Named after the debut single by Teenage Fanclub.
This blog is all about being a music lover in Glasgow; reviews, interviews, memories, old faves, new discoveries (past and present), playlists and more. Thanks for visiting - I hope you discover something amazing you have never heard before, or that you rediscover an old favourite.
Regular features/playlists; Never Ending Mixtape / Cover Version of the Month/ Trust Me.
Insta - @everythingflowsglasgow
I listed Viva Hinds by Hinds in my albums of the year blog at the end of 2024, describing it as; dreamy, treashy, thrashy, brashy garage guitar pop with dashes of shoegaze and psychedelia. I can't wait to see them in February. I actually think the album will make even more sense after seeing them live.
Well, I've now seen Hinds live and I can confirm that both the album and the band themselves make more sense and I've really fallen for them. The gorgeous pull of The Bed, The Room, The Rain and You, the coolness of Superstar, charm of Hi, How Are You?, their taste in covering Charli xcx and The Clash and the undeniable passion and energy they bring to live shows.
Saint Luke's was sold out, the final tickets snapped up on the back of the previous days 6Music session with Craig Charles.
The 4-piece bounded on to the stage, Carlotta Cosials and Ana Garcia Perrote on guitars and vocals, with friends playing bass and drums. The next 80-minutes or so were a delightful blur of guitars, hooks, accents and energy. The crowd all fell for the band big time.
Carlotta was super cool with hair tied high, khaki top and black flares, leading the band through a sublime set of garage guitar pop. Hinds are super tight but beautifully raw and catchy with it. The dual vocals can harmonise or egg each other on, upping the level of excitement.
Ana was a bundle of energy, fizzing left and right to literally bounce off Carlotta or their bass player, jumping, playing synth at times and generally looking like she was having the night of her life. That really is the vibe that Hinds give off.
During the encore Carlotta and Ana recruited a fan to play guitar, then cleared a space in the venue, before jumping down into the crowd for a dance routine and then a huge pogo session and I totally wished we'd gone downstairs rather than up! See the video below!
My mates and I left super energised and checking where they were playing next to see if we could travel down! Hopefully Hinds will be back in Glasgow before too long.
30-years ago, on 22nd February 1995 I visited King Tuts Wah Wah Hut to catch a couple of hotly tipped bands - Supergrass and The Bluetones. Exceptional value for a fiver!
Supergrass were building towards the release of debut album I Should Coco and had made waves with debut single Caught By The Fuzz in late October 1994.
Meanwhile, The Bluetones were being spoken of in hushed tones by the NME and Melody Maker. A 4-piece who had been holed up in a garage crafting melodic guitar pop songs inspired by the Roses. I can't remember where I bought it, possibly at the gig or maybe in HMV Sauchiehall Street, but I managed to get my hands on their debut single, a beautiful blue limited edition 7-inch of Slight Return b/w The Fountainhead.
Despite being such an incredible double header, I really don't remember too much about this gig! That could be down to the fact that it was 30-years ago, or be down to the fact that I probably had 3 or 4 beers as I do distinctly remember my friend Scott driving.
My memories of those heady Britpop days may be a little hazey at times, but Slight Return still sounds as fresh and effortless as the first time I heard it. Cool, melodic and full of charm, The Bluetones re-released it in January 1996 and it reached number 2 in the charts.
The Roses influence was clear from the off with Adam Devlin playing a beautifully warm guitar chord to allow Mark Morris to come in with the opening lines
Where did you go?
When things went wrong for you
When the knives came out for you
Devlin begins to riff after the delivery of the opening line with a tight yet loose rhythm section coming in alongside him. There is plenty of space throughout Slight Return, a purity that ensures it has a timeless quality, unlike many of the songs from around this time that could easily be identified as mi-90's Britpop wannabe's. It doesn’t try too hard; it just flows. The rhythm section, led by Scott Morriss on bass and Eds Chesters on drums, keeps things tight but never overpowering, allowing the song’s melody and atmosphere to shine through. There’s an understated confidence to it—a song that doesn’t need to shout to be heard.
You don't have to have the solution
You've got to understand the problem
And don't go hoping for a miracle
All this will fade away
So I'm coming home, I'm coming home
Around 10 or so years later, Mark Morriss played at Maggie's London Night Hike as a lovely colleague of mine at the time (Claire) was friends with him through being a bit of a superfan. Mark was absolutely lovely and played a cracking acoustic set as hundreds of people arrived to hike through the night. Claire also managed to get me backstage at a Bluetones gig at the QMU - good times.
