Glasgow City Music Tours Mar ‘21

We set up Glasgow Music City Tours in 2015 as a different way to shout about the amazing music scene in Glasgow, Scotland's only UNESCO City of Music. In one way or another, all three founding members of the company have been involved in the city's music for at least 25 years each and we figured that running guided walking tours would be a fun way to celebrate not just the current musical landscape but also Glasgow's many past music scenes.

And that is how it has turned out. Focusing on rock and pop but touching on folk, jazz, country and classical, our Merchant City and Music Mile (city centre) tours have told the stories of venerable venues such as Britannia Panopticon as well as more contemporary places such as King Tut's and Nice 'n' Sleazy. Of course, we have also riffed on great gigs at iconic venues like the Barrowlands and the Old Fruitmarket.

One of the pleasures of guiding music tours is hearing the memories of our guests. We might know a couple of brilliant stories about Lenny Cohen at the Apollo or Dylan at Barrowlands but it's always good to hear other perspectives and different stories. The really good tales that our guests bring often find their way into our permanent tours. In a small way, it helps keep these memories and stories alive.

For the last few years, we have also run folk music-themed walking tours during Celtic Connections. Starting off from the Scottish Music Centre on Candleriggs, these tours told the tale of Glasgow's traditional music from Robert Burns to the huge success of Celtic Connections and today's vibrant scene via the folk revival of the Fifties and Sixties.

These Trad Trails proved very popular but we wondered if there was a viable audience for them outside of Celtic Connections. Which is when we started talking to Mharsanta, a Scottish bar and restaurant on Bell Street in the Merchant City. We figured that people - Glasgow residents and visitors - wanted to hear Scottish folk music in an informal setting but did not necessarily know where to find it.

There are plenty of established folk sessions that take place in Glasgow's bars but they are not always reliably regular or easy to track down. Working with Mharsanta was a way to solve this. By combining a one-hour Trad Trail walking tour with dinner and live folk music at Mharsanta, we could offer customers an attractive package.

The Trad Trail walk is pitched so it will appeal to both folkies and non-folkies who simply want to see Glasgow from a different perspective. It is all about the stories and the tall tales of the characters who made the music and the bars they drank in. The gentle walk is, even if we say so ourselves, a great appetiser for the tasty dinner at Mharsanta which follows it. A roster of local musicians playing trad and contemporary folk tunes is the glue that bonds it all together. Add in a couple of drinks - Mharsanta has a wide range of whisky plus Scottish beers, gins and softies - and it's a great night out. Especially for groups.

In 2020, we expanded on the theme and did a short series of Shipyard Bards, Tall Tales and Whisky events. The idea for this one-hour package was to look at Glasgow's shipbuilding heritage through storytelling and songs inspired by the shipyards. A tasting flight of whisky for each customer helped set the mood. As always, we had no shortage of guests keen to tell us their anecdotes about working in the yards. Of course, people were welcome to book into Mharsanta for dinner or have a few drinks at the bar afterwards.

As hospitality opens up and we can all meet each other in real life again, it would be great to see you on one of our tours or at Mharsanta. We've got lots of stories about Glasgow's musical life and we're always happy to hear yours.