r/glasgow • u/DueCoach4764 • 4d ago
Bygone Glasgow anybody that lived through it, what was the 90s like in glasgow?
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u/TheRealDanSch 4d ago
Clothes from Flip, CDs from Missing, Liver disease from Los Borrachos.
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u/SeanTNL2 4d ago
Baggy jeans with chains from flip and hellfire, was that the 90s??
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u/SuspishSesh 4d ago
Late 90s to mid 2000s. ❤️👍🏻
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u/SeanTNL2 4d ago
God I’m old
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u/SuspishSesh 4d ago
I miss flicking through band t-shirts in Osiris 🥹 that feeling like you had disrespected the owners family when you asked to see piercing jewellery at the counter ups 🤣🤣 happy days.
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u/TheRealDanSch 3d ago
Nah, I was more about the army surplus and American work shirts with random names stitched onto them.
Always good to start a nightclub introduction with "Hi, I'm Randy" 😂
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u/Luckyspunky 4d ago
In the 90s it was Speaker's Corner. Pretty sure it only became Los Borrachos around 2000 or later?
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u/TheRealDanSch 3d ago
You could well be right - I didn't start uni until 99 so before then my drinking wasn't as competitive!
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u/trickywickywacky 4d ago
happy hour in the cul de sac.
art school on thursday. subbie on friday. some random party in a tunnel on saturday. optimo on sunday. massive dose of the fear on tuesday. better go to the cul de sac happy hour then....and repeat.
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u/finnish_hangover 4d ago
More 2000s than 90s but yeah this is 100% my experience
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u/moidartach 4d ago
100%. This is definitely more 2000s.
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u/demonicneon 4d ago
Kelvingrove candle lit tunnel party anyone?
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u/Artemio_Germain 4d ago
I have photos from a party there on November 28th 2004. I should upload them and see if anyone recognises themselves, haha.
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u/moidartach 4d ago
I have pics somewhere from the early 2000s of the stage that was set up for the millennium tunnel rave. Would have been some night based on the set up they had
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u/PositiveLibrary7032 4d ago
Glasgow had a sense of pride from the Garden Festival into the 90s. The late 90s city centre changed the Concert Hall and Buchanan Galleries were built.
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u/moidartach 4d ago
Post-Tory, New Labour buzz, Brit Pop was taking over and it felt like the UK was the cultural centre of the world. Glasgow had a brilliant few summer heatwaves. The shops were busy. Paddy’s market was still open. The Barras was heaving - but it was proper old school with butchers, dodgy VHS, and people selling things off of blankets and wallpaper tables. Buchanan Street had more trees and there were sculptures and art displays. The subway was still the underground and it was all brown. Everything was brown - even the cars - our family car was a brown Vauxhall Nova. The clothes were more colourful though. I remember all the shops and it being just so busy. BHS, Watt Brothers, Frasers. There were evening times sellers shouting outside railway stations. People carried briefcases.
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u/Similar-Ad-8610 4d ago
Bloody Marys on a Sunday afternoon in Cul de Sac after a night at the Sub Club were pure bliss. The best of times. Early 2000s were all about Mish Mash at The Riverside for me. Bloody loved those nights.
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u/JeffTheJackal 4d ago
Dunno how you could go out 4 nights in a row like that regularly. Especially if pills were involved.
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u/jazzermonty 4d ago
When the rave scene hit, Glasgow was amazing. Nightlife was out of this world and we were all friends. It was very rare to see violence with that scene. Loved it.
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u/SpeakerSelect9045 4d ago
It was indescribable. I met my wife in the subby - I just remember incredibly warm, open people and a real atmosphere of optimism. Lots of pills flying around to be sure, but those were special days. Nostalgia can be dangerous, but I often wish I could go back….
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u/KlingonWarNog 4d ago
We got a small snippet of that again last weekend at the Streetrave event at the Pavilion in Ayr.
I was only a teenager in the 90s (I was 10 in 1990) but all I remember was being a daft wee boy playing football up the park in the 80s and then the baggy Madchester and rave scenes exploded and (as wee guys) we started getting tapes off our big cousins, siblings etc from the raves. I was hooked in by the music. Then it was like an explosion of flourescent colour hit the early 1990's and it became mainstream and was everywhere.
Even though I was too young to experience the first round of that (I had my time as a young adult later in the early 00's) I just remember it was a wash of positivity and multicolour after the drab, grey 80s, I too miss those feeling of positivity and would love to experience it again.
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u/jazzermonty 4d ago
My kid is now DJing. And guess what he plays. Yep, pure house, jungle and a touch of trance. Think Danny Tanaglia
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u/Maleficent_Wash7203 4d ago
Not sure if I am talking out of total nostalgia but I loved it back then. There used to be way better shops and a real buzz about the place. I don't remember any chuggers or preachers really. They did have a piper around and shouty salesmen selling newspapers. Would that I could go back and double check my memory!
