Glasvegas Guitarist Offers Insights Into Frontman's Disappearance

Posted on Sep 12th 2009 9:09PM by Jolie Lash
Comments

A reunited Glasvegas took the stage in Boston last night in support of Kings of Leon. It was the Scottish band's first show since news broke that singer James Allan had been missing for nearly a week.

Reports of James disappearance first surfaced following Tuesday's Mercury Music Prize Awards in London, which the band -- guitarist Rab Allan, bassist Paul Donaghue and drummer Caroline McKay -- attended without their frontman. The band used media at the event to put out their concerns over their singer and ask that he get in touch with them. On Wednesday, the group's manager confirmed James had e-mailed to let them know he was in New York City.

Rab, who is also James' cousin, told Spinner on Saturday that the group's reunion happened in Boston, but a message posted on the band's Twitter page, which he said was written by one of their managers back in the UK, wasn't quite accurate. It said, "We arrived safe in the USA. We 'found' James. We have now found a pub. Sambuca time!"

Rab explained to Spinner, "We flew into Boston ... and then he got the train from New York up to Boston and met us. We went and had some food. We asked him if he was okay. We asked him if he wanted to talk about anything. Everything was fine, and we [decided to] put it behind us and move on."

Having gone through an intense 18-month journey from Glasgow hopefuls to internationally recognized outfit, dozens of magazine covers and celebrity fans (Lisa Marie Presley, 'True Blood' star Alexander Skarsgard), the band know each other well enough to not push James for details on why he chose to disappear.

"He's quite a creative person," Rab explained. "He's quite a private person as well, so I think when he wants to talk, he will talk." The guitarist continued, "I think everything that's happened [to] him in the past year and a half -- it's quite a lot. Although it's happened to the full band, more of the pressure role's on him. He's the songwriter. He's the frontman of the band, so everything does lie on him."

One reason they weren't able to get in touch with James during the five days, Spinner discovered, is because the singer has been without a cell phone for six months.

"The only way we could get in touch with him was by e-mail. I knew he was okay, but everyone else seemed a little bit worried. I think the record company [was] pretty worried," Rab revealed. "He has [a cell phone] now, yes. We got him one on his glorious return, so he now has a phone."

Although the guitarist did suggest his cousin get in touch by putting the word out in the media, Rab said he didn't let his worrying get out of control because the two grew up together.

"That's really just because I know him better than anyone ... We were brought up together like brothers, and if there was anything bothering him that much, he could speak to me about it. We've always been that close," Rab explained. "If there's something wrong, we speak about it, so if we'd come to America and we still hadn't heard anything, then I think I would have been more worried."

Now fully into their support slot on the Kings of Leon tour, being back together on stage Friday in Boston was a big deal for the band.

"Actually, it felt really good playing together," Rab said. "The crowd was very loud and very responsive," the guitarist laughed. "It was a great first show. I was speaking to Kings of Leon after it and [singer] Caleb [Followill] was saying he thought he was going to have to sing for us if James didn't turn up and then he did his best impression of James singing, which was quite funny."

Was he any good?

"He was terrible," Rab laughed.