‘Blur were so obnoxious!’: 35 years of epic gigs at Glasgow’s King Tut’s, from Oasis to Lewis Capaldi

‘Lewis Capaldi said to me recently: ‘All I ever wanted was to get my name on the steps at King Tut’s,’” says Judith Atkinson, one part of the couple in the back of the track venue that has lengthy been the place Glaswegians to find their new favorite band.

Celebrating 35 years this yr, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut was once the place Oasis have been came upon by way of Alan McGee and shortly signed to his report label Creation. The Verve and Radiohead performed in the similar two-week length as that gig in 1993, whilst Manic Street Preachers, Florence + the Machine and full scenes of Scottish choice track have were given a leg up there since. “When I was growing up you didn’t dream about playing Glastonbury – but you dream about playing King Tut’s, the thing that’s within your reach,” says Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall. “It’s such a big deal.”

Small track venues like this were in disaster because the pandemic because of emerging prices for hire and utilities – in line with the Music Venue Trust, 125 grassroots venues completely closed in 2023, the worst yr on report, adopted by way of every other 25 in 2024. And but, thank you partially to a are living track empire the house owners have constructed round it, King Tut’s is prospering, regardless of best having house for 300 folks.

Stuart Clumpas, who based the venue in 1990 along his spouse Atkinson, reckons it has one thing to do with Glasgow’s dismal local weather. “Scotland is an indoor entertainment society because of the weather,” he says. “The only way to go, ‘Hey I’m going to go out for a night’ and be guaranteed it’s going to happen and work is to go to something indoors.”

He recollects that fabled Oasis night time, when the band drove from Manchester to take a look at their good fortune and play an already-filled enhance slot. From the bouncer virtually no longer permitting them to in, to venue body of workers refusing to allow them to carry out, every tale is other. Clumpas units the report immediately: “It was another support band who said they can’t play, not us,” he says. “They went, ‘Fuck off, it’s too small a stage.’ You can’t put three drumkits on the stage the size of King Tut’s.” But Oasis did set up to accomplish, and the remainder is historical past.

Another mythical band would by no means were booked, despite the fact that, if it was once as much as Atkinson and no longer venue booker Geoff Ellis. “He kept booking this band called Radiohead and they only ever did 150 people,” Atkinson says, “I remember saying to him: ‘Why do you keep booking that bloody Radiohead, Geoff?’ That’s why I’m not a booker!”

But Atkinson’s enjoy in selling gigs supposed she was once neatly positioned to identify native up and coming artists, together with long run indie legends Belle and Sebastian. “They used to come in a lot and hang out,” she says, and the band as soon as struck up an impromptu are living set within the pub space under the principle venue. “They were playing Boy With the Arab Strap and the whole pub was sitting at their tables jiggling to this song. I just went: wow, we’re in a scene!”

Blur were given a lot shorter shrift. “I do like Blur now, I’m very fond of them. But they played King Tut’s when they’d been tipped to be the next big thing. They were so obnoxious because they were on the front cover of all the magazines that week – they were so full of it. I was only in my mid-20s but I was able to be like, ‘Guys, you’re going to meet the same people on the way down as the way up.’ They came back and played about six months later and their tail was between their legs. God, they were polite.”

When you input King Tut’s, historical past surrounds you. Downstairs within the pub the partitions are embellished with memorabilia from gigs previous, and at the stairs as much as the venue every step presentations an artist and the yr they performed. Tunstall has her identify painted at the 2005 step subsequent to Simple Minds, Arctic Monkeys and Texas. “It’s definitely one of the proudest notches on my belt,” she says.

That gig was once round when her debut album Eye to the Telescope was once launched – the following yr, she gained 3 Brit nominations, profitable for British feminine solo artist. She reckons the venue’s good fortune comes all the way down to the sort remedy she gained from the house owners, in conjunction with the sound high quality. “Your job on stage is to just try and whip up that energy to the point where everybody feels extremely present and connected to each other, and at some venues it’s hard to do that,” she says. “But at King Tut’s, you’re halfway there already. Thank God they don’t freshly paint it every three years – it’s like all the energy is kind of soaked into the walls in that place.”

Another Scot, Nina Nesbitt, says “it feels like a moment when you go there” to play – her first time was once in 2013, the yr earlier than her debut album Peroxide (a Scottish chart topper). “Touring at that [grassroots] level is really difficult mentally and physically,” she says. “You’re not really getting much sleep and you’re sitting in dressing rooms with no windows, and it’s quite depressing. The shows are amazing, but everything else is tough. Sometimes you don’t even have a dressing room.” But at King Tut’s, “they really do take care of their artists. They have a lovely little dressing room, I think they have fairy lights in it. Little things go a long way, and put you in a good mood for the show.”

General supervisor Davie Millar says he’s nonetheless visited by way of well-known faces who’ve made it large since their King Tut’s debut. Liam Gallagher set the video for his unmarried Come Back to Me on the venue – Millar has a cameo – and the 1975 “just popped in for a drink” just lately. “There’s just a real vibe about the place. Bands like Manic Street Preachers and the Killers who played here many years ago, it’s a real privilege for them to say ‘yeah, we’d love to come back and play’.”

As neatly as its well-known buyers, King Tut’s has benefited from being a small a part of a far larger operation. Clumpas, the founder, and Ellis, the booker, based Scottish competition T within the Park in 1994 as a three way partnership between DF Concerts – Clumpas’s leisure trade he began in Dundee within the 80s – and Tennent’s Lager (it later turned into TRNSMT competition). After Ellis took over as leader govt of DF Concerts in 2001, Live Nation obtained a majority stake in 2008 – all of which means that that King Tut’s has a monetary safety this is uncommon for a grassroots venue.

It’s additionally distinctive in that it doesn’t have out of doors promoters striking on their very own gigs: all of the reserving are nonetheless performed in space. Millar obviously sees all that as a privilege, too: “We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing: continually finding artists, giving them a platform to be able to create and share their art.” He says the basics received’t trade – “People buy tickets because they love coming to live shows” – so what’s subsequent? “Another 35 years. I truly believe that.”