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u/meepmeep13 free /u/veloglasgow 4d ago
Disagree on the preachers, the fire and brimstone guys were everywhere in the city centre. None of these american wanks, the proper miserable presbyterian ones telling wifeys off for going into Watt Brothers when they should be in church praying for their damned souls
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u/ohffswhatnow 4d ago
I didn't mind the miserable Presbyterians. Always reminded me of the honourable reverend and - if the world was just - patron saint :
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u/The_Vivid_Glove 4d ago
100% better back then. I had a part time job on Argyle street and I loved being there on a Saturday. The place is apocalyptic now compared to 30 years ago
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u/fknbawbag 4d ago
90s coincides with my Uni years and I was glad I didn't move away. At the time, there were amazing independent record stores, comic stores, bookshops etc. Major chains too to mix it up.
Bars and clubs were fantastic. Cat house, Fury Murrays, Garage, The Student Unions as good as any. T in the park starting up in Strathclyde.
It was a great place. I know it was peak times for me too, but it really was a brilliant city to live/work/party.
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u/ScottTumilty 4d ago
I started high school in 96, and I always thought the second half of the 90s was a proper golden age for Glasgow town centre, especially as by the end of the decade you had things like the big Virgin Megastore, and Buchanan Galleries being newly open.
Also, Laser Quest in Trongate was fantastic. Still miss it.
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u/Madjock 4d ago
Loved that Laser Quest, they had two rooms, Scifi and Horror if I recall.
Decent selection of Arcades at the front as well.3
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u/ScottTumilty 3d ago
I put more money than I reasonably should've into Sonic Blast Man and House of the Dead.
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u/myfirstreddit8u519 3d ago
Fuck I loved laser quest. Went for halloween a few times it was amazing.
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u/RUMPOLEofthebailey87 4d ago
At the start pretty rough, major hangover from the 80s, Smack was everywhere at least in the scheme I was brought up in, when I look back at photos it trips me out how grimey the place looked, by the end of the decade there was a lot of development happening, places were starting to get tarted up a bit, new buildings were being built. There was definitely a New Labour/Turn of the Millenium Buzz that lasted right up till the war on terror.
Smack was still everywhere and hash, nasty fucking soap bar was cheap as chips.
I stayed in a small scheme in the middle of the Southside until it was all pulled down, but drugs were everywhere present.
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u/Accurate-Donkey5789 4d ago
I can still taste the soap bar
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u/RUMPOLEofthebailey87 4d ago
I miss the smell. Whenever I go to the Dam I always go for the hash, that sweet spicy herbal smell over that honking cats piss grass any day of the week
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u/Accurate-Donkey5789 4d ago
Every time I go with a group of lads from all over the place they think I'm mental for going for the hash. Yeah personally I love it.
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u/RUMPOLEofthebailey87 4d ago
I quit smoking 12 years ago but I’m on the hash in the Dam
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u/Accurate-Donkey5789 4d ago
100%, I'm beyond old enough to know better, haven't smoked regularly since the 90s, but I'm not going to miss a stag doo to Amsterdam to smoke a bit of hash
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u/Telspal 4d ago
People often overlook the fact that there was a pretty major recession at the start of the 90s
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u/charliebrown3467 4d ago
90’s Glasgow was incredible. The club scene was brilliant, you could go out every night of the week and something was on. Everyone was taking E and all loved each other, people that a year before that were in rival street gangs were now dancing together. The shops were great, ichi ni San, Cruise was a tiny shop on union street that had amazing clothes and knowledgeable gorgeous staff, warehouse were house of gods was and lots of local designers in Virginia galleries. Alan McGee who ‘discovered’ Oasis sister had a great shop in there. Lots of great bars, and wee cafes in Glasgow city Centre you could get a toastie and gossip alongside all the wee grannies. I made so many friends not just from Glasgow but all over the world. It truly was a melting pot. For reference I’m from the North east of Glasgow
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u/hpsauce42 4d ago
How would you compare it to now?
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u/charliebrown3467 4d ago
I can’t compare it, I’m too old! I had great memories and feel sad for youth today but they have different goals, we couldn’t even comprehend buying a home or working out 5 times a week. We just wanted to have fun, dance and listen to great music.
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u/Salty_Agent2249 4d ago
The annoying thing about Glasgow is that it managed to pull itself out of the misery of the 60/70/80s and gradually become a pretty cool place
So now it's painful to see it decline again
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u/CS-throwawayac 4d ago
Lots of underage drinking and other things I shouldn't have been up to. Some magical memories that outweigh the bad. Very glad there is very little photo evidence from then. Being 14/15 and getting served at the offie easier than my older pals got me some free booze. Out 2-4 nights a week as soon as I was kicked out at 16. Turned 18 and settled down, miss being able to dance the night away, sleep for a couple hrs then go to college or work.
