Glasgow Gallivanting: January 2025

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Breabach and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra

Long term readers might remember that January in Glasgow is never quiet. Almost as soon as Christmas and New Year are over the winter music festival, Celtic Connections, begins. As usual, we had tickets for several gigs and enjoyed them all – a flavour below. The standout for us this year was KT Tunstall who was celebrating the 20th anniversary of her first album Eye to the telescope. Her personality is as big as her voice. Unfortunately, one concert has been postponed because it fell on the day that Storm Éowyn closed the whole city down.

Su-a Lee: Dialogues
Tommy Smith of the SNJO
Shane Cook & The Woodchippers
Transatlantic Sessions
Transatlantic Sessions: Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams
Transatlantic Sessions: Loudon Wainwright III
Transatlantic Sessions: Jerry Douglas
KT Tunstall

Yes, on Friday 24th January we had a red weather alert with the message not to travel because of 100mph winds. It certainly was rough! Fortunately, we suffered no damage but some people lost chimney pots, fences, and walls, and the council reported almost 500 trees came down in the city. We certainly spotted a few in our walks around our area, some very close by.

Kelvinside
Kelvindale
Botanic Gardens
Kelvin Walkway
Kelvin Walkway
Kelvin Walkway
Kirklee Allotments

The penguins also found it blustery, and they have visitors. I’m not sure where exactly orange penguins come from …

Windy weather
Orange friends

It hasn’t always been windy. I haven’t seen many swans on the canal recently, but I did spot a pair at Ruchill on a calm day, and on an even calmer, sunny day I enjoyed this canal boat reflected in the water at Applecross.

Swans at Ruchill
Reflections at Applecross

The graffiti artists have been busy on the Kelvin Walkway again. The googly eyes on the bridge pillar are quite alarming!

Sun graffiti
Googly eyes

The cyclist’s conditions have ranged from icy …

Icy roads
Snow on the hills
Frozen canal at Bowling
Garnock Spout

… to warm sunshine! As he did last year, John spent a winter week in Lanzarote with some of his cycling friends. I envy the scenery and the weather, if not the need to get on a bike every day.

Costa Teguise
Puerto de Orzola
Puerto de Orzola

The women’s history walks haven’t started again – we’ll need warmer weather for that – but I’ve given two talks and am busy preparing for an exhibition at Maryhill Halls on Suffragette Jessie Stephen. Some of the exhibits will come from Jessie’s great-niece, Sheana, and I was very excited when she sent a photograph of the material she proposes to lend. Highlights include a handwritten chapter of Jessie’s unpublished autobiography and a picture of her with Harold Wilson in the 1964 General Election in which Jessie stood in Weston-super-Mare. The Labour Party won, and Wilson started his first term as Prime Minister, but unfortunately Jessie lost. This was the fifth and final time she tried to become an MP and it’s sad she never succeeded. From what I’ve learned about her she would have been great: always unafraid to stand up for what she believed in.

Photo by Sheana Stephen

And that’s it for January – I hope February is shaping up well for you so far. And that we have no more storms!

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53 Comments »

  1. I’m sure I told you how much I love Su-a Lee’s Dialogues. I’m so jealous of the times you’ve seen her lay. I don’t think she and her mates ever lave Scotland, although they certainly tour a lot. (I follow her on Facebook!) Thank you so much for introducing me to her music!

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  2. The Celtic Connections festival looks fantastic. That is one severe storm you had there with so much damage to trees and properties. I’m glad to see calm days that you captured at the canal. I hope you have a wonderful February.

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  4. I don’t know how I missed this. It looks like you had some substantial tree damage round your way during that storm. With the exception of a large tree coming down across a main road we thankfully didn’t have much round here. I like the view of the frozen canal and those penguins look like they’ve been Tangoed😄

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  8. Glad to hear you didn’t have any damage from the storm, that’s an awful lot of toppled trees! I’m intrigued by the orange penguins, I wonder if they’ll be back or if they’re just making a one-off appearance… Jessie Stephens sounds like a fascinating woman and it looks as though you have some great material for your exhibition. Hope it comes together well, I look forward to reading more about it.

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  9. Always like the penguins. I counted 50 toppled trees after the storm in my own small district alone so Scotland and Ireland wide it must run into thousands of trees. Bob. BSS.

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  10. I like living in a quiet backwater but I do feel envious when Celtic Connections is on. It always seems to have many concerts that I would like to attend. I have admired the cyclist’s ability to go out in icy conditions and not to fall off.

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  11. Hi Anabel – the Celtic Connections looks to be a huge of amount of fun – very talented musicians. Gosh lots of trees down … we got away lightly down here. The cyclist chose a good time of year to pop down to Lanzarote; those orange penguins … I wonder too – good luck with finishing the talk Jessie sounds a fascinating woman – cheers Hilary

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  12. Glad you had fun at all the concerts. About the only live music I can do now is the symphony. I’ll be doing that in a couple weeks. That was some storm! Too bad about all the tree loss.
    I think the orange penguins are sunburned from climate change!

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  13. Hi, Anabel! Your Celtic Connections experiences sound wonderful! Glad to hear you weathered Storm Éowyn safely, though 100mph winds sound terrifying. Looking forward to hearing more about the Jessie Stephen exhibition. Stay warm and storm-free in February. ❤

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  15. A fun packed January indeed! The great photos all tell the stories of the winter concert, the winter storm and a winter holiday! How wonderful to have all that memorabilia from Jessie’s great niece…she sounds like a great lady.

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  16. I think I have that K T Tundtall cd somewhere. Great photos of the acts by the way at Celtic connections. Looks a fab month apart from the storms. Glad the penguins survived, perhaps their brolly didn’t!

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  17. Love those orange penguins. How cheerful is that? Great music options too. We have Scottish friends who regularly come back to Glasgow or Edinburgh to visit family. They usually have ok weather (for Scotland) but that Friday they were marooned in Wetherspoons most of the day because everywhere else was closed!

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  20. Happy to hear you escaped catastrophic damage, Anabel. Thanks for sharing the photos of those less-lucky. Are such storms less-likely in the fall (asking for a friend). 😉 Please continue to keep us posted on where & when your talks happen. Fingers crossed one coincides with my visit.

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  21. My son listened to Inverary as part of Celtic Connections – and loved it! I was very glad that he could work at home on the day of those very strong winds. He sent me a video of the trees bending this way and that outside his window.

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  24. I’m glad you came through Storm Éowyn unscathed. We were fortunate to escape the worst of it down here but it sounded pretty awful, and looks it from your shots. Love the penguins as always!

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  26. What a lovely mix. I really will have to time one of my hikes to stop over in Glasgow during Celtic Connections. The Transatlantic Sesssion would fit well with my love of Americana. I even picked up the banjo recently. 🙂

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