“Follow me up this dark and narrow alley. Trust me, I know where I’m going.”  That’s Jim Gellatly about to dive down Renfield Lane on his virtual tour of Glasgow Music Scene. And now Tommy promises to lead us up a few more alleys on his live version of the tour.

A clip from Glasgow Music Tour launch video

Tommy McCormick, Chief Explorer of the unashamedly quirky Paradise & Moriarty Explorers Club, also knows where he’s going. He has already followed our audio tour but today he adds a few twists and turns of his own for our first guided music tour of the city.  “At times we’ll be going round in circles,” he cheerfully warns the group as we gather outside Nice’n’ Sleazy on a scorcher of an afternoon.  We’re a mixed bunch of music and film buffs. And folk who just like exploring.

So off we go, nosing into forgotten corners, reminiscing about great gigs and bygone days (who else remembers the old pool table in Sleazy’s?), standing with newly peeled eyes surprised at the beauty of old buildings like Scottish Opera most of us hurry past without giving a second glance.

Under wraps is the Old Athenaeum being reinvented by the Hard Rock Café in Buchanan Street.  Almost gone is the old Odeon, its beautiful Art Deco façade crumbling painfully while who knows what property development goes on behind the hoarding.  Tommy’s mum saw the Beatles and Stones here.  We stand in reverential silence for a moment or two.

Behind wraps, Old Athenaeum is being transformed into Glasgow’s Hard Rock Cafe

But there’s plenty to be cheerful about. This is a day for opening ears and eyes to sights, sounds, stories and songs lurking up side streets. We dodge shopping crowds, nipping through alleyway shortcuts to the Merchant City, catching glimpses of Glasgow as Philadelphia and New York, brushing past darker secrets of slavery.

Finding music history in street signs and doorways is a reminder that cities are not defined by monuments or grand merchant houses. True quirks and character of Glasgow lie in chance encounters on street corners and behind beaming pub windows.

So many larger than life stories. The showman in the top hat outside the Panopticon puts on a spontaneous show for us with bizarre burlesque tales. We pass the pub where the Clash defied licensing laws to bring punk to Glasgow. And we end up at the one and only Barrowland. But perhaps the newest insight comes outside Bar Ten in Mitchell Lane designed, Tommy explains, by architect Ben Kelly – creator of Manchester’s Hacienda – deliberately to prevent people getting too comfortable and settling in for the night. Those hard surfaces, high bar stools and bright lights all calculated to make sure people drank up quickly and went clubbing.

Just round the corner we come to the Sub Club, the epicentre of Glasgow’s club scene.  “How’re you feeling after last night?” shouts the smiling doorman recognising a member of our group who it turns out was there till early hours.

That’s Glasgow.

The crumbling old Odeon