BMX Bandits, Bellshill Cultural Centre, 30/05/25
- Danny C
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Dreamers On The Return
As the BMX bandits haven’t played Duglas T Stewart’s hometown in over 30 years, Bellshill’s loss has been the world outside of ML4’s gain. And in their 40th anniversary year with a calendar of commemorative events (so far, a Dreamers On The Run special event at St Luke's in January, a collaboration football strip with Bellshill Athletic FC and now a returning hometown gig) this - a celebration of songs from across the decades, stories of the bands journey from 1985 to date, and top-class banter from Duglas (as always) - was the best yet.
I was going solo for this gig and travelled through on the Edinburgh-Glasgow ‘slow train' but that gave me time plenty time to listen to, and again fully appreciate, the splendid Dreamers On The Run album, it’s a real masterpiece and with the current line-up, the band lift the sound of these tracks to near perfection (on record and live). As Murray Easton mentioned in his review in everythingflowsglasgow this line-up could be the best there’s been. Having seen them nearly a dozen times in the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of watching them go from good to great and they just keep getting better. Relaxed and effortless, they look like they're enjoying being on stage playing as much as we are seeing them. A real pleasure to watch.
Not long after getting into the venue I saw Duglas briefly, said hello during the support set by the young up-and-coming top prospects, The Cords - a perfect match for this show. He was visibly excited and slightly nervous (understandable, given how meaningful the event was for him) but needn’t have worried because this show was something special. Uplifting, celebratory, poignant, funny and above all fun from start to finish, everything expected from a BMX Bandits show and more.
As they often do, the Bandits opened with one of the highlights of Dreamers On The Run, the beautifully upbeat Setting Sun, setting the tone for the show – warm welcoming and wonderful, followed by the harmonious Sailors Song (about healing) and (“top 70 hit”) the infectiously catchy Little Hands. “I don’t care what the charts say, I’m a Capricorn and I think I’m compatible with all of you” professed Duglas, before sharing some of his Bellshill background, upbringing and song-writing (“some songs tonight were written in Bellshill, some weren’t”), a little about Norman Blake’s granny’s house nearby to the venue, Bellshill Athletic FC chants (of dubious provenance) and teasing us with the promise of some up-coming live kazoo action.
The melancholy melody of Serious Drugs (co-written with Norman at the previously mentioned Granny’s house), was followed by the rock’n’roll party tune with a sad side, Hop Skip Jump (for your love) and another standout from Dreamers, Time To Get Away.
After the first half dozen songs, clearly relaxed and settled into his stride Duglas introduced the band; Andrew, who he’d initially worked with in 2013 on the film soundtrack for Dreaded Light and since then started to collaborate with, piecing some songs they both had together, which were the early beginnings of Dreamers (Andrew, after twelve years I’m sure that entitles you to a testimonial of some sort now!); Liam, drummer extraordinaire fresh from his national TV appearance on Jools Holland, with Billy Nomates last week; and Amanda, who as well as plays bass, sings lead vocals on a couple of tracks also plays the saw (not all at the same time!).
Another poignant and reflective moment leading into What He Set Out To Be, Duglas explained some of the thoughts behind Dreamers On The Run, in part being about a musician and leading a life as an outsider, not joining the ‘real’ world and what he’d being doing since those early days starting out with the BMX Bandits.
It’s difficult to explain just how good these songs are if you haven't already heard them, short slices of beautiful, timeless indie pop with the depth of Brian Wilson level lyrics and arrangements and, for me – an Eighties Indie jangly-guitar fanboy – this music is just perfection.
The next half dozen or so songs were a whirlwind.
Your Class breaks my heart it’s so good (a romantic reply-song to Francis McDonald and a hedonistic message song they heard over a motorway station Ginsters); I Wanna Fall In Love is worthy of a place in the rock n roll hall of fame (IMO); Foggy (written in Tokyo, taken from the album of the same name which was given a quick lighthearted merch pitch with its first vinyl release available after the show!) was a new introduction to their usual setlist roster tonight, and worthy of a place on any one of The Byrds first few albums; And It’s You, is beautiful in its simplicity and was explained with a great deal of emotion - I’m sure there were a few tears in the crowd listening to Duglas talk about the origins of this song; Razorblades And Honey is another setlist highlight - a fantastic tune, co-written with Anthony Newcombe in Berlin, again about being an outsider but also about contradiction, with a catchy singalong hook and great lyrics; Disco Girl, co-written it was with “successful songwriter and more successful glasses-wearer Norman Blake” and comes across like a love-struck ballad that The Velvet Underground would have been proud to have written.
They finished the set with the anthemic E102, which felt fitting for here tonight as Duglas and the Bandits ARE back (they did go back!) and going forward (they must go forward!), forward with hopefully more material, more live shows and bringing more joy as they did tonight so well.
A climactic encore of Dan Treacy’s (Television Personalities) Girl At A Bus Stop, written for Duglas and another poignant, emotional song for a finale with Spinning Through Time, had us on our feet for a full crowd standing ovation as the BMX Bandits waved farewell, hopefully to come back again and – to paraphrase from the last line sung this evening - forevermore.
Such a great evening and such a fitting way to mark forty years of bringing joy to fans with a show back in Bellshill – someone should be planning to mark this with a statue, a plaque or something. Serious!
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