The Bluebells

The Bluebells biography

The Bluebells were a Scottish pop group in the 1980s.

Career

The Bluebells performed jangly guitar based pop not dissimilar to their Scottish contemporaries Aztec Camera and Orange Juice. 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.

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.

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.

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
• Neil Baldwin – bass
• Russell Irvine – guitar

Discography

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
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