ONE year on from the Clutha tragedy, pub owner Alan Crossan hopes the lasting legacy of the pub - famed for its live gigs - will be to help disadvantaged young people break into the music business.
The publican has spent the last 12 months liaising with police, insurance companies, pub staff and the victims and their families, after a helicopter ploughed into the bar on November 29 last year.
He recalls the horrific scenes of that night as he waited outside the pub for hours, hoping that everyone inside would be okay, and the devastation when the deaths were announced.
But he also recalls the overwhelming reaction from the people of Glasgow and the way they pulled together in the aftermath of the tragedy to support the victims - something he now hopes to harness in his new project, the Clutha Trust.
The trust, which launches at a concert at Glasgow's Barrowland on Friday, will help children and young people get involved in the arts, particularly music.
Crossan said: "We're planning to hold, manage and promote musical performances and festivals, both by and for the benefit of children and young people who are disadvantaged.
"We're in discussions with other charities and our plan is to work with them to put on these events around the Clutha area. We'll also be using an online video channel to allow bands to upload their music, and punters can then vote for their favourite band via a 50p text which will go towards the trust. The top bands will then be asked to play at our annual concert, which will be held around this time of year."
The trust is just one of the things on which Crossan has been working over the last 12 months after witnessing the immediate aftermath of the crash.
Speaking about his experiences on the night, the businessman, who was at home when the helicopter went down, said: "My partner heard first and she told me the roof had collapsed, then the next thing we heard was that a helicopter had crashed into the building.
"We just couldn't fathom it, we couldn't understand how that had happened. I went straight down there and I started talking to the police and other people who were there. The whole time I was just thinking 'I hope everybody's okay'.
"When Alex Salmond said there may be fatalities, I knew then that there definitely were. Then we began to hear about the deaths; it was just so hard to take in."
In the days that followed, Crossan had several meetings with Police Scotland and met with his employees to discuss their future.
He also wrote to victims and the families of those who lost their lives, offering them access to the building.
The publican has also been working on reopening the Clutha but has had issues with the building's insurers, who have only paid out a part-settlement.
"I think we're going to do something with the Victoria Bar next door [also owned by Crossan] and go into part of the Clutha", he said. "I don't think I could open the pub the same way, it just wouldn't be right.
"I've always said the Clutha wasn't about the building, the bricks and mortar, it was about the people, the music. It won't be the same, but life will never be the same for the victims and the families either."
Crossan believes the new Clutha could reopen early in the New Year, with bigger plans being drawn up for the whole Bridgegate area over the next few years.
Scottish Enterprise is drawing up the proposals, which are understood to outline a complete regeneration of that area of the city.
Crossan said: "Nothing can bring people back or change what happened that night, but hopefully, with the trust and regeneration plans, something positive can now come out of it."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article