Rock ‘n’ roll doctor’s prescription for survival

Frank O’Hagan doesn’t have the precise two degrees in be-bop and the PhD in swing that the late Lowell George defined as a rock ‘n’ roll doctor’s required qualifications.

But with a pair of classy albums to his name alongside an impressive list of academic achievements on his CV (his PhD was gained with a thesis on The Contribution of the

Religious Orders to Education in Glasgow during the period 1847-1918), the lecturer in history and classics at Glasgow University is a rock ‘n’ roll doctor all right.

A musician in bands around Glasgow since he was 14, O’Hagan has watched as colleagues such as Dougie Thomson, the former bass guitarist with Supertramp, have thrived in the music business. He has no regrets, however, about turning down the chance to go fully professional when the band he joined as a schoolboy, The Beings, set off on the beat group rite of passage to Germany in the 1960s with thoughts of wealth and fame.

“I was already writing songs by that time and because I played Hammond organ I was getting sessions with people like Brian Young at Cava Studios and Kim Beacon,” says O’Hagan. “So when the guys said they were going to Germany to play cover versions of hit songs, I thought that was madness. We would have been better concentrating on developing our own sound.

“I was also keen to do well at school and go on to university, so I said, ‘No, I’m not going’.

“Sure enough, they were back, skint, within six months, although Dougie eventually did okay for himself and our guitarist went on to play with Hughie Nicholson of Marmalade.”

The second youngest of a family of seven, O’Hagan grew up in Govanhill listening to his older siblings’ records and developed his own heroes in Bob Dylan and Steve Winwood, whose Hammond organ playing with Spencer Davis and Traffic persuaded O’Hagan he had to have one of these mighty beasts.

Through his years of study and with a family of four of his own presently arriving, he augmented his salary and kept his hand in by playing in Glasgow’s pubs and clubs – he has a long-running Friday residency in the Scotia Bar – and continued to write songs, many of which reflect his interest in history and social issues such as civil rights, asylum seekers and immigration as well as his love of Hank Williams, R&B and his own Irish heritage. He has also been busy as an author of books and education papers – he has recently finished co-writing a book on social reformer Robert Owen, which will be published next year – and so hadn’t given too much thought to making records until a chance meeting in the mid 1990s with Fraser Speirs, who plays harmonica for Paolo Nutini.

“Fraser and I had played in the Blues Poets together and when he asked what I was up to, I played him some of the songs I’d been writing and he said, ‘You should record these’. He then introduced me to Alan Thomson, who was John Martyn’s bass player, and between them they produced my first album, A Long Way from Home.”

Seven years in gestation and released in 2005, A Long Way from Home took O’Hagan into a different sphere of music making. The backing musicians, including another old friend, former Sensational Alex Harvey Band drummer Ted McKenna, were all professionals with long lists of credits and on the road tales to tell. The all-star Frank O’Hagan Band was born, although with his own commitments in education and his musicians’ workloads with bands and artists including Pentangle, Van Morrison and Joan Armatrading, their live appearances have been relatively rare, much-anticipated occasions.

A second album, Another Day, followed last year, this time produced solely by Alan Thomson, whose studio nous and contacts leave O’Hagan helpless with admiration.

“At one point, Alan said, What this song needs is some overtone singing; I know just the guy – and he did. One phone call and it was taken care of,” says O’Hagan. “And just watching them working in the studio, where they know instinctively what to do at any given point and do it together, is a blast. They make me sound good, although I have to watch that I don’t miss my cues because I’ll be so busy enjoying what they’re playing.”

O’Hagan may be modest about his talents but given the quality of songs he’s writing, to suggest a meeting of John Hiatt and Gerry Rafferty or something from the Stax/Muscle Shoals school wouldn’t be overstating matters. Such is the attraction of working with his music, too, that Spencer Couzens, keyboardist with John Martyn and Pentangle, asked if he could get involved with Another Day and ended up mastering the recording, and former Blockheads saxophonist Dave Lewis offered his services for the horn section at O’Hagan’s pre-Christmas gig at the ABC in Glasgow. Meanwhile, O’Hagan’s friend from The Beings, Dougie Thomson, now in band management with heavy metal outfit Dusturbed and living in Chicago, is pitching O’Hagan’s songs around the American music industry.

“I’m under no illusions about what it takes to be a full-time gigging musician at the level the guys in the band all work at, and I’m quite happy to be lecturing on ancient Rome while they’re on the road with different bands,” says O’Hagan. “But when we’re onstage together, they may just be doing what they do for a living but they make it feel special to me.”

The Frank O’Hagan Band plays ABC, Glasgow tonight [Wednesday, December 23].