5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Scottish music legend Bobby Bluebell helps 1980s school band realise debut album dream
Three pals who started a group in their East Kilbride bedrooms at 16 will celebrate hitting their retirement decade by releasing their debut album.
They're the high school band who formed in the 80s yet never made a record - until now.
Three pals who started a group in their East Kilbride bedrooms at 16 are set to celebrate hitting their retirement decade by finally releasing their debut album.
And it's down to the help of their Glasgow musical heroes.
Scots rockers James Grant, of Love and Money, and Bobby Bluebell, from The Bluebells, have helped Graeme McFall, Stevie Kane and Stevie Rooney realise their dream, five decades on from when they'd swap C60 cassettes of their music in the classroom.
Bobby - real name Robert Hodgens - and James are pivotal figures in Secret Coast Songwriters classes held in the Argyll village of Tighnabruaich, the songwriting retreat where Graeme and bandmate Stevie Kane finally put their songs to bed after 40 years.
Now the high school band, Only When I Glow, will finally realise their ambitions - having come together from around the globe to cut their debut.
The pals met at St Bride's High School in the town and watched in awe as bands like Aztec Camera and The Jesus and Mary Chain went from the streets of East Kilbride onto Top of the Pops, into the charts and performed to huge crowds around the world.
The trio never went further than recording songs on cassette tapes and never performed together live, moving to different countries and settling into their respective careers.
Yet they maintained their long distance friendships and their dreams of playing together on stage. Now that musical bond is finally set to bear fruit, five decades later.
Graeme said: "We've known each other since we were 12 and we're all turning 60 next year. During our teenage years, we all bonded around music and when we were 16 and 17 we started to play around with instruments and writing things on guitar. That was 40 years ago.
"We have loads of songs on cassette from those days but over the years, as we moved on, we've always stayed in touch, always been close friends. As the years went by we built up more and more songs and shared them with each other."
But when the pandemic hit, the trio sharpened their focus.
Graeme, who works in IT for Land Rover Jaguar, living in Hampshire, and teacher Stevie Rooney lives in Australia, with only Stevie Kane remaining in their home town.
Graeme said: "A lot of people had Covid projects so we started sharing recordings with each other and using the app GarageBand to layer our songs together, recording them remotely."
The tunes were heard for the first time live at the band's debut at Glasgow's Glad Cafe last month. Graeme said: "Despite all these years we'd never played a concert together. In fact, in the last 10 years we've maybe only spent one day together.
"The gig at the Glad Cafe exceeded all of our expectations. To play our songs from the past 40 years to our family and friends was such a buzz.
"I think we surprised a few people and maybe even ourselves. One of the songs we played was from our original batch of songs from 1986 and it was a 'pinch-me' moment for the three of us. It was a very emotional night all round."
Bassist Graeme added: "We used to send tapes to each other. Music stayed a big part in all our lives. But there's no doubt about it, the technology has brought us closer together.
"At the time we first got together, Aztec Camera were in the charts and having a band and a guy like Roddy Frame from East Kilbride doing that was amazing. Same when The Jesus and Mary Chain came along.
"There was a lot going on in Glasgow at the same time, with bands like Hipsway, the Bluebells and Friends Again, and that was all brilliant growing up at a time when that was happening for these local bands."
Mentor Bobby is one of the country's most successful songwriters in a five-decade career which includes writing tunes for Bananarama, Texas and Shakespear's Sister, as well as his band The Bluebells, who played Glastonbury last month.
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When he heard Graeme's songs he locked in to the band's talent. The Young at Heart hitmaker said: "Graeme was at the first songwriting course and when I heard his songs I realised he was a songwriter.
"His journey is great, his playing has come on incredibly well and the band's songs are brilliant." And Bobby reckons age is no barrier to success and ambition. He said: "I think people realise, with people like Neil Young at Glastonbury this year, that you don't get worse, you get better.
"Art shouldn't be judged on age - it should be judged on quality. Picasso didn't get worse, did he? Neil Young, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney - they all know they're a million times better than they were at the start. I know I'm a better songwriter now than I was."
The Bluebells founder will feature on Only When I Glow's LP, which James is producing this week at LA Chunky studios in Glasgow's west end.
And while the band might not be destined to hit the same heights as Aztec Camera and the Mary Chain, they've already achieved something many groups don't.
Graeme said: "We are getting to spend a week together rehearsing and then playing live, doing the thing we love. The idea of spending quality time together for the first time in 40 years doing this is the main thing about it."
