Stevie Wonder's stolen suit - and the theatre so filthy they called it The Appalling! From Abba to Zeppelin, every rock legend played Glasgow – but they didn't always get a warm welcome...

Daily Mail​

10-07-2025

From its groundbreaking groups and endlessly creative artists, its much-loved venues and roaringly enthusiastic audiences, the vibrancy of Glasgow 's music scene has long been hailed around the world.
Now the city's legendary heritage is being celebrated in Glasgow's Greatest Hits – a rollocking new guide compiled by the three founders of Glasgow City Music Tour, exploring the key figures, places and gigs that have underpinned its reputation as a global hitmaker.
Here, we offer a selection of the best and worst:
Greatest Gig
The Beatles ' Ringo Starr said their Glasgow fans were the 'wildest'.
One furious council official agreed, complaining after the Fab Four headlined the Glasgow Concert Hall on Argyle Street on October 5, 1963, that: 'There was so much shouting and screaming that, I am told, The Beatles group could not be heard.
'The balcony was actually shaking with all the pandemonium that was going on.'
When they returned the following year to play the Odeon Cinema on Renfield Street, trainee managers were told: 'You've got tae keep the wimmin off the band.'
Stadium gigs looked a little different when Frank Sinatra played Ibrox on July 10, 1990.
After a soundcheck consisting of just four words – 'come fly with me' – he wowed the 11,000-strong crowd by going walkabout for Strangers in the Night and referring to himself as 'the American Andy Stewart'.
Ol' Blue Eyes later said: 'In all my time in showbusiness I have never had such a stupendous feeling. I have never been so moved by anything in my life before.'
Then there was the infamous night in May 1993 when Oasis were 'discovered' at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in front of 69 paying customers – and thousands more who have claimed to be there.
Oasis were not originally on the bill – but Manchester band Sister Lovers, who were due to open, arrived with their friends' band in tow.
A deal was struck for them to play a quick four-song warm-up for the dozen or so punters who turned up early.
Among them was Creation Records boss, Alan McGee...
Finest Merch
Forget your branded t-shirts, hoodies and tote bags, there is nothing like grabbing yourself a unique piece of wearable musical memorabilia.
The Tamla Motown Revue blew into Glasgow for two shows in April 1965, suffering from sluggish ticket sales and a strike over unpaid wages by the disgruntled stars, who included the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas, and a 14-year-old Stevie Wonder.
As the book reveals, 'Further drama ensued when Stevie Wonder's suit was nicked between sets, handed over in good faith to someone backstage calling out, 'suits for cleaning, suits for cleaning'. It was never returned.
Music industry veteran Keith Harris, who has represented Stevie Wonder since the 70s, said, 'There's somebody in Glasgow with a Little Stevie Wonder suit. I hope they appreciate it.'
Most Hated Band
All punk – at least for the City Fathers who tried to ban the entire musical genre at its peak in the late 70s. The Sex Pistols swearing on national television led to their gig at The Apollo being pulled.
When councillors heard The Ramones were singing about glue-sniffing and witnessed fans storming the stage at a Stranglers' gig at the City Halls on June 22, 1977, they drew a line.
The City Halls 'riot' resulted in an unofficial (and unenforceable) ban on punk. But a few rebel establishments refused to toe the line – the Mars Bar, off St Enoch Square, offered a weekly residency to one punk outfit, Johnny & the Self-Abusers, just as they were trying out a new direction and band name: Simple Minds.
Harshest Heckle
Glasgow audiences have long held a reputation for being hard to please – and devastatingly sharp-tongued – as even local favourites the Sensational Alex Harvey Band discovered.
At one fondly remembered Christmas gig at the Apollo in 1975, one attendee recalled frontman Alex Harvey performing the audience favourite Framed. Or 'fram-ed' as Alex liked to pronounce it.
Telling the sorry tale of a street punk fitted up for a crime he didn't commit, the book recounts, 'our hero was on his knees, picked out by a spotlight as he howled out the lines, 'I was fram-ed, I never did nothing.'
From the darkness of the stalls came a withering response from an aggrieved punter, 'Aye, you did. You s****-ed ma sister.'
Best Venue
