Editor - Leonora Belcher sparrow_@hotmail.co.uk Design - Grant McArthur grantmcarthur@hotmail.co.uk Contributors. Kirstin Kerr, Max Henderson, Thalia Kemp, Marianne Gallagher, Christina Riley, Eilidh Hossack and Greg Milne. A Word From the Editor Well we made it. It has been a tough few months for Indicate, exams, hand ins and deadlines have made this issue a long progress, but i think we’ve done it proud! A big thankyou to everone who was involved. This issue brings you more brilliant photography, the latest in fashion thrift, the best of independent glasgow clubs and much more! Leo.
BEING A GLASWEIGAN, BUT NOT IN GLASGOW For the month of March 2009, I went to Paris. I was enrolled at the Alliance Française for French classes five afternoons a week, had a place to stay, money saved up and was looking forward to escaping to arguably the most beautiful city in the world for a while. For many people, living in Paris is the dream. There are visions of croissants on the Champs Elysees, running down the cobbled, winding streets of a rainy Montmartre with the Sacre Coeur silhouetted behind you, crisp white wine on sun dappled restaurant terraces and smoking packs of Gitanes on the Sienne. And although that’s how it is for some lucky people, even after a month of seeing and experiencing such scenes around me, I couldn’t wait to be back in Glasgow. Twenty minutes into Paris, and I have been pick pocketed. One hundred euros, two debit cards, various loyalty cards, and my phone card that enables me to use my phone in France, have all gone. It’s a “for fuck’s sake” INDICATE
moment. Now, I may have lost my purse a fair few times in Glasgow, but I’m absolutely positive that I’ve never been pick pocketed. I usually just put it down to drunken misplacing. I’ve also never even heard Of anyone being pick pocketed. Sure, the odd mugging, but never this sort of sneaky, skilled, stealing! I’m ragin’. I frown to myself, probably looking a complete state amongst all these well dressed, composed Parisians. I’m red-faced from lugging my suitcase up and down at least five flights of stairs to get to the platform, and I feel very shabby in my bobbly American Apparel hoodie, tights with a rip in them and scaffy Primark flats. The first area that I visit properly is Montparnasse, which is basically one big street with loads of restaurants,tourist shops, newsagents, banks and a few strange looking shoe shops, with streets leading off it with more of the same on a lower scale. A bit like Sauchiehall Street. After walking around in circles for an
How long have you been together? About a year now, we were all really bored ad wanted to make tunes and spend time with friends so it seemed like the perfect thing to do. We have a meeting with More Recording at the end of the month and hopefully we will have 7 or 8 songs out on an EP in the next few months!
was really good, I was drunk and It was a busy gig and there was a good crowd, everyone seemed to enjoy it!” Phil: “Classic Grand in November ’08 was good because we hadn’t played for quite a while and probably played our best ever gig, a good comeback performance even though Fraser had an issue with his drumsticks…”
Are you inspired by any other music or bands? Lockie: “I’m inspired by girls being dicks to me and Interpol I guess” Colin: “M83! Personal experience helps me write songs too.” Phil: “Death Cab for Cutie” Fraser: “Tv on the Radio” Murphy: “Hot Club de Paris, pretty girls and the weather inspire me.”
Which of your songs is your favourite, is there a collective decision? Lockie: “I think we all like “Run this City” the best, it’s a really energetic song and people always seem to recognise it. It’s the last song we play in a set so we can give it the most without having to worry about snapping strings!” Well that’s De Jour, the band who claim to have got their name from a unicorn in a dream. Their music is a mix of catchy songs that make you want to dance and soulful ballads. Every gig is special and you could see them a hundred times and never get bored. Get down to one of their gigs or check their songs out at www.myspace. com/dejourmusic.
