Christy Moore/Wally Page
There’s an easy place down Gallowgate to the East End of Glasgow
It’s a ballroom of remembrance and a disco
Where the shooting stars light up the fresco
Where the last ones and the lovers go … to carry on
We sang about the Nicky Tams in the back room of the Scotia
We drank sweet wines and called for neon pints of Fidel Castro
Till it was time to fly to dreamland
Out of Bairds, up the stairs to hell or to heaven we’d go
Come all you dreamers hear the sound of the Barrows humming
Come all you dreamers to Barrowland
Hear Mags McIvor and the ghost of the GayBirds calling
Come all you dreamers to Barrowland
The Lassies of the Broomielaw in their Cuban Heels are dancing
Here comes Our Lady of the Clyde and there goes Jinky Johnston
They’ve come back to rock and roll in the church of ceili
To waltz beneath the carousel of healing
To jitterbug and boogie the night away
Come all you dreamers……….
More Info
I first visited The Barrows in 1967 and Barrowland 20 years later in 1987.
My first gig in Scotland was in The Glasgow Folk Centre, Montrose St in ’67.Drew Moyes was the organiser of the club. As I recall I opened for Hamish Imlach and subsequently was booked to do a set some time later.The Scotia Bar was the meeting place for musicians and it was just my kind of pub in 1967.I met Arthur Johnson,Mick Broderick,Billy Connolly,Danny Kyle,Tam Harvey,Gerry Rafferty,Red Billy,Big Pat and that was just my first visit.
20 years on I got my first gig in Barrowland and it has been one of my favourite venues in the world ever since.Not for the fainthearted (no seats nor lifts,no arty fartys) it is a basic room but it is imbued with the Spirit of 10,000 gigs. From Bill McGregor and his GayBirds up to whoever might be pulling them in today.
On my last visit I invited Wally Page over for The Barrowland experience and we came up with this tribute to Grand Auld Hall.