Blog

A big shout out to Paul English who came on tour with us and then wrote a great piece in The Daily Record. It was a fun day out swapping stories and his article really captures what we are trying to do with the tours. It’s all coming together nicely in time for our official launch. Remember,…

Not long to go now until the launch of our special Merchant City Festival tours. 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 of…

One of the most fascinating features of setting up Glasgow Music City Tours has been tracing the way that the city’s entertainment venues have changed over the years. Venues which now host big name rock acts have previous lives which may seem highly unlikely in the 21st century. The Barrowland was a roller skating rink…

This weekend T In The Park makes the big flit to its new home at Strathallan Castle. We’re excited to find out how the new site shapes up but this dawning of a new era for Scotland’s biggest music festival has got us thinking about T in the Parks past. Our guide Fiona was at…

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…

In our earlier blog, we rattled on about the The Clash tribute gig taking place at Duke’s Bar on Old Dumbarton Road tonight. The event is being held to celebrate the time that The Clash played in the West End bar back in 1985. Thanks to the magic of Twitter, we came across the following eyewitness blog…

We keep on hearing good things about Dukes Bar on Old Dumbarton Road in Glasgow. Handy for Kelvingrove Museum and Gallery, it has been through several incarnations since first opening way back in 1877. Having recently come under new management (check the piano and disco ball), it’s developing a neat reputation for its avant-garde music events. Kate…

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,…

As AC/DC limber up to play Hampden Park on Sunday night, writer and founder of Glasgow Music City Tours, Jonathan Trew, goes all misty-eyed as he recalls falling for the band as a teenager.   Recently, a friend was ribbing me for playing Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, one of AC/DC’s earlier albums. His charges were that the lyrics had a teenager’s sense of humour; the music was basic rock ‘n’ roll and that the guitarist, Glasgow-born Angus Young, still dressed as a schoolboy at the age of 60. Guilty as charged, m’lud, but nothing to apologise for. You might not want to try and justify many of AC/DC’s more crude lyrics before, say, your Mum but the band’s absurd sense of fun and unswerving commitment to simple but effective blues rock are exactly what have made them one of the biggest…

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…

A very warm welcome to our guest blogger this week: the legendary Mr. Stewart Cruickshank, with memories of one of the gigs that led him into a life in music – seeing Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd (and more!) in Glasgow’s Green’s Playhouse in 1967.   For those who might not recognise his name, Stewart…

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…