GLASGOW'S music scene has been recognised as one of the world’s best and has birthed some of the finest musicians, from Simple Minds and Wet Wet Wet, to Mogwai, Deacon Blue and Belle and Sebastian.
Named the UK’s first UNESCO City of Music in 2008, its iconic venues used to offer up to 130 music events every week.
Now, the city’s musical powerhouse is struggling to bounce back, as local musicians are left in a limbo with the effects of two years of inactivity and new Brexit rules.
Emerging band Chris Greig & the Merchants spent lockdowns trying to keep their audience entertained online, after they had to give up headline shows and a chance to gig in Europe.
Frontman Chris Greig said: “We are in a weird state of limbo right now because we're trying to plan out what the rest of the year is going to look like for us.
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“Right now we don’t have anything to promote, and while we kept up the momentum on social media during lockdowns, it was a huge setback to say the least.
“We were lucky to play a couple of shows before the end of the year but things are still very much up in the air with this Omicron variant.”
Brexit also made life difficult for the band, who were planning shows across the channel.
Chris added: “We wanted to try and reach new audiences but the new rules made things really complicated for us, so we decided to leave that for now.”
Although the band continued to self-fund through full time jobs and a Help Musicians grant, they sympathise with the many who had to change careers.
“We know a lot of people made an income through busking or playing in pubs,” said Chris, “but they were shut and for a long time there was no one walking about, that’s certainly going to have an effect on the local music scene.”
Inverclyde band Crashes had secured their first self-booked headline gig at Glasgow’s Nice N Sleazy before lockdown came about.
Singer Craig Glover said: “We had a good run in 2019, playing at the Academy and King Tut’s, but Covid set us back massively.
“During lockdown we didn't have the budget to put together worthwhile live sessions that other bands were maybe doing.
“Now, with things hopefully getting past the peak, we haven't started again in terms of building any sort of momentum that we had.”
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Drummer Rory Breaker said: “If we hadn’t been doing quite as well before the first lockdown, we maybe wouldn’t be here.
“We know many bands that have just called it a day over this.”
Although Crashes went back to playing shows at the end of last year, the impact of Covid on live music was still very much felt.
Craig said: “Before Christmas with Omicron they took more of a hard line and were basically saying ‘you’re a d**k if you go out’ and not actually helping venues with what they could do to try and mitigate anything.
“That had a big impact on attendance at shows and people's willingness to go to a live event.”
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Glasgow folk band Kinnaris Quintet have also struggled with the effects of Covid and Brexit.
Aileen Reid, who plays the five-string fiddle in the band, said: “There's definitely an underlying uncertainty which is still going on among musicians, everyone is just completely and utterly scunnered by the last two years.
“Any prospective work that has come in, people are still reluctant to buy tickets because nobody knows what’s going on, which leads to promoters pulling stuff for lack of sales.”
Despite being a well-established band with an affectionate audience at home and abroad, Covid and Brexit also represented a financial blow for the quintet.
“There’s been a little bit of funding but, for example, we had 8,000 streams for our album last year and only got £15 for that,” she said.
“Performing in Europe was a big part of our income, but, Covid aside, we had to give that up for now because organisers want people with EU passports and it's not feasible for us to go because of the new costs.”
The Quintet are also worried about the future of the music scene in Glasgow.
“So much can come from a performance, one gig leads to another and also people are inspired from seeing you play,” said Aileen.
“For two years now people haven’t been exposed to that and it’s a great loss for everyone, for musicians who missed out on opportunities and now have to get back on their feet, and for kids just starting out who might be feeling discouraged.”
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