Hard to ignore the grim beauty of a brutalist Glasgow

It’s always been my suspicion that people who love brutalism – an architectural style involving copious amounts of dimpled concrete in colours ranging from chewing gum grey to puddle brown – probably did not grow up surrounded by examples of the form. And definitely didn’t grow up in one.

“Hang on a minute,” someone is probably already saying in response. “Look at London’s Barbican complex. People who live in that brutalist masterpiece absolutely love it.” True. But they’re probably architects, or work in one of those simpatico professions where they pay you enough to be able to afford a one bedroom apartment there (market value: around £1.2 million at the moment).

But I will admit there is a grim sort of beauty to brutalist architecture, in the same way that Soviet bus shelters or unloved 1970s ferry terminals have an odd kind of charm. Which is to say they exude the right degree of menace and brio. In the police line-up of municipal buildings and high street frontages, they’re the one with the ’tache, the mullet and the spider web face tattoo. Brutalism’s WTF factor is definitely high, which is a large part of the appeal.

Read more:

Herald Arts | There's every reason in the world to fund Scotland's arts sector

As a result, it’s hard to ignore those examples of brutalist architecture still standing (many are not, which is a shame in a way). But nor should we ignore them. Cities have growth lines like trees do, and if we can read trees we can read cities by their built environment. Every ‘ring’ says something and contributes to the whole. Brutalism may be Marmite-y but it’s not something to be dismissed, and examples of it are certainly worth celebrating.

Happily that’s exactly what a new exhibition at Glasgow City Heritage Trust aims to do. Titled Brutal Glasgow, it explores the city’s portfolio (let’s use a fancy word) of brutalist buildings through the prism of drawings by Glasgow-based illustrator Natalie Tweedie, who works under the name Nebo Peklo. The exhibition opens on September 16 at the Trust’s space on Bell Street in the Merchant City, and runs until October 27. Ahead of it, The Herald’s Sandra Dick spoke to curator Rachel Loughran and Trust director Niall Murphy. Here you can read the piece – and, importantly, see some of the illustrations.

Temptation? Nope

I once had the pleasure of interviewing Heaven 17 stalwarts Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory at Ware’s home in London ahead of their appearance at Edinburgh’s short-lived but much-admired Flux Festival of New Music. This is way back in 1997. Once the pair had finished dissing Sean Bean – they both support Sheffield Wednesday FC, Bean is a fan of city rivals Sheffield United and according to them he has a tattoo to prove it – I politely complimented Ware on his domicile, a massive pile in Primrose Hill. To cut to the chase, it turned out he had done rather well from his career as pop star, composer, arranger and producer for the likes of Erasure and Tina Turner.

Fast forward a couple of decades and I’m reminded of all this as Ware raises an issue close to the heart of many musicians – how to be paid properly for your work at a level which reflects your skills, experience and track record. Asked if he would allow Heaven 17’s hit song Temptation to be used in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI computer game for the princely sum of $7500 (around £5700), he politely declined. Actually it wasn’t that polite: “Go f*** yourself,” he tweeted (the asterisks are mine, he didn’t use any).

You can read more on the stushie and about the online reaction to it – as well as more about the issues it raises for musicians generally – in Derek McArthur’s piece for The Herald.

And finally

Having now returned from their all-expenses paid recovery week at a five star spa hotel – joke – The Herald critics are back in the stalls for the wave of performances and tours which autumn brings as soon as the Edinburgh Festival dust has settled.

The well-liked Lammermuir Festival in East Lothian began last week and runs until September 16. Keith Bruce took in an opening weekend performance by American pianist Jeremy Denk, who performed a programme of works by compatriot Charles Ives, and then undertook a solo recital of music by a variety of female composers including Clara Schumann and Meredith Monk.

Sign up for Herald Arts and get weekly info and insight into arts and culture from Scotland and beyond.

Keith was also in attendance when the festival hosted the Dunedin Consort, and for a performance in Haddington by tenor Joshua Ellicott who was accompanied by pianist Anna Tilbrook. Their programme of war-themed works included one by James MacMillan, while The Dunedin Consort were joined by counter-tenor Alexander Chance and filled Crichton Collegiate Church near Pathhead with a programme of liturgical music culminating in Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater.

Finally Keith took in a re-imagining of Purcell’s Dido And Aeneas at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, a production by the Scots Opera Project with a libretto in Scots and Gaelic by Dr Michael Dempster and Marcas Mac an Tuairneir.