Brògeal are back in Scotland, and they’re here to stay
It’s a dull, dreary night in Glasgow. But the people of this city are a hardy bunch, and more than used to battling the elements of a storm – or six. It doesn’t tend to get them down.
The special reason that spirits remain high in this particular case is that Brògeal are back in town. The Falkirk folk punk rockers have quickly made a name for themselves as one of the most commanding bands on the scene, and they are playing the city’s art school for two nights, branding it their “triumphant return to Glasgow”.
The stage is set, with a packed room and a storming opening set from local band Lupercalia putting the crowd in fine fettle for a raucous night ahead. The pints are flowing, the football tops are already throwing, and then an appropriate blast of Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ introduces Brògeal to the stage. Let the fun and games begin.
The day before the first big Glasgow gig, I caught up with the band’s Aidan Callaghan over Zoom. Compared to the powerful centralising presence I saw from him on stage, during this conversation, he seemed a little nervous, if still assured in what Brògeal were about to bring alive over the next two nights.
“We’ve never claimed tae be a Glasgow band,” Callaghan says, referencing the band’s home roots in Falkirk, “but it’s where we kinda cut our teeth and made our name. We’ve experienced, over the years, really having tae work hard tae sell tickets, and these shows sold out in a day. And that was just an incredible feeling. But it’s like a homecoming. They’re always the more special gigs, the ones that we play up here. We need tae play more in Scotland.”
In a matter of months, that has largely taken Brògeal across England and some forays into Europe since the release of their album Tuesday Paper Club in October, and with them shortly set to head back out across Ireland and the Netherlands, it certainly does seem that they haven’t had a lot of time of late to take stock back home.
And yet, as the conversation with Callaghan continues, it’s clear this is the entire heart of the band: their past, their present, and their future. He recalls a pivotal gig of influence, where all the punk bands in Glasgow once congregated in the Fred Paton Daycare Centre in the West End – a now-closed recreation hub for the elderly – which turned into one of his “favourite gig memories ever,” Callaghan says. “They cleared all the old yins oot,” he hastened to add.
But there are also the gig circuit dreams yet to achieve, namely the pinnacle that is the Barrowland Ballroom. “They don’t let dafties in there,” the banjo player stated, not incorrectly. He added: “My great aunties and uncles used to go to the ballroom dancing in there, and anybody who is anybody has played the Barrowlands. So that’s oor goal. We can retire happily after that.”
Although that may seem to be the next step on the ladder, there are big things to concentrate on in the here and now, namely the art school gigs. As we sign off, Callaghan says: “It’s gonnae be loud, right from the start. All going tae plan, it’s gonnae be fucking mega.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” I replied. It wasn’t that I had any doubt in my mind of what they could achieve, but I wanted to see exactly how they would pull off a set of performances they had clearly built up so much in their minds.
And so we return to the scene of the first night in Glasgow, where I muscled my way to the front of the already raving crowd, with my (half) pint in hand. Possibly having gone slightly overkill on the smoke machine, the stage before me was a bit of a haze. But as soon as Brògeal appeared there, it was very clear who was boss.
This is a band who have never pretended to be anything other than plainly Scottish, and as they opened the set with ‘Roving Falkirk Bairn’, followed by the new song ‘Lads O’ The Fair’, it was striking that this was an ode to the country not as stereotype, but as real celebration. As the gig continued, with upbeat turns of ‘Lady Madonna’ and ‘Friday On My Mind’, the crowd were only growing more wild.
Yet the truly captivating thing was that, as much as Brògeal were setting the room on fire, they could also just as easily temper the mood and, in some cases, reduce it to tears. That was seen in abundance by the time they reached the stirring ‘Go Home Tae Yer Bed’, joined onstage by Outer Hebridean singer Josie Duncan to sing her verse in Gàidhlig, just as it had appeared on the album.
If this was the band’s chance to prove that they have what it takes, they definitely delivered on that aim and then some more. They’re a five-piece who can not only hold their own with a distinct sound and identity, but also know exactly how to expertly craft that into an ever-increasing line of fans and shows that will see people eating out the palms of their hands.
After the dust had settled and the few inevitably sore heads had subsided, I checked back in with Callaghan a few days beyond the gig, mainly to clarify that he did, indeed, think it was “fucking mega”.
“Absolutely,” he grinned in response. “It was mental. It was really, really crazy – far surpassed our expectations. It was just bananas.” Obviously, a lot of that came from the audience, with Callaghan paying tribute to the “punkies and folkies” coming together for one united, if slightly inebriated, cause.
“All we can take forward from that is that it’s proper experience of being, dare I say, a big band,” he muses, which leads me nicely back to the musical mecca we had previously talked about: the Barrowlands. They wouldn’t have been snapped up and booked overnight, of course, but “We’d dae it the morra,” Callaghan said. “We’re ready tae take on the challenge.”
He’s not to be swayed, though, as he quickly added: “I’m obviously not saying that we’re playing the Barrowlands anytime soon, but there’s been some lovely discussions with oor team aboot what oor next steps could be and how achievable they actually are.” I guess we’ll just have to watch this space, then.
It had struck me throughout all of this process that Brògeal really are the sonic presence that Scotland needs right now, bridging new music with traditions of old and finding a happy place in between. But that comes at a crossroads – we’re under a month out from a Scottish Parliament election that will once again change the course of the country, and although Callaghan insisted in our first chat that the band’s music is “not political”, it’s very clear what audience they aim towards.
I ask Callaghan how this conscience affects the band. “First of all, I think it’s very important that we go oot and vote, however much it’ll achieve, I don’t know, and I’m not telling anybody tae vote any specific way, but it’s important that we, as young people especially, go oot and vote, and use yer votes wisely,” he replies.
But then the real heart of his passion comes to the fore. “We, at our heart, are punks. We want to fight the system. We want tae noise people up. If we could be seen as being a voice for good, then that’ll do me. We never, ever huv, and never will, want tae chase the money. We’ve got oor own beliefs, and tae an extent, they beliefs huv got us where we are with the way that people resonate with us. We simply can and will do what we can for the voice of reason and for the good guys.”
You don’t even have to see Brògeal live to realise they are fighting the good fight, and in Scotland, they are a voice that are here to stay.
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