What’s the best thing about being a band in Glasgow? It all depends on where you play really! Generally good friends equal good times. Has there been a gig so far that has been particularly memorable for you as a band? Murphy: “Sleazy’s in October ’08
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hour or so (so far, Glasgow and NYC are the only cities that I’ve been to that have a decent grid system), I feel in the need for refreshment. Seeing as coffee drinking is a favourite pastime of the Parisians, I assumed I would find a suitable café within minutes. Not so. After parading up and down at least four or five streets, I realised that I was looking for something that I wasn’t going to find. I was looking for a cosy place with people on couches holding big cups of latte and tea, reading newspapers and magazines, glass cabinets of muffins and cake at the bar, and a general relaxing air. A sort of Beanscene type place, I suppose. However, it seems that such places are few and far between in Paris. I won’t say they don’t exist, but I certainly didn’t see one during my month long stay. For the first part of my trip, I was rarely without my Mini Rough Guide to Paris. That thing is actually amazing. It got me intrigued to read the Glasgow guide (not that I have yet) – could they fill a book with things to do in Glasgow? When I try to think of touristy things to do, I think of Kelvingrove Art Gallery, the MOMA, the Lighthouse, Botanics, INDICATE
Ashton Lane and the Ubiquitous Chip, and… er… the Merchant City… and… actually can’t think of anything else off the top of my head. Is that bad? Who knows. What do we do to occupy 363 days of the year (I chopped off Christmas and New Year’s Day because they’re quite obvious). We enjoy our city to the full in exactly the way we want to. Because it’s awesome. Never a dry day in the music scene, never a night that doesn’t have a £1 drink promo on somewhere, never a night with nothing to offer, never a shortage of talent in all shapes and forms, and I can probably 100% safely say that every single morning of the year, someone will wake up with a well-deserved hangover.And then there’s that weird community that Glasgow has. The everyone-knowseveryone in some sort of way, be it that you got off with their friend at ABC one time, or your friend works with them at the Arches, or you shared a fagoutside Sub Club at 3am and pretended not to be cold, or you just know them from MySpace (admit it!). You know that if you go to a certain place on a certain night, everyone will be there so even if you lose everyone you came with, you won’t be alone. Also, if you don’t fancy
loads of socializing, or want to get embarrassingly, catastrophically drunk where no one will recognise you, then you know where to avoid! However, I think everyone resents this about Glasgow from time to time; gossip gets around fast and if you’ve done something stupid then sometimes the last thing you want is to be around everyone you know. But still - when you leave it, you miss it. I’ll be in Edinburgh for the next four years, and I’ve just never got the same vibe from it. Paris was the same, even when I was out with various friends, Parisian or foreign. Maybe it’s something about capital cities. Or maybe it’s because there’s no place like home, especially when it’s (I hate it when people call it this but it somehow seems appropriate just now) Glasvegas!
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but to get to it you have to be willing to sieve through piles of terrible photographs.
keir mcdowall What is it about photography that you love? I love a lot about photography. At first I was fascinated by the whole process, the ‘magic’ that happens when you click a photo and develop a film/print. I think now after two and a half years INDICATE
of studying it that fascination has been lost, which is a shame, I would like to get it back. Nowadays I’m more interested in how we ‘read’ photographs, and how photography has shaped culture from its invention. There’s a lot of interesting work out there,
Do you enjoy photographing a particular subject? nature, people etc? I love working with people but I find it hard to direct them, so I try to shy away from portraiture. I like to think that I am a good portrait photographer but in truth I’m absolutely terrible. I’m quite scared of what people think of me when I have a camera, I get quite self-conscious. Most of the time I photograph quite quickly, and the subject matter is quite banal. I try not to think about the image until I get it back from the lab. I grew up next to a forest which was my haunting ground for many years, so a lot of my work deals with a hidden, maybe an untouched, side of nature. I’m trying to move out of my comfort zone at the moment and get back into ‘snapshot’ work, which seems to be a big trend at the moment. I’m guilty of wanting to follow it. Where can we see your work online? Probably kicking blogs without my permission! The only places I put my work is: my flickr- http://www.flickr.com/
photos/keirmcdowall my collective sitehttp:// vicariousproject.blogspot.com my blog- http://beautiescandie. tumblr.com and I’m in Imaginary Zine Issue One too- http://www.imaginaryzine. co.uk The Vicarious zine will be available in print throughout Glasgow and Edinburgh soon, for free! Do you prefer digital or film photography? There are good arguments for and against both. Purely through personal preference I shoot a lot of film. I’m not comfortable with a digital camera. I was taught how to photograph using film, and as stupid as I sound, I need to be taught how to use a digital. The digital camera is a brilliant thing, but in some ways they are slowly ruining photography, look at the cease in production of Polaroid as a good example. That is the biggest loss for me, I used to primarily shoot Polaroid but I have to be really careful now. I’m quite impatient and need results a.s.a.p! I will happily use a digital in the studio, as I have complete control over everything. Film prices are getting high though, which is wrecking my bank balance. INDICATE