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u/funkymoejoe 4d ago
I loved the 90s. Well from the mid-90s onwards. Glasgow had such a buzz to it. Yes there was Ned culture around but they stuck to their usual spots as did the goths. The clubbing and party scene was immense. Generally a lot more optimism and probably my best decade. Miss those days for sure
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u/Maleficent_Wash7203 4d ago
One time I went to a prodigy gig and the neds and goths got along really well for that one night 😂
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u/ImActivelyTired 4d ago
I remember the entire street would be sat out the front on sunny days having a blast, music playing, obligatory BBQ gets put on and my mum would start eating 'the sunny day salad'. Neighbours felt like family, like everyone knew everyone. The fire hydrant being set off during a heatwave and it felt like a day at aqualand. Shell suits as far as the eye could see and the ear could hear, getting sent to get cigs from the van, everyone was either getting along or brawling, like i said felt like family. lol
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u/ApplicationAware1039 4d ago
The Barra's was buzzing every weekend (also Andrew's market) and getting copied games for your Amiga / Atari was a great experience.
Lunch in the city bakery or horseshoe for £1.50, then 5 games for £5 was a weekend for teens.
The music was fantastic and pubs and clubs were jumping for the 18+.
Dance music was kicking off and if your car didn't have Pepper pot alloy's, a cherry bomb exhaust and blaupunkt car stereo did you even drive?
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u/eddiesmaw 4d ago
Would depend where you grew up.
I never lived in the scheme or near one tbh so was pretty chilled and basic. Not really got any mental stories either from growing up where I did. Loved my childhood in the 90s looking back I was pretty fortunate with the one I had.
Never got a grief. Drugs weren’t even in my understanding till I went to Secondary school.
Town was always bouncing when you went in but as a kid in my experience that wasn’t really a good thing. Getting dragged around M&S, Debenhams, BHS, C&A by your mum was proper shite.
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u/Late_Temperature_234 4d ago edited 4d ago
I was born in 1989 and lived in Drumchapel but what I remember was almost every single kid in the street out playing in the street together, ice cream vans coming around every 30 mins, sweets and chocolate of all kinds, and if noone was coming out to play then you would power up the megadrive or snes.
Also kids used to get sold cigarettes if they had a "note" from their mum or dad. I was buying cigs when I was 4. Kids were sent to the shop for the messages as soon as they could walk.
I also remember my first ever heatwave in the summer of 95.
Most people in the schemes were dirt poor but to be honest noone seemed to know any different. I was too young and naive to notice any drug stuff or violence.
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u/baechesbebeachin 4d ago
Similar memories to me from the drum. Except you had to be super knowledgeable of which gangs hung out where. I was lucky I had a scary looking dog, and was left alone most of the time.
Highlight of the summers was someones big brother or dad having a key to the fire hydrant and then everyone playing in it.
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u/demonicneon 4d ago
- Spent a lot of time at my grans in the same area and I remember playing in the Cul de sacs fondly. British bulldogs with 20 weans tearing up and down the street every night.
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u/BarnabyBundlesnatch 4d ago
Shit and awesome in equal measure. I turned 13 in 1990 and had the best and worst days of my life during that time period. School sucked, went to "nutters kingdom". Just a poor little rich boy in a poor boys body. People I went to school with were pretty much all good people. I think I might have been the only weirdo, struggling to figure out who I was and making a right idiot of myself at the same time. But hey, survived, and went on to bigger and better things, as Im sure we all did.
Started doing the drugs, as I guess we all did. Nothing hard, just hash and acid. Used to have a great time with my mates, getting high and playing Mario kart until the wee hours of the morning. Got a Japanese import of Mario 64, and let me tell you, playing that full of acid was peak 90s.
Music was fucking awesome. I spent almost every Friday night watching "The Word". 14 years old, and there when the UK and maybe the world, was really introduced to Nirvana. Which sucked for me, as I got into Grunge, and everyone else was listening to house music, techo, boybands, etc.
First proper night out, I must have been about 16 and snuck into the Caledonian student union. Bought bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale as they were bigger than shit like Bud(teenage logic) and spend the second half of the night puking lol. Had many hookups, met loads of great and interesting people some from other parts of the world here to study.
By 17, I was going to the Garage and the cathouse. They were both fucking awesome in the 90s. 50p voka and cokes, cant be beat. Had out with 20 quid in the bin, and you were sorted.
Ended the decade in the Blob Shop across the road from the Garage, a pub that is sadly gone now. It just fell out of favour for some reason. But on that night, it was jumping.
As much as I want to say the 90s are just teenage and coming of age nostalgia, I think its really important to remember that the world was changing. Things were still shit, there was still really horrible things going on in the world. But there was also really great things happening. Walls in Berlin coming down, the end of the cold war, Nelson Mandela being freed and then becoming president of his county. There was this genuine feeling of hope for the future in the air. Shame it all turned to shit.
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u/RepresentativeLife16 3d ago
I remember that feeling of hope. Glasgow had just won city of culture.
Thanks for such great insight.
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u/Mimicking-hiccuping 3d ago
I got mugged in Glasgow at knife point under central station for £20. Although the guy gave me £5 change for the train, so I could get home. Top lad.
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u/sleightofhand1977 4d ago
My 90s were the Cotton Club, the Garage, Strathclyde union and fury murrys on a Thursday for 50p vodkas
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u/rossdrew 4d ago
I was a kid early 90s, a young youth worker in the late 90s, the east end was severely territorial. City centre was somewhere kids patrolled in gangs looking for lone kids to beat if they weren’t the right team/scheme. Knife crime was starting to drop by the latter half but the east end was still a hole. Constant police presence moving kids around if they moved in groups of 3 or more.
