In 2013, in the period between Christmas and New Year Gill and I purloined some cheap Virgin train tickets and enjoyed a couple of days up in Glasgow. We managed to squeeze in a visit to Café Andaluz for some fine tapas but also wanted to try and grab some music whilst there. My preferred destination was to make a debut visit to the legendary Glasgow King Tuts Wah Wah and thankfully the gig gods were smiling to make this attainable, which was a bonus as generally gigs at that time of year can be somewhat sparse in their availability!
King Tuts. Image Credit blogspot.com
King Tuts is a live music venue and bar on St Vincent Street and has a capacity of 300. It was opened in 1990 by DF Concerts boss Stuart Clumpas who took over the existing Saints and Sinners pub. It was designed to provide a venue to showcase emerging bands over seven nights a week. Its reputation was sealed in 1993 when over a remarkable fortnight The Verve, Radiohead and most famously Oasis swaggered onto the stage as an opening act resulting in them being signed up by Alan McGee of Creation Records.
Other bands to have graced the stage there are Biffy Clyro, Coldplay, White Stripes, The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Rage against the Machine and Travis played under their original name Glass Onion. The View also played a six-day residency there in 2017. They also had comedy nights and sponsored a stage at the nearby T In the Park festival for many years where Manic Street Preachers once played and were very complimentary of the venue and their welcoming and supportive approach and actually dedicated a song to them on stage.
White Stripes. Image Credit hotpoptoday.com
I recall the halcyon days in the 1990’s when the NME was the oracle for retrieving information on upcoming tours and I scoured the magazine from front to back on the Wednesday publication date. Many of the same independent venue’s names kept appearing with evocative names such as Aberdeen Lemon Tree, Leeds Brudenell Social Club and Blackwood Miners Institute, the latter was considered for a visit to see Rocket from the Crypt in the mid 90’s but unfortunately never came to fruition.
King Tuts was also regularly on these lists and thus became a ‘must visit’ venue for me. So, on the 29th of December 2013 on an apocalyptically rainy night we left the hotel down near the River Clyde and headed over to the venue.
As you enter the building you traverse up the unique stairs which document on each step a selection of the bands that have played there each year from 1990 onwards. I remember thinking at the time what will happen as years pass and they eventually run out of steps and have noticed on more recent pictures, they now cover biennial periods.
The famous King Tuts steps. Image Credit TripAdvisor.
You then enter a bar area where there is a TV screen showing the gig room and you can identify whether there is a band currently on stage. On the night of our visit the support act was a group called Sneaky Russians who are a five-piece indie band from Coatbridge. The headliners were a local band called Land of the Free.
