Miles Better A Guide To Glasgow S Music History The Skinny

Emily Johnson

-Mar 12, 2026, 1:49 PM

miles better a guide to glasgow s music history the skinny

Those of The Skinny’s readers based in Glasgow may have been relieved to see that, in the magazine’s Guide to Edinburgh from August, Edinburgh was described as being 'overshadowed' by Glasgow’s music scene, that... And while the piece goes on to list the myriad things the capital does have to offer, it surely warms the heart of every Glaswegian to hear (officially!) that it doesn’t quite match the... However, petty city rivalry aside, it’s difficult to question Glasgow’s musical credentials. The city has been entertaining music lovers for centuries. It is home to The Britannia Panopticon Music Hall at Trongate, the world’s oldest surviving music hall, which opened in 1857. Jump forward over 150 years, and Glasgow is a UNESCO City of Music, achieving that honour in 2008.

It boasts approaching 200 available venues and has birthed dozens of popular – some seminal, some underappreciated – bands and artists. Music runs through the blood of Glasgow, through its streets and architecture, where tenement flats vibrate with the music conceived in and around them. When LCD Soundsystem came to play in 2017 after a long layoff, James Murphy recounted onstage that it was the Barrowland Ballroom – affectionately known as the Barras – with its famously bouncy floor,... It’s an anecdote that sums up the atmosphere around live music in the city – often a band will tell you they’re playing to the best crowd in the best room in the world... Open since the 1930s down the Gallowgate, the Barras is just one of a number of iconic places bands pull up to play, from the mammoth big hitters like the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall... In these smaller fronts – Stereo and Broadcast in the city centre, or Mono in Merchant City, or SWG3 under the arches by the river, or The Glad Cafe in the Southside, or the...

Many double as arts spaces of all stripes, and that’s the reason so many go on to be the origin of bands that spring up here. Then there are places like King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, located on St Vincent Street, the lore around which makes it hard to discern what stories are apocryphal and which are true. It is true that countless bands who went on to mainstream success passed through its doors. It was famously where (and stop us if you’ve heard this one before) Alan McGee signed Oasis in 1993. That’s not to mention those we’ve lost – a dilapidated shell is all that remains of the old ABC on Sauchiehall Street, a sad reminder of the last Glasgow School of Art fire in... Glasgow's miles better was a 1980s campaign to promote the city of Glasgow as a tourist destination and as a location for industry.

It was developed by Scottish advertising agency Struthers Advertising, and featured the phrase "Glasgow's Miles Better" wrapped around the cartoon figure of Mr. Happy. It is regarded as one of the world's earliest and most successful attempts to rebrand a city, and received a number of domestic and international awards.[1][2][3] In 1982, Struthers Advertising had undertaken an anti-smoking campaign for the Scottish Health Education Group featuring members of the Scotland national football team under the theme "The squad don't smoke". Later that year, the then Lord Provost of Glasgow Michael Kelly announced plans to make Glasgow a no smoking city by the year 2000. John Struthers wrote to Michael Kelly offering assistance with the No Smoking aim.

The Lord Provost said he was simply the figurehead for the No Smoking group but he and John Struthers met over coffee. During that meeting, the Lord Provost said how much he wanted a campaign for Glasgow similar to the highly successful I Love New York campaign, but the City had no money to fund such... As a result of that meeting, John Struthers undertook not only to create but also initially fund the development of a campaign capable of meeting the Lord Provost's objectives. Various concepts were developed and rejected, but in March 1983 Struthers presented the Glasgow's Miles Better proposal to Kelly supported with a fund raising strategy.[4] The Lord Provost loved the whole concept and personally... Struthers and Kelly made a formidable combination that gave the whole campaign an impetus hitherto unseen in UK civic marketing activity. The campaign was launched in June 1983 by the Lord Provost to media attention and comment.[citation needed]

Some £100,000 was raised as a result of the Struthers fund raising proposals followed by the Scottish Development Agency (now Scottish Enterprise) agreeing to match this sum pound for pound. The reason for their contribution was due to a report they had commissioned, part of which suggested that the City of Glasgow would derive significant economic benefits from increased external marketing activity. When this funding was put in place, the City of Glasgow finally decided to offer financial support from their Common Good Fund amounting to some £60,000.[citation needed] The campaign ran across UK media and was supported by extensive PR initiatives. One of the PR stories concerned Edinburgh. One of the Struthers recommendations was to target tourists during the Edinburgh Festival, so a modest campaign was booked to run on the sides of six Edinburgh buses.

In the 1980s, Edinburgh buses were owned by Edinburgh Council, which took umbrage at the thought of Glasgow being promoted on their buses, and as a result, they banned the campaign.[3] Within days, the... Glasgow's Miles Better billboard beside the M8 In 1983, Glasgow was a markedly different place to the one we know today. It was a city weighed down by its negative image where the general air was one of depression, reinforced by the decline in its main industries. It certainly wasn’t a place to be associated with the word 'tourism', with the city having only 3,000 hotel rooms and a tourist information centre that operated out of a 25-year-old hut on George... READ MORE: Glasgow's number 1 steakhouse on Tripadvisor is going viral on TikTok with rave reviews

An unwelcoming miasma of murk has descended on the streets of London. "You've brought the weather," someone says amid the chaos of a Kensington office swarming with journalists, staff and the occasional rock star. I'm ushered into a room where Noel Gallagher, now 47, is sitting back cross-legged in a slim-fit brown leather bomber jacket and skinny black jeans. The shaggy brown mop-top from his Oasis prime has been traded for a subtly greying, well-groomed crop. Moments earlier it was announced his group High Flying Birds will headline the Sunday-night slot at this year's T in the Park. After 25 years in the business he will become the first performer to play the festival's three sites - Strathclyde Country Park, Kinross and now Strathallan Castle in Perthshire.

