads. But I’ve just finished watching Farscape and I’m looking for a new show to watch so I’ll check out The Outer Limits.”
...his top three albums of all time: “Violator by Depeche Mode. This probably sounds weird but Stayin’ Alive by Bee Gees; there’s a few moments on our new album that we wanted to sound a bit like the Bee Gees, which our producer just looked totally bemused by! And probably Queen – Live at Wembley.”
The new Glasvegas album EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\ is released on 4th April on Columbia Records and contains eleven tracks. You can pre-order it here. The band have also just announced a huge tour of the UK - see Artist Tickets for details.