In the garden patio of The Ludlow Hotel in New York there’s a brick wall with a faded imprint that reads King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. It marks a piece of Lower East Side Manhattan history, a club known for experimental music and its ever-changing décor from the mid-80s until the early 90s. The name lives on at the celebrated live music venue on St Vincent Street in Glasgow, the starting point for Scottish music stories since February 1990.
Covid restrictions limited any opportunity to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of one of the world’s finest live music bars. Two years later, King Tut’s have more opportunity this month to revel in their position as a showcase for the grassroots scene, a magnet for emerging groups on tour and a place for indie musical pilgrimage. The 300-capacity standing gig venue with a bar and kitchen was opened with the intention of booking bands all through the week. It quickly became somewhere for a performer to make a breakthrough. The tone was set during an almost mythical two-week period in 1993 when The Verve and Radiohead played headline shows, Muse took to the stage supported by Soulwax, then Oasis were discovered while playing a support slot and signed by Alan McGee of Creation Records.
Biffy Clyro, Franz Ferdinand and Travis notched up early gigs here.
Promoter Chris Loomes, the venue booker at King Tut’s, continues to talk to talent from around Scotland, encouraging pitches for shows that will help build an audience.
“I have a band from Gourock on tonight,” he says. “They were buzzing when they found out they had the gig. It still has that prestige.”
There’s no graffiti in the dressing rooms – “we’ve had a bit of a glow up” – but you can see the names and years of some of the more famous shows written on the stairs up to the venue and there’s a complete set of signed showtime sheets from each performance in the offices of DF Concerts upstairs.
Lewis Capaldi played a sold-out show in 2017 before he had released any music. His support act was The Snuts. Both have gone on to have number one albums since that night.
“I spend more time in King Tut’s than I do in my own house, but it’s not lost on me how special a place it is,” Chris says.
“You look back at these hot gigs. The Strokes in 2001. When Oasis played there was probably less than 20 people in the room. The great thing is that these moments in music keep happening. The Lewis Capaldi show ... he talked about that being a breakout moment for him as an artist. He’s from West Lothian like The Snuts and he just asked if his pals could support him and that became a big moment for them too. They both offer support slots to other Scottish acts now. Everybody is trying to give each other a leg up.”
Guitar bands provide the core but there’s space for Scottish electronic musicians, grime artists and rappers.
“We see all kinds of styles of music coming from a punky, DIY scene. There’s so much. We’re at a really good spot right now,” Chris says enthusiastically. “Tut’s is also a hub for the live industry in Glasgow. It’s not just where an artist is born. Promoters cut their teeth here or sound engineers or lighting techs. It’s where you can arrive and figure some things out.”
Some of the biggest bands in the world still find their way back to King Tut’s as a cultural touchstone, a marker for the way their music started to be discovered. The Killers left the main stage at TRSNMT in 2018 and jumped in a van to the venue, immediately playing a loud, sweaty 40-minute set.
“They had just played to 50,000 for a televised festival gig, then immediately played to 300 people here.
“It was a midnight show ... just hit after hit. I don’t think I’ll ever see anything like that again.”
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