A HISTORIC Glasgow bandstand is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year with a special concert by legendary 80s band Squeeze.
The Kelvingrove Bandstand and Amphitheatre will play host to the English rock outfit on August 1 as part of the 2024 Summer Nights programme.
The concert series, kicked off by Gabrielle on July 23, also includes Johnny Marr (July 25), Emeli Sande (July 27), Ocean Colour Scene (July 31), Echo and The Bunnymen (August 9) and Bananarama (August 10).
For the first two decades after its opening in 1853, Kelvingrove Park was designed as a place to walk, rest and enjoy nature.
That changed in 1872, when the 25th Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers became the first band to perform there.
The current bandstand is actually Kelvingrove Park’s third.
The Sun Foundry built the first in 1875. It opened the following year in an extension of the park where the Lord Kelvin statue now stands.
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Concerts at the city’s new attraction became incredibly popular, with Saturday crowds regularly topping 10,000.
In 1888, the bandstand hosted live music as Kelvingrove Park staged the first of the Glasgow International Exhibitions, and again in 1901, for the second.
The original structure was replaced with a traditional bandstand and amphitheatre beside the River Kelvin for the 1911 Glasgow International Exhibition.
When cinema and radio arrived in the 1920s, the bandstand offered new forms of entertainment to keep pace with the competition, hosting costumed concert parties, choirs and orchestras.
Demand was such that in 1923 plans for a new ‘super bandstand’, with seating for 4500 and standing room for another 15,000, were submitted. This plan was rejected, but a scheme to build the third, and current, Kelvingrove Bandstand was approved.
The new venue was built in 1924 by the Glasgow Corporation Parks Department. It opened in May 1925 and provided entertainment throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
As television became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, regular concerts came to an end. Youth counter-culture then gave the bandstand a new lease of life – a ‘Ban the Bomb’ anti-nuclear demonstration, for example, brought together 2000 people.
Pop music festivals, such as Radio Clyde’s first Kelvingrove Free Music Festival in 1978, followed but after the glory days of the 1970s and 1980s faded, the venue was threatened with closure in 1992.
It was saved by a community campaign but in the following years, the bandstand fell into disrepair. When the venue was forced to close in 1999, it was repeatedly vandalised and its condition was described as ‘critical’ by the Scottish Buildings at Risk Register.
A plan to refurbish the facility was then developed by a partnership involving Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Life, which secured £2.1 million of development funding.
Work began in August 2013 to ensure the project was completed in time for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Glasgow’s Belle and Sebastian performed the first gig at the newly opened bandstand in July 2014.
Within five years, it had hosted performances by the likes of Steve Earle, The Waterboys, Tom Jones, Van Morrison, Primal Scream, Eddi Reader, Texas, Pixies, KT Tunstall and The Human League.
In recent times, the bandstand has welcomed Belinda Carlisle, Happy Mondays, Anastacia, Del Amitri, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Sugababes, among others.
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The Category B-listed building is the only original bandstand left in Glasgow and seats up to 3000 people.
Billy Garrett, director of culture, tourism and events at Glasgow Life, said: “Kelvingrove Bandstand is an iconic and central part of Glasgow’s cultural past, present and future.
“The bandstand has hosted so many legendary concerts and events over the last 100 years, which have earned it a reputation at home and abroad as a truly special live music and entertainment venue.
“It is fitting that the public will be able to enjoy more live music at Kelvingrove Bandstand and learn about the venue’s incredible history in celebration of its centenary year.”
Anyone who would like to submit photographs of or videos taken at the Kelvingrove Bandstand to the Kelvingrove Bandstand 100th anniversary webpage can email copies to amcv@glasgowlife.org.uk.
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