Glasgow tribute to AC/DC and the Youngs is long overdue

Others have noted a similarity in its features to the giant alien tripods in War of the Worlds. I see it as a fort, though. If Glasgow were ever to be attacked from the north, the Cranhill water tower would be a robust and substantial defensive position with large-calibre gun emplacements from which all raiders could easily be repelled.

It was built in 1951 by F.A. MacDonald and Partners and you wonder if its counter-intuitive design was by way of giving this benighted neighbourhood, which grew from Glasgow’s post-war slum clearances, something unique and handsome: a source, perhaps of future community pride.

On Saturday afternoon, in the midst of the city’s seasonal downpours, I embarked on a promenade round this tower and re-acquainted myself with some of the streets that surround it.

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Attempts at venerating this structure have been made, but you’re left wondering if the local authorities haven’t yet realised its full potential. Five metal sculptures by Andy Scott, who made the Falkirk Kelpies, stand at its base. This is his ‘Project Neptune’, comprising Poseidon, the Greek God of the Sea; three sirens and a rather beautiful mermaid. If you look very closely you can see a fish with a ring in its mouth, an echo of Glasgow’s coat of arms.

These though, can only be glimpsed through an ugly metal fence. Bizarrely, there is no plaque to tell visitors that they were created by one of Europe’s finest living sculptors.

A little memorial garden sitting alongside the tower has benches and shrubbery and a coloured floor-map of Scotland with the names of our famous light-houses picked out: Skerryvore, Cloch Point, Corran Point, Bell Rock, Longstone, Langness, Lamlash. The surrounding streets are named for these places. Yet, this wooded nook - though still lovely - is beginning to betray signs of decrepitude.

A short-lived project to illuminate the water-tower at night-time lasted only three years between 1999 and 2002 before it was deemed to be too expensive. This after all, is Cranhill and not Hyndland. It was replaced by a more modest scheme, using low-energy LED bulbs.

On the water tower’s southern side there is an expanse of bumpy grassland. This was where some of the area’s first dwellings once stood, including the one where Angus Young lived for eight years at number 6 Skerryvore Road along with his brother Malcolm before the family moved to Australia with their siblings.

AC/DC in 1979, (left to right) Malcolm Young, Bon Scott, Angus Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd (Image: Fin Costello/Redferns)

Angus and Malcolm became the guitarists and founder members of AC/DC, one of the world’s greatest rock bands and have never forgotten their Glasgow roots, once famously playing a concert at the city’s old Apollo Theatre in 1978 resplendent in Scotland football tops. Their first live album was recorded at the Apollo.

Curiously, while streets and statues have been named after AC/DC across Australia and in various countries in Europe, Glasgow’s civic authorities have chosen not to do likewise. This may be about to change, though.

Thomas Kerr, leader of the Conservative Group on Glasgow City Council is launching a bid to establish a permanent memorial to the Young Brothers in the place of their birth. Mr Kerr points to the success of Kirriemuir’s annual Bonfest event, held in honour of AC/DC’s legendary frontman Bon Scott, who was born and raised in the Perthshire town.  

Mr Kerr said: “AC/DC’s incredible worldwide success would simply not have been possible without the Youngs’ formative years in Cranhill.

“The story of Malcolm and Angus growing up in Skerryvore Road is one that is sadly not sufficiently well-documented. Having grown up in Cranhill myself, I wholeheartedly support any plans to celebrate the Youngs’ heritage in Glasgow’s East End.

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“This would bring a world-wide attraction to the area and help put a community that many feel has been forgotten back on the map. It would also give many of the young people growing up in this community hope. It shows them that no matter your postcode or background, anyone can make it in life with hard work and graft.

“In September, I’ll be putting forward a motion at the next meeting of the full council for a lasting tribute and hope to gain cross-party backing.” He agreed that somewhere in the vicinity of the Cranhill water tower would be the ideal location for this.

Mr Kerr’s campaign for a permanent tribute to the Young brothers, comes a few years after Frank Docherty, former Labour councillor for Cranhill, attempted to have their Glasgow connection recognised by conferring on them the Freedom of the City.

Mr Docherty later told me that none of his colleagues on the Council seemed keen on the idea and that he’d detected a degree of superciliousness in their response.

Tom Russell, one of Scotland’s most influential rock deejays presenters, has backed Councillor Kerr’s plan. “It's long overdue that the birth city of the Young brothers was internationally recognised with the obvious tourism potential. It would be a no-brainer if it were any other city in the world.

Mr Russell often features the music of AC/DC on his Thursday night rock show on Celtic Music Radio. He added: “I also think that any other city that had produced the amount and quality of music that Glasgow has would have built a museum of music celebrating this heritage. As well as AC/DC, Glasgow has produced Simple Minds, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Maggie Bell, The Bluebells, Jack Bruce, Del Amitri, Primal Scream, Gun, Mark Knopfler, Marmalade, John Martyn, Frankie Miller, Eddie Reader, Jimmy Sommerville, Midge Ure and countless others.  

DJ Tom Russell has backed Cllr Kerr's bid for the memorial

“My first interview with Angus Young was in the early 1980s. I asked him about his childhood memories of growing up in Cranhill and he replied that his main memory was regularly coming home from school and being sent to his bedroom to do his homework. He would then shut the bedroom door, lie on his bed and play his guitar whilst looking out at the Cranhill water tower, which he could see clearly from his bed.

Another interview a few years later, Angus told me that every time he came to Scotland to play with AC/DC he would always meet up with family and go for a drive round Cranhill, just to remind him where he came from.”

Donald MacLeod, owner of Glasgow’s Cathouse and The Garage nightclubs says that the music of AC/DC is among the most requested by his younger clientele. He also feels the band and the Young brothers in particular have been neglected by Glasgow’s civic authorities.

“This band are recognised throughout the world, and especially in the US, yet, for some reason I can’t fathom, their Scottish roots have been largely ignored by local politicians.

“Malcolm Young and his brother George who was the group’s producer, have both now gone and only Angus is left of the three. Wouldn’t it be great to have a memorial to them built in Cranhill Park, close to their home?

“Cranhill is one of the communities that Glasgow has forgotten and we should be using every opportunity to promote the good things that have come from it. But you sense they’d rather build cycle lanes and bus gates than celebrate the achievements of its own. Their music is timeless and we should have a timeless memorial. And there’s no better place than Cranhill in which to locate it.

A commonly-held suspicion exists that some of AC/DC’s musical themes and their boisterous, no-prisoners brand of rock doesn’t chime with the City Council’s cultural preferences. Perhaps though, some of their most famous and notorious signature tunes deserve to be re-assessed. What is ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ if not a rebuke to society’s ruinous obsession with body image?

Their 1976 hit, ‘Big Balls’, is an ironic salute to the Bacchanalian excesses of a party-loving countess who liked to stage large balls at her mansion. Its chorus features the line: “and he’s got big balls, and she’s got big balls”. How progressive and non-binary is that?