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Has it really been ten years since I, (s - o - I - King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut opened in , ; (2 )3“. _' ,‘ Glasgow? It seems a far more i V. a .
ancient institution. But it was I February 1990 when DF Concerts’ l head honcho Stuart Clumpas founded the legendary St Vincent Street basement venue to promote new acts at club level. And, since then, it has played host to pretty much every single band you’ve had any respect for.
In the early days, Colin Rodger was talent-spotter and act-booker, but Dave McGeachan has been handling these things for the last couple of years. Sitting around the ‘ A L-shaped corner from the famous ’ stage, the pair are moistening old photocopied flyers with a tearful l... ; trip down memory lane, trying to pin down the legendary nights.
’The onslaught of the whole Madchester thing,’ remembers McGeachan. ’We had 400 inside for the Charlatans on the back of “Indian Rope”, and there were another 400 outside in the street. And the first Blur gig was absolutely stowed as well.’
‘I handled Pulp when they came to play to thirteen people,’ counters Rodger. ’And those thirteen people were there to see the local support band. Pulp must have played here seven or eight times before they even started to happen.’
Then there’s been Beck, Suede, Gomez, Radiohead, Travis and, perhaps the biggest of them all, Oasis. They bullied their way onto the bill in 1993, and ended up being signed by Alan McGee there and then. King Tut’s seems to create instant rock ’n’ roll mythology. 'T his is where bands of the future are found,‘ says McGeachan with obvious pride.
There are eclectic run-up nights before the official celebration. Choose from gigs by Kevin McDermott
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King Tut’s ten year reign
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Those were the days: early Oasis
(with three-quarters of Del Amitri) on Sunday 13 February, breaking-through rockers Muse (Saturday 19), a Radio One Session From Scotland broadcast with Biffy Clyro and Sound Buggy (Wednesday 16), a Soma and Fenetik Records night presented by Silicone Soul (Thursday 17), and a comedy club featuring Phil Kay and Ross Noble (Friday 18). Gig highlights in March include Geneva (Saturday 4), The Wannadies (Monday 6), Nitin Sawhney (Wednesday 15) and NME cover stars Terris (Tuesday 25).
But what about the rumours that Oasis will show their faces, that Jarvis might pop his head round the door? At the birthday party proper, on Sunday 20 February, what's going to be going down? ’Champagne,’ grins McGeachan, evasively. ’And maybe some cake.’ Happy birthday, Tut’s. (Graeme Virtue)
n An anniversary series of gigs takes place at King Tut’s, St Vincent Street, Glasgow, Sun 13—Sun 20 Feb. For full details see music listings.
Assembly Theatre wins Fringe venue battle
company’s Artistic Director, William Burdett-Coutts. ’The Fringe is the biggest, most popular part of the Festival, and yet the notion of public funding doesn’t seem to be in the Council's psychology. The International Festival gets £1m of public money a year; the Fringe gets next to nothing.’ Burdett-Coutts denied, however, that the Assembly Rooms’ Fringe programme for 2000 has been jeopardised. ’lt's an interesting challenge, because ordinarily we would start planning in October. But we’re
The prolonged wrangling between the City of Edinburgh Council and Assembly Theatre Limited over the future of the Assembly Rooms as a Fringe venue has been resolved. The Council has now come to an agreement with Assembly, who have cleared their outstanding debts and will now continue to run the Fringe venue until 2006.
Dramatic outcome: William Burdett-Coutts
Figures published in The Scotsman suggest that the Council has substantially increased the rent paid by Assembly from £50,000 to £80,000 per year. They have also withdrawn the grant of £20,000 provided in previous years — a net increase for Assembly of £50,000.
'This whole process has been unnecessary and unfortunate,’ said the
confident we can get the programme together. At least now we know where we stand for a period of time.’
Burdett-Coutts is adamant that an effort to utilise the Assembly Rooms more productively during the remainder of the year would secure its position during the Fringe. ’I’ve maintained for a long time that it needs a concerted effort to allow it to operate as an individual concern.‘ (Hannah McGill)
Bulletins
News in bite-sized bits. DESPITE COMPLAINTS FROM some quarters that the call for submissions wasn’t well enough publicised, the first Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Awards were announced on Burns Night. Fourteen Scotland-based artists were awarded £25,000 to enable them to ’experiment, refresh their skills and realise imaginative ideas’. The winners include: composer Sally Beamish, whose text and video installation about people affected by chemicals in the environment will be completed for the BBC Proms 2001 season; artist Steven Campbell, who will produce a major work based on the history of Scottish art: and Keiko Mukaido, who will develop glass installations in and around Charles Rennie Macintosh’s Hill House with a landscape artist. The other award-winners are Rachel Bevan Baker (film), Peter Chang (crafts), Calum Colvin (visual arts), Kenneth Dempster (music), Jessica Langford (film), Will Maclean (visual arts), Janet Paisley (literature), Tommy Smith (music), Alice Thompson (literature), Annie Wood (theatre) and George Wylie (visual arts).
THE HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND has set aside over £15m to fund major redevelopment work at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and on The Mound in Edinburgh. A provisional award of £8.6m will see Kelvingrove open its basement as a new exhibition space and introduce more facilities for families. On the east coast, £7m will be used to create a new gallery space in the Royal Scottish Academy and a link to the National Gallery of Scotland via an underground extension.
In Kelvingrove’s case, the awards are dependent on further funding from Glasgow City Council and European agencies, and work would involve the building being shut for up to eighteen months. In Edinburgh, a further £Sm is now being sought from the private sector to add to the £17m already raised for what has been named ’T he Playfair Project’.
Creative talent: Steven Campbell
3—17 Feb 2000 THE LIST”