Sandfest – in honour of her special niece Matilda
The band took her all over the world, with her mum and dad having to buy NME magazine every week to find out what she was up to. “When I was off on my travels it seems it was easier to find out my movements through the music press than anything else!”
Yet no matter how far from home she went, Glasgow always remained firmly in her thoughts. Even now, living in London, she is “always coming back and forwards”.
“A lot of my family are in Glasgow and I am always up doing little bits and pieces of work. I’m in Scotland every month – I’m not away long enough to miss it.”
Clare is clearly excited to be back on stage in her home city, especially for such a worthwhile cause.
After an eighteen-year break from singing to “concentrate on other things”, she “ran out of excuses not to sing” and began playing gigs again with a group of female musicians.
“I think if you have ever been in a band, and you love music and you love to sing, you can’t help yourself and you get totally drawn in again.”
This love for music properly kicked in for Clare after she went to her first ever concert with her sister Margaret, seeing the Bay City Rollers in the Glasgow Apollo.
“I was just so excited that a Scottish band had that much success. It made me feel like there was a chance, a chance that you could come from Scotland and have that kind of career.”
After that landmark experience, it wasn’t long before she was performing herself, playing with Altered Images across the punk bars of Glasgow.
“I think the first gig I played was the Mars Bar, a tiny venue off St Enoch Square. It was one of the centres of the post-punk scene along with the Bungalow Bar in Paisley and the Doune Castle in Shawlands – those were where all our early gigs took place.”
Now playing the Royal Concert Hall for Sandfest, Clare says the event will be “different to anything I’ve been involved in.”
Her husband (and former band member) Stephen is hoping to join her on stage, along with her 13-year-old daughter Ellie and two of her nieces, Amelia and Poppy.
Also performing at Sandfest will be Matilda, who will be singing as part of the Ups and Downs Theatre Group choir.
Clare hopes that the event will not only raise money for Down’s Syndrome Scotland but also break down some preconceptions surrounding the condition. “Our family has been brought up to have a very accepting and understanding view of things, but when it becomes personalised then I think it does change things.
“You look at other people and the way they respond to somebody like Matilda and you notice it more. You end up feeling very protective of that person because you can see that not everybody responds the way you would want them to.
“I think all of us in society need to just treat people as people, and see someone as a person and not a condition.”