A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF GIGS : WEEK 1 : THE GLASGOW HIP-HOP SCENE

A LIFE IN A YEAR OF GIGS : #1 : THE GLASGOW HIP-HOP SCENE

As explained yesterday, 2012 is going to be the year of the live gig for TVV with your humble scribe and his sidekick Aldo doing all we can to give you a flavour of all sorts of music in the raw from all sorts of venues.

We decided to dive-in at the deep end. In some ways we had no choice given how few live gigs are put on during the first week of any January. There was an option to head through to Edinburgh and take in something highly recommended by Song By Toad on a Friday night, but we wanted to get things going in Glasgow.

So it was on Thursday 5 January that we headed along to the 13th Note to take in the following attraction:-

“Deadlife Entertainment presents: MACKENZIE & SWAD (ep launch) / JAKEYBYTEZ / ERIN FRIEL / THE HEAVY DAMAGE


Mackenzie & Swad-EP Launch of 'Falling The Concept Of The Number 7' - Complex Lyricism With Some Outstandin Beats
Jakeybytez -Comedy Hip Hop Trio
Erin Friel-Young Talented Female Songwriter/Singer
The Heavy Damage-Abstract Hip Hop Duo
Doors being 8pm and the price reasonable blingin. £4 entry”

Neither of us had been to any hip-hop gigs before unless you include catching sets by famous Americans at outdoor festivals. We certainly had no idea that there was a Glasgow hip-hop scene that on the evidence of the turn-out at the 13th Note is reasonably thriving.

There must have been close on 100 folk in the small basement space that is one of the best and sweatiest venues in the city. And I reckon 98 of them knew one another. Guess which two stood out in the crowd??

The pre-gig beats came courtesy of Tesko. We didn’t recognise one single track but it was clear the stuff was going down well with the audience one or two of whom were dancing. At 9pm the first act took to the stage – and it was Erin Friel. In our heads when we see the description “young talented female songwriter/singer” we imagine some bed-sit angst with an acoustic guitar.

Not this time.

All 4 foot 11 inches of Erin grabbed the mic and proceeded to give us a few minutes of spoken word in a very strong Glasgow accent delivered at full speed. There was the occasional stumble along the way, possibly from nerves, but that was about the only grumble we had about her performance. She followed up with three songs again delivered with a heavy Glasgow accent, all of which seemed to draw on her life and environment, but there was no doubt she could sing and rap. One track, which may or may not have been called No one's an angel until they go to heaven was a particular standout. Erin finished with some more spoken word and after 15 minutes left to well deserved rapturous applause and acclaim.

The next 35 minutes were among the most surreal either of us have ever had at any gig. It was ‘Open Mic’ time.

It was opened by one bloke paying tribute to what he’d just seen with Erin’s set and with a warning that he didn’t want the usual nonsense spouted at open mic sessions about guys shagging burds and spurting all over their faces or bitch this, cow that. In other words....cut out the misogyny.

It was, we’re afraid to say, like a red rag to a herd of particularly pissed-off bulls as bloke after bloke took to the stage and spouted all sorts of nonsense about their masculinity and virility. They all seemed to have a mic in one hand and a pint of Tennent’s Lager in the other and it seemed to be a spoof of a bad sketch in some sort of Scottish comedy show.

Having said that, a couple of those who took part in the open mic session did stand out. The same bloke who had started it jumped up at one point and delivered another blistering rap along similar lines of his opener – he was right in the face of one of the other rappers who had been ranting about women and it seemed for a moment that it might turn into a violent confrontation. But then again, given that everyone in the venue seemed to know one another it might just have been part of an elaborate and very clever act. Our suspicions that the Open Mic session might be a bit more planned were raised when the final person took to the stage and delivered something that was as good as anything either of us had heard in our admittedly limited knowledge of the hip-hop genre. Not so much straight out of Compton as straight out of Crookston (or No Sleep Till Buarheid)

Ten minutes later and Jakeybytez took to the stage. To our dismay, there were at times 5, sometimes 6 and occasionally 7 of them on stage at one time. We say dismay as all of them had been part of the Open Mic session that we had for the most part just endured. Thankfully, there were only 4 mics available so we were spared all of them rapping at the one time.

At least we knew from the advance description that Jakeybytez (a great name incidentally) were a comedy hip hop act. But sorry guys, we just didn’t get it. Having said that, we were in a bit of a minority as their 20-minute set went down an absolute treat with the 13th Note posse. One thing we will say however – the shouty-along chorus of set-closer Out Comes Stanley was catchy as fuck.

By this time is about 10.20 and the MC announced the headline act MacKenzie and Swad would be up next in about 10 minutes time but for now we’d be left in the capable hands of Tesko. Again, all sorts of tunes were pumped out none of which we knew, but they showed that in the right hands, rap can be wonderfully entertaining to listen to.

Unfortunately by 10.45 there was still no sign of the headliners and with our last train back to our hoods due not long after 11 we cut our night short and headed to the station.

Overall, we had a good night. It was well worth the £4 entry fee....there are pubs not far from the 13th Note where it costs more than that for a bottle of beer...particularly for catching Erin Friel’s set and for learning that in a city famed for jingly-jangly guitar pop played by boys with occasionally fashionable haircuts there is a hip-hop scene that until the participants opened their mouths would not have looked out of place in any working-class city in North America....except 95% of the folk in the Glasgow venue were white.



Here's JC's favourite ever hip-hop effort:-

mp3 : Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television, The Drug Of The Nation

And a great suggestions from Jacques the Kipper for a fine example of hip-hop from closer to home



And finally, as JtK puts it....."to show where hiphop can travel to musically - one of the best singles of last 10 years". No arguments there....




More adventures next week as we seek out gig #2.

JC and Aldo. Monday 9 January 2012