The Barras | |
Location | 244 Gallowgate, Glasgow, Scotland |
---|---|
Type | Entertainment venue, concert hall, ballroom |
Genre(s) | Rock, Pop, Indie, Dance, Folk, Irish |
Capacity | 1,900 |
Opened | 1934 (rebuilt 1960) |
Website | |
http://www.barrowland-ballroom.co.uk |
The Barrowland Ballroom (also known as Barrowland and The Barras) is an entertainment venue, dance hall and music venue located in the Calton district in Glasgow, Scotland.
A prominent feature of the music scene in Glasgow, the venue has appeared in various elements of popular culture, notably tracks by Amy Macdonald and Simple Minds.
The original building opened in 1934 in a mercantile area east of Glasgow's city centre, built by Maggie McIver, the "Barras Queen". [1] [2] [3] The area and the ballroom are named after the Glasgow Barrowland market.
The building was completely rebuilt after being largely destroyed by fire in 1958, and reopened on 24 December 1960. The Barrowland building includes large street-level halls used for the weekend markets, with a large weatherproof hall above. The front of the building is decorated with a large animated neon sign.
Since 2020, Barrowland Ballroom has been the venue for the annual Scottish Music Awards.
From 1983 onwards [4] the ballroom became a concert venue with a capacity of 1,900 standing, [5] known for its acoustics and its sprung dance floor. [6] Simple Minds relaunched the venue by filming the video for their 1983 single, "Waterfront", at Barrowlands. [7] Adjacent to the ballroom itself is the Barrowland Park, where there is a path displaying the names of many artists who have played at the venue. Northern Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers have played sold-out concerts at the venue every St Patrick's Day since 1992, and recorded their Best Served Loud album there in 2016 to celebrate 25 years at Barrowland.
The Barrowland 2 is part of the Barrowland Ballroom and is used both as a bar when larger shows are playing in the main hall and as a venue to host smaller gigs. While it occasionally plays host to smaller or acoustic gigs from more established acts, its usual function is as a venue for small local Glasgow bands. The promoters also host an event showcasing unsigned local acts in the main ballroom every year.[ citation needed ]
Between 1968 and 1969, three young women (Patricia Docker, Jemima MacDonald and Helen Puttock) were found brutally murdered after nights out at the Barrowland. All three murders were attributed to a man dubbed "Bible John" by police after he was heard referring to the Old Testament to one of his victims. Similarities between the murders led police to believe that they were the work of the same man. The man made contact with all three women at the Barrowland Ballroom, before escorting them home and raping and strangling them within yards of their doorsteps. All three women were menstruating and their handbags were stolen. An investigation failed to find Bible John, and the murders remain unsolved. On the night of the murder of Helen Puttock, Puttock's sister Jeannie Langford was with her and spoke to her sister's suspected killer. Jeannie described Bible John as: "25–35 years old, reddish/fair hair, wore a blue suit and matching trousers with white shirt. Spoke very politely and was very religious". In 2007, following the murder of Angelica Kluk, speculation arose that serial killer Peter Tobin was Bible John, due to similarities in modus operandi . Tobin frequented the Barrowland, and moved to Brighton in late 1968 before the last two murders were committed.
The Barrowland features heavily in the 2015 movie The Legend of Barney Thomson , directed by Robert Carlyle. It features in part of the opening scene of the 2014 movie God Help the Girl from writer/director Stuart Murdoch (lead singer of indie pop group Belle & Sebastian)
Scottish singer Amy Macdonald has a song about the ballroom, titled Barrowland Ballroom on her 2007 album This Is The Life . The edifice appears in a number of scenes in The Field of Blood (TV series) , a British crime drama television series. The Barrowland is where young girls are picked up before being murdered in the novel The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney.
Simple Minds named a track after the venue on their 2018 studio album, Walk Between Worlds. Track 6 on the album was named "Barrowland Star" due to their close affinity with the venue. It features in "Fearful Lightning", an episode of the television series Taggart . [8]
In April 2021, a mural inspired by Douglas Stuart's Booker Prize-winning novel Shuggie Bain was unveiled on the wall of the Barrowland Ballroom, featuring a boy dancing in the street, together with a quote from the book: "You'll not remember the city, you were too wee, but there's dancing. All kinds of dancing." [9] [10] The artwork and lettering was created by the Cobolt Collective – comprising Glasgow School of Art 2015 graduates Erin Bradley-Scott, Chelsea Frew and Kat Loudon [11] – and is 20 by 20 metres (66 by 66 ft). [12] [13]
Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977, becoming best known internationally for their song "Don't You " (1985), which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Other commercially successful singles include "Promised You a Miracle" (1982), "Glittering Prize" (1982), "Someone Somewhere in Summertime" (1982), "Waterfront" (1983), "Alive and Kicking" (1985), "Sanctify Yourself" (1986), "Let There Be Love" (1991), "She's a River" (1995), and the UK number one single "Belfast Child" (1989).
