There's a wee piece on Voltaire & Rousseau, my favourite bookshop on Nothing To See Here. I spent a lot of time in there as an English student, sometimes buying great works of literature, sometimes buying dusty old books because I liked the cover. It also gets the credit for introducing me to M. Sasek after finding This is London there for 50p.
I heard some sad news at the weekend - Hitherto, the lovely shop at the back of Tinderbox on Ingram Street is closing down. The full story is on their website. Hopefully it's just temporary but at the moment the future is uncertain and they need everyone's help. The last time I was in there it was jam packed with fantastic stuff that you can't get anywhere else (paper Moomins!) and what's even better is a lot of it comes from local artists, particularly students. They've also been kind enough to stock my postcards and badges and sell quite a pile. So get in there while you still can, snap up some goodies and help Hitherto bounce back soon.
I took advantage of the intermittent good weather to snap R W Stevens & Co, an traditional tailors on Glasgow's South Side. It's a wonderful time capsule of school uniforms, Brownie and Cub paraphernalia plus kilts and sporrans and all that jazz. It's hardly changed since opening in 1950 and is still family-owned and run. So much great typography concentrated into one small area.
More in the Flickr set.
Got a bit of sad news today from audiac - Glasgow's RAFA Club is closing this weekend. An anonymous-looking little place off Woodlands Road, it's an indie mecca, hosting characterful club nights within its quirky walls. Certainly I used to go there back in the day, first to Good Foot, then Twister and some club that Alan Horne (of Postcard) ran for a while, amongst others. It's a brilliant venue. There's a ballroom downstairs that has a huge Mod target printed on the ceiling and a mural of fighter planes down one wall. Pictures of the Queen everywhere. Were there Airfix models hanging from the ceiling or is that the drink talking? The dancefloor was just big enough and it was dingy in a sort of atmospheric way. The booze was cheap and the (ex-RAF) bar staff were lovely. They'd make you a hot toddy when it got cold. It was weird going in (wasn't there something odd like you had to buy a raffle ticket to get in?); indie kids shuffling past the veterans but everyone got along fine. My favourite memory was turning up early one night to find that the charity danceathon in aid of Childline was overrunning. There were lots of 12-year old in leotards jumping about while the bowlies lined up on the stairs. It was that kind of place.
If you'd like to pay your last respects National Pop League are doing their Little League night there on Friday. Somebody get some photos, will ya? As a musical tribute, here's a song that really reminds me of going there:
This used to be a Good Foot favourite, although it's more baroque pop than northern soul. That was one of the great things about growing up in Glasgow. These clubs provided such a great musical education and there were lots of blurred lines between different tastes and genres. And good influences beget good bands which explains why Glasgow's produced so many of them. I hope the old place gets a good send off tomorrow.
Glasgow's George Square is looking great for Christmas. We were out last night for the Radiance Festival, (widely Flickrd) where there are lots of light installations around the city centre and finished with a trip to George Square which was full of lights of a non-artistic kind. I like them best. Even better than the Helter Skelter is the Old Tyme Brooklyn Cakewalk, a big shoogly walkway that pumps out organ music while you wobble about. It's here for Winterfest, a series of festivals covering Radiance, St Andrew's Day (on Friday), Christmas and Hogmanay. Happy holidays.
Belle & Sebastian have made a great 2008 calendar featuring all their favourite places in Glasgow. They've chosen well - some of my favourite places are in there too, like the Queen's Cafe on Victoria Rd with its wonderful ice cream cone window display and that great little 1930s street in the Transport Museum. It's a picture of the real Glasgow, not the tourist version and brings together a great city and a great band. Yours for £10 from the B&S Shop.
