Music in Glasgow

On our tours, we try to give a flavour of the diversity of music which pumps out of Glasgow year round. But indulge us for a moment, as we compile our latest playlist from a particularly juicy genre vein – that somewhat mercurial many-headed beast that is the Glasgow indie sound. We have already celebrated…

We found Dave Pollock’s Guardian piece about the ‘slow death of music venues’ thought-provoking and a lot of research has gone into it. We’re less convinced that it told the whole story about Glasgow. A number of us at Glasgow Music City Tours have or still do work as music journalists. We understand that an article has to fit the brief, make clear points and not muddy the waters but Glasgow’s live music scene appears to be in rude health rather than facing a slow death. We wrote a reply on the article’s comments page: ‘As a former music journalist who wrote about many of the same Glasgow and Edinburgh venues as David Pollock, I appreciate the power of a punchy headline. However, this article greatly exaggerates the slow death of live music in Glasgow. While the closure of The Arches was indeed a…

We recently took the blogger Rob Lloyd out on a Glasgow music city tour. Rob writes the mighty fine Stop Having a Boring Life blog which documents his travel adventures all over the globe. We took him all over the Merchant City and East End of Glasgow. Barrowland Pathway At Jim Lambie’s Album Pathway in Barrowland Park, Rob was particularly taken with the blue police box which sits at one corner of the park. When you live here, police boxes are still common enough that you tend not to notice or remark on them. Of course, if you are a visitor then the sight of an old blue police box means only one thing: Dr Who. But, aside from Barrowland Park police box, do you know the connection between Dr Who and Glasgow’s music scene? It’s a story we cover on our Glasgow’s…

The 2015 Glasgow Jazz Festival ended on a high note with a 20% increase on ticket sales. Far from resting on their weary laurels, planning has already begun for 2016 when the festival celebrates its 30th edition. We grabbed a quick natter with the festival’s indefatigable director, Jill Rodger, about how she came to be…

Only a few days to go until our Merchant City Festival tours begin, and we are very excited. Starting off at the Old Fruitmarket, the four tours are a two-hour swing through the musical past and present of the Merchant City and East End. From the dung-flinging audiences of the Panopticon to the Barrowland’s more romantic stories, the tours bring some…

Next week from the 13th -17th July, Girls Rock Glasgow holds its brilliant Rock’n’Roll Summer School for Girls; a week long music programme aimed at girls aged 8 to 16. You can donate to the summer school here.  Alisa Wylie, who writes the music blog Ambivalent Peaks, is volunteering at GRG and we asked her to share her reasons for…

To mark the success of our first rehearsal run of the Glasgow’s Music Mile tour on Saturday and in anticipation of the maiden voyage of our Merchant City Music Past and Present tour this Friday, we are pleased to launch our Spotify playlist. It’s over there, on the right. You’ll probably need to scroll down Like any good jukebox,…

Tonight, Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey’s group Holy Holy and Glenn Gregory perform Bowie’s classic The Man Who Sold The World album and a new set of other Bowie songs from 1969-73 at the 02 ABC in Glasgow. Rock critic for The Scotsman and founding member of Glasgow Music City Tours, Fiona Shepherd, caught up with Tony Visconti recently…

This weekend Mogwai celebrate twenty years of dynamic noisemongering with two sold out hometown shows at Barrowland. They have asked fans to bring along donations for local food banks – more information on that here. We will be taking our dried/tinned goods and ear plugs along just like everyone else but, in the meantime, let’s take…

Our congratulations to Kathryn Joseph, winner of the 2015 SAY award for her album, Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I’ve Spilled. Kathryn seemed quite overwhelmed by her win and was particularly delighted to receive her quilt: shortlisted nominees were presented with a beautifully designed quilt by Vanessa Hindshaw, a recent graduate of Glasgow…