I sit down to chat to Fiona Shepherd on hallowed ground. We meet in Mono, the cafe and bar home to Monorail, the legendary record shop where lucky punters might be able to buy a Pastels album from the actual Stephen Pastel. Shepherd, one third of the team behind Glasgow’s Greatest Hits, is perhaps better known as the rock and pop critic at The Scotsman – no pressure then. On the way down I read her glowing review of Iggy Pop’s gig earlier in the week at the Academy. I wonder if she'd also caught Morrissey, who played a sold out show the following night? “Oh no,” laughs Shepherd, “I went to see Lionel Richie!”

It’s a perfect example of the breadth of musical life which Glasgow has to offer, but also of the approach that Shepherd, alongside co-authors Alison Stroak and Jonathan Trew, have taken to the book. It’s a celebration of every aspect of Glasgow musical life. One minute it’s a look at Gerry Cinnamon and The Jesus and Mary Chain, while the next page brings a deep dive into the Sub Club and Sydney Devine. With so much material to cover, how tough were the arguments about who made the cut and who missed out? “Oh, that was easy,” jokes Shepherd, “we just had a wrestling bout any time we disagreed, and the winner got their way. I think we were quite united, and of course, we had to be selective, and we had to be opinionated.

It’s impossible to cover every single aspect of Glasgow music in 144 pages. So, it’s about people, places, gigs. There were the big names that we knew we had to cover, but we wanted to make space for some of the quirkier characters as well.” So, what are Glasgow’s greatest hits? I ask Shepherd the question every pundit dreads. Push comes to shove, what are the bands, the albums, the gigs, that define Glasgow?

Shepherd is keen to stress that the Glasgow music scene defies easy archetypes, and it’s a question we start to answer by thinking about albums which don’t fit the bill. I suggest to Shepherd that Screamadelica, for example, isn’t really a record that makes the Glasgow list? “Oh no, that’s a Brighton album. That could never have been made unless Primal Scream had been to the Zap Club. But I think for me the album that really reflects the spirit of Glasgow is Tigermilk by Belle & Sebastian. An absolute classic, from a band that didn’t quite fit in to any scene.

They were almost a reaction to all the grungy stuff happening in the early 90s. The band had that outsider approach – more about authenticity than success – that made them seem as much a cult as a pop group.” It is 25 years since Glasgow officially became "miles better", with the launch of the now famous advertising campaign. Although it was a low-key launch in June, 1983, the campaign featuring the children's book character Mr Happy achieved world-wide recognition and gave an impetus to a declining city which is still being felt... Throughout the 1970s the heart had been torn out of what had been the second city of the Empire. Traditional industries such as ship-building, steel-making and engineering had declined, the population had fallen by 20% throughout the decade, and there was an air of depression.

The unlikely saviour was Mr Happy and the punning title Glasgow's Miles Better - or was it Glasgow Smiles Better? SCOTTISH ARTS & MUSIC since 2007. Imagining SCOTIA! Photographer & Blogger - Musicnotes, Poetrynotes, Histories, Celtic Connections, Edinburgh festivals. "Glasgow's Miles Better" – a tagline that has entered the language – was the slogan of a campaign devised with the specific purpose of changing the city's reputation as a dark, dangerous and dismal... However unjustified, that was how the city was perceived until the 1980s.

Its sullied image had significant adverse economic effects on Glasgow. As Lord Provost I was to spearhead the fight for jobs and inward investment. But, it was an impossible task, with adverse perceptions firmly fixed abroad. A visit to New York opened my eyes to the fact that cities with appalling urban problems could promote themselves successfully. I adapted its "I Love New York" campaign idea for Glasgow. Not everybody went along with my plans to market the city in such an overtly commercial way.

Many councillors objected to spending money on "advertising" when so many roofs needed repair. Indeed, it was not until I had secured the initial funding from the city's private sector that the council coughed up its share. The campaign worked. External perceptions were changed and Glasgow now has a visitor industry worth millions of pounds and thousands of jobs. But an equally important, unpredicted side effect was the impact that the campaign had on Glaswegians themselves. The slogan gave them the opportunity to articulate the pride they felt in their city.

By adopting it wholeheartedly they not only helped the campaign succeed, but created the necessary buzz and can-do attitude that were essential ingredients for the city's revival. Glaswegians are famously warm, witty, and welcoming, known for their fierce sense of humour and strong sense of community. If you’ve ever been to Glasgow, you probably noticed that the people are a wee bit peely-wally and somewhat bizarre. Glasgow is a city where the young men like to wander about in shorts and T-shirts in the middle of a drizzly winter, and young women exit nightclubs at 3 am shamelessly wearing less... The vodka and Red Bull coursing through their veins work as an antifreeze, making them impervious to the freezing rain. Glasgow is also famous for its rich industrial heritage, striking Victorian and modern architecture, world-class museums and galleries, and for being the birthplace of Charles Rennie Macintosh, James McAvoy, and the legendary Billy Connolly.

Miles Better A Guide To Glasgow S Music History The Skinny

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