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i love glasgow
Words by Marianne Photos by Christina Riley INDICATE
From the tracksuits that haunt Argyle Street to the self-anointed hipsters of the ABC, I love Glasgow. Every bit of it. It’s been accused of being the slum within the scheme, but I pretty much adore the place. Most of my fond memories are located there, and I’m doubtless there’s many more in the floatsam and jetsam of Sauchiehall Street swill. Granted, it’s a city of militant pigeons and little hard-men with pockets full of swedge ready to sell. You guess the London urchins got the monopoly on glamour. My love is undiminished. There’s an attitude here that you don’t get anywhere else: do you get that warm ‘fuck off’ in L.D.N? But insidiously, there’s something else creeping through. ...They tend to come in packs. Trendy packs. Skinny kids with photography sidelines and better clothes than you, who’ve all but shrugged off the last haircut and moved onto bright new things on Thursday nights at the Art School. Or they’re mixed up in bands, either in them or with, or they’re starting up club-nights because they’re bored with everything else. Of course, New Glasgow has more photographers than you can shake a Polaroid at and near everyone’s got a piece in an opening or a sideline in a vintage clothes-shop. We’ve been raised on a diet of Vice Magazine and Myspace
that means we know we can do anything - or at least, we can do anything and get it published. And it’s probably this new fearlessness which is accountable for the rise of creatives in the unofficial capital. The Captain’s Rest, the Flying Duck, the Arches and even (sometimes) the tired indie that comes out of Box are the places in which the trades are plied - the Old Fruitmarket a venue for galleries, We Love to Boogie and Retro City indulging in the old-clothes-foryoung-people approach. Can you imagine even a magazine like this published in the Glasgow of ten years ago? People are changing - attitudes of what you can be, or what you could be are altering too. We’ve had Bowie, we’ve had Eminem, now we don’t have any money...making something is a currency in itself, as a way to spend our time and purely as a means of self-expression. Admittedly, some people will always remain defiantly ‘bamtastic’ but there’s a groundedness to Weegies too they can sniff bullshit a mile off, and they wouldn’t put up with it for too long. With bands like The Apple Scruffs and Tango in the Attic (... strictly speaking they’re from Fife, but let’s not hinder this Scottish invasion) tipped for bigger stages than the ones they play just now it’s a pretty good time to be proud, and be Scottish. INDICATE
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NATURES NEW MISSION Photos by Max Henderson Model Kirstin
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SHINING LIGHT Photos by Max Henderson Model Malcolm
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white water Photos by Max Henderson Model Dani
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we love to boogie Greg Milne and Natalia Codona’s We Love to Boogie is one of Glasgow’s latest vintage shops, but with a difference! At 85 St. Georges’s Road, Charing Cross, it brings retro clothing to a previously vintage-less area and brings cutting edge trend to the once unexciting street. Now vintage is much more accessible to the residents of Woodlands and Garnethill who are all fed up of traipsing all the way to Byres Road and Argle Street for their retro needs. And not only that, We Love to Boogie provides an easy shopping experience. No more delving into crowded clothes racks and searching for the hidden gem within a lot of old rubbish. In this shop nicely organised racks flank the walls and everything is laid out simply and neatly. It’s easy to find the crème-de-la-crème of vintage straight away because only the most beautiful jewellery, dresses and jackets are for this store. Also unusually for vintage shops, the boys have just as good a selection as the girls. There is also another edge to this vintage store that sets it apart from all the rest. We Love to Boogie plays host to the talent of Glasgow’s up and coming designers. One of these is Glasgow based fashion designer Hilary Laing, who provides her beautiful printed bracelets and underwear for the shop. We Love to Boogie also stocks the stunning designs of Rebecca Torres who is making a huge name for herself on the British fashion scene. We can find band t-shirts from the 80s and screen printed tees from today. Everything has a modern flare and we love it. The prices aren’t cheap but you’re paying for quality and couture and in many cases beautiful vintage pieces from the fashion houses of the world. We Love to Boogie is relaxing and unique, just the place to go if you want something special. Indicate adores it. INDICATE
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esca for indicate Models James and Marie
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What are the best things about being a band in Glasgow? Chris: Probably the amount of good venues. Jonny: And also the diverse range of bands, and it’s good that there are so many different people around. Stuart: I say the amount of free beer. Do you have a favourite song to play live? Stuart: Mine’s a song called Halloween, there’s a big group vocal in it.
french wives Words and Photos By Thalia Kemp Down at the Captain’s Rest, I took a moment to speak to the members of French Wives before they went on. How did French Wives come about? Stuart: Scott and I were playing music together, and after a few months writing songs the band came together, through friends of friends. INDICATE
Who are your main influences and who do you aspire to? Chris: It’s a mixed bag really. For me, probably Animal Collective and Squarepusher. Stuart: The Smiths. Jonny: I like a lot of technical metal, but that isn’t really an inspiration! Stuart: And I suppose Belle and Sebastian. Need to get Belle and Sebastian in there.
