Britannia Panopticon

Our Trad Trail tours return for Celtic Connections in 2020. From Friday 17th January, our two hour, folk-themed walking tours will run every weekend of the festival. They are one of our most successful tours and tickets tend to sell out. If you want to make sure you can come on tour on a date…

VisitScotland have just launched their new Spirit of Scotland campaign and our guide Fiona plays a starring role in the campaign’s video about Glasgow’s music scene. From the Barrowlands to Franz Ferdinand, Fiona talks about the venues and bands which have shaped the sound of the city. Experience it for yourself by booking on one of our walking tours.

Tucked away in a nondescript lane off Argyle Street in Glasgow is the entrance to the world’s oldest surviving music hall, the Britannia Panopticon. It’s one of our favourite stops on our Merchant City Music Past and Present tour, and it never fails to astonish our guests —including Glaswegians. Our guide Fiona onstage at The Panopticon with guests…

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…

Linden is the latest musical project from songwriter, singer and ex Superstar, Joe McAlinden. This Thursday 27th August, Linden return to play The Poetry Club for the first time since the release of the critically acclaimed, and very lovely, Rest And be Thankful. Superstar were originally signed to Creation Records by Alan McGee in 1992 and, up until 2000,…

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…

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…

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…

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,…