Belle & Sebastian's Glasgow Weekender @ SWG3, Glasgow, 3 Aug
The Saturday of Belle & Sebastian's Glasgow Weekender festival brings sets from CMAT, The Vaselines, Monica Queen, Callum Easter and more to SWG3
In 1999, Belle & Sebastian took over a Pontin's Holiday Camp in East Sussex for the Bowlie Weekender, a music festival curated by the band. Joined by a host of friends and acolytes like Mogwai and Teenage Fanclub, the festival has become a legendary part of B&S mythology, showing off the band’s taste-making skills while harking back to an earlier era of British light entertainment.
Subsequent instalments relocated to Butlin's Minehead and then a cruise ship off Barcelona, but at last, in 2024, it’s time for a Bowlie Weekender in the beloved group’s home city, with two days of music that includes the likes of Camera Obscura and The Joy Hotel as well as a pair of sets from Belle & Sebastian themselves,
As the audience descends on the sprawling SWG3 complex for the second day, Glasgow looks pretty good in the sun. As tempting as it is to head straight to the terrace to play some cornhole, attend a workshop or shop the vintage market, instead The Skinny chooses to plunge straight into the gloom of the smaller TV Studio venue for a quick set from a figure from the Belle & Sebastian history books – Monica Queen.
Queen is best known for singing on beloved Belles B-side Lazy Line Painter Jane but today she’s here to deliver a short set of her own country-rock tunes, backed by a band whose squalling guitar and rudimentary drumming brings to mind Neil Young and Crazy Horse. It’s worth coming inside for.
Back out in the sun, it’s time for The Vaselines, now expanded to a six-piece with another Belles collaborator, Carla J Easton, on keys and bike horn. This writer has caught the band three times over the years and this is the best they’ve been, with a rich, full sound that makes the most of their twangy cow-punk chords and shuffling Velvet Underground beats. A brief burst of harmonica from Eugene Kelly introduces Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, famously covered by Nirvana, with the band’s deft musicianship enlivening his dour lyrics.
Back in the depths, it’s time for a different type of dirge, with often-Young Fathers sidesman Callum Easter. Spending much of the set hunched over his arsenal of synths and noise-makers, while a drummer flails just inches away, it’s not the most instantly engaging set but as he twists and flicks knobs and buttons to summon rumbling drones, there’s an intriguing mad scientist charm to it all.
As the last quaking echo dies away, it’s time to head back into the sun. Sadly, the rain gods have other ideas and Dublin's CMAT is greeted by a sea of raincoats as she sashays out to deliver the set of the day. The Irish singer hits the stage like a lightning bolt, possessing the kind of livewire energy that makes you instantly imagine that a night out with her would end in a 7am taxi or a bout of property damage.
Over the course of an hour, she teaches Glasgow to two-step, waves at passing trains, throws herself into the crowd, spanks her keyboard player and strikes a succession of grinning and gurning poses as she powers through a growing selection of top-tier country-pop songs. There’s even a smattering of pink cowboy hats in the front row in her honour, which turn out to be especially helpful as the sky gets grey and menacing. In the words of the singer herself: “It’s important to slay no matter the weather”.
Equally upbeat, if perhaps a little in debt to crowd nostalgia, are indie-pop survivors Bis. John Disco, Manda Rin and Sci-Fi Steven still play with a tonne of energy, hammering through a set of songs which sound a little like Blur attempting to write a kids TV show theme, including their hit Eurodisco.
Finally it’s time for our hosts, Belle & Sebastian, to bring the curtain down. Playing as a nine-piece with cello and trumpet, the Glaswegians have an enviable songbook and a frontman in Stuart Murdoch whose gentle charm has won them superfans for whom the band has become almost shorthand for an entire way of living. Tonight, he congratulates the winners of the afternoon’s pub quiz, devotes Piazza, New York Catcher to self-professed “Belle and Sebastian teenager” CMAT and dedicates The Stars of Track and Field to the athletes competing in the Olympics.
He’s still a witty chronicler of Glasgow life, a gently political prodder and a generous host, welcoming fans onstage to dance to The Boy with the Arab Strap and reminiscing about writing Like Dylan in the Movies in a then-less-salubrious Kelvingrove Park. For those who have been to plenty of Belle & Sebastian shows, none of this comes as much of a shock, and indeed it's perhaps a little surprising that in such supportive company they don’t stretch out a little more. Tonight, there are just two tracks from their celebrated EPs with the rest sitting more or less as close to a greatest hits set as their catalogue allows.
It’s not a set devoid of production glitches either, with guitarist Stevie Jackson arriving at the venue almost as the band are due on stage and Monica Queen failing to emerge for Lazy Line Painter Jane, but as the crowd spill out of SWG3 into the night, it feels so good to see Belle & Sebastian bring their most famous showcase to their hometown at last.