Glasgow named as European live music capital

Glasgow has been recognised as Europe's live music capital by the latest publication of the travel guide 'The Rough Guide To The World'.

Scotland's biggest city pipped London, Manchester, Paris, and many other European cities to the coveted top spot, with the guide stating that "Scotland's biggest city has an alternative rock pedigree that few can match", and listing Franz Ferdinand, Primal Scream, Simple Minds, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Snow Patrol and Belle and Sebastian as the major groups spawned from the city.

The guide says that "Glasgow's gig scene, which stretches from gritty pubs to arty student haunts, marvellous church halls to cavernous arenas, is enthusiastic, vociferous and utterly magnificent."

Although the fantastic King Tut's Wah Wah Hut gets a mention for the place where Oasis was discovered, it's the Barrowlands that gets the biggest praise. The guide goes on to say that "If one venue really defines the city it's the Barrowland, opened in the 1930s as a ballroom, it was the hunting ground of a killer known as Bible John in the 1960s and it is still a fairly rough and ready place. The Barras market is just outside and its location in the Celtic heartland of Glasgow's East End makes it a favourite venue for rambunctious traditional bands."

The Barrowlands venue, with its favourable acoustics, has already been voted 'best music venue in the UK' by a recent Radio One poll, and the Independent newspaper placed it second from top in the best places in Europe to see a gig.

Despite all this praise the venue and location does have a tendency to attract some rather unwanted trouble that aren't generally associated with some of the more central venues in Glasgow.