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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…

Built in 1924, the proud little bandstand in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park lapsed slowly into disuse by the last decades of the 20th century, and was finally closed in 1999, from which point it was left to crumble into what looked like terminal disrepair. Anyone who remembers it from that period will recall the open-air amphitheatre as a sad,…

As a follow-up to Tuesday’s blog, in which Roddy Frame shared memories of his formative gig-going at Glasgow’s lamented Apollo in the late-1970s, we called on our pal Anne Ward, who has kindly agreed to share some of her photographs of the town that was helping to form Frame in the same period. Ladies and gentlemen: East…

It has been a beezer week for Glasgow Music City Tours. Yesterday, we finished our last of four special tours for Merchant City Festival. We had lots of guests come out on tour with us and our TripAdvisor reviews are all glowing with good comments. We finished each tour with a concert from special guests at Mono. Many thanks to Miracle Strip, Spinning…

To end our third walking tour for the Merchant City Festival, Breakfast Muff play a free set in Mono today at around 4.30pm. You can read more about them here. On Sunday we’re delighted that the rather wonderful Sound of Yell will be performing. Piloted by Stevie Jones, Sound of Yell are based in Glasgow and can number as many…

Today we finish off our second walking tour with a set from Spinning Coin at Mono at around 4.15pm. Friday’s set will be from the very lively Breakfast Muff — they like pizza, writing songs and dancing, and are “like Hole but funnier”. ravechild said Breakfast Muff’s record The Feels is “like 80’s New York alternative indie punk mixed with sugar sweet…

Our second Merchant City Festival tour is on Thursday 30th July at 2pm. Starting off at the Old Fruitmarket, we take a walk 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 of Glasgow’s most famous venues to…

We got a great turn out for our first Merchant City Festival tour on Sunday. It was a pretty varied group in terms of musical interests but with content ranging from music hall acts to Glasgow’s post-punk scene via the classical conductor with the world’s longest name, we had stories for everyone. UK’s oldest music…

Our Merchant City Festival tours kick off this Sunday, each ending with a free gig in Mono. We’ve decided to take the opportunity to try and raise some funds for the excellent Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland. We have some lovely donations for a raffle — a selection pictured below — from our friends and musical partners in the…

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…

Less than a week 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…