Does Glasgow face losing reputation for having best crowds at gigs?

The Herald Scotland

21-05-2025

Once upon a time it's a question you would never have thought to ask. Not if you were even halfway versed in the city's rock and roll lore. After all this is the home of the storied Apollo, the Renfield Street venue with the famous bouncing balcony, a place so loved by touring rock bands that many chose to record their live albums there.
Status Quo were one. Their three-night residency in October 1976 became the double platinum-selling album Live!, regarded by some critics as one of the best of its kind ever. Two years later AC/DC's entire set was filmed as they opened their Powerage tour at the Apollo. The audio of that gig became If You Want Blood You've Got It, another iconic live album. King Crimson, Rush and Roxy Music all recorded live albums at the Apollo while punk legends The Ramones said it was their favourite venue. Like, ever.
I never made it to the Apollo but I've been to gigs at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut and on Glasgow Green. I've been to Barrowland and the SECC. I've been to lots of other Glasgow venues in between, small and large, and have generally found them bouncing. I have also interviewed plenty of musicians over the years who speak warmly and honestly about the Glasgow crowds, so I have some (albeit second-hand) insight into how things look from the stage. Or how it did look, once upon a time.
So why the doubts now? Could be a blip, but in a recent review of a gig at Barrowland by 1990s Britpop act Supergrass, The Herald's Gabriel McKay was none too impressed by the audience. 'The legendary Barras crowd hasn't brought its A-game,' he wrote. 'Save for some game younger fans, resplendent in Adidas tracksuits down the front, it's mostly pint-supping, head-nodding and, most egregiously of all, chatting.'
Chatting? Surely not. I did encounter something similar at a Coldplay gig - many years ago – but that was in Edinburgh.
Supergrass at the Barrowlands - where the crowd spent too long chatting, according to our reviewer (Image: free) In truth, I don't think this diminution in atmosphere at Glasgow gigs is a one off. If you've been to a big concert recently, I dare say you will agree. More and more heritage rock acts are pulling on the compression socks and taking to the road, so it follows that the gig-going demographic is shifting accordingly and that is going to have an effect.
This week, for instance, Dinosaur Jr played Barrowland on a 30th anniversary tour. Next month it's Leftfield on their 35th anniversary tour. A week on it's The Waterboys. In August it's Nile Rodgers and Chic. In October The Boomtown Rats hit Barrowland to celebrate 50 years in, er, show-business.
Factor in ticket prices which can easily hit £50 (plus booking fee, in my opinion as egregious an imposition as chatting is an offence) and you can see why the churning, roiling, free-wheeling Glasgow crowds of old might have less va-va-voom than in decades gone by.
That's not to say there aren't underground venues where the sweat drips off the ceiling and the noise from the audience is thunderous. But increasingly it's the grey hairs who are turning out to populate the live music landscape in the city. What they want is nostalgia, value for money – and nobody jostling them as they film their favourite bits for their social media feeds. Or their grand-kids.
Still, even if I'm right perhaps there is yet time for redress. In July Glasgow Green hosts the TRNSMT festival and at the time of writing raucous rap phenomenon Kneecap are still on the bill. That will be one to see.
So go on, Glasgow – show them why maybe you do still have the best audiences in the world.
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Numbers game
It's rare – actually make that never-happened-before-in-the-history-of-audience-ratings – for the BBC to talk down the digits where viewership is concerned. Any massaging of the figures is usually aimed at inflation rather than the opposite. But following the cancellation of BBC Scotland soap River City there has been quite the kerfuffle, and the BBC finds itself having to rebut the claim by acting union Equity that half a million people regularly watch the show. Not so, says the Beeb. It's less than half that. To say otherwise is to spread 'mistruths'.
Neutral observers will, you know, observe that the BBC should have the correct figures. They may also note that a figure of 500,000 does seem on the high side. EastEnders, networked to a potential domestic audience over 10 times that of River City, only pulls in around 3.2 million viewers. On the other hand, those in Team River City will claim that it suits the organisation's narrative for audience ratings to be on the slide.
As union and broadcaster square up, it looks as if this one will run and run. Unlike River City.
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And finally
The Herald critics have been sharpening their pens ahead of festival season, which activity has taken theatre critic Neil Cooper to Edinburgh's Festival Theatre and Royal Lyceum Theatre as well as to Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
In that last venue he watched Water Colour, the debut play by Millie Sweeney, winner of the St Andrews Playwriting Award, while in Edinburgh he saw The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe and Keli. The first is a touring production of Sally Cookson's 2017 adaptation of the much-loved novel, first staged at Leeds Playhouse. The second is a crowd-pleasing new work by Martin Green, better known as accordionist with Scottish traditional music supergroup Lau.
Meanwhile dance critic Mary Brennan continues her survey of the best that Dance International Glasgow has to offer at Tramway, while music critic Keith Bruce was in attendance at the City Halls in Glasgow to hear Nicola Benedetti perform work by Brahms and Greig at the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's season finale.
Finally Teddy Jamieson tore himself away from Eurovision to see Daryl Hall at the Armadillo in Glasgow. Definitely no mosh pit at that one.
Read our reviews here
Review: I went to new V&A gardens show and was intrigued by what I saw