30-years on from seeing The Bluetones for the first time and buying their debut single, the band are playing in my home town of Uddingston. Almost literally in my Mum's back garden! I must message Claire!
Musicfest Mainstage has a line-up of The Bluetones, Echobelly & The Supernaturals with more to be announced. It's a brilliant family-friendly event, held at Uddingston Cricket & Hockey Club, 10-15 minutes walk from the train station. That in itself is a mere 14-minute train ride from Glasgow Central.
Slight Returnis added to my Trust Me playlist; search for Everything Flows - Trust Me on Spotify or CLICK HERE Check below for all previous blogs in my Trust Me series.
The sheer number of live shows, cost of tickets and the expense of a night out, plus, undoubtedly - old age, mean that I am a lot more particular about the shows I buy tickets for these days.
That said, I still do pretty well and probably average 2-3/month. Not bad going for a 49-year old!
When 432 Presents announced The Pains of Being Pure at Heart would be playing Stereo in Glasgow to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their eponymous debut album, I knew I'd be buying a ticket as soon as they went on sale.
Hailing from New York City, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart seemed to arrive fully formed, a fuzzy dream of youthful longing, distortion, blurred melodies and all kinds of indie cool. They had a (non-album) single in 2008 called Kurt Cobain's Cardigan. This was a band who proudly wore their influences, JAMC, MBV and Ride, on their (cardigan) sleeves.
I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure it was Monorail that turned me on to the band and I bought this album on CD. I wish I'd bought it on vinyl!
Revisiting the record feels both deeply nostalgic and effortlessly fresh—like rediscovering an old mixtape filled with fuzzed-out guitars, aching melodies, and the whispered promise of escape.
From the moment Contender kicks in with its shimmering guitars and Kip Berman’s soft, yearning vocals, you’re transported to a world of wide-eyed romance, heartache, and the unshakeable feeling that music might just save your life ... or at least help you escape for a while.
At just 34 minutes, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is a rush of indie-pop perfection. Come Saturday and Young Adult Frictionare urgent and euphoric, driven by walls of guitar and shimmering synths. The breakdown in the latter leading to the boy/girl sung don't check me out mantra that ends the song is magical.
With melodies soaked in reverb and drum beats straight from early Pastels records This Love Is Fucking Right is absolutely glorious.
Stay Alive is an absolute heartbreaker, like The Sundays jamming with JAMC. Sometimes the quietest moments hit the hardest.
don't you try to shoot up the sky
tonight we'll stay alive
Dreamy teenage lyrics are almost hidden under the guitars at times. There are harmonies and hooks beneath the scuzzed up guitars of Everything With You.
Tell me it's true
I'm with you
And the stars are crashing through
A Teenager in Love rides in on a riff reminiscent of Bowie's Modern Love as if covered by Orange Juice. Hey Paul turns the fuzz and scuzz on the guitars to max and Gentle Sons tugs on heart strings to close the album.
Now you stand in the rain saying
Nothing has changed at all
Listening back for the first time in years, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart still feels vital. Pardon the pun, but there is a purity to the album and the music. Fragile, melancholic, euphoric and that beautiful raw energy.
Urgent. Fuzzy. Melodic. Perfect. I got properly lost for 34-minutes. This album is a reminder of younger days, simpler times, when music felt like everything. Sometimes, it still does.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart play Stereo in Glasgow on Saturday 15th November. TICKETS HERE
Anyway, in my Never Ending Mixtape ... we jump from 4,167 songs to 4,217 with the addition of a handful of songs by The Beta Band amidst rumours that they will be reforming ... watch this space. Dogs Got A Bone from their magical Three EP's album and a some super cool stoned gems and jams from the eponymous debut.
This month I've added a number of Marianne Faithfull songs following her passing at the end of January. I have to confess to never exploring her back catalogue and I've enjoyed delving in. I may well write a future covers of the month blog on some of the many cover versions she recorded over the years.
There are also a load of Waxahatchee songs added, I can't stop listening to Kathryn Crutchfield's band and I am VERY excited to see them play the Barrowland in June.
Thank you so much if you are one of the 361 people following the playlist.
Thanks also if you dive in now and again. As always, I hope you discover an incredible song you've never heard before, or that you rediscover an old favourite you haven't heard in some time.
