KT Tunstall, Travis and Wet Wet Wet back campaign to save Glasgow’s Glad Cafe and other music venues

A virtual festival supporting grassroots music venues, including the Glad Cafe in Glasgow’s Southside, takes place next weekend.

A host of Scottish musicians are lending their support for #SaveOurScottishVenues including KT Tunstall, Wet Wet Wet, Fatherson, The Xcerts and Hue and Cry.

Hosted by Vic Galloway, the virtual festival organised by the Music Venues Trust, will begin with a special performance by Travis frontman Fran Healy on Thursday, June 18 in a bid to support venues struggling as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Healy will play an acoustic set, streamed on Facebook for free, from a hillside overlooking Los Angeles.

The virtual festival starts on Friday, June 19 at 8pm across three “stages”, with tickets costing £5.

In addition, tickets costing £8 will allow fans to then revisit the performances on catch-up over the weekend of June 20-21.

More live performances will take place on Saturday June 20 from 10am – tickets £8 – with catch-up available until Sunday June 21 at 10pm.

Other acts taking part include Luke La Volpe, Honeyblood, Hunter and the Bear, Be Charlotte and Anchor Lane.

The Glad Cafe in the Shawlands area of the city is just one of the venues benefiting from ticket sales.  Others that will benefit include Sneaky Pete’s, Summerhall and Bannerman’s in Edinburgh, Audio and Ivory Blacks in Glasgow, PJ Molloys in Dunfermline and Temple in Falkirk.

Speaking about the festival, musician La Volpe said: “It’s absolutely vital that we support grassroots venues at the moment.

“They’ve all had the rug pulled from under them by this whole terrible situation and the longer it goes on the harder it is for them to survive with no money coming in.”

He added: “The team at Music Venue Trust is working incredibly hard to support them and I’m really happy to be part of Save Our Scottish Venues alongside all these legends.

“Every single successful musician has been given a hand up by grassroots venues putting them on in front of people who love discovering new music.

“It’s time to give them a hand in return so every single venue can make it through this incredibly tough period and get the doors open again as soon as possible.”

The virtual festival is the latest part of the #saveourvenues campaign which was initiated by Music Venue Trust in response to the continued economic threat to over 500 grassroots music venues throughout the UK.

A crowdfunding campaign had been launched last month.

Beverley Whitrick, strategic director of Music Venue Trust, added: “There are over 60 Scottish members of the Music Venues Alliance, each of which is essential to the music ecosystem as social, economic and cultural hubs within their communities.

“The love that artists have for these spaces and the people who run them is clear from everyone stepping forward to help raise money to support venues through the crisis.

“Please enjoy these events and donate what you can to help.”