LOVE LETTERS
Tina Warren Showgirl, Club Noir
I love Glasgow because it’s supported my business since the very beginning. Club Noir needs madness, interest and glamour, and Glasgow provides that with Clydeside Antiques on Lancefield Street. Open 7 days a week it boasts 25,000 square feet of antiques. I adore everything old: old songs, old clothes, old furniture. I fell upon Clydeside Antiques by accident; it doesn’t look like much from the outside but inside it’s like the TARDIS. I rarely go shopping in normal’ places. In a strange way, you feel a bit like the many sellers at Clydeside Antiques share a kinship with you because you both have such an interest in the stories behind the stuff. We live in a throwaway society, so it’s nice that people have kept and nurtured pieces. It makes the whole thing an experience. ■ See www.clubnoir.co.uk
Alasdair Gray’s murals at Oran Mor Tina Warren
Sorcha Dallas Artist I am a Glaswegian born and bred, and for many years all I thought about was leaving. After living in a few different places I came to love and appreciate what was on my doorstep; a culturally rich city, lively and bustling, with fantastic countryside a short car journey away. Some of my favourite things to look at are the books and artworks of Alasdair Gray. When I was younger I had the treat of going to the Chip for dinner and the combination of the fish pond, hanging plants and the Gray murals was indelibly imprinted on my mind. At Art School, reading Lanark and the way he used the familiar environment of the Art School and Glasgow to discuss universal political and social issues I found extraordinary. His masterwork, the large sweeping mural in the auditorium of Oran Mor, is spectacular, and I like to visit it every few months to see its constant progression. ■ LOVE runs at Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, until 19 Feb. See www.sorchadallas.com.
Stuart McMillan & Orde Meikle aka Slam, DJs Although greater Glasgow has a population of over one million it also has a relatively small city centre. The cream of Glasgow’s electronic music venues are all within a mere ten-minute walk from one another. Based around the world famous Central Station in Glasgow’s city centre are SOMA HQ, the Arches, Sub Club, MacSorley’s Music Bar, the Courtyard and of course Rubadub Records (the one-stop-shop for all things good – well in an electronic music sense anyway). There is a real sense of community in Glasgow’s electronic music scene, with all involved regularly bumping into one-another on a Friday eve for post-work pints in MacSorley’s, then onwards to the club. ■ Slam host Return to Mono, Sub Club, Glasgow, Fri 12 Feb.
The Necropolis