Kirstin Innes - Brickwork: A Biography of the Arches

First published in 2021 by Salamander Street Ltd.

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Brickwork: A Biography of The Arches David Bratchpiece and Kirstin Innes, 2021

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ISBN: 9781913630980

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Dedicated to everyone who worked at The Arches, everyone who played at The Arches, and most of all to Andy Arnold

Authors Note

When trying to work out how to tell The Arches story, we kept coming back to the people who made it what it was. As former employees who had their lives changed by the venue, both of us were aware, from the moment we started our very different roles, of the many, varying things the place meant to so many. This is a biography, because were not just telling the story of bricks and mortar, or of an arts venue, but of an organisation that seemed to have its own soul. People may or may not make Glasgow, as the current city marketing slogan would have it, but they definitely made The Arches. So weve tried where possible to have this story told verbatim, in the words of the people who were there at the time: the founders and directors, the club impresarios and DJs, the theatre makers and performers, the clubbers, the bar, door and cloakroom staff, and the audiences. Of course, this book is really only scraping the surface. The Arches was the sort of place that almost everyone it touched has a story about: here are as many as we could cram in.

David Bratchpiece and Kirstin Innes.

Dramatis Personae

ANDY ARNOLD: Arches founder and artistic director, 19912008

LORI FRATER: First Arches general manager, 19911996

KEITH BRUCE: Former arts editor, The Herald

DAVE CLARKE: Director of Soma Records and promoter of Slam and Pressure (active in The Arches 19922015)

COLIN McCREDIE: Actor

STEPHEN McCOLE: Actor/DJ

GARY GILLIES: Co-founder, Alien War (active in The Arches 1992, 2008, 2012)

AL SEED: First Arches artist-in-residence, 20052008

DAVID BRATCHPIECE: Co-author of Brickwork . Arches cloakroom and usher (19981999), box office assistant (19992006), duty manager (20062010), front of house manager (20102013)

BLAIR SUTHERLAND: Longest serving Arches employee (19922015: bar staff, bar supervisor, bars and catering manager, director of operations)

STUART McMILLAN: DJ & producer, Slam

ANGIE DIGHT: Co-founder, Mischief La-Bas

ORDE MEIKLE: DJ & producer, Slam

FIONA SHEPHERD: Arts journalist

JULIE WARDLAW: Work placement (1994), front of house staff, press and publicity manager (19942000)

JOYCE McMILLAN: Theatre critic

CORA BISSETT: Actor, writer, director

NIKKI MILICAN: Artistic director, National Review of Live Art

GRAEME THOMPSON: Promoter, Love Boutique (active in The Arches 19931999)

NIALL WALKER: Designer, then marketing and design manager, 20002014

GERI ODONOHOE: Television producer. Arches box office assistant 19981999, box office manager 19992001

RICKY MAGOWAN: Promoter, Streetrave and Colours (active in The Arches 19952015)

IAIN BONEY CLARK: DJ, Streetrave and Colours (active in The Arches 19952015)

JULIE McEWAN: Promoter, Streetrave and Colours (active in The Arches 19952015)

DUNCAN REID: Founder of Breastfed Records, promoter of Inside Out and Freefall (active in The Arches 19952011)

SIMON FOY: DJ and promoter, Inside Out and Freefall (active in The Arches 19952011)

ANDY MACKENZIE: Arches staff 19992006 (bar staff, duty manager, front of house manager, operations manager)

CARL COX: DJ/producer, Arches patron 20062015

JUDGE JULES: DJ/producer

SARAH WELLS: General manager then executive director, 19962002

ANDREW OHAGAN: Journalist and novelist

WILLIAM DANIEL: DJ, Inside Out and Freefall (active in The Arches 20002015)

ROB WATSON: Technician, then technical manager, 19972015

TAMSIN AUSTIN: Music programmer, 19992003

BARRY ESSON: Arches refurbishment project assistant (19992000), then curator of Instal Festival (active in The Arches 20012009)

LYNDA FORBES: Commercial and corporate events manager, 20002006

LJ FINDLAY-WALSH: Arts administrator then arts programmer, 20052015

NINA MILLER: Steward then joint head of security, 20002015

KIRSTIN INNES: Co-author of Brickwork . Arches press and publicity manager, 20042006

NIC GREEN: Actor and theatre-maker

JACQUI REID: Death Disco PR staff 20042011, arts intern 2006, co-promoter of Nightwalk 2010

JACKIE WYLIE: Fundraising officer 20042005, arts programmer 20052008, artistic director and co-chief executive officer 20082015

MARK ANDERSON: Executive director 20032015

MARK FISHER: Journalist

KIERAN HURLEY: Playwright, Arches front of house staff 20062009

TIM CROUCH: Playwright, theatre director, actor

ROBERT SOFTLEY-GALE: Artistic director, Birds of Paradise Theatre Company

RICHARD GADD: Actor, writer, director

KIRSTIN McLEAN: Actor, Arches Award for Stage Directors winner 2004

NESHLA CAPLAN: Actor, Arches box office assistant then manager, 20062009

GEORGE MACKENNEY: Front of house staff, duty manager, operations manager 20052015

BRIAN REYNOLDS: Music programme manager, 20082012

KIRSTIN BAILLIE: Front of house staff, 20092015

LYN GARDNER: Theatre critic

LISA DUNIGAN: Steward, then joint head of security, 20032015

JOSEPH BLYTHE: Press officer, 20132014

NATALIE ODONOGHUE: Writer, theatre critic, Arches events bar staff 20082015

NEIL BRATCHPIECE: Comedian, actor, writer, Arches events bar staff 20002007

MIRANDA RALSTON: Arches PR 2005, finance assistant 20052011

EDDIE CASSIDY: Comedian, Arches clubber

RONA PROUDFOOT: Arches clubber

LOUISE STEWART: Actor, writer, director, Arches box office and front of house staff, 20082015

CAT HEPBURN: Poet/writer, Arches box office and cafe bar staff, 20102015

ANGIE KOORBANALLY: Arches bar, front of house and box office staff, 20042009, founder of Nightwalk 2010

SCOTT McDONALD: Lighting and visuals freelancer (active in the Arches 19912015

IAN SMITH: Co-founder, Mischief La-Bas

Glasgows Glasgows Glasgow

Were you there?

Did you scream at the original Alien War ? Did you witness the night Banksy painted the walls, or the time a young lad yet to rename himself Calvin Harris got his first warm-up shot on the decks? Were you at the National Review of Live Art when Franco B performed his bloodletting piece? Did you see Daft Punk? Or Massive Attack? Or Irvine Welsh? Or the Chemical Brothers? The original production of Nic Greens Trilogy? The night Ann Liv Young got naked at Death Disco? Were you there the night the first-ever crowd started chanting, Here we, here we, here we fucking go?