Tangerine Dream

When I saw that the legendary German band Tangerine Dream were playing in Glasgow I checked out some of their recent live gigs on youtube and decided I needed to get tickets, perhaps as an anti-dote to the Heavy Metal gigs I have been going to with my son recently.

I did indeed take my Metal Head son along but he knew not where he was going or whom we were going to see.

On the way there I spotted a wall mural of Billy Connolly which was featured in an excellent documentary recently, so of course I had to stop for a pic, although it was a bit too dark to come out properly.

The gig was at a venue called BAAD which stands for Barras Art and Design and on the way there we passed the Barrowland Ballroom which is a legendary concert venue in Glasgow. I have seen many amazing artists there over the years, but I won’t bore you with a long list of names, as I do my son regularly.

I tried to get there early as there said there was limited seating available and I am not getting any younger. However, when we go there there was a long queue and my son was getting worried what I had brought him to as he was the youngest in it by about 30 years. I was the next youngest.

He checked out his Bands In Town act to discover it was TD and then headed over to Spotify to check the numbers on their most played song. If it is over a million then they must be ok is the logic behind that one.

He relaxed when he saw that one track had over 6 million plays although I knew it wasn’t going to be his cup of tea exactly.

You have to try to expand there parameters even though they won’t get it, far less thank you for it, so God knows why really.

When we got in I blagged my son and I past some security to the seats with an elevated view. However, we were later rumbled because we didn’t have the correct wristband on for the limited mobility audience member section.

So instead I headed for the front of the venue and took position up against the front rail, with my son squeezed out and standing a bit behind me.

The warm up act was IDA, who is a Finnish DJ and promoter based in Glasgow, who made her name in at The Tunnels in the city of Aberdeen, where she studied at University.

You can see a selection of her set in the first video at the bottom of the page and here is her Soundcloud tunes.

She done an excellent job at slowly building up an atmosphere for the Legendary band to appear as the venue filled up. She got a very warm round of applause at the end and was certainly appreciated.

My son was overcome with excitement as we waited in between the sets.

Tangerine Dream were founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese who was the only continuous member until his death in 2015.

Since then the group has been under the leadership of Thorsten Quaeschning whom Froese chose to be the successor and the current longest-serving band member, having joined in 2005.

He was too far away and hidden behind his Keyboard to get a decent photo of but you can see him occasionally pop into view in the videos.

Can you spot me in the photo? Or more to the point, can you spot my hair?

So I spent most of the evening watching the Violin player, which wasn’t the worst way to spend 2 and a half hours.

As I was down the front it was easy for me to put my hand over the barrier and film the show but still enjoy it myself without looking at the camera screen so if you wish you can enjoy it too, although granted it won’t be anywhere near as good.