King Tut's, the Barrowland Ballroom, and the ABC; they're all right up there, but surely the 'good old-fashioned scuzzy' Apollo at the top of Renfield Street occupies rarefied ground in the pantheon of rock legend.
From its perilously bouncing balcony to its 12ft high stage, meaning the first few rows were actually the worst seats in the house, the venue was so dilapidated, with paintwork, holes in the roof, damp carpets, roosting pigeons and the occasional sewage-related mishap that it came to be known as The Appalling.
But its filth only added to its appeal. It started hosting concerts in the 60s with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Nice, The Move and Amen Corner playing on a single bill in December 1967.
Setlists often went awry – a well-oiled Lou Reed exited after just one song in some disorientation and had to be pushed back onstage to finish his show; AC/DC's Bon Scott got locked out of his own gig after going walkabout with Angus Young on his shoulders; Leonard Cohen performed a 35-song set in May 1976 to rapturous fans also celebrating a 2–1 home win in that day's Scotland v. England match at Hampden Park.
Struggling to compete with the new SECC complex by the Clyde, the Apollo repeatedly endured the threat of closure.
Eric Clapton and Wings both signed a petition opposing its conversion to a Mecca bingo hall, while Bob Geldof lent his typically forthright support, writing in the venue's visitors book, 'f*** bingo, long live rock'.
The venue was so beloved that fans stripped the joint of its fixtures and fittings following its final concert by The Style Council in June 1985.
Worst Rock 'n Roll Excess
Rock stars are famous for trashing tour buses and chucking hotel tellies in swimming pools, yet they scarcely own the franchise on alcohol-fuelled debauchery, with unlikely competition from the city's folk scene.
One such was the late John Martyn, a singular singer, songwriter and guitarist who straddled folk, jazz, rock and blues in a 40-plus year career.
His 1973 album Solid Air, arguably his finest, featured contributions from Pentangle bassist Danny Thompson. The books says: 'The pair had an affinity for mayhem as much as music.'
We like the story of Thompson nailing a passed-out Martyn to the floor under a hotel room carpet.
The next morning, Thompson ordered a room-service breakfast which he 'consumed with great gusto in front of his increasingly apoplectic, thirsty and hungover compadre'. Riveting stuff!
Unlikeliest Frontman
That honour might go to comic and ex-Humblebum, Sir Billy Connolly, who memorably described his singing voice as resembling 'a goose farting in the fog'.
Or the 'great Glaswegian sage' and harmonium player, Ivor Cutler, who clocked up more John Peel sessions than any other act apart from The Fall.
But what about much-mocked country and western legend Sydney Devine? Affectionately known as Steak and Kidney, he racked up 45 consecutive years of gigs at the Pavilion Theatre, singing his signature tune Tiny Bubbles to generations of the same families.
But, as the book says, 'Steak and Kidney MBE had the last laugh, selling an estimated 15million albums.'
Most Revered Band
Hotly contested, of course, but as the book rightly points out, The Blue Nile created 'one of the slimmest but most precious catalogues in Scottish pop music', despite being described by their biographer Allan Brown as 'a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a raincoat'.
Glasgow University students Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and PJ Moore received almost instant critical acclaim – although their first single Stay was slagged off by popular ventriloquist puppet Orville the Duck on the Saturday Superstore record review.
The band remained their own harshest critics, allegedly burning master tapes and throwing early singles into the Kelvin.
Notoriously publicity-shy, they produced four revered albums before their unofficial split in 2004 and their cult status was complete with a namecheck on Taylor Swift's song Guilty As Sin? from her 2024 record-smashing Tortured Poets Department album.
Buchanan has recorded one solo album, 2012's Mid Air, and is sought-after as a guest vocalist, though the book highlights an impromptu performance of a couple of maudlin originals at a fan's house party which required 'an intervention from the host', saying: 'It's an honour to have you here, but this is a party, mate – play some Slade or get the f*** out.'
Glasgow's Greatest Hits: Tales from the City of Music is out now in paperback, priced £12.99
'Keep the wimmin off': The Beatles had the 'wildest' time