Glasgow: The 'City of Music' where Oasis and Kurt Cobain's favourite band cut their teeth

Up a scuzzy flight of red vinyl stairs, with song lyrics printed all the way from street level to stage, a rock ’n’ roll band can be heard, all drums and guitars, muffled like a blast of radio interference.

Then, past the swinging doors, a 2000-strong crowd surges, and the former ballroom floor – one made of Canadian maple and sprung to help contain the pogoing music fans – becomes a bear pit of revellers.

Next, after an hour or so, the lighting rig illuminates the stage for the encore and you’d swear you’re about to witness the second coming. Because this is not your normal rock venue. This is a show at Scotland’s most iconic live venue, the Barrowlands, and ground zero for the nation’s music scene.

It has been a long half-century since Glasgow first planted a flag as a world-class hub of popular music in the late 1970s. And ever since, music lovers on an aural adventure have been introduced to the likes of Simple Minds, Deacon Blue, Primal Scream, Texas, Teenage Fanclub, Franz Ferdinand, Biffy Clyro, Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol, Mogwai and the Vaselines, once described as Kurt Cobain’s favourite band in the world. The list goes on.

To some extent, such history can be traced back to the 1979 formation of Postcard Records, the music label that became a vehicle for the arty melodies of groups like Aztec Camera and Edwyn Collins’ Orange

Juice. Two years earlier, the city council had banned punk – punk concerts, specifically – and a post-punk, new wave backlash was on the way. What followed was a raft of mainstream music that so many people still joyfully listen to today.

In part, this explains today’s Glasgow Music City Tours, insider trips around the city’s most prominent venues and clubs that emphasise Glasgow’s disproportionate influence on the global music scene – the city is just a tenth the size of London or New York, after all.

On the tour, music lovers wind from the Royal Concert Hall, past the now defunct Apollo, where Glasgow-born band AC/DC recorded their first live album, to venues including the CCA, O2 Academy and Nice N Sleazy.

A highlight is world-famous King Tuts’ Wah Wah Hut, the birthing point of Britpop superstars Oasis, and a venue from which every Scottish band from Travis to Chvrches has begun their chart assault.

While cities often tend to emphasise their locality, Glasgow has gone global. The UK’s first Unesco City of Music – a designation awarded in 2008 – and with the highest concentration of music students in the UK, its venues, music organisations, festivals, promoters, schools and colleges have formed a tightly knit scene that fosters a special kind of grounding.

‘Glasgow’s music scene has long flourished and continues to do so,’ says Fiona Shepherd, the brains behind Glasgow Music City Tours and the Scotsman newspaper’s music critic.

‘If you have lots of small venues, it gives a great opportunity for bands to have a platform – that’s what makes it special, the sense of community.’ Importantly too, cynicism, a notoriously Glaswegian trait, also helps curb the susceptibility for any band to have ideas above their station.

While the city’s success has been built on a deep-rooted music culture, DIY mythology and a can-do attitude, there’s more to the music scene than the buzz of guitars.

Jazz, blues, hip-hop, classical and folk all have vibrant scenes, not least in the form of Celtic Connections, the folk, roots and world music festival that takes over the city every January. Started in 1994, and with an annual attendance of 130,000, it’s now the world’s largest winter music festival.

Come and visit and you’ll sing and dance, for a night at least.