Best Live Music Pubs in Glasgow
Glasgow’s famous for its amazing live music scene, both for its nurturing of small local acts and for drawing in the big names too. To celebrate the launch of PRS for Music’s ‘Music Makeover’ competition, we’ve chosen our favourite pubs and venues for live music across Glasgow.
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The Rio Café
Why not accompany one of Glasgow’s best plates of Macaroni with something altogether more cultured: a wee side of Jazz. The Rio, often a venue in the city’s Jazz Festival, also plays host to near-constant evenings of both free-entry and ticketed gigs. Is chin-scratching soloing on beat-up saxophones not your thing? They also have a wide range of folk music and spoken word performers. And even the odd play.
The Butterfly and Pig
Differentiating itself from the identikit clubs and upmarket-and-achingly-prententious clubs on Bath Street is the Butterfly and the Pig: a tea-room/bar just the right side of twee. Resident every Saturday night are the Meat Men who provide a luxuriously astounding Rock ’n’ Roll show. You can also make a wee night of it with half price entry to the adjoining Buff Club and indulge in some recorded music coupled with unbridled hedonism.
Babbity Bowster’s
A beautiful building; cosy booths and a patter-champion owner, Babbity Bowsters is one of our favourite pubs hands-down. The icing on the cake is the frequent (but frustratingly erratically timed) traditional music jam sessions. Bodhrán, fiddle and mandolin make for a perfect oral accompaniment to one of the local ales on offer. You’re not guaranteed to find them there all the time but weekend afternoons are the best bet. If it’s sunny, then you might get treated to an al-fresco concert in the spacious beer garden.
Waxy O’Connor
If you think you’re too cool to go to the Glasgow branch of an Irish-themed pub then you, pal, are missing out. At least once a month the Caffrey’s soaked, Guinness encrusted haunt beloved of rowdy students and jaded office workers welcomes a rag-tag assortment of traditional musicians. They play intimate sets in one of the many bars providing the listener with a wonderful musical treasure hunt. Find them and your ears will be rewarded.
Blackfriar’s
This slightly-hidden Merchant City gem might have an ever changing selection of IPAs and Stout but one thing we would never want them to alter is their live music institution, The Shiverin’ Sheiks. Bringing all conquering blasts of good old fashioned dancing tunes most Tuesday nights to the cosy, welcoming community in the bar they offer a raucous sound guaranteed to wash away a midweek funk.
PRS for Music are launching the ‘Music Makeover’ 2013 campaign which gives one lucky pub the chance to win £10,000 to revamp their live music facilities with equipment from music retailer GAK. There are also 10 runner up prizes of £200 GAK vouchers to be won. Think that your favourite pub has what it takes? Pubs all across the UK can enter by logging onto the website. Entries close December 31st (Ts&Cs apply).
Click here to see the latest exclusive bar and restaurant deals in Glasgow.