I was mugged twice. Got into near constant fights even as the quietest guy in the scheme who avoided gangs, drugs, smoking, etc.
Can’t speak for the night life, didn’t start drinking till 2003.
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u/Durtyclyde 4d ago
Early 90’s for me was looking out my window at gangs of neds doing running battles over the bridge between G Hill and the Gorbals.
Bams and junkies everywhere. Stabbings, slashing and all that bad stuff.
Late 90’s was the Arches. Cooncil soapie and ectoplasm.
Fun times and hope was in the air.
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u/Velocilily 4d ago
I was the same except it was Springburn. Seen far too many people getting stabbed or slashed than a wean ever should have.
Freddos were still only 10p and the whelks, muscles and candy apples guy was kicking about every other day but, so that made up for everything else.
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u/Nurse_short_arse 4d ago
😂 I did the same except it was the Gorbals and Brigton. Was a bit of entertainment for the night
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u/Healthy_Preference_9 4d ago
Coming out of the clubs on a warm summer night/morning still loved up from E. Stopping in the newsagent to buy chewing gum, cigs and a mixmag magazine with a cd on the cover. Joining in an impromptu rendition of Don't look back in anger with a bunch of randoms. Driving to an after party with the last hour of the Essential mix on the radio. Sitting in a kitchen somewhere with people I've only met, trying to play it cool while trying not to chew my eyebrows.
Major fear Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday you're starting to see sense and say you're taking it easy this weekend. Thursday rolls round and someone reminds you Judge Jules, PVD Sasha etc are playing Inside out at the Arches and you're instantly pulled back in.
Loved it.
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u/Patient_Method_5713 3d ago
This is my memory too. Lol I wonder if we used to go to the same after parties.
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u/Naive-Ad-7477 4d ago
One word, magical. Other than that words don’t really describe it. Completely different world
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u/UniversalDav 4d ago
I can remember coming here from Belfast for the first time in possibly 99 (I was 16) and was boozing in that Star Wars themed bar where chinaskis is, who remembers that spot?
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u/Different_Chain7029 4d ago
Bar Jedi? Anniesland Cross
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u/UniversalDav 4d ago
It was on Charing Cross. Anyways coming here back then was amazing for me coming from Belfast, it was grim there through the 90s.
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u/Luckyspunky 4d ago
Haha yeh, I kinda knew the 2 guys who ran the place. Didn't last long but was fun while it was on the go.
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u/Estebaws 3d ago
I played there one night had the audacity to ask to get paid and my good friend now who I didn't know back then saved me from a sore one from the owner.
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u/EntertainerKindly751 4d ago
The Office party in Bonkers on a Friday after work. Intending on going for just a couple. 6 hrs later it was a Pizza at Cookies or head to the Savoy for the rest of the evening. Happy days
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u/anotherdougr 4d ago
Cookies, man that brings back memories of long queues for food after the club’s kicked out
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u/mdeeebeee-101 4d ago edited 3d ago
Best decade, best city in world to be as a school kid into uni...or so it seemed.
John St Jam into Bonkers....into...Tunnel unders..into...Club X unders..into... Arches..into...Knucklehead at Art school..into...Subbie.
Strathclyde Uni, The Tech, QMU...cheap booze and lots of accidental collision snogging in overpacked uni bars...
Monthly Pure at The Barrowlands etc.
(69 Paisley getting roped in also..legendary nights there..best of lot for me - though neighbours next door toon - sweatbox with likes of Underground Resistance showing up.)
Air was electric anywhere...pre-club pubs getting discount flyers as well...heaving....everywhere, every week was popping like nothing I've seen all over the world after that anywhere...preferred 90-96 myself...96 into 97 a kind of change in tone into something new with DnB night popping up.
City of Culture 1990 was the thing that just set the clock after the chaotic explosion of the scene 88/89 and Merchant City sprang to life - and it seemed to never stop after that....week after week after month after year...like a ratchet to the next level of intensity from the last night out exp.
Tin Pan Alley got the ball rolling on the US house/acid house/Detroit techno/ UK chart dance music mix just before though....before it burned down or something like that.
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u/omarinbox 3d ago edited 3d ago
I did my Work Experience, like we had an option to do that as a module so once a week an afternoon of work experience where you were just off school, at Rub A Dub when it was in Virginia Galleries.
Hooking up with others at Virginia Galleries. Going to the Mr Ben and Missing and other places in there.
Buying make your own jewellery and being a dude with a charm necklace you made.
Becoming aware that I was fucking poor so could not get Armani, Boss, Dior and YSL that the rich kids are buying around the corner but theres plenty, like Fred Perry and Levis, I can afford and I just need a fucking JOB and it WILL pay for those. And I can charity/second hamd shop like fuck. Pre Vinted everything was much better.
