Glasgow 13th Note Cafe – jimmysgigapedia.com

On an annual basis, the Preston Ferret holds their now well established Glastonferret event, 2023 was their 16^th edition. It is a full four-day event running from Thursday to Sunday over the August bank holiday with real grass and hay bales, food stalls and late night after party DJ sets for the full festival experience! Contained on the roster of the most recent event were Bo Ningen, Bodega (from New York), Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage, Panic Shack, Personal Trainer and local legends Evil Blizzard.

Glastonferret preparations. Image Credit lanc.live.

In October 2010, a chaotic night ensued as we were unaware that a Half Man Half Biscuit (HMHB) gig at 53 Degrees had been cancelled until we turned up at the venue. We pottered over the road to the Ferret to watch the local jazz combo Pinto Beans who have been on the pub circuit for aeons. On the night of the rearranged HMHB gig we saw another local band called Inland Empire.

My last appearance in 2010 was to see the Underdogs who were based in the city and their claim to fame was that they once lost out on a record contract on a major label to Ellie Goulding. They disbanded in 2011 but seven years later released a greatest hits collection. They were supported on the night by Cold One Hundred, a five-piece from Salford who had the Britpop vibe about them and have had support slots with Brett Anderson and the Vaccines. Next up was Magdalenas, an indie band from down the road in Blackpool who split up in 2013, support was provided by Mondays Arms. Three months later I saw Duelling Pistols.

In May 2011, I saw my favourite gig ever at the Ferret when Maybe She Will were in town. They are an excellent post-rock band from Leicester and reside more in the electronic 65 Days of Static than Mogwai side of that genre. I bought their three albums on the spot complete with their enigmatic record covers, and also had an engaging chat with them after the show. They disbanded in 2015 but subsequently reformed in 2020 and I have tickets for their May shows this year. They were supported by their XTAL record label math rock colleagues You Slut!

Maybe She Will. Image Credit the bejinger.com

In July 2011 I witnessed a treat with an astoundingly noisy set from Twilight Sad. They formed in 2003 and in the early days they took the well-trodden route of playing starter gigs at the 13^th Note Café in Glasgow, they are still operational and are now five albums into their career. They were supported by Darwen’s finest India Mill.

Next up was a terrific shoegaze set from The Chapman Family who were formed in Stockton-on-Tees in 2006. The lynchpin was Kingsley Chapman, but all the rest of the band had Chapman as their surname, they disbanded in 2013 with their final gig at the Georgian Theatre in their hometown. Kingsley continuing in the music trade and is now currently fronting the band Benefits. It was a proper noise fest that evening as support was provided by To The Bones from Bolton who NME once famously described as ‘white hot slasher grunge’.

Chapman Family. Image pinterest

The year of 2012 commenced with a set from a local bluesman called Denis Jones. Following that I saw Hatcham Social Club who derived from New Cross in London and had a C86 vibe about them and were supported by local act Flight of Arrows. The following weekend there was a cacophonous triple bill with Moja from Tokyo first up followed by Elohymn. The main band was Brontide who have have ongoing links with Rolo Tomassi and they provided an excellent wall rattling set of post-rock. They disbanded in 2017 but I have just picked up on the recent good news that they back on the circuit and are scheduled to play their first reunion show at ArcTanGent 2024 festival.

On 23/06/12 I attended a whole day event with the first act being the punk band Pike featuring my pal Jez Catlow in the ranks. Also on the bill was Harp & A Monkey and Mobius Loop providing some folk tones and Fighting providing some further punk rock.

Three months later there was another full bill with first up some psych rock from Electroshock Therapy followed by a thunderous two piece called White Swallow from down the road in Whalley, near Blackburn. The support were an off-kilter post punk four piece from Droylsden named The Tapestry who were being highly touted but eventually disbanded in 2016. The headliners were Sissy and the Blisters from Guildford who produced a pleasing slab of swirly garage rock, but they split up the following year while on the verge of recording their debut album.

In August 2014 I made another trip up the scenic West Coastline to Glasgow to see Mogwai with the usual ‘Mog trio’ of Uncle George, John Dewhurst and I in tow. It was a late arranged sojourn, so I had secured some slightly unusual accommodation as I recall it was linked to a church and located somewhere near Bath Street.

We fancied heading to a couple of different places on this trip but naturally prior to that it had to be music part 1 first, thus our initial port of call was Glasgow 13^th Note Cafe. This bar was originally a pub on Glassford Street before moving to its current home on King Street in Merchant City in 1997, the original site has now become Bar Bacchus. The franchise subsequently then hoovered up a bigger club venue on Clyde Street and the 13^th Note was then taken over by the Barfly group in 2002.

13th Note Cafe. Image Credit wee-dundee.co.uk

Many of the local bands of the time, namely Bis and Urusei Yatsura played there, and it was famously the location of one of Mogwai’s very early gigs as detailed in Stuart Braithwaite’s engaging autobiography ‘Spaceships over Glasgow’ which I have recently consumed. The chap who booked the bands was Alex Huntley who latterly changed his name to Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand fame, many of the gigs in the early days were free of charge.

The ground floor is a bar and a thriving vegan café, and the basement room is the music venue with gigs virtually every night. I had heard the local act The Vex were undertaking a Saturday afternoon residence so down we headed into the sweat box. They were a punk/new wave band and playing an epic 2 hour set which in our 30-minute portion we caught an excellent cover version of Cure’s ‘The Forest’, one of my fave tracks of theirs.

We jumped on the subway at St Enoch’s station for a foray out to the West End of Glasgow where after a sally around the Botanical Gardens we visited the very grand building of Oran Mor for a beer, I have never yet managed to attend a gig there in the music room located upstairs. We then visited the ‘Harry Potter’ style street of Ashton Lane before undertaking the return journey and randomly jumping off at Bridge Street station.

Glasgow Oran Mor. Image Credit Pinterest.

We decamped into the Lauriestown Bar by the river, the Mogwai gig was taking place at Glasgow Richmond Park but when we asked for directions in the pub, we drew blank expressions from the resident punters. We decided to obtain a taxi number and our transport duly arrived. The taxi driver was also lacking in local knowledge and more intent on imparting his current employment woes on us, but we persuaded him to ‘do his job’ and we finally found the park about ten minutes before the show started!

Laurieston Bar. Image Credit tripadvisor.ca

Richmond Park was opened in 1899 and is a huge location of 12 hectares in size, and it appears the area is closed for major investment works at the moment as part of a regeneration programme. The event was part of a two-day shindig called the East End Social Last Big Weekend.

There was a partial marquee where Mogwai took the stage and apologised for drinks availability during the earlier sets, though they stated it had been beyond their control. They were as enjoyable as ever and post gig due to a dearth of taxis we undertook the long walk via Glasgow Green back up to Sauchiehall Street where we ended the evening with ‘one for the ditch’!

Tag: Glasgow 13th Note Cafe

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