THE Glasgow Apollo is the rock venue that simply refuses to die.
Consider: its heyday was as long ago as the 1970s. In the decade that followed, the old place, which stood at the top of Renfield Street, and had been showing its age for an indecent number of years, was finally demolished after 12 years of unstinting service. Up in its place went a skyscraping cinema.
Music has moved on in so many ways since the Apollo. There are entirely new genres; there are new global stars (precious few of whom were alive when the Apollo was at its peak). There are radical new ways of listening to music, and radical new ways of buying concert tickets, too. Back then, you made your way to the Renfield Street box-office queued up - for hours, if need be.
For all that, the Apollo exercises an astonishing grip on the imagination of those who witnessed concerts there. Books have been written about the venue. A university thesis was written some years ago. Stage plays have told the Apollo story. A flourishing Facebook page dedicated to the Apollo boasts nearly 14,000 members. It sells T-shirts based on actual Apollo gig tickets: they are selling well.
Many stars have fond memories of the Apollo and describe its audiences as among the best, and most enthusiastic, they ever encountered. More than a few bands recorded live albums at the venue. The Who, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Status Quo, the Eagles, Johnny Cash, Lou Reed and Neil Young were just some of the major-league acts who entertained the Apollo. The Stones played no fewer than six gigs there, and one at its predecessor, Green's Playhouse, in 1971.
"Glasgow is noted for the enthusiasm of its pop music audiences", the Glasgow Herald said after a Paul McCartney and Wings show in December 1979. "But the Wings concert produced an audience so frantically excited that it made other rock shows in the city positively sedate".
Rod Stewart's love of Celtic stems indirectly from a run of four shows he and his then band, The Faces, played in Renfield Street in December 1974. Though Rod doesn't actually specify the venue in his autobiography, he says that after one show Kenny Dalglish approached him and asked if he wanted to attend the players' training session the following day.
Rod drove to Celtic Park and was bowled over - even if Jock Stein, the legendary Celtic manager, looked with "amused contempt" at Rod's choice of footwear, a "highly foppish pair of white shoes".
Look through the Facebook Apollo page and you will see countless vivid personal recollections. Someone will post a memory of a specific concert; before long, others will join in. "I was there!" they say with pride. Ticket stubs are posted: £4 to see Van Halen in 1980, £5 to see Motorhead in 1983. A mere £1.65 for a seat in the stalls for Lou Reed's concert in 1974.
The Apollo has given rise to all sorts of Glasgow anecdotes. One contributor to the Facebook page, Kevin Kernan, relates how he and a young woman, out on their first date, could hear the sound of Meatloaf playing the Renfield Street venue. "Decided to listen for a bit at the stage door when someone asked if we wanted to go in", he writes. "Obviously grabbed the chance and got pretty much the full gig for free. Best first date ever. Got chucked 2 weeks later, peaked too early".
Many Apollo fans treasure souvenirs of the place, including old chair arm-rests. One, Derek Mcadam, posted a picture of some of his memorabila, including cardboard promotional cut-outs, a drumstick used by the US band Lynyrd Skynyrd, and his concert tickets for the Apollo and its predecessor, Green's Playhouse, between 1971 and 1983.
Why then does the Apollo still fascinate people, so long after its demise?
"Great question", says Andy Muir, who lives in Sydney and, along with Scott McArthur, runs the Facebook page. "There are many similar venues in cities all over the UK. Manchester has the Manchester Apollo; Liverpool has the Liverpool Empire, London had the Rainbow/Astoria.
"Imagine what the Apollo would have been like with money spent on it at the time, rather than the sheds at the SECC which, from what I remember, were rubbish for concerts.
"If the Apollo was still around, would we still be talking about it in the way in which we now do? Would we hold our memories of it in such high regard that every venue we go to, we instantly compare it to the Apollo, no matter how clean, warm, or comfortable it is? The first time I went to the Playhouse in Edinburgh, I remember doing that very thing.
"Recently, I saw Paolo Nutini at the State Theatre here in Sydney and thought, 'I wonder what he would be like playing at the Apollo and having the Apollo crowd there? The State Theatre is a great venue. He was fantastic and the crowd did get a little rowdy, which was good to see, but only when he jumped from the stage and got in amongst them...
"So, what I'm really saying is, perhaps as our experiences at the Apollo/Greens exist now solely as memories, unattainable and frozen fragments in time and our minds. As it gets further away, the pull of our youth only grows stronger, and we want to hold onto the past more closely. It really could be a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder".
As someone who saw so many concerts at the Apollo in the Seventies, I have to agree. The venue was a huge part of my teenage years. It was a scruffy, cavernous, edgy sort of place. I loved it. And, even now, I still miss it. I can never walk past that skyscraper cinema now without thinking of all those nights in the Apollo stalls, giddy with teenage excitement and sense of adventure.
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