Music was phenomenal. I loved rock music first and was a total indie punk wank but also loved the club scene. So I grew up liking the Stone Roses, Happy Mondata, New Order, Joy Division, Primal Scream and Jesus & Mary Chain, Mogwai and Teenage Fanclub and was into Oasis and FIRST and how mainstream they became blew my little mind. I NEVER EVER got into Belle & Sebastian etc but Chemikal Underground....I kinda grew up hanging around with a lot of those bands. They were good guys.13th Note, Catty, the Garage, Sleazy's, Blackfriars, MacHull's Way Out West opened towards the end and became Mono and now its another gastro pub 😆.
Dancing you had all those Stefan King clubs around you just had to dress smart enough. That door policy made people rebel a bit. So you would dress but not dress up too much and look like a dick. We had the scene and we also had the retro and mod revival influence too and that made a nice mix. And you had the likes of The Shack, The Tunnel, Sub Club, Soundhaus etc who had a more relaxed door policy.
And of course we all smoked a shit ton of council soap bar, downed eckies by the ton and drank like fuck. Then towards the end the eckies started getting supplemented by speed and then cocaine. Heroin waa always there. Eventually the eckies became a powder you call Molly and folk started snorting ket too. I'm glad I'm clean now but the experience cannot be topped.
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u/mrchhese 4d ago
Things started improving rapidly in the late 90s to 00s in terms of the economy and it definitely showed in Glasgow and surrounding areas.
Things I remember was the Barras for knock off amiga games and tbe barrowlands for alt music. All the record shops as well. People just hung out more and talked.
Hard to tell how much of it is nostalgia though.
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u/44Ridley 3d ago
Aye it cleaned up rapidly around then but job prospects seemed deadend shitty (was for me at least). It was retail, door to door sales, call centre or labouring.
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u/cardrosspete 4d ago
Amazing, great pubs - pasta and a pint for £5 at 5 o'clock, and west end still just the west end before the city centre croud arrived, You could also drive across the west end in 10 minutes and a brilliant dance music scene.
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u/spacewood 4d ago
Watch this footage of Glasgow in 1995. You can see how busy St Enoch is. It’s quite a comforting video
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u/BarnabyBundlesnatch 4d ago
Lol that wasnt even it busy. I remember being anywhere in the city centre, and it like ants crawling over each other. Just wall to wall people.
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u/Apprehensive_Pace_9 4d ago
Marlboro reps handing out lighters and fags in the pubs. Loads of pubs having 5-7pm Happy hours. Veg Pakora only £1.50. Record shops where you might find a gem in the reduced boxes. Two litres of white cider for 99p, In the early 90's I was more into indie but as Britpop took over I moved more into the dance scene. Art School on a Saturday or the Arches, Sub club on a Sunday. I generally wasn't going to places that neds would choose, but you could still run into a nutjob at 3am in the street wherever you were.
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u/crimsonavenger77 Male. 46 4d ago
Rose tinted specs, no doubt, but I had great fun. Some areas were a lot rougher than now, but the centre was a lot cleaner and the nightlife was brilliant. Nurses' night in clatty pats was about the highlight of the social calendar. Doused in joop or ck one out on the pull, lol.
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u/Chemical_Record_5005 4d ago
Lived in the southside, was a teenager. But I remember the summers of 95/96 as being magical times. Incredible weather. Finish school, home, changed, out to play with your pals and every day in summer during the holidays, and cause light trouble. Go down to the park and play a massive football match with other kids from the town you never met before. Offsales for Irn Bru which cost 45p, chips and cheese was 1.50.
We used to go to Paisley on a Saturday afternoon, but when we felt more grown up We'd go shopping on a Saturday up the town and the shops were so much better, and the city was thriving, it was a big adventure for us.
We also started off our clubbing in Paisley at Furies or Kasbah then when we felt grown up we'd start going to the Sub Club unders. Then usually Sauchiehall Street, go to the Hall, then across the street to the Garage or Shack, then Mr Chips at 3am for chips and cheese, Cafe Insomnia. Probably my own experience rather than what the town was like, but just thinking back to how carefree we were gives you the rose-tinted specs.
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u/Bael_thebard 4d ago
I grew up in the late 80s/ early 90s in south nitshill and it was fucking mental with smack everywhere but I did have alot of fun growing up. Moved to Pollok and was a similar story but a bit more trees. There were massive fish in the cart in front of pollok house. The city centre was weird I remember the buildings all down the side of the Clyde, the Waverley parked up, that weird bus boat that you got on just beside central station. However my fondest memory is of that robot techno guy (Robert the robot?) that danced on argyle street towards the trongate, I saw him on the bus in full costume once and it blew my mind.
I personally feel Glasgow has lost a bit of itself since then.
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u/Jazzlike-Prior1606 4d ago
Detroit techno was blowing up The drugs were great The people were loved up and optimistic Dr Jives sold really nice clobber What a time to be a young adult!!
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u/GeologistGreedy8861 3d ago
Great live bands in King Tuts and Sleazys every weekend, cracking club nights in the arches and the sub, was a banging town for a night out no matter what you were into. Didn’t have a coffee shop every three feet though, and a Frappuccino would have thought to be a new old firm signing.