Any record plans in the near future? Stuart: Not currently, we’re working on some new stuff right now. Hopefully get a single out by the end of the year. You played Connect last year, how was that? An honour! We’d only just formed. We’re playing Rockness this year, which will be good because it’s more mainstream and loads more people will be there. Finally, anything you want to put out there to the people reading this? Stuart: Support local businesses! If you want a sandwich, go to your local
deli, don’t go to Subway. The French Wives are a fairly young band, having only been formed a year ago, but already they are making a big impact on the Scottish musical scene. The quintet is made up of Stuart Dougan, Chris Barclay, Scott Macpherson, Siobhan Anderson, Jonathyn Smith, a whole bucketful of talent, and let’s not forget the trombone. The French Wives, which incidentally is also the name of a 70s porn film (although Stuart claims not to have seen it), are a remarkable band. They play indie pop which is in no way twee, and they do it well, They have been likened to many bands, such as Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian, Guillemots and The Maccabees, but their sound is really very unique. They produce grandeur and gentleness all at once, they put a smile on your face, tug at your heartstrings, and the band themselves’ humour is top notch. Their performances are compelling and a lot of fun, and the music is just fantastic. So get on it! www.myspace.com/ thefrenchwives
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people and the Glasgow music scene – people liking bands for the wrong reasons and following fashionable music trends. And the cliques, y’know. Any record plans in the near future? We’re going to record the band album, and I’ll be doing a followup to You Brought Evil
ross clark and the scarfs go missing Words and Photos By Thalia Kemp
After French Wives came headlining performance Ross Clark and the Scarfs go missing. Once again I asked Ross for a quick word about the band.
Who are your main influences and who do you aspire to? Influences would be Barry Manilow, Erasure and Chumbawumba. I aspire to be a TV chef.
How did Ross Clark and the Scarfs Go Missing happen? We were just a bunch of pals, I’d been doing the solo thing for a while, the sound was getting bigger and it just happened!
What are the best and worst things about being a band in Glasgow? Probably the best thing is being able to play shows in front of all your friends. The worst thing is
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How has your experience with playing festivals been so far? I played the whole weekend at Connect! It was awesome, I was a bit drunk on Friday, and there was a good crowd. Saturday I played with the band, it was amazing, the tent was heaving. It was really good to have such a successful festival experience. On Sunday, let’s say I was slightly chemically enhanced. We played after Frightened Rabbit, soaking wet and steaming and up for carnage. Finally, anything you want to put out there to the people reading this? 1, 2, 3, 4, tell me that you love me more!
with even more ammunition in the form of The Scarfs Go Missing – David Cleary, Fhearghas Lyons and Kevin Mackay. Ross is a brilliant songwriter, and the Scarfs are the perfect accompaniment to his “songs about things”. Their customized sound of Americana mashed in with country and western, is magic to the ears, and magic to watch at their gigs too. Their influences include Jeff Buckley, Ryan Adams and Neil Young, but their sound shouts originality at you. Fuelled with their magic potion of Irn-Bru, the band never disappoints. However, Ross is just as spectacular on his own as with the band. His solo shows are intimate and moving, and you leave feeling happy. At the Captain’s Rest, he mixed it up a bit by having a few visitors on stage, and the set list ran perfectly. Having just finished a tour in England, the nation is going to be seeing a lot more of this band. www.myspace.com/ electricpolyester
Hailing from Clydebank, Ross Clark has been an established figure on Glasgow’s music scene for a few years now, and now he comes INDICATE
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What made you think of setting up your own clubnight? Seán: A number of things, being bored of dancing to songs you don’t actually like being number one. We knew there was a gap in the market that needed to be filled and I guess it was a project we’d always said we’d wanted to do but never really put much thought into it until Christmas time.
