Arts / Glasgow falls for Shetland as Hounds of Love music event storms Shawlands
SHETLAND stormed Glasgow and stole its heart on Saturday as a romantic-themed music event showcasing new bands celebrated its fifth year.
Hounds of Love has evolved from a simple Valentine’s Day gig in 2022 to a packed all-day extravaganza in Shawlands this year, with nine bands selling out the appropriately named Love Shack.
Shetlander Zack Manson is the brainchild behind the event, which was a celebration of isles talent from the stage, to the bar and even to the noticeboard.
Three of the nine bands featured musicians from Shetland, while isles’ graphic designer Chloe Keppie took inspiration from the B52’s Love Shack single cover to craft a unique poster for the event.
And for a crowd filled with Shetlanders there was a taste of home in the form of Lerwick Brewery beer, with the company sponsoring Hounds of Love this year.
Manson – lead singer of Hound, who played on the day – said he was “still buzzing” from the success of the festival long after the final note had rung out.
“It was just so great, I couldn’t get over how busy it was,” he said.
“People were coming up the whole time and saying ‘thanks a lot for doing this, this is such a cool thing to put on’.
“So many folk were asking through the year after last year’s Hounds of Love, ‘are you doing that again next year?’
“It’s quite funny, some people have heard of this one-day thing we do before they’ve heard of us [Hound], so it’s gotten bigger than we have.”
It was Covid that inadvertently shaped Hounds of Love. A Christmas gig that Hound tried to put on in late 2021 had to be cancelled due to the restrictions, and a decision was made to rebook it for Valentine’s Day instead.
“Someone said we could call it Hounds of Love, which we thought would be funny,” Manson told Shetland News.
“The first few were just a gig on a Saturday with a few bands playing. Last year we decided to bring in a lot of our mate’s bands and make it a whole day thing.
“We said, ‘who cares if it’s busy?’ But it was so busy on the day. Now it kind of feels like we’re going to have to do it again next year!”
The runaway success of the first full-day Hounds of Love event last year prompted Manson and his band-mates to decide to move it to a bigger venue.
They eventually settled on the Love Shack in Shawlands – partly because of its name, but out of a conscious effort to put on a show outside of Glasgow city centre.
“It was a bigger space, but also it was nice not being in the centre of town,” Manson said.
“Usually we try to make gigs as central as possible to get a lot more foot traffic, but we went for a venue a bit out of town this time and it was great.”
There was a Valentines “vibe” about the venue, he added, with time to decorate in love hearts before it was slammed with sweaty gig-goers.
Among the acts performing were Middle Class Guilt – who originated in Shetland – and The Wonderful Evenings, both of which feature Shetlander Joseph Morgan, along with bands like Bikini Body and Baby Shark.
Manson said an added bonus of the all-day event was seeing the nine groups forming friendships, something he says serves people well when they are trying to put their own gigs on in future.
While Hounds of Love was authentically Glasgow, Manson admitted that there was more than a hint of Shetland in it.
“Every event I’ve put on I’ve tried to keep close to home in some way, and if there’s an opportunity to get a Shetland band, or a Shetland person to design the poster, I’ll do it,” he said.
“There were a lot of Shetland folk there, and Chloe Keppie has designed the poster every single year.”
Keppie explained that the Love Shack single cover provided crucial inspiration for her Valentines-themed design this year.
“I loved the idea of borrowing the visual language of the Love Shack single cover which is more rainbow coloured, letterpressed, a little bit more textured than mine is,” she said.
“I was appropriating that style of poster so it feels quite classic, but looked quite punchy out and about.”
She said that Glasgow has “kind of cultivated this quite strong Shetland community” miles away from home, with expats coming together to embrace life on the mainland.
“So many of the audience were Shetlanders, and it was such a lovely time to catch up,” she said.
“We’ve managed to keep such a tight demographic out with the island, which is lovely.”
Manson said that Hounds of Love will return in 2027 – probably in the Love Shack again – with an emphasis on getting more bands from out of Glasgow, and possibly even from Shetland, to play.
For Hound, he says he has been writing a lot more songs about Shetland as they prepare to realise a new album later this year.
“I definitely didn’t try that from the start – when we started I wrote more like American bands,” he said. “It wasn’t as genuine.”
Hound are likely to release new singles in the summer, with their album to follow around September.
Manson revealed that they are hoping to follow recent festival appearances at Boppapalooza and Rising North with a homecoming Shetland gig this summer.
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