Search for Everything Flows Never Ending Mixtape on Spotify or CLICK HERE
Here are a few of the latest additions;
Recent discoveries
I must be doing something right - Irene Reid
Ene Nyame 'A' Mensuro - Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas & Henrik Schwarz
Sugar On My Tongue - Talking Heads
Under a Rock - Waxahatchee
Silver - Waxahatchee
When I Dance with You - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
Heir Ou Demain - Marianne Faithful
I'm A Loser - Marianne Faithful
New releases
It's been a month of previously released music for me!
Old favourites
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Gil Scott Heron
Cover version of the month #105 Al Green covers The Bee Gees
Are you ready to hear one of the most beautiful songs that you are ever likely to hear?
Al Green's How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, from his phenomenal 1972 album Let's Stay Together, is 6 minutes 23 seconds of bluesy soul goodness; the snare drum cracks, Green's voice is hushed and wonderful over piercing strings, angelic backing vocals are soothingly sublime and the lyrics are just beautiful, with the chorus asking 4 questions in a row.
And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
Tell me, how can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
Al Green begins to improvise a little from around 4-minutes. The pace of the music doesn't change, but the feeling in Green's voice is cranked up a notch, creating something truly magical. The song begins to fade after Al declares;
I've got a feeling that I want to live and live and live
After listening to the song Let's Stay Together recently, I decided to go back and listen to the album of the same name for the first time in ages, probably a good 20-years! This is yet another album I got from FOPP in Glasgow on CD for a fiver. The good old days! I then also bought it on vinyl!
How had I forgotten about this song?! How can you forget a song THIS good?!
OK, the title track stands out, but this stopped me in my tracks and I listened a few times in a row, marvelling at the playing, production and Green's voice.
I decided to write a blog for my regular Trust Me feature, made myself a cuppa and sat down to research the song and the album it is taken from.
Only to notice that the song was written by Barry and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees! The single, released in 1971, became their first US chart topper! Remarkably, the song didn't chart in the UK.
Bee Gees version is only 3 minutes 57 seconds and while it is undoubtedly brilliant, I have to say that it doesn't move me in the way that Al Green's cover version does. The Gibb brothers original is almost a little too clean.
Sunset Gun, who feature in my sister Carla's Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scottish Girl Bands documentary, also covered the song on their 1984 debut album, In An Ideal World.
The Bee Gees original and the sensational Al Green cover version of How Can You Mend A Broken Heart are added to my Everything Flows Cool Cover Versions playlist on Spotify which also features all of the songs listed below. Search for the title or CLICK HERE
My old friend Mark W. Georgsson pinged me an email recently with a link to a new single he was releasing. I hadn't seen Mark in ages, possibly since pre-lockdown! We used to bump into each other at gigs all the time. Thankfully we caught up at Norman Blake's Bellshill gig last week over a few beers.
Mark and I first met back in 2012 when he was in a cracking punk indie pop band called The Velveteen Saints. Here is a BLOG I wrote on them back then. They were a captivating live band, super energetic, excellent musicians and they had something about them; soul, a rawness and a no bullshit attitude.
They did pretty well and got some excellent support slots with The Charlatans and The View. As young bands do, they broke up and went their own ways. Although Mark, Michael and Tino were all in The Bar Dogs who released a brilliant album called Friday Night The Eagles Fly in 2017. I described them as the best bar band in Glasgow; blue collar Springsteen rock n roll.
Before then, in late 2015 Mark had sent me a solo album he recorded with Rod Jones from Idlewild on production duties. I was blown away by how warm, tender and organic it was. Then, in early 2016, I got together with a group of friends to form a record label - Last Night From Glasgow. I suggested Mark's album for release, indeed his double a-side single The Ballad Of The Nearly Manbecame the first release on the label, with the AA-side being the same song sung in Icelandic by Mark's friends. It was a real statement of intent for the label to release something of such high quality for a first release. I remember getting the test pressing back and sitting up drinking most of a nice bottle of red wine playing it over and over again.
I'm just listening back to Mark's Faces and Places album, it is an absolute gem and his live shows around that time were such great fun.
On to February 2025 and Mark has released a rip roaring single called Tripping With You. This is Mark's first single since he began treatment for an immune system related skin condition that had prevented him from playing guitar. For anyone that knows Mark, or anyone with a remote interest in playing a musical instrument, you'll know, or imagine how incredibly tough and depressing this was.
Now on medication and healing, Mark is back ... and boy can he play guitar!
The joy of being able to play again comes pouring out of Tripping With You. Mark's fingers are definitely working again! This a glorious slice of psychedelic pop with nods to Deep Purple's Hush.
