Who was the first person to get married at the Barrowland Ballroom?

What does it cost to light those neon stars?

Which band has played the Barras more than any others?

Where would you find a rooftop golf course in Glasgow?

Answers?

Apart from that last one, you will find the answers in Lucy Brouwer’s great blog about her Doors Open Day debut as a guide at Glasgow’s most iconic music venue (20 Facts About The Barrowland).  After 20 years of gigging at the Barrowland she probably knew a thing or two about the old place but as we found when we started researching Glasgow Music Tour there is always something new to learn.

Which is a roundabout way of saying we know there are many more unknown knowns to discover when we take to the road with Tommy McCormick of Paradise & Moriarty Explorers Club on Saturday.

He bases his zig-zagging walk through the city on our audio tour route but digs up a lot of extra hidden stories in and around the music venues and uncovers many larger-than-life characters who have made and lost their fortunes in the fickle business of entertainment. We pass the Barras of course but Tommy delves into many more wonderful (and sometimes downright weird) places in our two hour walk.  Or ‘amble through the city’ as the List magazine nicely puts it.

Music is the theme but you can’t walk round Glasgow without encountering street art and architecture, cafes and cinema, buskers and new building. The city is always changing but the Commonwealth Games is generating a visible construction boom.   So the walk is full of fascinating insights into what makes Glasgow such a dynamic city.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh metalwork

We will seek out some new bold kids on the block (check who’s moving into the beautiful Old Athenaeum theatre in Buchanan Street) as well as meeting some equally bold entrepreneurs of the past.  The rooftop golf course is just part of the incredible story of the old Apollo.

We’ll also be inviting you to share your stories, post your pictures, and tweet your comments on Glasgow’s music scene (both what you learn and those unknown knowns you can tell us).  So bring your well-charged mobile phone, and a camera if you like. And expect the unexpected.

PS: very glad to add that some of Lucy Brouwer’s 20 facts were informed by our audio tour to the Barras. There’s a special free download for people on Saturday’s walk.