Kielty - Apollo Memories: the Venue - The Story - The Legend

APOLLO MEMORIES

THE VENUE ~ THE STORY ~ THE LEGEND

MARTIN KIELTY

WWW.NWP.CO.UK

CHAPTER ONE
WE WANT U IN

CHAPTER TWO
APOLLO ONE

CHAPTER THREE
INTO ORBIT

CHAPTER FOUR
THE CONTINUING VOYAGES

CHAPTER FIVE
WE HAVE A PROBLEM

CHAPTER SIX
APOLLO TWO

CHAPTER SEVEN
RAW MEAT FOR THE BALCONY

CHAPTER EIGHT
THEYVE ALL PLAYEDTHEYRE ALL COMING BACK

CHAPTER NINE
THIS IS THE BEST GIG IN BRITAIN LETS GO

CHAPTER TEN
FINAL MISSION

CHAPTER ELEVEN
GOODNIGHT GLASGOW

Contributions: Thanks to all who provided words and pictures Im sorry I couldnt find space or time to cover everyone, but thats what the websites for

Research assistance: Scottish Screen Archive, and the editorial and library departments of the Daily Record & Sunday Mail, especially Murray, whose buttocks are herbal.

Thanks: Backstage hero Russell Leadbetter for caring enough to keep the memories alive in print. Scott McArthur and Andy Muir for creating a website that brings together so many vibrant and lively people. David Belcher for constant namechecking and moral support. Cameron Taylor at Portnellan Highland Lodges for providing perfect writing conditions far from the madding crowd. Kenny, Keith and co at the Solid Rock Cafe for providing beer at the wave of three fingers. The wonderful staff at Fix for turning the music down when I was doing interviews, and for more beer. The old and new crew at the Carnarvon (Oscar Slaters) for yet more beer. The Copy Cat, RIP. Apple for making my 15-inch G4 Powerbook quite simply the best Mac Ive ever had my first genuine cradle-to-grave production experience. Neil Wilson for tolerating the way I work (I can only imagine how irritating it must be). Jimmy Smith: get some bloody work done. Ali Bear: I know I am but what are you?

Regards to Frank Lynch, the man who made it all happen.

Regards and thanks to Jet Mayfair and Eddie Tobin.

People who bought me the required amount of beer to get a mention this time: Steve Banaghan, Tim Collins, Damien Kielty, Robert T Leonard, Gavin Mitchell, Frank Morgan, David Coyle. People I hope will buy me beer after a mention: Billy Rankin, Jamesie Bear, Red & Bruce, Therese Kielty, Billy Sloan, Tom Russell, Allan Rennie, Nick Low, Stuart McHugh (sorry about the stray emails!).

In my usual style I deny responsibility for any errors or omissions, and direct you instead to Scott, Andy, or almost anyone else at all.

Multithanks to Gibby in gratitude for masses of research assistance, correcting, planning, arranging, encouragement, and putting up with me when I hated writing again.

To my wife Claire ~ you didnt like the last dedication and youre not going to like this one either.

You want a rocknroll story? Okay, heres one. Heres all of them, in fact. You went up Renfield Street, through the door, into the foyer, past the box office, had your ticket checked by the bouncer, headed into the hall, and then everything.

Thats how it was from 1973 until 1985, when the Apollo was the place to play and the place to be seen playing. I dont just mean Glasgow I mean Scotland, Britain, Europe and the world. And for once its not just Weegie bluster: the Apollo compared favourably to any other venue anywhere.

You dont have to take my word for it. More importantly, you dont have to take Glasgows word for it. Or Scotlands. Giggers and liggers from all over the globe have shared their memories here in this book, on the website and in words, pictures, live albums, videos and DVDs just about everywhere.

You cant please everyone, so Ive tried to please the Glasgow choir first. If you werent part of the Apollo crowd by any extension, you might not get it. But I think we all hope you will.

The story is built around contributions from people who visited the site, and from people who were interviewed in person or by email. Ive avoided picking up too many anecdotes directly from the forums but if you enjoy the kind of stuff youre about to read, I assure you theres a lot more of the same to be found online.

The big question is, Why was the Apollo so special? The answer cant be expressed in words, so Ive made a point of trying to answer it in spirit. See if you get it.

Martin Kielty
Glasgow, July 2005

When we were growing up in Glasgow, almost all the bands we loved played for us in the Apollo. The music of our youth is always the best music. They were, of course, the best years of our lives and we spend many a beer looking back on the days when everything was so much simpler.

Its easy to feel silly about how bad we felt when it closed, or the way we never got to say goodbye properly because the last gigs werent our cup of tea. But we did feel that way and the more we talked about it the more we realised we should do something about it.

Russell Leadbetters book, You Dont Have to be in Harlem, led the way. We thought there must be many more personal memories waiting to come out. And since one of us is an organiser and one of us is a web developer, we thought: why not?

The website started in 2002 and it proved very quickly the Apollo was gone but not forgotten. Hundreds of people every week were adding their own memories. It was gratifying to discover how many people felt the way we did. We thought we were alone in believing too much soul has been taken out of the whole city centre experience, that rocknroll isnt as magical as it used to be, and that even if things were more rough round the edges in those days, a lot of life felt better for it.

It wasnt long before we thought about a book. When we read Martins SAHB Story: the Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, we knew he was the man for the job. This book is a fitting tribute to the people who worked there, the bands who played there, and the people of Glasgow, Scotland and beyond who attended the concerts and still hold the Apollo in their hearts and memories.

Scott McArthur & Andy Muir
www.apollomemories.com
England & Australia, July 2005

THEY once called Glasgow Cinema City. In the first half of the twentieth century there were over 130 film theatres in the urban sprawl more screens per head than anywhere in the world outside the USA. Every day 175,000 Glaswegians went to the pictures, and everyone visited at least once a week not difficult since hardly anyone lived more than five minutes walk from a cinema.

The picture palaces had grown out of the play houses. Stan Jefferson and Archie Leach began their professional careers in Glasgow, later making headway by moving to the States and changing their names to Stan Laurel and Cary Grant. They trod the boards at Trongates Empire Theatre, which eventually became the Panopticon Cinema. In 1910 Glasgows first purpose-built cinema, the Electric Theatre in Sauchiehall Street, opened its doors and from then until the 1930s the buildings went up as fast as reels race through projectors.