Bible John is an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have murdered three young women between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Skids are a Scottish punk rock and new wave band, formed in Dunfermline in 1977 by Stuart Adamson, William Simpson, Thomas Kellichan (drums) and Richard Jobson. Their biggest successes were the 1979 single "Into the Valley" and the 1980 album The Absolute Game. In 2016, the band announced a 40th-anniversary tour of the UK with their original singer Richard Jobson.
The People's Palace and Winter Gardens in Glasgow, Scotland, is a museum and glasshouse situated in Glasgow Green, and was opened on 22 January 1898 by The 5th Earl of Rosebery.
The Barras is a major street and indoor weekend market in the East End of Glasgow, Scotland. The term "Barra" is Glaswegian dialect for "barrow" relating to the market's early years where traders sold their wares from handcarts.
The Celtic Connections festival started in 1994 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has since been held every January. Featuring over 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops, the festival focuses on the roots of traditional Scottish music and also features international folk, roots and world music artists. The festival is produced and promoted by Glasgow Life. Donald Shaw, a founding member of Capercaillie, was appointed Celtic Connections Artistic Director in 2006.
Live in the City of Light is the first live album by Scottish rock band Simple Minds. It was released in May 1987 to document their successful worldwide Once Upon a Time tour, and charted at No. 1 in the UK. The album spawned one chart single release, a live version of "Promised You a Miracle".
Peter Britton Tobin was a Scottish convicted serial killer and sex offender who served a whole life order at HM Prison Edinburgh for three murders committed between 1991 and 2006. Police also investigated Tobin over the deaths and disappearances of other young women and girls.
5X5 Live is the fourth (double) live album by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, released on 19 November 2012.
Events from the year 1934 in Scotland.
The ICW World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by Scotland's Insane Championship Wrestling promotion. The title was first established as the ICW National Heavyweight Championship at ICW's debut show on October 15, 2006, with Drew Galloway becoming the inaugural champion. On February 7, 2015, the title was officially renamed the ICW World Heavyweight Championship after Galloway successfully defended the title in a match against Matt Hardy for the Family Wrestling Entertainment promotion in New York. The championship has been defended in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Australia, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Canada. In addition to these international title matches, defenses televised in 38 countries via Fight Network as well as an international presence on iPPV.
The ICW Zero-G Championship is a professional wrestling junior heavyweight championship owned by United Kingdom's Insane Championship Wrestling promotion. The title was first established as the Zero Gravity Championship at Fear & Loathing III on 21 November 2011, with Noam Dar becoming the inaugural champion.
Gerard Crosbie, professionally known as Gerry Cinnamon, is a Scottish singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist.
Margaret McIver, also known as "The Barras Queen", was the founder of The Barras, a street market in the Calton area in the east end of Glasgow. Initially an area of street markets, it became a permanent site when a roof was added to protect the stalls from bad weather and it now has over a thousand stalls within 10 markets. It is also the location of the Barrowland Ballroom, one of the city's main rock and pop venues.
Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American writer and fashion designer. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he studied at the Scottish College of Textiles and London's Royal College of Art, before moving at the age of 24 to New York City, where he built a successful career in fashion design, while also beginning to write. His debut novel, Shuggie Bain – which had initially been turned down by many publishers on both sides of the Atlantic – was awarded the 2020 Booker Prize. His second novel, Young Mungo, was published in April 2022.
Shuggie Bain is the debut novel by Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart, published in 2020. It tells the story of the youngest of three children, Shuggie, growing up with his alcoholic mother Agnes in 1980s post-industrial working-class Glasgow, Scotland.
The Scottish Music Awards are an annual award ceremony held in Scotland to commemorate outstanding musical contribution by musicians over the past year to Scottish music and success on the Scottish Singles and Albums Charts. As of 2020, the awards have been held annually for 22 years.
Young Mungo is a 2022 novel by Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart. It was published by Grove Press on 5 April 2022 and by Picador on 14 April 2022. The novel follows Mungo Hamilton, a teenager navigating a life of poverty and parental neglect in the early 1990s Glasgow. When the character falls in love with a boy named James, he must confront the homophobia, toxic masculinity, and religious conflicts of the society of his time. It is Stuart's second novel, following his Booker Prize-winning debut Shuggie Bain (2020). The novel was critically acclaimed and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by publications such as The Washington Post, Time, Reader's Digest, The Telegraph and Vanity Fair.
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