Russell Leadbetter

Glasgow

Nostalgia Writer at The Herald (Scotland)

Writing about nostalgia and music for @heraldscotland

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Articles

Farewell to Wizz Jones, folk icon and a real 'weaver of magic'

1 week ago | heraldscotland.com | Russell Leadbetter

Jones, however, had no idea that the Boss had alighted upon one of his songs. “Yeah, that was a bit of a turn-up,” he acknowledged in a videotaped interview nine years ago. When a friend told him what had happened at the Springsteen gig, Wizz thought it was a wind-up – but when he went onto YouTube he found proof that it had indeed happened.
'Scotland's great lost rock star' looks back at his band's debut album

1 week ago | heraldscotland.com | Russell Leadbetter

Goodbye Mr Mackenzie (Image: unknown) Over the decades, Scottish musicians have made many classic, cult or under-appreciated albums that have stood the test of time. Today, we look back at Good Deeds and Dirty Rags, the debut album made by Edinburgh's Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. It's always interesting to ask musicians how they feel about their debut albums - albums that, in some cases, might be a few decades old.
From the Stones to Bowie: 13 great rock documentaries worth tracking down

2 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Russell Leadbetter

Neil Young will headline BST at Hyde Park in London on July 11 alongside fellow legends Yusuf Cat Stevens and Van Morrison (Image: ISABEL INFANTES/PA) THIS has been quite a month for documentaries about rock legends. Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII, an atmospheric record of a gig the band performed at Pompeii in 1971, is being screened at selected Imax cinemas.
Cado Belle, still one of the "great lost combos of Glasgow's musical heritage"

2 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Russell Leadbetter

Over the decades, Scottish musicians have made many classic, cult or under-appreciated albums that have stood the test of time. Today, we look back at Cado Belle, the only album made by Glasgow's Cado Belle. A COUPLE of years ago, better late than never, the acclaimed Glasgow band Cado Belle saw the release of a remastered collection of their live BBC appearances that dated back to the period 1976-1978.
Time Has Told Me: Revisiting Nick Drake's brilliant 1970 debut album

3 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Russell Leadbetter

FIFTY-six years after it was released to general indifference, Nick Drake’s superb 1969 debut album, Five Leaves Left, is to be the subject of a comprehensive box set that will be issued in July. Available in four CD and for LP vinyl formats, The Making of Five Leaves Left includes not just the original album but also unaccompanied demos, studio outtakes and 32 previously unheard songs.
Stone the Crows, brilliant Glasgow band whose gigs had a 'blast furnace' impact

3 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Russell Leadbetter

Maggie Bell and Les Harvey perform at the Weeley Festival in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, August 27, 1971 (Image: Getty Images) Over the decades, Scottish musicians have made many classic, cult or under-appreciated albums that have stood the test of time. Today, we look back at Stone the Crows, the 1970 debut by Stone the Crows. 'ELECTRIC Magic', these two weekend evenings were billed. Wembley Empire Pool, in London, in November 1971.
'A genuine one-off': academic who was an expert on child sexual abuse

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Russell Leadbetter

Dr Sarah Nelson Born: November 1, 1949; Died: March 29, 2025. ASKED to summarise the qualities of Dr Sarah Nelson, who has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 75, a close friend and colleague said that among those that sprang to mind were her fearlessness, a groundbreaking attitude, a taste for speaking truth to power, and unfeigned kindness and compassion for victims of abuse.
Why, at nearly 80 years of age, Van Morrison is still The Man

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Russell Leadbetter

In an interview published in 2005, Van Morrison was asked about the long-rumoured autobiography on which he was said to have been working for the previous two decades. “It’s something I’ve been working on for years, off and on”, he told Uncut magazine’s Jon Wilde. “To me, the main purpose of it is to dispel the myths. Because those myths, they’re too much to live up to”. The main myth, he added, concerned what had actually happened in his life. “You get these biographies that claim to be about me.
When prog rock ruled the world - the Glasgow band which led the way

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Russell Leadbetter

Beggars Opera, pictured outside the Maryland Club, opposite Glasgow School of Art (Image: free) BACK in the November of 1969, the discerning music fan in Glasgow had lots of intriguing concerts to choose from. David Bowie, Deep Purple, and Fat Mattress - the latter featuring Noel Redding, former bassist with the Jimi Hendrix Experience - all played the Electric Garden on Sauchiehall Street. Such shows were billed as ‘Electric Garden goes Underground every Monday night’.
Bringing It All Back Home at 60: an electrifying Bob Dylan album

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Russell Leadbetter

BACK in May 1965 the music magazine, Record Mirror, had the idea of asking Donovan, the Glasgow-born troubadour, to review the latest Bob Dylan album, Bringing It All Back Home. The record, Dylan’s fifth, had been released in the States in March. Now, just before it went on sale in the UK, a Record Mirror journalist sat Donovan next to a turntable and lowered the needle onto the vinyl. The singer generally liked what he heard.