The spectacular neon starburst outside is as famous as the atmosphere inside.
The Barrowland Ballroom, with its 1960s décor, papier-mâché stars, sprung floor and incredible acoustics, is regarded by bands – and their fans – as one of Britain’s greatest venues.
But it’s more than just the music and aesthetics that make it so special.
A new book takes a look behind the scenes at the people who make the Barrowland run smoothly, from the cleaners and bar staff to the nightwatchman and load-in crew. And, of course, the musicians and the gig-goers.
Barrowland Ballads is a joint project involving writer Alison Irvine, photographer Chris Leslie and graphic artist Mitch Miller.
Known as the Recollective, this is a “dream project” for the trio.
“We do a lot of heritage projects,” explained Mitch. “But a couple of years ago we looked at what else we wanted to do and agreed the Barrowland was the one.”
After raising the funding required, the group approached the Barrowland and were given the go-ahead.
“It’s something of a world of its own,” said Mitch. “We went in after hours, hung out with the staff, met the manager, Tom Joyes, and tried to get a sense of the place.
“It still has a very family feel about it. People are at the centre of what makes the Barrowland so special.
“There’s also the history of the building, the energy from the market, the sprung dancehall floor and the décor. It has an impregnable sense of atmosphere and magic.”
Mitch has created a giant dialectogram – a 1m x 1.6m graphic artwork that uses the shape of the Barrowland to tell its story through a series of intricate sketches.
“I knew it had to be special – to convey the atmosphere and be as big and mad as possible,” he added.
Alison interviewed many of the people associated with the venue and said: “I wanted to write about the day of a gig, from the load-in at 8am to the clean-up overnight – who does what and when and where and how do the hours pan out.
“The book isn’t a catalogue of bands who’ve played the Barrowland.
“It’s about what it’s like to play at the Barrowland and what it’s like to see a gig there, but above all it’s about the staff who work there and know it far better than we do.
THE FANS
Pammy Givan and Sharon McKinstry have been coming to the Barrowland since teenagers and are now mothers of grown-up children. They can tell you how the Barrowland altered their lives and influenced who they are today.
“My first gig was Madness,” Pammy says. “I’ve got a memory of getting wraparound sunglasses and standing with them on, thinking I was dead cool. And this big boy just came and grabbed them off my face and stole them.”
“My mum went to the Barrowlands when it was the dancing in the 60s,” Sharon says. “And then me, coming from Paisley, it was like ‘Oh! I’m going up to the big city to the Barrowlands’. ”
“I always thought I was going to hook up with whoever was in the bands I was going to see, even if I was 14,” says Pammy. “I thought they were going to fall in love with me. Never happened.”
June Dunphy had a friend who was obsessed with Herman’s Hermits. They were playing at the Barrowland Ballroom but the girls were only 14 and didn’t have tickets, so June suggested they go to the Barrowland during their lunch hour. She imagined they would stand outside the building and catch them arriving.
© Chris Leslie. They saw no sign of the band. But June tells how the girls crept around the side of the building, pushed at an open door and went inside.
“We went up the stairs and we heard music. And then we opened the door.”
Nobody was in the hall other than June and her friend and – on the other side – Herman’s Hermits. “They were all sitting on the stage with their guitars and practising for the gig that night.”
The girls felt suddenly shy. But the boys said, “All right girls, come on over.”
June and her friend were brave, knowing as they walked towards the boys on the stage that this was a good thing, an exciting thing.
“They were so nice.
“They asked us about ourselves. They let us listen to them for a couple of minutes. And then they signed the back of our dinner tickets. That was brilliant. That was a great memory.”
THE TEAM
Tam Mclean’s burger bar is next to the merchandise kiosk in the area known as the crush.
A sign reads The Strathyre Bar but that’s from decades ago. The burger bar’s actual name is written in white push-in letters along the top of Tam’s price list: Tam and Anne’s Barrowland Burger Bar.
For Barrowland staff, Tam is relatively new.
He has only worked in the ballroom for seven years, taking over the kiosk from his sister-in-law Josie.
He was thrown out of the Barrowland Ballroom on his stag night for being too drunk. He was 18 then and he’s 65 now.
He’s lost 14 stone and also part of a tumour that began in his pituitary gland and caused his weight gain. Remains of the tumour are wrapped around an artery in his brain but he’s stable and able to work his two jobs.
By day, he is a maintenance man in a drugs and alcohol addiction centre.
Adam Jalowy is one of the cleaners, and says it takes six hours to clean everything, which includes the main hall and the main stairs.
Or there could be so much beer on the floor that they need to sweep it into the middle and vacuum it up. “Aye, the Henry. It’s easier,” he says.
THE BAND
Iain Harvie from Del Amitri said his band have played Barrowland about 25 times.
He came as a teenager to see bands. “It never crossed my mind that we would play here,” says the guitarist. “It was people like Iggy Pop and Echo And The Bunnymen who played here, not people like me. I remember standing at the side of the stage waiting to go on and the noise was deafening.”
He says he can see everything from the stage. He can see the enjoyment on people’s faces and insists the audience knows it can make a gig special. “There’s a sense of community in there,” he says.
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