A history of Glasgow is being sung to a different tune in a new book that tells the city's story through its music venues - from the street to pub to the classical auditorium.

 

The book to be released next month, edited by The Herald's music critic Kate Molleson, sees the city through the way its people witness live music - from established venues such as the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and Glasgow Cathedral, to rock venues such as King Tut's Wah Wah Hut and the Barrowlands as well as articles on the Scotia Bar and "street songs" learned and performed by children.

The book, Dear Green Sounds: Glasgow's Music Through Time and Buildings, has been written by a series of writers with personal affection for or connection to the venues, including Vic Galloway, John Purser, Ewan McVicar and Herald writers Neil Cooper and Keith Bruce, arts editor of The Herald.

Memories in the tome include performances by leading orchestras from around the world, as well as popular music figures such as Michael Jackson, Joy Division and Joan Armatrading.

There is also a chapter on Postcard Records, established in the city in 1979 to release the music of Orange Juice and Josef K.

The book, published by Waverley Books, was commissioned to help celebrate the city's Unesco City of Music initiative and "is the first book to celebrate the collective history of Glasgow's music."

Molleson said that the book's articles are intimate and largely affectionate, but does allow room for criticism of some aspects of the Glasgow live music scene, including the SECC and the long controversial acoustics at the Royal Concert Hall.

"It was a lovely book to commission because all of these writers have a personal relationship with the venues," she said.

"The tone is affectionate but that does not mean it does not contain some criticisms of aspects of venues in the city.

"For example no one is pretending the SECC is a great venue but it is a big venue that has seen a lot of important acts play there."

Venues profiled include The Piping Centre and The College of Piping, Glasgow Pavilion, The Scotia and the Alhambra, and the Empire, The Grand Ole Opry, Mono, The Apollo, BBC Scotland, the Barrowland Ballroom, City Halls, Rottenrow, the Theatre Royal and the Royal Conservatoire.

The book is published on April 4.

Svend Brown, director of Glasgow UNESCO City of Music, said: "Glasgow is a UNESCO City of Music and for some years now I have been wrestling with how to tell the story of Glasgow's music from its earliest beginnings to now.

"It is far from simple because basically, there is no A-to-Z, no single story."

"Instead there is a fascinating weave of many different kinds of music, the people who made them, their stories and - critically - the buildings where they were played and enjoyed through the centuries.

"Thinking about the buildings was the key that unlocked the idea of Dear Green Sounds for me: Glasgow is home to more iconic venues than pretty much any UK city outside of London and they range from the medieval to contemporary. "In telling their stories we celebrate the music and musicians that populated them, the audiences, the folk who built them... Kate Molleson has done a great job in realising this project and commissioning personal portraits of great venues from some of Scotland's leading musical experts and journalists."