National Park - outside (The Glasgow School No.09) National Park

The Glasgow School No.09.

We’re very excited to welcome National Park to our coveted Glasgow School Series with their debut album, Outside. National Park is a gently heroic collective centred around John Hogarty, a legendary presence on the Glasgow music scene since the 1990s, and always regarded as one of the best guitar slingers in town.

Outside is a collection of singles, eps and unreleased home recordings spanning the years 1997 - 2026. The music is based around the songs of lead singer John H (guitarist with The Pastels since 2010), with additional contributions on this album from Scott Walker and Sushil Dade (Future Pilot AKA). They’ve in the past been described as having some similarities to The Velvet Underground, Galaxie 500 and Yo La Tengo “without sounding like anything else” (Byron Coley, The Wire). They describe themselves as occupying the space between the visceral and the whistleable.

Formed by John H and Scott Walker, in August 1997, Simon Shaw and Michael McGaughrin joined them on bass and drums, for the band’s first gig, at The Pastels’ club, “Illumination”. Their first single, "Great Western", was a 10" released on Earworm records; a ten-minute-long improvisation. It was recorded on a tape deck at an early rehearsal session. Despite the length of the track, it was playlisted on Xfm London. Around this time, Hogarty was also part of the Phantom Engineer project with David Keenan and Bill Wells. Collaborations with Future Pilot AKA then followed, leading to a second single on Earworm Records.

The band have played live with many of their favourite bands, including opening for Movietone in Bristol, and Belle and Sebastian at the Shepherd's Bush Empire.Scott Walker left the band in 1999, and was replaced briefly for some dates by Alasdair Roberts (of Appendix Out) and later by Gerard Love (of Teenage Fanclub). Walker returned briefly to record "No More Rides" for the compilation You Don't Need Darkness to Do What You Think is Right, released by Geographic, in 2001. 
In 2003, the band released a lathe-cut 7" single, “Secret Songs”, on Australian label, Background Frequencies. In 2005 National Park released "The Only Stars" in Japan, which featured contributions by Bill Wells (piano), Sarah Martin (flute) and Mick Cooke (horn) of Belle and Sebastian. The song was released in the UK on 7” in 2006, backed by “La Solara”.

Outside is their belated debut album - epic in places, intimate, gentle, wild. It’s geographic with a small ‘g’ - all about details - that exact vantage point on Great Western Road where everything opens up VU style - ride into the sun, have a glorious moment. Like a previous Glasgow School, Tacoma Radar’s No One Waved Goodbye, it shines light on a beautiful corner of one of the best community-based music scenes in the world. 

National Park continue to be part of all things Glasgow - their current incarnation is one of their best. Come see them play on August 22nd in Mono and celebrate Outside in the best possible style.