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Tulum's Collection

The Smiths   09/25/1985

Barrowlands, Glasgow, Scotland
Source Sony Professional Walkman with Sony EMC-929LT Mic onto Metal tape
Media FLAC   19 discs
Notes This was our first trip to Glasgow, and to the Barrowlands, but it's reputation had preceded it. Barrowlands crowds were rough but up for it, so we were looking forward to this one. We got down to the venue mid afternoon and found a recording truck outside the venue. We couldn't get into the venue, but we did manage to have a peek in the truck and have a brief chat with the guys inside. They told us the concert was being recorded for the local Glasgow station, radio Clyde. Not much good to us, as we knew no-one in Glasgow to record it for us. We did eventually get a copy, but it's not great quality. Apart from that not much was going on, so back to the hotel to pick up our gear, and back to the venue for doors open.

The Barrowlands is upstairs. You come in down the bottom and you're straight up some stairs to the hall on the first floor, which is quite long and thin. Well that's how I remember it anyway. Has quite a low ceiling, and the stage was quite small, banked by the PA stacks, which makes it seem like a little hole in the wall. When the crowd's all in, makes the hall seem particularly packed ... and it gets very hot and sweaty.

As soon as the Smiths come on its absolute mayhem down the front. I've kept well away to avoid having the mic knocked, but I still periodically get pushed one way or another. The Smiths are on magnificent from, really picking up the energy of the crowd. It turns out there's also film crew there (from the Tube as it happens). No room for cameras out in the crowd or on booms. There's just a couple of guys at the side of the stage with hand held cameras making the best of their limited camera angles. There's a progression of people being pulled from the crush at the front of the stage, and as the show reaches the final stretch, an increasing number of people clambering up onto the stage to hug Morrissey. And then all too soon its all over. I slowly get shuffled out of the hall, down the stairs and out into the street, where I wander round drenched in sweat looking for the others. We eventually meet up, and decide to try and get back to the Smiths Hotel. But either we've got the hotel wrong, or they keeping out of sight, and eventually we trek back to our own hotel. It's been a really great night, and I've got a really nice recording to show for it.

Again this was recorded using my Sony Professional Walkman with Sony EMC-929LT Mic onto Metal tape
Trades Allowed Yes
Owned by Tulum · Last Updated Sep 8, 2025