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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…

We’re very excited and honoured to announce that Declan Forde will perform on Saturday 25th. Declan Forde was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1992. In 2014, after completing his Bachelor studies at Leeds College of Music, he relocated to Berlin and has since established himself as one of the most in demand pianists on the…

Rachel Lightbody is a young vocalist based in Glasgow. Growing up in Chicago she was immersed in  American song — from Billie Holiday to James Taylor, the family home was always filled with music which sparked her early interest in performance. Rachel studied Applied Music at Strathclyde University  and graduated with first class honours, focusing on…

Brodie studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on Tommy Smith’s Scottish Jazz degree under the tutelage of Mario Caribe, Julian Arguelles and Tommy Smith. In a collaboration between the Edinburgh and Oslo Jazz Festivals in 2012, Brodie was one of  three young Scottish musicians who were invited to Oslo to play with three young Norwegian musicians….

Helena Kay started playing alto saxophone when she was 11 years old and was introduced to jazz when her first teacher gave her a Charlie Parker CD. It was when she joined the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra that her love of jazz grew, and she progressed to the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland when she was 16. A…

Young Scottish Jazz Musician award 2013, and went on to win it a second time the next year, the first and only time this feat had been achieved. For three years in a row, not only has Fergus has been selected to compete in the overall final of the Young Scottish Jazz Musician award (2013,…

Join us as we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Glasgow Jazz Festival on our Jazz Walking Tours. Launched in 1987, the Festival is the city’s longest-running annual music event and we are proud to be part of it. The Festival is a showcase for the best international and home-grown talent and we hope that our tours…

Belle & Sebastian’s classic debut album Tigermilk was released exactly twenty years ago to the day, and the band are set to mark the occasion with a trio of gigs next week at Glasgow University Union. Here at Glasgow Music City Tours, we’ve been working up to the anniversary by initiating the Tigermilk Owners Club – our attempt to…

Our regular Music Mile tour has great stories about the very early days of Belle and Sebastian but more and more people have been getting in touch asking if we could do bespoke tours focused on the band. After scratching our heads for a bit, we came up with a flexible tour which takes in all of…

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. We’re pleased to introduce the first in a series of (very) short films we’ve put together, in which Glasgow musicians talk about making music and going to gigs in town. First up is Mr Francis Macdonald – composer, label impresario behind Shoeshine Records, and drummer with popular beat combo Teenage Fanclub. For more on Francis, check out his website. Huge thanks to the legend that is 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.)

We are very excited to announce a new series of walking tours in partnership with Glasgow Jazz Festival. Launched in 1987, the Festival is the city’s longest-running annual music event and we are proud to be part of it. The Festival is a showcase for the best international and home-grown talent. We hope that our tours…

A man whose accomplishments are too many to list here, it’s an honour to have the great Scottish singer-songwriter Rab Noakes taking the time to pen a brilliant guest blog for us. Here he recalls some memorable experiences of gig-going in Glasgow in the 60s, including tales of Little Richard, The Rolling Stones, Bo Diddley…