spill
Photos By Kirstin Kerr
These lovely lads have started spill, a once a month riot grrl clubnight. Spill promises “lashings of punk, grunge, indie and a sprinkle of pop” so we headed down to the twisted wheel on queen street to find out for ourselves! Once we’re in, it’s a pleasant surprise, twisted wheel is just the right size that once a few people have turned up it feels like one big party. The acoustics are good, loud enough for a dance but not too loud that it’s impossible to have a conversation. A bit of a parade for the fashionistas of Glasgow ensues but this was always going to be the case as only the prettiest girls adorn the spill posters and flyers so who’s complaining! The boys have a seamless setlist, a bit of Metric, some Bikini Kill and Peaches is all we need for a good time. All in all, it’s a fantastic night, everyone gets dancing and the music never gets boring. We spoke to the boys about how spill came to life in the following interview. INDICATE
Was it easy to find a suitable venue in Glasgow? Fraser: The venue was suitable in the beginning. I was working for The Barfly and my boss and good friend Div offered us a spot free of charge. Then because of structural damage The Barfly closed down 2 days before the launch of SPILL. Mark: Luckily, later that night Fraser thought about Twisted Wheel, which hadn’t even occurred to me and they were totally into SPILL. I think for SPILL, Twisted Wheel is the perfect venue; it’s intimate, great staff and an ample dance floor. We sort of landed on our feet with that one. How are people finding the music? Mark : It’s hard to gage really I think. No one has openly criticised it to my face but who knows what people are thinking. We know the music might not be to everyone’s
taste but I think the general atmosphere of SPILL is second to none. Everyone seems to have an amazing night and we even had a mosh pit at round 2! Comments that have been thrown at me have varied from, “it’s not the music I normally listen to but I had an awesome night, everyone was so happy and up for a good night.” to “I can’t believe you played that, I forgot how good it is!” so I suppose yeah, SPILL has been received well, it’s just a matter of maintaining that. We love the music, do you guys argue at all over what to play? Seán: Yeah, we have disagreements about some songs but we always come to a compromise. We’re all pals, so we feed off each other’s energy more than we conflict. Compiling our playlist is always a laugh. Fraser: We usually always have ‘secret weapons’ last month mines was a sort of unheard of song by Bonde Do Role called Bondallica. Mark’s was vintage Madge and Seán’s was a mash up of Missy Elliot and Le Tigre, they all went down really well. Can we look forward to bigger things from spill? Onwards and upwards! INDICATE
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The venue consists of three arches, one was closed off to ensure that the club felt busy, but this worked perfectly for some heavy-petting, topping up your drink with the booze you smuggled past customs into the republic, or indeed an arm-wrestling competition. I don’t make this stuff up. The rest of the club consisted of one long arch that held the only part of the bar you could get served at, and where the banter was to be had before the serious task of dancing was to be tackled. Dancing was delayed however by the fact that there was only one bar man, who just couldn’t keep the warm glasses of vodka lemonade coming fast enough.
A pristine quartet of DJ’s have announced the arrival of the thunder to a discothèque. Summoned are all the “movers and shakers” of Glasgow, they also request the company of the “givers and takers” but that could be a nod to the nights location in a lane round the corner from the ‘Polo Lounge’. The night’s promo material promised to take us on Glasgow’s very own disco plane into the depths of the ‘Democratic Republic of Feel Good Thunder.’ No passport required, unless of course you where lucky enough to look under 18. The creation of this new republic has caused a mass migration of party asylum seekers decamping from their usual home of the art school (it was a Thursday) and making the treacherous trek past establishments such as ‘The Social’ and ‘Common’ – a quirky reference to the school aged attendees or an observation of their style? Anyway we trudged down to the Corinthian (to be fair we took a taxi, student loans were in) and were directed to the side door and basement, the jakes entrance, or as it is officially named; ‘The Lite Club’.
After years of training that has involved; dancing at the disco, pr-ing and moonlighting as radio DJ’s, The Thunder Disco boys think they know what the people want from their republic, and so have orchestrated a night to instigate dancing and exultation in all. The ear assault promised to include Disco, House, Italo (Italian Disco?) and Fidgit (Cant stand still listening to it?), and I’m positive it delivered. The Quartet consists of, and I know I am going to annoy someone here; Romero Heat (Electro, Disco), Raul Pindi (Techno), Fats Waller and Sweets Edison (Drum and Bass, Minimal), which may sound like what
you’ve heard before, however the amalgamation of these four music lovers is very much something fresh and exciting, two adjectives absent from the Glasgow club scene for some time now. The dance floor was never vacant, and when it became crowded the whole club was annexed for dancing. The music kept hands in the air and smiles on the faces, as the crowd moved in a sea of disco colours from the visuals and coloured panels around the DJ box. The poster told us to polish the platforms, as you “can’t outrun the thunder”, (although we should make clear attempting to out run anything in platforms is best avoided) but no one wanted to outrun this thunder as it engulfed the club. It all got too much for some clubbers; our very own cover star decorated the floor, causing several attendees to pull a move that can only be described as ‘the slip’. After an authoritarian bouncer halted what felt like an all too short night a finishing chant of “one more tune” was stifled, so we got a friendly follow up chant of “the bouncer is a paedo” to become the last word on the night. There are rumours afoot that the kids want techno, well I can assure you, the kids are unanimous and they want disco.