‘Midland Street’ is a new collaborative single between Glaswegian DIY Pop band GUMS! and David “Bratchy” Bratchpiece co-author of ‘Brickwork: A Biography of the Arches’. The single is available now as a pay-what-you-like download only from gums.bandcamp.com with all proceeds donated in aid of Help Musicians.

Function-suite romantics GUMS! are the project of veteran Glasgow songwriter Martin J. Smith. Over his two decades in music, Smith has built a reputation on mining the mundane and the miserable for unexpected gems of wistful pop. ‘Midland Street’ is tribute to The Arches, “Nightclub, theatre, creative hub, party place, and one of the most important venues in Scotland”, which closed its shutters in 2014.


Smith explains “My 20s revolved around the Arches, and Bratchy was a huge part of that. We’ve collaborated on various artistic projects over 20 years, but never been in the studio together. It made sense to get him involved on the Arches tune, because he’s basically the foremost historian on the place now, and I wanted to see if he could actually play anything on the guitar apart from the Terminator theme.”

“The Arches was an institution, and we’ve lost a lot more great venues in recent years. So we’re raising a bit of money for Help Musicians to do a small bit for those affected.”

GUMS! Featuring Bratchy - Midland Street

Lover, You Should’ve Come Over (Jeff Buckley)

Love You So Bad (Ezra Furman)

Formerly of the Plimptons and Little Love and the Friendly Vibes. Currently in GUMS!

GUMS! Featuring Bratchy - Midland Street

MartinGUMS

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