A review from 5D Music & Theatre writer Maria Robertson.
There are certain voices that are part of your life whether it’s a Mum, Dad, sister, a radio program like The Archers, or a song that’s just always been there. Since 1984 Ken McCluskey has been singing Young at Heart with The Bluebells, so has become part of my life the way that only musicians can. It was a very special experience to have a conversation with him, when I was the only audience to his iconic voice.
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Of course I had to start by asking if it was frustrating to be known for “that one song” and he explained that they would not do a concert without it because that is what a lot of people buy a ticket for, its basically their duty to the fans. Ken also said he’s heard it played in so many different settings: weddings, funerals, anniversaries. The song resonates with lots of different people in very separate ways, and I think this can also change as we get older and our perspective alters. Sure enough when I saw The Bluebells last year at the Lemon Tree I was praying that they would sing it. Luckily they played it, and a lot more that evening, as you can read in my review: https://5d-blog.com/the-bluebells-at-the-lemon-tree-aberdeen/
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Ken was easy to talk to and his years in the music industry became very apparent when I got slightly flustered and excited never having done a video interview before; he immediately put me at ease asking me to explain about the website that I write for.
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This led nicely into the instruction from my editor to say hi from him and tell Ken that I’m Falling is still in his favourites playlist at which Ken assured me that’s his favourite song too. Another of my friends had asked if there are any Morrissey stories considering Craig Gannon had been in the Bluebells. Ken has not met Morrissey but has been reading a Johnny Marr biography which is an interesting read, although more for the later bands he was involved with.
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I asked Ken if he had any aspirations to write a book himself, as I had seen that he had edited a photography book. Apparently he has always kept diaries and likes writing short stories so has notebooks full of various things, but thinks it would be “too up himself” to write memoirs (not convinced his fans would agree!). He does like creating short stories and had one published on Caught by the River blog: https://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2013/11/caught-by-2-river-clyde-the-bluebells-salmon/
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“Caught by the Blantyre Weir” is about when he was walking by the River Clyde, back in 1983, on the way to a Bluebells rehearsal. He saw a salmon leap out of, what had previously been too polluted a river to have live fish in it! Excited by this he blew off the rehearsal and went fishing instead. Unfortunately he then got caught by the police poaching, although luckily no one had rights over fishing at that time so he did not get prosecuted.
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With Ken’s lifetime of experience in the music industry not just from the Bluebells but from being a music business lecture at Glasgow Kelvin College I asked his advice for any aspiring musician. The one main advice would be not to give up the day job, ideally do a job to pay the bills 4 days a week and music 3 days a week. You have to be very lucky to make a living out of music, although he only took the lecturer role job when he and his wife started a family. Children do take up a lot of finances, this runs in parallel with my life as my expendable income reduced when we had a baby and that was when I got into writing reviews for concerts so that I would get free tickets and be able to feed my live music addiction!
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Urban Crofter is Ken’s handle, as in between records he did lots of different things like doing sound for bands, drove a van, worked in a bar. Basically you need to be an do a variety of roles to get by and pay the bills as a musician, next up we will all be joining Ken’s urban crofter cult!
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Sometimes when a band re-release an older album there are thoughts that they need a cash boost, or to pay off a divorce, or finance a retirement. In the case of the Bluebells releasing a remastered box set of Sisters the suggestion actually came from the music company and “public desire”. Ken explained that it’s a great box set as there are 3 CDs and a DVD with lots of different footage from through the years. Some radio sessions are included on the third CD and they are the bare bones stripped back of what the band really sounded like. They are also working on new material for another album which should come out next year, after The Bluebells in the 21st Century did well when they released it in 2023.
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We also discussed the price of concert tickets these days as they are very much in the media with Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing, especially for the Oasis concerts. Ken agreed that prices are ridiculous and there should be a limit to how much you pay for a concert. He also feels that with some of the larger venues you would be better watching it on the TV as you are so far away. He and two members of the band were in London when Taylor Swift’s concerts were on, as they were playing a small acoustic event. When they tried to book accommodation, it was going to be 400 pounds as it is not just the concert ticket, it’s the surrounding areas affected as well. They ended up sleeping on a lovely friend’s floor just like the good old days of touring. Having mentioned Taylor Swift a couple of times I could not resist asking Ken if he was a fan and he admitted that he does like to “shake it off” from time to time! He tends to like various songs rather than being a huge follower of a specific band. I said that my online name is Stupid Girl and he immediately said oh Garbage and started singing the song to me, which was quite a magical moment for this starstruck music geek!
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Conversation moved on to when we had the chance to meet one of our idols, my embarrassment at squealing “I love you” at poor Shirley Manson! For him it was Karl Blau when he was touring with his Introducing Karl Blau album. Karl was playing in a pub round the corner from Ken’s house, during the day Ken was in his garden when Karl walked past and Ken had that fanboy moment of not being able to say the sensible ”hello I love your album”. Nice to know that even the stars get stars struck, we are all human after all!
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My time alone with the wonderful voice of Ken McCluskey was certainly something I will forget, especially when he sang Shake it Off and Stupid Girl to me. I hope I have done justice to this wonderful insight to a marvellous mind with my writing about it and I will now eagerly await Ken’s memoire, or compilation of short stories!
Further information: https://thebluebellsofficial.com/
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Maria Robertson is the Chief Music & Theatre Writer for the 5D Pop Culture Website and provides reviews & coverage of local Aberdeen music & theatre gigs. She’s an experienced writer for numerous sources and is a self-confessed live gig addict ever since seeing The Counting Crows at the Barrowlands in 1994.
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