Hear Me Out: Glasgow is the best live music city in the world
Glasgow is home to many iconic symbols—the Duke of Wellington conehead, its shipbuilding legacy, shipbuilding and the chicken tikka masala. But beyond its landmarks and industry, the city truly lives up to its slogan, “People Make Glasgow.” Its residents are renowned for their warmth and friendliness, and the city boasts a vibrant cultural scene brimming with art, life, and character that’s hard to match anywhere else.
As a resident Glaswegian, I’m here to make the case that this city is the best place you’ll ever go for a gig. But don’t just take my word for it – listen to the hundreds of artists who all roundly agree that there is nothing like a Scottish crowd, that nowhere else can compare to the energy of the people confined within these walls, and suddenly you’ll be clambering to not just get a ticket for the show but to catch whatever the next train is going north of the border.
Glasgow may be half the size of London or Manchester, but without it, some of the most iconic moments tied to those cities might not exist. Take David Bowie’s legendary performance at the old Green’s Playhouse in 1973, for example. In the midst of his Ziggy Stardust era, the show left an indelible mark, with Spiders from Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey, who later recalled its impact: “That was a great gig. I totally remember it, mainly because it had the reputation of being the place where if they like you, they love you, and you will have a great night. If they don’t, get out of town quick, basically. We probably weren’t that confident playing Glasgow, but it went down really well.”
Then you had the Mancunian mob who started gig life in this very city. It was May 1993, and two brothers by the name of Gallagher turned up out of the blue at the iconic King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, insisting on being put on the bill that night. They played ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’, ‘Bring it on Down’, ‘Up in the Sky’, and ‘I Am the Walrus’, and thus the cultural mammoth of Oasis was born.
This is where Michael Jackson was flung 20 feet in the air and never returned because he was banned due to noise complaints. Where Prince decided one show was not enough after his sold-out turn at the SECC hall in 1993 and decided to turn up at the Garage nightclub for an afterparty – which the manager recalled hilariously as “the wee man got up with his security and went on stage, it was fantastic – absolutely brilliant.” They may get taken down a peg or two, but the stars all agree that there’s really no place like Glasgow.
Of course, we can’t forget about our own homegrown talent. Everyone from Travis to Texas, Paolo Nutini, Gerry Cinnamon, and Lewis Capaldi hail from these great streets, and we love them all the more for it. Only in this city could a crowd try to make the chant of “here we, here we, here we fucking go” work during a ballad, and nowhere else can you find small venues like King Tuts being more iconic than the sparkly new arenas.
But above all, my home city shines to me as the place where I learned to love music. It’s beautiful and bright, rough around the edges but just bursting with charm that makes you fall head over heels for the stage and the icons that grace it. No matter where the music takes you, there’s nothing in the world that compares to hearing a Glasgow crowd sing its heart out while knowing you belong to it, feeling you played your own small part in making the rockstars love it too.
We may be small, but we are fierce and, at the risk of employing too much of a stereotypical phrase, just pure dead brilliant.
