The story behind McChuills Bar in Glasgow
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.
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MusicTranscript
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.