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Glasgow


Stichman

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I'm moving to Glasgow soon, and need advice for a few musical matters.

- Good guitar shop for repairs, buying kit, etc

- Where best to get gigs when one is a newcomer

- Good venues for seeing bands, aside from the obvious ones like King Tut's, Nice n' Sleazy, Garage, Barrowlands, etc

Many Thanks

Merchant City near George Square is excellent. There's also Guitar Guitar in Argyle Street (near the Cross) for more upmarket stuff and there's a couple of young dames who have a great wee repair shop - I'll dig out the details for you. There's a Sound Control in Jamaicia Street near Central Station as well.

Not sure about venues - you've named the best known already.

...found that place...

Strung Out Guitars

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on the gig front might I be so bold as to add the rather excellent 13th note to your list? It's a good'un.

Also the art school gets my vote if you fancy something a bit different. Also has a few banging club nights.

you probably know about the ABC already but they seem to always have a few good bands every month. Sonic Youth played there last month and I've seen Mogwai and J5 there before. They were all pretty special.

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My girlfriend lives across the road from this place and I've always meant to go in, they have some very nice guitars in the window.

There's a great place next door to the guitar shop called Mono that is well worth a look if your in Glasgow, I end up in there all the time with it being across the road. The food is entirely vegetarian and my girlfriend roped me into trying it with her being a vegetarian, and I was very impressed. It's kind of a Cafe/Bar that also puts on gigs and has a brilliant little record store and Wi-Fi access. You could pretty much live in there.

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The girls at Strung Out are excellent - they took my bass with a banana shaped neck and made it good as new.

I concur with Deisel - Merchant City music are cheap but good. Guitar Guitar's a bit pricey and Sound Control have two branches and have most sorts of stuff at reasonable prices (but you'll get strings cheaper elsewhere).

I'd also chip in with McCormacks on Bath St, they're not bad either.

13th Note is probably best for putting your own gigs own. Brendan hires it out for 80 quid I think, whereas Sleazy's will cost you 200.

Avoid Fury Murray's at all costs. And arguably Rockers too.

For watching local gigs - Box on Sauchiehall St is free and has 4 band bills - mixed bag from a mixed venue but there's usually at least something worth watching. Same goes for Capitol.

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The food at Mono is a bit rubbish, but the record store is good. For better vegetarian/vegan food I'd go to 57, which is where Stereo used to be - 10-14 Kelvinhaugh Street. Good beers, too.

yup 57 is indeed awesome. if I remember correctly they do some really good beers in there (i.e organic real ales and the like). And when I went it smelt smokey, as in peat smoke, not fag smoke.

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At the risk of being pedantic, I think it's called "The 78" as every so often on weekday evenings a guy turns up and plays 78's on one of those old gramophones with the large trumpet for a speaker (I am not making this up).

Service is pretty inconsistent, as in the staff are pretty clueless sometimes, but the place does have that peaty smell coming the the open fire (always handy on a cold night) and the organic wheat beer is pretty damn good.

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At the risk of being pedantic, I think it's called "The 78" as every so often on weekday evenings a guy turns up and plays 78's on one of those old gramophones with the large trumpet for a speaker (I am not making this up).

Service is pretty inconsistent, as in the staff are pretty clueless sometimes, but the place does have that peaty smell coming the the open fire (always handy on a cold night) and the organic wheat beer is pretty damn good.

Not pedantic at all, considering I called it completely the wrong name!

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Try 'The Guitar Store' on Argyle St (just west of the Arches a bit, opposite the pawnbroker) for much second hand and budget cheapness, especially 2ndH amps. Its run by Victor Morris, machete vendors extraordinaire, but is at a slight remove from the mothershop. I was trying to get a one button footswitch for changing amp channels, Sound Control only had a Roland/Boss chat at 20 odd, TGS had a generic sound lab switch for about a fiver.

Fopp is also open again for those 5 bargains!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I discovered a couple of brilliant new places this weekend.

First one was Tchai Covna, which is a brilliant kind of Nepalese style tea-house in the West End on Otego Lane, near the university. It's a kind of wooden hut with tables, chairs and pillows scattered around the place. They serve pretty much every kind of obscure tea known to man, and do some brilliant vegetarian/vegan food, and you can also smoke Hookah's aswell (those huge smoking pipes a la Alice In Wonderland)

Secondly, Fantoosh in Princess Square shopping centre is amazing. It's a deli with a cafe attached, the food is brilliant and it's very reasonable. I got a plate of Parma Ham, Gruyere Cheese, Olives, Sundried Tomato, a beautiful relish and bread and my girlfriend had a Camembert and Sundried Tomato sandwich, and we had a bottle of Peroni, a Cranberry Juice and an Espresso all for under 20 quid. The bonus ball is they play Camera Obscura while you eat!

Two places well worth a visit should you be in Glasgow.

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