I caught up with Mark for a quick chat.
Who plays guitar on Tripping With You?
It's me playing all of the guitars now that I've got my fingers back! Michael Gahagan plays drums, congas and tambourine. Robbie Noble plays the Hammond Organ and Jordan McHatton is playing groovy bass.
You've definitely got your fingers back working!
It was a release, channeling my inner 17-year old again! The next batch of songs will be similar. Short, with fuzz pedals, wah wah's, 60's phasers and shredding to f**k!
So what happened, why couldn't you play guitar?
Since 2020 my immune system has gone haywire and effected the skin all over my body, especially on my fingertips, stopping me playing the guitar. At the start of this year, I was put onto an immunosuppressant medication to finally try and sort it out. I started jamming out short ideas and riffs because my fingertips couldn't handle playing for long without bleeding and being in agony.
It's got a real Deep Purple vibe to it.
Aye, Kula Shaker are my favourite band after The Beatles. Songs don't need to be any longer than 3-minutes. I'm a huge Hendrix, Cream, Deep Purple, Skynyrd, Zeppelin and Rory Gallagher fan.
I've realised how much we take simple day-to-day things in life and our health for granted. We worry about shit that doesn't really matter instead of focusing on what does, and doing what we really want to do in life to make ourselves happy.
It's been great to get back to jammin' in the studio with my mates. I had so much fun writing and recording this song and I think that comes across in the track.
Are you hoping to play live?
Absolutely. I'm working on putting together a gig / set list that will go and flow through all of my songs from folk/country/Americana to psychedelic pop rock!
Tripping With You is out now on all the usual digital channels. Hopefully Mark will announce a show in the near future to showcase his guitar skills in person!
Have you seen the early footage of a pre-signed MGMT playing Kids at an outdoor show in 2003? It's kind of gone viral.
And no wonder! It's a cool, daft, fun and pure performance by two friends who seem to have realised they have created a brilliant leftfield pop song. Check it out below.
You'll find other early MGMT songs from this show on the same YouTube account, plus a Talking Heads cover.
Kids was originally released on an EP in 2005 when MGMT were still known as The Management, the song was then re-released as a single in 2008 and it went everywhere!
Rewind back 5 years and MGMT's core duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser are playing a gig outside in the yard of Wesleyan University for their annual Zonker Harris Day.
One of their old classmates found the footage on an old hard drive and it is pure joy; the duo playing with just an electronics board, goofy dancing and generally having fun without a care in the world. The infectious melodic synth riff immediately translates to the crowd who dance in the sun.
Andrew and Ben literally bounce off each other, dancing, singing in harmony, playing air synth to the pre-recorded pieces, laughing as they literally crawl about the small stage and then leap into the crowd and across the yard to play with branches/trees for an extended 2-minute instrumental.
"We used the to think about how to make the most stereotypical pop song and that's one of the ones we did. Ben wrote the music when he was 19, drunk in his dorm room. Then I wrote the lyrics for my 20th birthday." Andrew VanWyngarden
"Kids is the result of us being 19-years old, in this fantasy college world, which is a little bit like childhood because you don't have much responsibility." Ben Goldwasser
Kidsand Time to Pretend were absolutely everywhere in 2008; pubs, clubs, parties, radio, MTV ... they were remarkably fresh electronic and psychedelic (especially Time to Pretend) pop songs that stood out a mile from everything else going on.
Both still sound fresh and vital in 2025. But lets focus on Kids.
Kids is everything that is great about pop music. It's simple, pure and immediately catchy. Yet it's also slightly weird, psychedelic and beautifully different.
The synth riff is beautiful, whether it is played on a keyboard or by an orchestra. It's simple, pure, catchy ... brilliant! Add a beat behind and it just takes off. There are standout lines, hooks galore and then the HUGE chorus
We like to watch you laughing
You pick the insects off plants, no time to think of consequences
Control yourself
Take only what you need from it
A family of trees wanting
To be haunted
There is a single edit, but the full version has an extended middle section, just like the early 2003 version. MGMT would extend it even further in their live shows. Check this epic 8-minute version from Glastonbury 2014. Listen to the way the crowd responds to the riff and then sings along with it. MGMT develop and jam the song into a full on rave and then bring it back to THAT riff - glorious!
MGMT's Kids is added to my Trust Me playlist; search for Everything Flows - Trust Me on Spotify or CLICK HERE Check below for all previous blogs in my Trust Me series.
