Blue Rose Code

21st of September 2017

St Luke's, Glasgow

I arrived embarrassingly late at Van Morrison in my musical evolution – the late Eighties, if memory serves.  But I did spend much of the next decade dutifully attempting to catch up.  I saw The Man perform on a fair number of occasions during the Nineties, but each time came away vaguely unsatisfied.  It was not his performance, which was generally first class which disappointed, but Morrison's almost willfully contrary choice of songs to perform.  

He rarely seemed to go near all the ones I had fallen in love with.  And if I never hear Vanlose Stairway in my life again, it will be too soon.

And I could not help but feel at times at this gig tonight, if there was not a bit of the same thing going on.  I consider myself reasonably au fait with Blue Rose Code’s, albeit modest, output.  And were I to sit down and come up with a list of the band's (or strictly speaking Ross Wilson's) most accessible, most listener-friendly tracks, I should probably come up with Julie, Brave Cedars and Pied Wagtails, Boscombe Armistice, One Day at a Time, This is Not a Love Song, and perhaps Silent Drums.  A full total of None of Which was performed this evening.

Now I do appreciate some of these songs perhaps represent a period in Ross's life he may rather not revisit, and that he also may have been given a gentle nudge by his management/record company to push the upcoming album as much as possible, given they would be looking for some return on their investment.  But even so…

For whilst there were all manner of wonderful delights served up this evening: the beautiful Child as opener, Lyle Watt’s at-times jaw-dropping acoustic guitar work, the joyous gospel-tinged In The Morning, would it really, I wondered, have diminished the mood for Ross to have dropped one or two of the more introspective compositions: Glasgow Rain or To The Shore say, to make way for a few of the more bouncy ones?

Given how privileged I felt to be attending this gig at all – when will the rest of the world catch up to Ross’s immense talents? – I did feel at times a touch guilty at harbouring these grumps.

Although having said that, I gained an inkling that perhaps I was not the only one thinking these thoughts when, at a point towards the close of the gig, a lone voice shouted out “Play Edina!”  In response to which someone close behind me whispered soto voce to their companion: “Christ, play anything off Peckham Rye”.

To anyone whose sole exposure to BRC was that wonderful Ballads of Peckham Rye collection, I should imagine their experience this evening would have been akin to that of any Friends Again fans who had toddled along to see The Bathers back in the day.  (Ask your dads, everyone).

But I could forgive Ross anything when he performed his heart-rending baring-of-the-soul confession, Pokesdown Waltz.  I cannot imagine anyone in the hall did not feel as I did: that this was an uncomfortable intrusion upon private anguish and loss.  Particularly for someone like myself, who has spent most of his life hiding emotions behind walls and masks.  

Driving home afterwards thinking about this song, I did find myself wondering what the other party’s version of events were, and how she felt about this painful incident in her life being made so public.    And was momentarily, perhaps a touch uncharitably, put in mind of that line from the Beautiful South song, which talks about turning “her grief into glory”.



Set list

Child
Bluebell
Chasing Sunlight
Ebb and Flow
Sandaig
Scotland Yet
Glasgow Rain
Rebecca
In the Morning
Nashville Blue
Love is…
Over the Fields
To the Shore
Edina
Whitechapel
Pokesdown Waltz
Grateful

Blue Rose Code - St Luke's, Glasgow - September 2017