Barrowland Ballroom Open Doors Tour. Thursday 14th November, 2024.

My first ever visit to the Barrowland Ballroom was on September 14th, 1985, to see Gary Moore on his 'Run For Cover' tour. As I recall, his guitar playing was immense, but his vocals were less so. 

They didn't even print the year on the ticket.

I've had so many great concert experiences here, such as the Marillion Hogmanay gig, where Fish got a room full of rockers to do The Twist; experiencing Ozzy Osbourne at a hot and sweaty gig, throwing full buckets of water over the crowd; witnessing a T-shirt, thrown from the audience, land over Dave Grohl's face during a Foo Fighters gig (he laughed it off and kept playing); and many, many GUN concerts, including their last show before splitting up, the night after my Graduation Ball, when I hadn't been to bed (the room was trippy that night with me half-asleep). As a venue, the Barrowlands has always held a warm place in my heart.

So when I spotted a Facebook post advertising a free Open Doors tour of the Barrowland Ballroom, I jumped at the chance to get tickets, snagging two places for the 2 pm slot. And how lucky I was! All the tickets for the entire day sold out in three minutes.

Mural on the side of the building

The doors

For a change, we didn't get frisked on the way in. 

Gareth, the venue's official photographer, hosted our tour (he was one of two tour guides on the day). During the hour and a half we spent with him, he was a wealth of knowledge about all periods of the venue's history.

The story began in 1934 when Maggie McIver, known as the 'Barras Queen', wanted a venue for the traders to hold their Christmas party. Most had been barred from all the local hostelries, so she decided to build one herself. So that's what she did. 

A local bandleader offered her a fee to hire the venue at weekends. When she later saw the numbers attending, the canny businesswoman approached the band's drummer and asked him to form his own band so she could run the dances and keep the box office for herself. As it was a 'dry' venue, the local ladies would bribe the bouncers to sneak in their alcohol, retrieving their bottles of whatever from the ladies' toilet cisterns.    

There is a door beside the Ladies' Toilet, which leads up to the headliner's changing room.
I'm sure no band has ever taken advantage of this.

The original building was largely destroyed by fire in 1958, but Maggie's son was determined to rebuild the venue, bigger and better. The new Barrowland Ballroom opened on Christmas Eve, 1960, this time sporting its iconic animated neon sign. The sign cost £1.35 an hour to run and was officially switched on by Russ Abbott. The venue had excellent sound, thanks to its barrel-shaped ceiling and acoustic tiles, allowing the orchestras to play unamplified. The ballroom also famously had a sprung dance floor. 

Later, when Health and Safety officials realised how many people were packing into the venue each night, they tested the structure, placing 100 coins around the place. Every single one fell down. The venue could have been condemned or attendance numbers restricted, so the management inserted eighteen steel pillars to reinforce the upper floor to ensure it remained safe. 

 

Its audience capacity is now 1900, but once guests, bar staff, stagehands, medical officers, and security are included, the actual limit is 2100.

The venue is still owned privately by the relatives of Maggie's extended family despite being offered huge sums to sell over the years.

Floor decoration in the Crush.

This is the music for "I Belong to Glasgow".

Merch area 

Our tour took us next to the support act's changing room, featuring all the warmth and charm of a prison cell. Legend tells that the first time The Saw Doctors played the Barrowland, as a support act, they didn't have anywhere to stay, so they knocked on the door after the gig and begged to sleep on the floor of this room, promising to behave. Surprisingly, the venue let them do so. On their next visit, headlining, they insisted on using this changing room again (they subsequently moved to the bigger main room on future visits).  

Watch your head! The shower has a tiny entrance.

We also got to see the various production offices where the band management set up for each gig. 

This office has an original mirror from the first ballroom

Security passes from over the years.

The venue is proud of its mezzanine features. The walls are banked with Australian Oak. The tiles are all original, and the mirror is etched with images reflecting its past, such as the barrow wheel, the musical notes, and the instruments.

Every rising stair up to the main hall has a line of lyrics stuck to it (I never took a picture of them). I was surprised about how this came about. Ten years ago, Biffy Clyro hired the venue for three nights and asked if they could make the residency more special by decorating the stairs with their lyrics. Since then, they have remained as no one was willing to pay to have them removed. Simon Neil was gobsmacked to see his lyrics still there when the band played another three nights there recently. 

Mezzanine seating

The original tiles

Australian oak

Original mirror

One thing I didn't know about the dancefloor space was that the stage was originally on the other side, where the Accessibility seating now is. It had to be moved because, structurally, the floor couldn't take the weight when the rock bands started playing. The venue doesn't have its own PA system but does have its own road crew, who cart all the bands' equipment up and down the two floors. They are known to be the best in the business.

The Canadian Maple floor gets buffed twice a week.

The Barrowland's origin as a music venue began in the Eighties. At that time, the ballroom lay empty, mothballed due to lack of interest. A local band called Simple Minds had made a disastrous video for 'Waterfront' at the Clyde waterfront and needed a quick replacement. Someone mentioned to them that there was this empty room in the East End. They paid to install the anchor points for the lighting rigs as the venue had none (they are still being used to this day). Filling the venue with fans who sent in a stamp-addressed envelope to Billy Sloan's radio show, they filmed the video over a day, lip-syncing to a backing track, rewarding the fans with an impromptu set afterwards.   

Loving the sound, they booked the venue for two further dates, becoming the first act to hold a paying, ticketed gig at the Barrowland. To celebrate this, the Barrowland shop has Special Edition merch. 

40 YEARS OF GIGS T-SHIRT

  

The refurbished bars are all named after (some of) Maggie's children: Sam, Kitty and Victor.

The headliner changing room is much more impressive than that for the support acts. We learned how Lemmy of Motorhead insisted they install his fruit machine (puggy in local dialect) so he could feed his addiction. The Barrowland stage crew had to cart it up (and down) the two flights of stairs. Robbie Williams insisted on a tantric medication chamber for his rider, so the staff cleared out the cleaning cupboard and added some scented candles to keep him happy. I'm sure there are plenty of other stories, but the mirrors hid those reflections, and the walls were not talking.    

The make-up room has stars on the walls, which the venue now makes themselves, as bands often nick them as souvenirs.

On the way to the stage, we pass the Barrowland Hall of Fame. These bands all mean something special to the Barrowland management, not necessarily reflecting the bands who have played there most often. Gareth, our tour guide, didn't elaborate further. 

We make our way to the stage. No one brought a musical instrument this time, but often people do, just so they can claim they played at the Barrowland.

Bob, rocking the Barrowland stage.

Behind the stage

The back stairs still have some of the original posters from yesteryear (unlike the fire escape at the front of the venue, which had to be cleared due to ongoing building work - don't worry, every poster was catalogued before being removed).

We weren't taken to the other small event space within the venue, but we had a quick look anyway. It often hosts special events like weddings and birthday parties.

 

I absolutely loved this tour. It meant so much to me to see behind the scenes and hear all the stories in its history. It was an amazing experience.

Ticket price: Free from Barrowland.co.uk.