The new guide to Glasgow's musical heroes and trailblazers

The Herald Scotland

03-05-2025

Stories about the most successful trailblazers, long-gone venues, one-off concerts and bizarre on-stage incidents have been brought together in 'Glasgow's Greatest Hits.'
Published on June 5, it has been compiled by the three founders of the popular Glasgow City Music Tours, which have been running for the last 10 years.
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In the new book, Fiona Shepherd, Alison Stroak and Jonathan Trew guide readers through the doors of venues old and new, including the Empire, the Apollo, the Grand Ole Opry, the Barrowland Ballroom, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, the Hydro, the 13th Note and the Scotia Bar to recall life-changing debuts, magical moments and superstar visits.
The book's introduction states: 'Glasgow's Greatest Hits collects our most beloved stories and celebrates our favourite musicians, venues and concerts. It is by no means comprehensive, nor is it unbiased, but we hope it captures the spirt of the city's music scene in all its gallus glory.'
Glasgow's Greatest Hits explores the origins of celebrated Glaswegian acts like Simple Minds, Deacon Blue, Orange Juice, The Blue Nile, Altered Images, Franz Ferdinand, Belle and Sebastian and Eddi Reader.
Alex Harvey is featured in the new book, Glasgow's Greatest Hits
The book also recalls some of the city's musical mavericks, little-known local heroes and most influential figures as far back as the 19th century.
Famous visits to the city recalled include Frank Sinatra's week-long Empire residency in 1953, concerts by The Beatles at the Glasgow Concert Hall and Odeon Cinema between 1963 and 1965, and Louis Armstrong staging the first ever concert at the Kelvin Hall in 1956, and a late-night set by Prince at The Garage in 1995.
Landmark moments include the Barrowland Ballroom's rebirth after it was used by Simple Minds for their 'Waterfront' video in 1983 and Oasis being snapped up by Creation Records founder Alan McGee in 1993 after they effectively gatecrashed a gig at King Tut's after travelling up from Manchester.
Lonnie Donegan had his first hit in 1954 with Rock Island LineThe book recalls how former teacher turned singer Matt McGinn won a songwriting contest at the first attempt, met American folk singer Pete Seeger when he was touring the UK and was invited to perform at the Carnegie Hall in New York in 1962, where he played further up the bill than a young Bob Dylan.
Other influential figures include Bill Martin, a former shipyard worker and footballer who joined forces with Irishman Phil Coulter to write hits for the Bay City Rollers, Sandie Shaw, Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley.
Few Glaswegians have had as much influenced on the music industry as Lonnie Donegan, the figurehead of the Britain's 1950s skiffle scene, which fused elements of folk, country, blues and jazz, championed the use of the washboard and a tea chest bass, and inspired early incarnations of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and the Bee Gees.
Lulu is still performing after breaking into the music scene in 1964One of Glasgow's most celebrated rockers, Alex Harvey, entered the music industry playing in skiffle bands in 1954, three years before he won a newspaper competition to find 'Scotland's answer' to English singer Tommy Steele. Harvey would go on tour around Scotland with the runner-up, Sydney Devine, who would outlive Harvey by nearly 40 years.
Harvey, who dominated Scotland rock scene in the 1970s, was said to have been a major inspiration for the AC/DC singer Bon Scott, the Scot who joined the Australian band formed by Glasgow-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young in 1973.
The 'cult heroes' championed in the book include Ella Logan, a music hall child star who was performing in London's West End and touring around Europe when she was a teenager. She became a star in Broadway and Hollywood after moving to the United States in the 1930s, but found her career hampered by an FBI investigation into allegations she was a Communist sympathiser.
The new guide to Glasgow's musical heritage will be published on June 5 (Image: Birlinn/Polygon)
Musical mavericks include the poet, storyteller, songwriter and humourist Ivor Cutler, who was championed by Radio 1 DJ John Peel and the comic Billy Connolly, appeared as a bus conductor in The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film, and made TV and radio appearances across a staggering seven decades.
The book traces the career of Billy Connolly – described as the 'most famous son' of the Scotia Bar - to the thriving folk music scene in the mid-1960s, where he formed his band The Humblebums with Tam Harvey and later recruited Paisley-born singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, before embarking on a solo career in the early 1970s which combined his music with comedy to huge success.
The book recalls how The Blue Nile, who managed to release just four albums in a 20-year stop-star career, were once described as 'a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a raincoat' and were even said to have thrown early singles into the River Kelvin.
The long-gone venues featured include the Green's Playhouse, a vast cinema on Renfield Street, which began hosting gigs in the 1960s, when it played host to Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Fairport Convention and the Bee Gees. The venue, which became increasingly famous for its 'bouncing balcony,' was reborn as the Apollo after undergoing a modest makeover, with Johnny Cash playing the first shows after it reopened.
The book recalls a worse-for-wear Lou Reed being pushed back on stage to finish his set, Leonard Cohen being interrupted by chants of 'Flower of Scotland' hours after Scotland had beaten England at Hampden, and Abba's last ever UK concert, which saw a group of pupils from Hillhead High School join them on stage to perform 'I Have a Dream.'
The book also recalls the rise and fall of The Arches, the trailblazing venue created underneath Central Station to host a major exhibition during Glasgow's tenure as European Capital of Culture. Massive Attack, the Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Underworld and Calvin Harris were among the acts to play before it lost its late licence and went into administration after a police clampdown.
British TV shows propelled the careers of many of Glasgow's singing stars, including Lulu, who had had several series of her own in the 1960s and 1970s, after she reached the UK top 10 with her debut single 'Shout' when she was only 15.
Equally prolific on TV in the 1970s was Lena Martell, who had begun her career as a big band singer at the Barrowland Ballroom, shared stages with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr and was the first Scottish solo female artist to top the UK singles chart in 1979.
Frankie Miller, the rock singer credited with taking Dougie MacLean's anthem Caledonia to a wider audience when his version was used in a Tennent's Lager advert, had earlier had the lead role in the gritty TV drama Just a Boy's Game, appearing alongside future Rab C Nesbitt star Gregor Fisher.
Del Amitri singer Justin Currie, who has written the book's foreword, said: "Sometimes, listening to evening music radio, I'll hear a song I know has been written and performed by a band from (or around) Glasgow.
"I find it difficult to define. Techno or pop, indie or rock, I can hear an ineffable melancholy, a lilt or a kink that can only be a product of my beloved, forlorn, glamorously wrecked city."