October 25, 2001

Cosmic Rough Riders : Glasgow Queen Margaret Union

These easy Riders deserve to be Top of the Pops. Forever...

The hippie dream made sonic flesh, Glasgow's Cosmic Rough Riders are the perfect antidote to the hubble, bubble, toil and arse-induced trouble of today's soul-free chartsters. Their silk-winged, Sixties-inspired melodies are hewn from an altogether happier rock.

Drawn from their debut 'Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine', tonight's set is a triumph of dyed-in-the-wool ideals over fashion, with 'Revolution (In The Summertime)' nibbling psychedelia's gooey centre and 'Glastonbury Revisited' eulogising the days when festivals were all about, like, the spirit, man, and not merely exploding portaloos and Branson-flavoured hot dogs.

Whispers of obsolescence and Teenage Fanclub may follow the Riders like a trail of incense, but these tunes are strong enough to weather any amount of suspicion. Tonight, recent single 'Melanie' is sweeter than a bundle of liquorice sticks, and twice as likely to have you stamping your soles like a beatnik posessed. And with exceedingly small frontchap Daniel Wylie's spring-loaded stage manoeuvres (a fringe-flipping ode to the unbridled rock majesty of the King Charles spaniel) and the odd Marx Brothers quote jostling for attention, it's clear they ain't about to get all muso on our ass either. Minds
emphatically blown and worries determinedly shelved, we leave with the sumptuous
'Baby You're so Free' in our ears and a conundrum rattling round our skulls.

Namely, what's up with the world when such honest-to-goodness gorgeous songs can barely manage to nuzzle the charts? These easy Riders deserve to be Top of the Pops.

Forever.

Sarah Dempster

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