The Bluebells
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The Bluebells were a Scottish pop group in the 1980s.
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[edit] Career
The Bluebells performed jangly guitar based pop not dissimilar to their Scottish contemporaries Aztec Camera and Orange Juice.[citation needed] They had three Top 40 hit singles in the UK, all written by guitarist and founder member Bobby Bluebell (real name Robert Hodgens) - "I'm Falling", "Cath", and their biggest success "Young at Heart". The latter was co-written with Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama (and originally recorded on Bananarama's album Deep Sea Skiving) and made it to number 8 in the UK Singles Chart on its original release in 1984. The band also released one EP, The Bluebells, and one full-length album, Sisters.
The band split up in the mid 1980s, but enjoyed an unexpected revival in 1993 when "Young At Heart" was used in a Volkswagen television advertisement. Re-issued as a single, it was number one for four weeks and led to the band reforming temporarily to perform the song on BBC Television's Top of the Pops. A compilation album followed, The Singles Collection, which peaked at #27 in the UK Albums Chart in April 1993.[1]
The band reformed in late 2008, with original members the McCluskey brothers and Bobby Bluebell, to support Edwyn Collins at a show in Glasgow on 23 January 2009. On 29 May 2011 the band will perform as part of the Southside Festival.
[edit] Post Bluebells
After the group's demise band member Lawrence Donegan played with The Commotions and then trained as a journalist and is now a golf correspondent for The Guardian, having previously worked at The Scotsman. The other members of the band stayed in the music business after the split - David McCluskey and his brother, Ken, formed a folk duo. Ken also works as a lecturer at Stow College in Glasgow teaching music business, and David uses music therapeutically with a wide variety of people. Robert Hodgens returned to DJ duties and more recently formed a new group The Poems - they signed to the American label Minty Fresh; whilst the former Aztec Camera axe-man Craig Gannon briefly filled in for bassist Andy Rourke in The Smiths on tour during 1986, then stayed as a second live guitarist until being fired from the band, after which he joined The Adult Net.
[edit] Band members
- Bobby Bluebell (born Robert Hodgens, 6 June 1959, Scotland) – guitar
- David McCluskey (born 13 January 1964, Scotland) – drums
- Ken McCluskey (born Kenneth McCluskey, 8 February 1962, Scotland) – vocals / harmonica
- Lawrence Donegan (born 13 July 1961, Stirling, Scotland) – bass
- Craig Gannon (born 30 July 1966, Manchester, England) – guitar
- Russell Irvine – guitar
- Neal Baldwin – bass
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles
- "Forevermore" / "Aim In Life" - 1982
- "Cath" / "Will She Always Be Waiting" - 1983 - UK #62
- "Sugar Bridge (It Will Stand)" - 1983 - UK #72
- "I'm Falling" - 1984 - UK #11
- "Young at Heart" - 1984 - UK #8
- "Cath" (re-issue) - 1984 - UK #38
- "All I Am (Is Loving You)" - 1985 - UK #58
- "Young at Heart" (re-issue) - 1993 - UK #1[1]
[edit] Albums
- The Bluebells EP - 1983 - Sire Records
- Sisters - 1984 - London Records - UK #22
- Second - 1992 - Vinyl Japan[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 66. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
