Music in Glasgow

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Duglas for taking the time out to write another guest blog for us. In this piece, Duglas takes us in detail through some of the key tracks and influences on the long-awaited new BMX Bandits album, BMX Bandits Forever And Ever, and also casts some light on the circumstances…

The Skids were one of Scotland’s most successful punk exports. Formed in Dunfermline in 1997 and fronted by the idiosyncratic double act of teenage singer Richard Jobson and gifted guitarist Stuart Adamson (later to form the much loved Big Country), they scored a handful of enduring hits, including Into the Valley, Working for the Yankee Dollar…

Electric Honey Records, the record label run by the students on the music business course at Glasgow Kelvin(formerly Stow) College, celebrates its 25th birthday this year with single releases from singer/songwriter Calum Frame, funk outfit Dopesickfly and garage band The Shambolics, and a rather fine debut album by Glasgow band Pronto Mama, called Any Joy. Electric Honey has been described by…

Our friends, Fans of Barrowland Park, conducted a much-needed Clean Up at Glasgow’s Album Pathway on Saturday. The volunteers spent the morning brushing away layers of dirt from the coloured album ‘spines’ that make up the artwork. Thanks to their TLC, it quickly became easier to identify the named Barrowland performers on the 103-metre long display. Turner prize…

The redoubtable Rab Noakes, our favourite stylish veteran troubadour from the Kingdom of Fife, has already kindly blogged for us about his early gig-going experiences in Glasgow, and his stories were so good that we incorporated them in our Glasgow’s Music Mile tour (paying full credit to Rab, naturally). But as he prepares to celebrate his 70th birthday and fifty years…

We’d like to say a very big THANK YOU to Olaf Furniss and his team for the very first Music Tourism conference in Glasgow. It was an honour to participate and we thoroughly enjoyed 2 days of events including guest speakers, an intimate gig at Tenement TV and a look behind the scenes at beautiful Saint Luke’s and the SSE Hydro. Best…

This weekend, KT Tunstall performs at Proms in the Park on Glasgow Green, backed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Tunstall has toured with Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra before, but this is the first time she has ever been backed by a classical orchestra.“It’s well posh, it just feels so fancy,” she says with her customary enthusiasm. That infectious enthusiasm has been tested over the past couple of years. Her return to pop music with new album KIN was by no means assured when Tunstall found herself exhausted by the death of her father, the end of her marriage and a disillusionment with the pop industry. But a life-changing move to California rejuvenated her mojo and ultimately set her back on the pop path. We met up with KT recently in Glasgow, when she returned to play the BBC Quay Sessions and found her ready and willing…

It’s a year since we embarked on our first walking tours, and we’d like to thank everyone who has helped make them possible including; The Britannia Panopticon, CCA, The Clutha & Victoria Bar, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, King Tut’s, Mono, Nice’N’Sleazy, The Scotia Bar and The Scottish Music Centre. Thanks to everyone who has guest-blogged for us, the musicians who agreed to be filmed for…

Glasgow is a great place for music. But don’t take our word for it – listen to what some of the city’s musicians have to say on the subject… Today we’re releasing the second in a series of (very) short films we’ve put together, featuring Glasgow musicians talking about making music and going to gigs in town. In the hotseat this time, we’re beyond delighted to have Frances McKee, one half of the continuing legend that is The Vaselines. Are you sitting comfortably…? Huge thanks once again to Sir Scott Paterson, director, interviewer and general man behind the camera for all of these films. We’ll be putting up another little video soon…watch this space! Meanwhile, you can check out our other clips here including the first film in this series, with Teenage Fanclub’s Francis Macdonald.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Glasgow Jazz Festival we’re running jazz tours (24, 25, 26 June) and we’ll be kicking off at 2pm with some live music and a refreshment at the brilliant Scottish Music Centre. Guests will have the opportunity to peruse some archive jazz material and listen to a short set by one of the musicians featured in 30 under 30 before we set off on a jaunt around Merchant City. We have lovely Oaked Highland Gin courtesy of Strathearn for inside and ponchos should they be required outside! On Friday 24 one of Scotland’s most exciting young artists, Fergus McCreadie will perform before we head out for a gentle stroll and some great stories. On Saturday 25 it’s the prodigiously talented Declan Forde. On Sunday 26 playing for us is the gifted, award-winning Alan Benzie. We’re excited and honoured to announce that Alan Benzie will be…