Apollo - Greens Playhouse

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Postby Mori » Sun Nov 27, 2005 2:35 am

james73 wrote:What was the capacity of the Apollo? It looked quite big.



James H




126 Renfield Street, City Centre

Opened: September 15th 1927
Closed: June 16th 1985

Designed by: John Fairweather

Number of screens: 1

Number of seats:
Green's Playhouse: 4368
Apollo: 3500
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Postby jim » Sun Nov 27, 2005 1:23 pm

My last gig at the Apollo must have been The Jam, cant remember when though. Think I managed to sneak in for free too.

Me and a friend snuck into the place not long after it closed for good. I remember jumping all over a huge photo of someone called Christian and plonking on a piano. Finally I was on that stage!

Other memorable gigs:

Captain Beefheart
Human League
Jethro Tull
Hawkwind
Thin Lizzy
Yes (OK I was young!)
a pair of stout boots, a stick, and away...
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Postby JayKay » Mon Nov 28, 2005 12:26 pm

The last gig was the Style Council, the Jam had well split up by then. Always thought it was a great shame it wasn't something more rockist that brought the curtain down at the Apollo

On another topic - I too was at Marillion at the Barras on Hogmanay '85 and took some photies of the band - came out quite well IIRC. Will try to dig em out and post 'em if anyone's interested.
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Postby BB » Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:38 pm

hey guys; I remember seeing led zeppelin in 1973, I was underage at the time and running late, when I met my mate in Tenants bar on the corner of Sauchiehall St. he claimed that Jimmy Page had just left the bar after the sound check. To this day he swears it’s the truth.... oh happy days,
other good gigs; the stones tour in 1974 - 5, and the Who played three nights, I queued overnight and told my boss I had the flue, only to be in the front page of the daily record next day. :oops:
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Postby Schiehallion » Tue Nov 29, 2005 9:04 pm

BB wrote:hey guys; I remember seeing led zeppelin in 1973, I was underage at the time and running late, when I met my mate in Tenants bar on the corner of Sauchiehall St. he claimed that Jimmy Page had just left the bar after the sound check. To this day he swears it’s the truth.... oh happy days,


I remember being in the Apollo for a screening of The Song Remains The Same on a big screen.
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Postby Mori » Tue Dec 27, 2005 5:41 pm

Story in the ET today

:) 20 years after it closed, fans still love the Apollo

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/lo/features/7021298.html

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MARTIN KIELTY tells fans to read all about it in the book with memories of the legendary Apollo
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Postby JayKay » Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:45 am

I was walking past as they took that picture, thinking to myself "Bet that's the bloke that wrote the book about the Apollo..."
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Postby cumbo » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:18 am

Got the book from santa,great read :D
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Postby JayKay » Mon Jan 09, 2006 3:53 pm

Squigster wrote:
JayKay wrote:On another topic - I too was at Marillion at the Barras on Hogmanay '85 and took some photies of the band - came out quite well IIRC. Will try to dig em out and post 'em if anyone's interested.


Can`t wait :D


they're now there:

http://www.hiddenglasgow.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3264
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Postby escotregen » Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:35 pm

BB we may well have been at the same one of the WHO concerts in the mid 70s. I was not long back from London and an English pal says he's got a couple of tickets for the Who in Glasgow's Apollo. All casual and laid back as I was in them times, I said 'Oh well, aye I'll come wi you'.

We were all on our feet up in the balcony and it was one of the nights when the balcony sway was such that the bouncers were forcing us (and I mean forcing us 8O ) back down on our seats.

I remember coming down the back stairs at the end packed shoulder to shoulder. Hundreds of us trying hard not to slip on the condensation puddled steps... shades of potential Ibrox stairway disaster in our (rather frayed) minds... oooh!
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Postby gap74 » Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:12 pm

Demolition gallery of the Apollo, including some interior shots, added to the Surviving Cinemas website here:

http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/~gbarr/cinema ... index.html

Gary
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Postby Mori » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:11 pm

story in the ET today. :)


http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5048150.html
Creepy, damp, we looked for rats - but we miss Apollo

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THE legendary Renfield Street venue is demolished in 1988
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Re: Apollo - Greens Playhouse

