Take a trip down memory lane
New city centre mural celebrates Glasgow’s iconic live music venues
A NEW mural has been unveiled on Sauchiehall Street celebrating Glasgow’s live music industry.
The Greetings From Glasgow mural has been painted on the side of The Garage with the hope it will increase footfall in the area. Andy Clark, head of marketing for The Garage and Cathouse, first came up with the idea for a new mural around two years ago on a trip to Nashville where he was inspired by similar postcard- style artwork.
He explained: “I took a photo of one of these when I was in Nashville and then I looked into it and they’ve got these in basically every major town in the USA and they’ve all got the same sort of vibe with ‘ Greetings from’ and the name of the city or town.
“I thought ‘ Glasgow doesn’t have one of them so I wonder if I can pull that together’.
“It was one of those ideas I’ve had in the back of my head since.”
The Garage celebrates its 30th birthday this year, and Andy, who has worked at the venue for 12 years, revisited the idea to mark the occasion.
He decided he wanted the vibrant mural, which was created by Frank and Mandy Carty of Artisan Artworks, to celebrate Glasgow’s live music industry because at the moment it’s “taking a bit of a doing”.
The artwork depicts some of the city’s most iconic venues including The Garage, Barrowland Ballroom, Cathouse, King Tut’s, Box, Nice N Sleazy, Oran Mor and SWG3.
The 39- year- old said: “I thought ‘ let’s celebrate live music’ because a lot of people know The Garage as being a nightclub, but we’ve got a gig almost every night from now until at least July so it’s about celebrating that.
“Then it grew arms and legs and I thought let’s celebrate live music as a whole and the pillars that are in the city because it’s not just us.
He continued: “We wanted to celebrate something that’s really good but maybe needs a little bit of help.”
Andy hopes the new mural, which is located near one of the stops on the Glasgow City Sightseeing tour, will bring tourists to the area and benefit all the surrounding businesses, calling the area “a wee ecosystem”.
He said: “We all know Sauchiehall Street hasn’t been doing so well for the last year and we were trying to rack our brains and think of ideas that will bring people back to the street.
“Not just for The Garage but for everyone.
“We’re a pillar of the street and as long as we do okay everybody else seems to do okay.”
He continued: “I just really want people checking in at the Glasgow sign [ on social media].
“It’s to get people coming back to Sauchiehall Street.
“We also put ‘ nightlife district’ down at the bottom because we think if tourists get photos and it’s on everyone’s s Instagram and they read the fact t it’s the nightlife district people will head there.
“We can make Sauchiehall Street great again.”
Andy has also encouraged other surrounding venues to create “something viral” to encourage visitors to stay in the area after visiting the sign. The mural was completed on April 30 with Andy saying the response so far has been “amazing”. He added: “Before it was even finished there were tourists taking photos of it. “We’re going to spend some money getting a wee bit of lighting above it as well to get it lit up better at night to make sure people can get their photos.”
The Greetings From Glasgow mural is located on the side of The Garage at 490 Sauchiehall Street.