The story behind McChuills Bar in Glasgow

National World - LocalTV

McChuills is a bar located on High Street, renowned for its contribution to the local music scene. Here we speak to the people behind the operation on making the pub a live music hot spot.

Transcript

00:00 - Yeah, well, it was started by my dad.

00:02 It was actually started around the corner in Candleriggs.

00:07 And it ran from 1993 to about '94

00:13 when it moved down here.

00:16 And originally this was a restaurant.

00:20 And it was in an area that wasn't particularly busy,

00:24 you know, going back 30 years ago.

00:28 I mean, back then, there was a lot of bands played,

00:32 but it wasn't as in a venue where the promoters could hire.

00:36 So there was bands on every Friday, Saturday night,

00:39 good punk, mod, rock and roll bands,

00:46 always kind of focusing on musical subcultures.

00:50 It ran like that really up until lockdown.

00:54 And then once we went into lockdown,

00:58 we kind of looked at the venue,

00:59 or what we had as the venue,

01:01 and decided to turn it into a proper venue,

01:04 as in putting doors on it, proper soundproofing,

01:09 bringing up the PA to a professional standard,

01:13 and really kind of expanding on the bands

01:18 and the people that actually came into it,

01:22 which was a very wide range of musical tastes.

01:26 So we've never been kind of tied down

01:28 with what type of music.

01:32 It's driven by two things,

01:33 which is music and selling beer.

01:36 My dad's a huge music lover with a great deal of knowledge.

01:42 He was a mod in the '60s, an original mod,

01:46 you know, and traveled down

01:48 to the early mod clubs in London.

01:53 So he saw all the bands from the Rolling Stones,

01:58 Small Faces and such like,

02:02 and was heavily involved in that scene.

02:05 But when the mod scene finished,

02:08 because it only lasted a few years,

02:10 when the mods were into it,

02:12 he kind of progressed on and started listening

02:15 to like Prince, Kraftwerk, Velvet Underground.

02:21 So definitely within the very eclectic sort of musical taste,

02:26 and that carried on and kind of affected myself as well.

02:33 There's been a sort of mixture of subcultures

02:36 in McCool's for, I'm struggling on that.

02:38 - Since the dawn of time?

02:40 - Yes.

02:40 (laughing)

02:41 - Yeah.

02:42 - At the heart of it.

02:43 - Since the beginning.

02:44 But it morphs, you know, it's morphed and grown,

02:46 and as different genres and people come into the place,

02:50 it breeds with it.

02:51 So McCool's has grown because of the people

02:53 that come into it.

02:54 - It's interesting just watching,

02:56 over such a long period of time,

02:58 how music tastes change,

03:01 different styles of music come in,

03:03 but also how things remain the same.

03:06 You know, how things are actually, you know,

03:10 when you look back at stuff 30 years ago,

03:12 you can parallel it to new stuff,

03:14 new bands that are coming out,

03:15 that we're seeing playing in the venue.

03:17 So it's, yeah, it's ever-changing and exciting,

03:21 you know, to be involved in that.

03:22 - Keeps you on your toes.

03:23 - Yeah.

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