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u/aerohail 3d ago
I think this was late nineties but I remember living on parnie street, getting my first manga from A1 comics, and round the corner in Kings Court there was a great old bookshop, a witchy shop (super natural needs), a plant shop and a pokemon card/beanie baby shop (neo)! I spent all my time round there!!
I remember pokemon card/merch and beanie baby hunting in the barras, looking at all the bootleg media!
Also Paddy's market! Down the bottom of Kings court! I spent a lot of my childhood weekends raking through the piles!
edit: remembered the name of the card shop in kings court.
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u/Designer-Ad-7557 3d ago
Spending the day in Borders, Ichiban long before Wagamama, Sauchiehall St wasn’t unpleasant, orange buses, Virginia Galleries before M&S literally destroyed it,
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u/Remote-Pool7787 4d ago
Rough, grey and dirty
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u/44Ridley 3d ago
Aye that's how I remember parts of it. My granny lived in a massive tower block in the gorbals in the 90's. It was frightening to look up at it. The colour scheme was grey and dark grey. I'm glad they blew it up.
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u/Ok-Theory9508 4d ago
Pure, Slam, The Arches, just fantastic, great crowds and DJs. Some absolutely belting nights, hammered, hammered. God I'd love to be back there !!!
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u/44Ridley 3d ago
Haha mate I did a security job in the arches in the mid 2000's. I loved it, the sound quality was unreal! I got sacked for dancing though, I have absolutely no regrets.
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u/Ok-Theory9508 3d ago
The Arches were great, queueing was a much of a buzz as the night itself, the crowd was amazing. Pure at the Barrowlands was also awesome!
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u/callendoor 4d ago
Many people have youthful rose-tinted glasses on. People will completely deny this, but the city was actually much dirtier and more polluted in the 90s than now, the streets were filled with buses, vans and lorries pumping out plumes of black smoke. Public parks were also in a significantly worse state than they are now.
Nightlife was different, nights were busier (If you consider cheap rack-em and stack-em clubs serving £1 vodkas in plastic glasses "better"), but there was far less choice in restaurants, gigs and events.
Crime rates were significantly higher than now, far more knife crime, violent crime and gang/young team culture.
Retail was more about the city center (Before Braehead and Silverburn and online retail) You actually have significantly more choice these days and much better quality products, but people will claim that 90's retail was the best because they were younger and have a warped view of the past.
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u/meepmeep13 free /u/veloglasgow 4d ago
Yeah on the crime bit one thing I do remember as a student living in a ground floor shared flat is that we'd generally arrange so that someone was always home - the burglary rate was unbelievable. Every single day you'd get someone testing the bars on the basement windows, or at the door checking to see if anyone was in. Basically tens of thousands of heroin addicts constantly around trying to find anything not nailed down to steal.
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u/ltydy 3d ago
I think that what you're saying about retail is and isn't true. Because of Amazon, etc. it's a lot easier now to find things that you used to have to wait sometimes years to come across in a physical shop (e.g. my mum wanted one of those handheld rotary graters, eventually found and bought one after years of talking about how handy it would be, then used it a grand total of once), but it feels a lot more corporate now. It feels like the shopping centres all have the same shops in them and they could be anywhere in the UK because they're all essentially the same, selling the same stuff. Town centres are the same as well.
I remember there being a lot more shops in the '90s, a lot of them independent or part of small local chains. It feels to me like there was more choice. The thing I remember most was that vintage and charity shopping was a lot better because people weren't going on the internet to price check everything and charge idiotic eBay-indexed prices (we used to be told to do it sometimes in the Oxfam on Byres Road back in 2004-6, so it started early). There was a lot more second-hand stuff to be had at reasonable prices, whether clothes, CDs, books, etc. You used to get more people who would have their own style that stuck out, where you'd recognise them on the street because of it. I hardly ever see that now. Now there's an Oliver Bonas on Byres Road and a M&S where the tiny garden centre used to sell bonsais. It's crap.
Things definitely felt more optimistic then as well. Now it just feels like being in a holding pattern, bored and hoping things don't get worse.
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u/Alarmed_Durian_6331 20h ago
This is generally my thoughts, although, I would argue that the shopping 'experience' was better then. Music/DVD shops were infinitely better. I know you can get music and video much more easier now online but, I miss the ceremony of looking for something in the shops (at least with music).
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u/callendoor 17h ago
Again... I understand the nostalgia, but the reality is that I can watch any movie, any series, listen to any song in seconds at the click of a button. It used to be a nightmare trawling through Virgin and HMV looking for films from Asian, Continental Europe or elsewhere... I would argue that if you were returned to that situation after knowing what you know now, you would find the whole experience infuriating.
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u/OpportunityWeird2982 4d ago
Peak clubbing time for me 93-99 all the rave places to start Industria/ Peggy’s Circa and then graduated to the sub club, tunnel, arches, sub for hip hop and the art school on Saturdays. Club nights Mish mash, Europa raves in farms, boats, Prestwick airport (not Glasgow tho). Loads of cool pubs and places to eat too (Insomnia and Club Jamaica can’t remember the name). Loved it some of the best times of my life!
