ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN at The Barrowlands

The Barrowlands is a legendary venue in the East End of Glasgow , there is no better place to see your favourite band.One world class popular folk singer , Christy Moore ,has even written a song about it and bands such as Simple Minds and U2 still recall concerts at the venue performed decades ago.I , myself , recall many fine nights seeing the likes of Robert Cray,The Alarm and REM before they became a Stadium band.

The part of town where the venue is located contains some of the oldest continuous institutions in Glasgow , it was the oldest chip shop in the City established 1884 , which was shut and the oldest pub in the city , established 1775 , which was shut , the only place that was open was Bairds bar , the kind of place you do not want to go to even if it is open unless you ascribe to the concept that dingy and under-invested is synonymous with traditional and romantic.Though one should never rubbish anyones livelihood and should have respect for genuine regulars of the pub , it is a place where 9-5 weekday workers who meekly follow the dictates of some corporate lackey suddenly turn up enmasse as posses of plastic paddys and weekend provos.

The members of the band represented a cross section of what one gets from the groups of yesteryear re-forming for todays gigging , one had the bloated look of enjoying the age of sedentary comfort ; another had the emaciated look of one who has the fondness of weed over a healthy diet ; another had the wizened look of a Keith Richards; the lead singer himself had grown older tastefully and of course the drummer was a new face replacing a member that is six foot under.

The Concert itself was very good , Echo have a precise ; economic; controlled manner of intensity which gets the job done with a tautness , no need for histrionics or showboating.The new material is of a very high calibre which sits well with their archive if not giving a new fresh value added to the material , so much so it was ironic as well as instructive the crowd were shouting for new songs from an album which is only released on the night of the gig as much as they were hankering after the sounds of the mid-eighties , a very heartwarming situation which bodes well for the bands future development.

Here is nice laid back version of Killing Moon in the manner played at the concert:



And here is version of a track from the new album: