The events and performers
And the bands played on...
Post-1924, the new Kelvingrove bandstand continued to provide music and entertainment throughout the ‘20s and ‘30s. Concert parties appeared more and more but the traditional military and brass band concerts were as popular as ever. It wasn’t uncommon to see crowds of over 10,000 at weekends.
Concerts didn’t stop even with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, although the performers became less international and more local as the conflict went on.
The first concert at the bandstand after V.E. Day was the Tit-Bits Concert Party who played a matinee at 3 o’clock and a concert in the evening at 7.
The old, traditional ways of running the bandstand were increasingly under pressure, however, especially as television began to dominate popular entertainment in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The regular concerts which had been arranged by the Council since the 1870s finally came to an end sometime around 1953 and concerts at the bandstand became a more occasional thing.
Rock'n'Roll
The old musical traditions were going out of fashion but the bandstand was given a new lease of life when the new youth counter-culture began to grow in the city.
The beginning of this came in May 1960 with a “Ban the Bomb” anti-nuclear demonstration when 2000 people gathered at the bandstand, the first of many protest rallies and demonstration.
Rock and pop music arrived in 1965 when one of Glasgow’s top beat groups, the Jaygars, played the bandstand. They went on to support acts like the Who, Pink Floyd and David Bowie, but at that gig they combined the old tradition and the new by sharing the stage with the Duntocher Silver Band.
Most significantly, however, it was pop music festivals that the Kelvingrove bandstand became famous for. The first of these was held in 1973 but the big moment came in May 1978 when Radio Clyde staged their first Kelvingrove Free Music Festival for local bands and musicians. It was a huge success attracting thousands of rock fans every year until the last was held in 1988. Other music festivals included a Rock Against Racism gig in 1986 that was headlined by Tom Robinson, supported by local acts such as Hue and Cry and The Bluebells.