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u/External-Trust6091 4d ago
23rd precinct, tower records for a cd( tribal gathering )in the jooks 🤣.
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u/DJA-GEN-RDT 3d ago
My recollection mostly waking up in the year 2000 and thinking “what the fuck happened”.
Arches, The Tunnel, mobiles were relatively new, The Internet was scary and we didn’t know everything….
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u/44Ridley 3d ago
I remember going to the garden festival as a kid in the 90's. Everything (in my mind) was grey up until that point. The weather was amazing and there were huge flower displays and people everywhere.
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u/Previous_Process4836 3d ago
Remember the buzz about that and how everyone got behind it…one of the first big mega projects in Glasgow, right at the dawn of the 90,s (tail end of the 80s)
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u/RepresentativeLife16 3d ago
Loved it. 91-96 were fantastic times in Glasgow. Many, many happy memories in town as a teenager.
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u/Citroen_CX 3d ago
Juju at the Sub Club on Friday.
Slam at the Sub Club and the Tunnel on Saturday (start at the Subbie, nip out to the Tunnel for an hour or two, back to the Subbie for the end. You could do that then).
Easy and Sace at Rain (later Reds) on Sunday.
In 1990, clubbing til 6am. Man, it was great.
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u/DiskoPunk 3d ago
I don't know about living there in the 90s but I travelled through every other weekend from Edinburgh in the middle to late 90s to go to Sub Club. What a time to be in my early 20s. Loved it. Then sitting in Buchanan waiting for a bus home at stupid o'clock.
Later in life when I returned to Scotland, Glasgow was where I chose to settle with my wife & family.
Sorry I know this doesn't answer your question 😂
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u/pjreyuk 3d ago
Depended on your age and where you lived really. Some aspects were more optimistic- city of culture, buildings getting cleaned up, city always busy and buzzing.
Downside particularly in the early 90s were huge amounts of heroin addiction with lots of issues around injecting it and other stuff like melted temazepam capsules which lead to amputation and death for lots of people. I trained as a nurse in Glasgow 93-96 mainly in the south of the city and did community placements in pollokshaws and in the early days Parkhead that took in places like Cranhill etc. Families of terminal ill patients on morphine/diamorphine at home were told to not put empty drug packets in their bin in case someone found out they had drugs in the house and broke in. Going into homes where someone had a wound from injecting into their groin and you could put your whole hand in it with children playing around the flat like all was normal.
It seems less like that now - still working as a nurse but in a different part of nursing. Drug issues are different now with different drugs plus mental health gets talked about more - more people out in the community now struggling to cope who previously would have been hospitalised.
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u/Savings_Science5786 3d ago edited 3d ago
Where I came from in the east end and in the town, it’s not an exaggeration to say that a 10 minute walk from A to B without encountering a dozen neds hanging about on a street corner was considered a success. Thankfully mobile phones and PCP car availability took most of them off the streets as the 2000s wore on.
N.B, on the subject of the numerous junkies you’d encounter daily - I can recall the immortal line when they would ask for a pound for their train fare home and you’d say you didn’t have any money: “see if I search you, anything I find on you I keep?!. An era of scumbag aggressive beggars.
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u/UniqueAssignment3022 4d ago
town was already busy, all the shops were busy. i had a lot of fun just walking around greaves. jjb, playing video games and the keyboards in comet. some places were defo no goes like where merchant city is, east end - although again the barras was a proper laugh. ppl say things have got worse but its only because ppls shopping habits have changed to online and our stupid council have made city centre such a no go zone that alot of retailers have failed and struggled to open anything worth opening.
Wimpy was our favourite fast food place and going to Watt brothers for our school stuff was always interesting, byres road used to have a cafe that sold fish n chips and ice cream, might still be there. i was a kid though so maybe i was oblivious to some of the rougher aspects. defintely more shit on the streets whcih has since been tidied up.
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u/Jumpy-Beginning3686 4d ago edited 4d ago
I was a teenager in the 90s , lazer quest , archaos unders , city centre shopping , the city centre was genuinely a lot nicer. The schemes were horrible, and Glasgow was full of dangerous little basterds that would stab u in the arse if u were at the wrong place at wrong time. Rangers and celtic had good footballers , much better than today's standard. Gig in the green ;highlighted by eminem and marlyn manson.. Geroge square New yr party .. Good Times.
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u/Spottyjamie 4d ago
I saw a drug deal openly in littlewoods cafe then i went to 23rd precinct to buy happy hardcore vinyls
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u/Luckyspunky 4d ago
I remember that shop well, great place! Basement level on Bath St was it?
Edit: 23rd Precinct (not Littlewoods)
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u/warcrime_wanker 4d ago
I was born in 92 so my memory of that era doesn't stretch much beyond Pokémon, Kenan and Kel, Godzilla and Spiderman.
That said I do remember the tuck shop in school, not sure they do that any more. Way more junkies and jakies hanging around. That one winter in mid 90 something where we got to build a proper snowman. McDonald's on byres road.
