LATEST PODCAST: Ace City Racers live in session with A Celtic State of Mind

On Monday, 10 February, 2020   /   A Celtic State of Mind, Football, Podcasts   /   Leave a comment

A Celtic State of Mind was named as the UK’s Best Football Podcast at the prestigious Football Blogging Awards.

This latest episode finds Paul John Dykes and Kevin Graham being joined by Ace City Racers, who were the latest band to join ACSOM for an acoustic session. They also discussed:

* Watching Celtic in the bleak early nineties;
* Celtic’s allure to the arteratti;
* Modern Life is Rubbish;
* Collaborating with Manda Rin & Sci-Fi Steven;
* Recording with legendary producer, Stephen Street;
* Getting and losing a record deal;
* Recording the intro music for A Celtic State of Mind.

A Celtic State of Mind has gone from strength-to-strength over the last couple of years, and there are many more guests lined up in the weeks ahead from the world of sport, music, film, art, broadcasting, literature and politics.

Listen to the latest episode of the award-winning A Celtic State of Mind with ACE CITY RACERS

Back in October 2018, ACSOM’s Andrew Rafferty had this to say about Ace City Racers:

I’ve been to a few interesting venues for gigs in my time, including a Volcano, an old Gas Works and an abandoned cow shed, but I am not sure I have ever seen a gig on a boat. Until Thursday 4 October at the Renfrew Ferry venue on Glasgow’s River Clyde.

With the two front-of-stage members of Ace City Racers decked out in Breton stripes and a friendly pirate-like ‘Ahoy there me hearties!’ from lead singer James to get us underway, it was clear the Racers had picked up the nautical theme and were sailing with it.

The Racers are a three-piece from Glasgow who have been compared at various stages to Blur, Elastica, Wire and Italodisco. They sound like all of that and much more.

Their set was very much one of two halves. The first of which consisted of a more traditional line-up of guitar, bass and drums. Mark, the bass player, constantly prowled the stages as he laid down thick slabs of sound to underpin the angular and energetic guitar from singer and guitarist James. While the steady, almost Denis Wilson-like drums from Andy, kept us moving along.

All three Racers contributed vocals, but not Beach Boys-style in strict harmony. More like a gang of lads all finding their own way to get the same message over but dovetailing into a strong, swaggering sound.

Midway through their set, Mark swapped his bass for a synth and the band began to move to a different beat. More instrument swapping, including a new song with no drums and a dirty, dirty bass line continued to crack up the temperature in the room and we were steaming along nicely.

They brought their set to a crescendo with their minor masterpiece ‘21c Sights’ and left the crowd demanding more. A great set full of punch drive and energy and some sexy bass.

What more do we need?

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