Bobby Gillespie wrote something eye-catching in the essay that accompanied the announcement of Come Ahead , Primal Scream’s politically charged, personally revealing, groove-filled first album in eight years. “I find myself in the strange position of being both inside and outside of [class],” he wrote, which is something he “wrestles with”. The 63-year-old has always been outspoken about the socialist, working-class Glaswegian outlook instilled in him by his Marxist, trade-unionist father, Bob: his excellent 2021 origin story memoir Tenement Kid , which stops at the point of Primal Scream’s 1991 breakthrough acid house/psych rock crossover classic Screamadelica , pulled no punches on his thoughts on middle/upper-class elites.
So it was curious to hear him so equivocal. “’Wrestles’ might be overstating the case,” he says, “but if you’re in a successful band, you get invited to things, know people from different classes, you’ve experienced things. It’s not like you’re trying to be like the guy from Blur [Alex James] hanging out with David Cameron and what’s his name, the guy that does the driving?” Jeremy Clarkson .
“Yes. That’s obviously social climbing going on there, right? I don’t mean it like that. It’s just being aware.
” But he says he does think about his success relative to others. “You’ve got nice houses and are doing alright. And you think, ‘Well, not everyone else is doing alright.
’” Is he getting at some working-.
