The Apollo, Glasgow

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The Apollo
Green’s Playhouse (1927–1973)
The Apollo, Glasgow
Address126 Renfield Street (1973–1987)
Glasgow
Scotland, United Kingdom
Coordinates 55°51′54″N4°15′18.9″W / 55.86500°N 4.255250°W / 55.86500; -4.255250
Owner George Green Ltd
Designation Music Venue
Capacity 3,500
Construction
Opened5 September 1973
Closed16 June 1985
DemolishedSeptember 1987
Years active12 Years
Architect John Fairweather

The Apollo was a music venue at 126 Renfield Street in Glasgow city centre, Scotland. The Apollo operated from 5 September 1973 until closure on 16 June 1985 and was Glasgow's leading music venue during this period. The Apollo was a re-brand of the previous Green's Playhouse in the same building. [1]

Contents

History

The Green family owned Green's Playhouse cinema at 126 Renfield Street. It was thought to be the largest cinema in Europe at the time but was in decline. Unicorn Leisure, owned by Frank Lynch and Max Langdown, leased a discothèque named Clouds in the top floor of the building. Unicorn included management of Billy Connolly in their portfolio. [2] On hearing the Green family were considering converting the dis-repaired venue into a bingo hall or demolishing the venue for a completely new development, Unicorn applied to lease the building which they felt had potential as a music venue. They bought a job lot of 3,000 cinema seats and re-upholstered the 'Golden Divans' in the balcony. "Apollo" was chosen as the name of the re-branded venue so to mitigate the cost of letters for which the sign company charged £250 per letter. [3]

The first two concerts at The Apollo were performed by Johnny Cash on 5 & 6 September 1973. The venue was quickly attractive to the public responding to booking of popular performers of the time who spoke favourably of the atmosphere generated by the exuberant crowds. [3] The ballroom operated above the main concert auditorium, originally known as "Clouds", following various name changes that included "Satellite City" and "The Penthouse". The ballroom became a music venue for up-coming and relatively lesser-known contemporary bands, such as Simple Minds, Elvis Costello, Sham 69 and The Rich Kids. These were unable to attract a large enough paying audience to fill the concert venue.

The venue was known for the atmosphere generated by its enthusiastic crowds, a 15 ft 6 in high stage (often exaggerated and misreported) [3] that sloped down towards the audience and "bouncy balcony" designed and built so that it would move up and down. This feature was put to the test by concert-goers, who would jump to get it to bounce. Francis Rossi refers to this on Status Quo's Live! , recorded at the venue: "Those people at the top, on the balcony, [we] can only see you when the lights go up there. Get the balcony to move about a bit and they'll [the sound/road crew] all be running about and shitting themselves. Nice bunch of fellas, but very very scared of balconies!"

Jake Burns of Stiff Little Fingers said the stage was "the only one in our career where we said if anyone got onstage from the audience, they could stay. They'd earned it." Andy Summers of The Police in his autobiography "One Train Later" wrote "Back in the dressing room, drenched in sweat and sitting among piles of little tartan-wrapped presents, we remarked about the bouncing balcony, amazed that the whole thing didn't collapse." [4] The venue was used for numerous live album recordings (see "Notable Performances" section) and was used as either opening or closing venue by many performers visiting the UK from America. The management team for the Ramones have subsequently said the Apollo was the Ramones' favourite venue. [5]

Despite the Apollo's success as a music venue, the building was in a poor condition and its structure was gradually deteriorating. Maintenance was undertaken only on a "make-do" basis. In mid-1977 the owner of Unicorn Leisure relocated to Florida. The lease for the venue was acquired by the Apollo Leisure Group. The new leaseholders experienced considerable problems with the buildings structural condition and later considered relinquishing the lease in 1978, with Mecca Bingo expressing interest in the acquisition of the building. A successful campaign to preserve the building's status as a music venue included a 100,000 signature petition including support from Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton. The resumption was to herald a seven-year downward spiral until the venue finally closed for business on 16 June 1985. The Style Council were the final performers on the bill. The building was demolished in September 1987 following a fire that rendered the building structurally unsafe.

Such is the high regard that Ozzy Osbourne felt for the place that when he agreed to an interview on Scottish Television he asked that the interview be held in the empty disused site of the old building.

Notable performances

After demolition

The Apollo was replaced by a Cineworld building constructed in 2000 and opened a year later on exactly the same site.

A musical was first produced in 2009 titled, I Was There: The Story of The Glasgow Apollo. [8]

The retro website glasgowapollo.com was launched in 2003. As of 2017 the site has received over 12 million hits.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "1973 - Here We Go Here We Go Here We Go". Glasgow Apollo. 2002–2012. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  2. Allan Laing (14 December 1985). "Unknown". The Glasgow Herald . Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Billy Sloan (21 November 2010). "Glasgow Apollo has so many amazing memories from Johnny Cash opening it to The Style Council's finale, says former owner Frank Lynch". Daily Record and Sunday Mail. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  4. [ dead link ]
  5. "Hey! Ho! Let's Go: Celebrating 40 Years Of Ramones | GRAMMY Museum". Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 12 February 2018 via YouTube.
  6. "Roxy Music - Viva! Roxy Music (The Live Roxy Music Album) (Vinyl, LP, Album) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  7. 1 2 "Live albums". Classic Rock supplement: The Live Albums That Changed The World . December 2011. p. 17.
  8. "I Was There: The Story of The Glasgow Apollo". The List. 8 February 2009. Retrieved 1 December 2012.