Best of Glasgow: Ken McClusky from the Bluebells

National World - LocalTV

We visit BAaD to chat to Ken McCluskey from the Bluebells to find out his favourite spots in the city.

Transcript

00:00Hi, this is Ken McCluskey and this is my best of Glasgow.

00:03My favourite restaurant is the Red Onion, which is on West Campbell Street

00:10in the centre town near Blysewood Square

00:13and it's run by a guy called John Quigley and his family.

00:16It's a family restaurant.

00:17If my friends are up from London or whatever, we always meet in there.

00:19It's a nice place to go, they've got a nice menu.

00:22It does the best French onion soup this side of Paris.

00:27My favourite pub, this is a difficult one for me.

00:29I've got quite a lot of favourite pubs.

00:31But I'd say, can I have two?

00:33OK, so my local one, my local favourite pub is The Macker,

00:37which is on Great Western Road.

00:40I've heard people calling it my chair, but it's not, it's Macker.

00:44And it's really nice, they've got good music on,

00:47good traditional sessions on during the week,

00:50bands at the weekend sometimes, food's good,

00:53and it's very handy for me.

00:55My pub when in town, in the city centre, is Babity Bowsters.

01:00And that's run by the Mullin family again, a family pub.

01:05I like it, it's not corporate or whatever, it's laid back.

01:08They've got, if some of my friends are coming to stay for the weekend,

01:11we can stay, they've got four rooms upstairs.

01:13They've got a function suite upstairs.

01:15They do a very nice Cullen Skink, which is one of my favourites.

01:19My favourite cafe is again, it's kind of local, local to me.

01:22And it's on Great Western Road again, I'm sorry,

01:24but it's called A Taste of Morocco.

01:27It's just a little tiny place.

01:29It's across the road from a bar called Winters Girls.

01:32It's very, very friendly.

01:35It's beautiful inside, it's all really flowery and bright.

01:37And so even if you're in a funny mood, you go in there and they're dead cheery

01:40and you're like, hey.

01:41And they lift your spirits.

01:42And they do, I really like mint tea with sugar in it.

01:45They do a nice mint tea.

01:47And they've got lots of, you can have a Moroccan breakfast

01:49or you can have a Scottish breakfast.

01:52So whatever, or you can do a wee mix and match.

01:54My favourite venue is the Barlands.

01:57I have to show you this because this was a poster from the Barlands.

02:00They're available, these are available in the Blitzkrieg shop

02:03across the road from the Barlands.

02:05Signed.

02:06The Barlands is great.

02:08I've played there several times, maybe six or seven times,

02:10but mostly as a support band to bands like The Big Dish

02:13or Delimitri or whatever.

02:15And then this year for the first time we headlined it

02:17during Celtic Connections, which was fabulous.

02:20That was right at the end of Celtic Connections.

02:22So that was, yeah, we've headlined the Barlands.

02:25That was a big moment.

02:26So we were about to first as the Bluebells.

02:28The Barlands wasn't a gig.

02:30They'd been mothballed for years, you know.

02:32And it wasn't until the Simple Minds did a video in it

02:35and realised it's still a, you know, a good venue.

02:38So it kind of opened up slowly after that, end of 83, 84.

02:42But we were kind of over by the end of 84.

02:44So the first time around, before we got rejuvenated

02:47and reborn as the Bluebells.

02:49My favourite building.

02:50Tell you what I really like, it's quite near here,

02:52the Templeton building.

02:53It's an old carpet factory.

02:56It's just down there in Glasgow Green.

02:59And it's beautiful.

03:00It's beautiful.

03:01I really like brickwork because my dad was a bricklayer.

03:04And if he, when he passed that, he was like,

03:06oh, he was kind of in awe of it and all that.

03:09And when we went past Castle Milk and places like that,

03:11he'd say, I built that, like, in his own hands.

03:13When we were wee boys, we thought he did build it, his own hands.

03:16So brickwork, I really like brickwork,

03:17and that's a good example of good brickwork.

03:20My favourite artist is a musician.

03:21Because we're here and we're in the Barlands,

03:23I would say, let's go local.

03:24And Matt McGinn.

03:25Matt McGinn was a great folk singer,

03:28sort of comedian, funny songs, serious songs.

03:33And he's from the Carlton.

03:34There's a book called McGinn of the Carlton,

03:36which you can get, I've seen it,

03:38you can get it on eBay or whatever.

03:40But that's good.

03:41It tells you a bit of his background.

03:43He was a teacher who became a folk musician,

03:47folk singer, writer.

03:49And there's a pub around there called Lynch's,

03:51which has got a big plaque in the wall

03:52that tells you all the history of Matt McGinn.

03:54And they have a,

03:55they have a celebration of his life every year.

03:57So I would say,

03:58I would say Matt McGinn, yeah.

03:59I would say Matt McGinn, yeah.

04:00I would say Matt McGinn.

04:01Do you have a favourite painter?

04:02One of the new Glasgow boys,

04:03maybe Stephen Campbell,

04:04or Adrian Wojniewski.

04:05But I think Stephen Campbell,

04:06probably,

04:07he passed away.

04:08And I just really liked his work.

04:10I liked all the little birds,

04:11and you know,

04:12it was quite surreal.

04:13I would say my Glasgow hero is John McLean,

04:15who was a teacher from the south side of Glasgow.

04:19And he was very much a big socialist,

04:22and stuck up for workers' rights,

04:25and he also was against the First World War,

04:27which was a bit of a,

04:29bit of a huge piece of slaughter.

04:33So he was the president for that.

04:35So he became a sort of Marxist,

04:37socialist talker.

04:39And he died at a very young age.

04:41But at the moment they're trying to build a,

04:43they're trying to raise money to build a statue to him

04:46in the south side.

04:47Shawlands, I think it is.

04:48So John McLean's my big hero here.

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