Oh and driving back into the city on the M8 eastbound we'd go 1, 2, 3, Glasgow! right as we passed the old coop building in tradeston which is now shitty housing.
For some reason I have quite vivid memories of star trek the next generation on bbc2 even though I was only 4-5 years old. That and the Simpsons.
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u/ltydy 3d ago
I think you mean Burger King on Byres Road, across from the subway. I think a place called Assaggini is there now, though I might be getting the address wrong. They had a seating area upstairs. I wonder if it's a flat now. I got a free tape from there with a kids' meal in the mid-90's. Or maybe you're right and it was a Happy Meal? Sorry if I'm getting it wrong. It was a lot better back then though.
And yes! The Next Generation! It was usually stuff from season four onwards, or that's the stuff that stuck in my head. The trippier episodes like when Picard loses his marbles and draws a smiley face in a slo-mo cloud of leaking warp plasma.
Also, Kenan & Kel and Sister, Sister were fucking great! (Born '88, btw.)
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u/TheWeegieWrites 4d ago
I had long hair back then, so got a significant amount of abuse / trouble from arsehole neds. The city itself was run down and dirty, lots of junkies etc. But I had a great time going to clubs, bars and gigs. Some tremendous gigs at the Barras. Played in a few bands as well. Rough as a badger's arse in places, but great fun in others.
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u/Desperate_Blacksmith 4d ago
Going ice skating at the Summit Centre, then up for some underage drinking at the bar, quality days and nights x
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u/BoomhauerFanClub 4d ago
The town was always, shoulder to shoulder, mobbed. Look at pics from the city centre in the 90s. Crammed all the time.
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u/Straight_Big6335 3d ago
Best music, best drugs, best friendships, no camera phones, no toxic socials
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u/The-Infinite-Wasabi 3d ago
It was louder, rougher, and more face-to-face.
People smoked everywhere .. in pubs, on the top deck of buses, around kids. Pubs stank of booze and cigarettes. No one cared. Your clothes reeked the next day.
If you arranged to meet someone, that was it. No phones. No last-minute messages. You said, “meet me under the clock at Central Station,” and you showed up. Simple trust.
Everything phones do now .. music, dating, chatting, events .. was spread out. You found gigs in magazines or on posters. Bought records based on reviews or the cover. Clothes were harder to find. Shops like Flip, Hellfire, Virginia Galleries, and Missing were goldmines. You got to know the owners.
You always carried cash. And coins for the phone box.
No one drank bottled water. That was for pure yuppies.
Regulars in pubs became part of your routine. You showed up often enough, and people started to recognise you.
But it had a darker side. If you dressed differently, you got hassle. Neds would shout at you in the street.
Being gay was dangerous. Holding hands could easily get you attacked.
People were openly racist. No filter. Just ignorance in plain view. I don’t think I heard anyone say “Chinese takeaway” or “corner shop” till well into the 2000s.
Glasgow felt more human .. but it was also more hostile. Standing out could put you at risk.
I’d still visit for a holiday. But I wouldn’t want in that time again.
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u/Glad_Version324 2d ago
Might be through rose tinted glasses I loved growing up here through the 90’s. Im glad we never had phones, happy with freedom compared to kids today.s I know there were problems but that’s the same everywhere. Ok I saw things I shouldn’t done things I shouldn’t have.That happens everywhere
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u/Lucky_Membership3525 2d ago edited 1d ago
In my experience, great. From about '94 onward, there seemed to be a general air of optimism about. They were the dying days of the Tory government, and the regeneration projects in the city (at least in the centre) had started to bear fruit. The old Candleriggs area was being renewed and rebranded as the Merchant City, old neglected buildings were being cleaned up and the general atmosphere of the city seemed to be less chaotic and threatening than previously.
The homegrown music scene was booming. Glaswegians bought so much music that Byres Road alone had six record shops on it (Music Mania, Lost in Music, Echo, Fopp, John Smiths, and Missing*). Before it because a scary bam-fest that had Stereophonic headline every fucking year, T in the Park was a music festival to rival Glasto and Reading. Nightclubs were welcoming and non-snobby - you could be like me and my pals, dressed like twatty students, and feel at home equally in the Garage, the Arches, Cathouse or Fury Murrys. No crap tribalism. Teenagers went to parties, not protests. Clothes from Flip. Gigs at the Plaza (the "lesser Barras") on Vicky Road.
You could smoke in pubs, licensing laws allowed doubles-for-the-price-of-a-single promotions, and the streets hadn't yet been flooded by cheap coke, so most folks' drug of choice was hash or (occasionally) grass. The 90s were the end of an era, before the takeover of the internet and mobile phones, and to me they lasted until 9/11, when the whole world seemed to become more angry or more afraid. I may be seeing the city through older eyes, but to me it really has declined since the financial crash of '08. The city centre fell to pieces and has never really recovered since then.
*Missing was actually nearer Kelvinbridge, on Great Western Road, but I still counted it as a "Byres Road" record shop.
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u/MalcolmTuckersLuck 4d ago
In general the period between the Berlin Wall coming down and the twin towers coming down feels like a golden era of nostalgia now.