Kevin Buckle: A walk through Scotland's musical history

I read this week that Glasgow should do more to promote itself as a music tourism city as Liverpool does.
A ticket for Nirvana's October 1990 gig at the Calton StudiosA ticket for Nirvana's October 1990 gig at the Calton Studios
A ticket for Nirvana's October 1990 gig at the Calton Studios

It recognised that while Glasgow has produced many amazing bands none were quite The Beatles but that is not really the point for me. Obviously I’m a great believer in promoting Scotland’s fantastic music history or I wouldn’t have spent so much time working on the ScotPop Centre but I’m not sure about walking around to do so.

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Interestingly one of these musical walking tours is about to start in Edinburgh and certainly if people want to pay for these things fair play to them but for me if I was walking down Calton Road I might point out to somebody that was where the Venue used to be but what really is of interest are the old flyers showing the gigs that were on.

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Just in late June and July 1987 you could see BMX Bandits, My Bloody Valentine, Pastels. Tallulah Gosh and Shop Assistants. A week later it was James and if none of those were to your taste there was always Sonic Youth, The Bathers, Deacon Blue or Nico.

Meanwhile along the road at Calton Studios in the course of four days in October 1990 you could see Ride, Lush and Nirvana headline gigs. These facts never cease to amaze people on social media and will I’m sure be popular when highlighted in the ScotPop Centre but I’m not sure folk need to see where these places used to be.

Recently Ian Rankin joked when I mentioned music tours he had shown somebody where Avalanche in the Grassmarket used to be that very day and maybe there is a tour in that of old record shops. Certainly when I first came to Edinburgh in the late Seventies touring record shops on a Saturday was just about a weekly occurrence.