Shamefully, I can’t remember my first gig. It was (probably) either Siouxsie And The Banshees or Stiff Little Fingers. All I can say for sure is the venue was definitely the 3000-seater Edinburgh Playhouse, built in 1929 by the architect responsible for Green’s Playhouse in Glasgow. Like its east coast counterpart, Green’s started life as a cinema before changing its name to the Apollo and becoming one of the most storied live music venues in the UK. Possibly the world. It closed in the mid-1980s, was demolished two years later and duly passed into city folklore.
The Edinburgh Playhouse still stands and is still one of the biggest theatres in the UK. But for most of this century it has been used only sporadically for live music, most recently by the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF). The days when the likes of U2 and Depeche Mode would pass through are long gone.
Over the same period, bands confident of selling tickets in the thousands rather than the hundreds have had only the capital’s Usher Hall as a possible venue if they want an Edinburgh date for the tour schedule.
READ MORE: The 10 best films to see in cinemas this winter
Admittedly there’s also Ingliston, out by the airport, but the less said about that the better. The sad fact is, the capital has no purpose-built, mid-sized venue for hosting rock concerts, and the city council knows it all too well. Today, the modern equivalent of Siouxsie And The Banshees – an established and iconic act touring their fifth album when I saw them – would skip Edinburgh entirely. And don’t my music-loving kids know it (insert sad face emoji here).
Glasgow, on the other hand has surged ahead. As the Apollo was closing and the Edinburgh Playhouse pivoting away from music, the SEC was opening. Say what you like about that barn of a place, it has hosted some pretty stellar gigs: Prince was amazing there and so were the Spice Girls in their candy pop way. Then in 1997 the dramatic-looking, 3000-capacity Armadillo opened, followed in 2003 by the 2500 capacity Carling (now O2) Academy. And a decade ago, the Hydro appeared. It can hold around 14,000 fans.
Sure, if you’re Harry Styles, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen or Taylor Swift then Murrayfield is still your go-to venue. But everyone else? Please head west along the M8 and form an orderly queue. A promoter will be along to take your order presently.
Of course Glasgow’s reputation as a music city doesn’t rest only on the difference between its big venue offering (rich) and the capital’s (impoverished). But it’s arguably a factor, which is why the prospect of Edinburgh finally building an arena-sized indoor rock venue promises a significant shift in the ecosystem and the established power balance.
Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) has applied for planning permission to build an 8500 capacity venue in the west of the city, to be called either the Edinburgh Park Arena of the Carlton Arena, depending on who you believe. Handily, the EIF has already road-tested the idea: the proposed site is where it held live concerts in a purpose-built, open-sided tent in 2021. It’s hard by tram and rail stops, close to the Edinburgh Gateway transport hub and easily accessible for those coming by car from south and west.
“The much needed 8,500-capacity arena will bring world-class live music and entertainment to Edinburgh, further cementing its reputation as a destination for culture and global tourism,” says AEG Europe chief Alex Hill. The proposed venue, he adds, will “complement” the capital’s current offer as “one of the best cities in the world for the arts and live entertainment.”
Hear that Glasgow? Fighting talk.
There’s more too this than just cultural provision, though. The night time economy brings in millions, and as digitisation alters how musicians make money the pressure on them to tour memorable live shows has increased.
READ MORE: Picasso and Rembrandt go on show in Scotland
Acknowledging the need to service the needs of gig-goers and gig-givers, the Edinburgh Park Arena project is part of a wider move to bring mixed-use developments (for which read cafés, bars and restaurants) to what is currently a sterile and unlovable part of the capital’s edge lands. Until the arrival of the EIF’s weird alien spaceship venue and the tram loads of city centre-dwelling festival hipsters two years ago, the most exciting thing to happen there was the opening of a drive-through Krispy Kreme outlet.
‘Build it and they will come’ is what Kevin Costner hears from a ghostly baseball player in the movie Field Of Dreams. He acquiesces, lays out a pitch in his field and, yes, before long the game is on. Will the same be true for Edinburgh’s mooted new “cultural destination” and “creative campus”, to use the words of Peter Millican, whose arts-focused Parabola development company is a partner in the project? Or are we looking at the birth of a cultural white elephant?
The arena isn’t built yet, nor planning consent even granted. But for the sake of rock’n’roll at least, let’s hope it sings.
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 here