Postby Mori » Tue Dec 09, 2008 7:23 pm

A Musical dedicated to this venue. 8)

Evening Times

Apollo - the musical

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I T MADE the city Scotland's rock capital but now, 20 years after it closed, the story of the Glasgow Apollo is to be turned into a musical.
A cast of 45 musicians, including a 20-piece rock orchestra, 20 actors and 80 dancers from Right2Dance, an award-winning dance group from Paisley, will re-create the story of the legendary venue.
Between 1973 and 1985 its perilously high stage was graced by everyone from the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Status Quo, Neil Young, the Eagles, Alice Cooper, Paul McCartney and Wings, Abba and Rod Stewart.
Sting, lead singer with the Police, hailed it as the best gig in Britain'.
When The Who trashed their dressing-room, it was said the venue's management overcharged them so that the entire backstage area could be refurbished.
One heavy-metal singer was reputed to have thrown an axe across the stage, severing power cables.

And at least two other stars accidentally took a wrong turning from the stage, ending up in the lane outside. The bouncers, refusing to believe they were musicians, refused to let them back in.
The Apollo was also the place where thousands of young concert-goers got their first taste of live music.
The rock musical, called I Was There, will be staged at the Armadillo over three nights in February.
The set-list already includes songs played on the Apollo stage, by artists such as David Bowie and Frank Zappa to Blondie, Average White Band, King Crimson and a number of punk bands.
But Apollo fans are also being invited to add to the set-list by nominating the top band to ever play the Renfield Street venue.Songs by the winning band will be added to the musical - and the band will also be invited to the Armadillo to be presented with a special award.
"The musical will be a lot different from something like Grease or High School Musical," said producer Tommy McGrory, 53, an Apollo veteran who runs the Loud'n'Proud rock school in Paisley.
"It's not about a band, but about a rock venue. It's a first.
"The Apollo was a genuine one-off and it's amazing the depth of affection people feel for it, even in 2008, when the place has been gone for 20 years or so.
"I remember a while back going to see a Status Quo tribute band. One of them, a young guy, asked if anyone in the crowd had gone to the Apollo.
"Of course, half the place shouted that they had. He said he'd had the privilege of going there twice at the age of seven with his mum and dad, and that it was a fantastic place.
"There's a huge number of people who fondly remember the Apollo, and they're the people we're aiming the show at."
The show's actors include former Wildcat stars Dave Anderson, who plays an old Apollo fan, and Lesley Robertson, who plays the manager of a cinema complex which, together with the Walkabout pub and Jongleurs comedy club, occupies the Apollo site in real life.
The basis of the show is that, unknown to anyone, the old Apollo stage remains intact beneath the modern-day buildings.
"One day, Dave takes a bunch of work-experience schoolkids to clean away the rubbish in the cinema's basement.
"They're moaning about the job, but then they stumble upon the Apollo stage - and the story of the venue gradually emerges.
"The young kids insist they can play rock and roll, and they have the idea of putting a show."
Among the characters are the Apollo's bouncers and Jet Mayfair, who was linked with the Apollo and was, in 2006, hailed by nightclub bosses as Glasgow's Greatest Ever Nightclubber.
Tommy added: "A lot of hard work lies ahead of us but we want to put on the best possible show to honour the world's best rock venue."
I Was There will be at the Clyde Auditorium on February 5, 6, and 7, 2009. For tickets, at £19.50, call 0844 395 4000.
What was the best band you saw at the Apollo? E-mail us at [email protected] or write to Evening Times letters, 200 Renfield Street, Glasgow, G2 3QB

Publication date 09/12/08
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Re: Apollo - Greens Playhouse

Postby Josef » Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:02 pm

Mori wrote:Sting, lead singer with the Police, hailed it as the best gig in Britain'.


..and they didn't even bother to open the balcony the time they played there either.

Not that I went to see them, you understand. I was queuing for Joy Division/Buzzcocks tickets at the same time. My first ever gig. :D
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Re: Apollo - Greens Playhouse

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Tue Dec 09, 2008 10:37 pm

The basis of the show is that, unknown to anyone, the old Apollo stage remains intact beneath the modern-day buildings.


And this is how the story of the Bothwell Street tunnel started.
"I before E, except after C" works in most cases but there are exceptions.
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