All cities have one street, or road, that is arterial in
nature.
It’s the one that pumps the majority of inhabitants and
visitors from A to B, or C, or wherever they need to be.
It is to all intents and purposes the cities beating heart.
In Glasgow
people often cite Sauchiehall Street
as such, but for those who live in the city, or frequent it often, we all know
that it is really Argyle Street .
It’s where you canny shove yer granny from a bus, and if you
have a talent for it you could maybe launch a jeely piece from the nineteenth
floor of a tower block, and just manage to have it land there; although that is
doubtful, but never the less it is the very real heart of Glasgow.
Cutting through the centre of the city it is Argyle Street
that never sleeps, it never misses a beat, rarely slows down, and it is rare to
see anyone standing stationary for more than five minutes, unless of course it
is the living statue artists that have sprung up over the last few years.
And yet there are always exceptions to the rule, and Friday
the fifteenth of September was one as around 5pm you would have witnessed a
small crowd of GUN fans throwing the gauntlet down in competition with the
living statues as we congregated outside the HMV store.
The reason for being there was of course to participate in watching the
band perform the first of a run of acoustic instore dates arranged to celebrate
and promote the release of their latest album ‘Favourite Pleasures’.
This appearance was hot on the heels of their gig in St Lukes from the previous
night - a show that lit the fuse on fans rushing to social media to share how good
the boys were - and an instore that was an opportunity for people like me that couldn’t
attend to grab a second chance with both hands.
Waiting was in fact no great hardship, the weather was fine,
(yeah really) the company congenial, and the time sprinted past as we spent it
chatting with other fans about gigs attended, and those that we are planning to
attend.
It wasn’t too long before we found ourselves picking up the gauntlet
that we had foolishly cast down to the living statues (hey, they are professionals after all), and instead threw in the
towel as the staff gave the signal that we could enter the store. Filtering past other shoppers we slipped downstairs and filled the spaces between the racks and looked to get the best vantage point of
the stage that was set up adjacent to where the cashiers would be.
Managing to get front and centre, the benefits of turning up
early, it wasn’t long before the band arrived and took their positions, all of
them looking far fresher than any bunch of rockers have any right to when it is
the early evening after the night before, and then with a little bit of banter
between themselves they kicked off with Tragic Heroes, and with that they reasserted
that they aren’t going anywhere. Arguably they never were anyway.
It was as we here in Scotland are apt to say 'straight out of the gates and no messing'. This was GUN in
all their glory.
I've said it before, but it is worth repeating that while so many bands are seemingly happy to revisit past
glories, and little else, it is GUN who are bucking the nostalgia trend and confidently
proclaiming that there’s plenty of fuel left in their tank.
Pre release of the album the tracks shared with the public ably
illustrated that they are looking forward rather than back and Tragic Heroes is
an appropriate calling card to start the set off to remind everyone of this.
Silent Lovers followed, and acoustically it sounded like the
Clash with the heavy beat of the bass dominating, but as everyone else started contributing
the song burst free from the chains of the past and took flight. Two songs in
and the confidence in the Favourite Pleasures material was very obvious. When
they sat down to decide what to add to the set list they had plenty of fan
favourites to pick from, and yet here they were measuring the new songs up and
considering them either as worthy to play, or maybe more so, than much of their
back catalogue.
Next they kept it all going with the slower paced Boy Who
Fooled The World, which since the release of Favourite Pleasures is being called not just one of
the best tracks on the album, but one of the best that the band have ever
written, and from this display of it who am I to argue with that.
Leaving the new album aside the band then slipped a hand into
their back catalogue to give us Crazy You, and while it was warmly received you
couldn’t argue that it was embraced with any more gratitude that any of the
songs that preceded it which is a good sign in itself.
Better Days was then ushered in to finish of the set, and if
anyone was churlishly going to ask for something that could be called a classic
GUN track then they would have had to eaten their words with its inclusion.
Three new tracks and two older ones on show and its doubtful
that anyone could claim that they had been let down.
And then with the set reaching its conclusion the band left
the stage and within minutes were back to sign albums and such.
In an era when VIP tickets to meet a band are fast becoming
the norm it is refreshing to see one that is not only happy to meet fans, but
also to chat to them and in doing so refuse to let the barrier between fan and artist to be
built ever higher.
Very often it is the little things that matter, and I think they
get that.
And I guess now all that is matters for Scottish fans is the Barrowlands
gig that is sitting on the horizon, and of course lets not forget that the only natural way to finish
a review of any GUN album, gig, or even instore, is to shout out loud and proud ‘Mon the GUN, as they deserve
it.
So ‘Mon the GUN indeed.
