“If we had compromised a bit more we could have kept it going.” Grant McDougall August 2006

Grant McDougall was one of the seven founders of Splash One Happening, who came together in May 1985 to put on the bands they wanted to see but who weren’t playing in Glasgow. Although the club pulled in an average of about 100 people to each concert, it's reputation has grown in the 20 years since it closed it's doors in 1986.
In the mid-80s, the alternative live music scene in Scotland was not particularly strong, and seemed to split into two camps; the agit-pop of The Redskins and Billy Bragg, or the subSmith's copyists James or Easterhouse with The Red Guitars somewhere in between. When groups with a little bit of glamour, mystery or allure such as The Jesus and Mary Chain and the Loft began releasing singles on Creation Records there was an immediate interest from people bored with the worthy fist clenchers.

Grant said: “There was no other clubs putting on the bands we wanted to see." They decided on a name and found a venue, a seedy handbag disco called Daddy Warbucks in the centre of the city, which they renamed after it's address, 46 West George Street. the building burned down sometime in the 1990s.

Splash was the first club in Glasgow to leaflet and bill-post, creating a lot of interest in the first concert from reclusive London group the Loft. Grant said: "We put on bands we liked, which at that time was a lot of sixties sounding guitar bands.”

Fellow organiser Bobby Gillespie’s connection with Alan McGhee meant that a lot of Creation bands played the Glasgow club, such as The Bodines and Felt. A lot of the bands who appeared were friends with the organisers, or were people who went to the club. Grant said: “We had a connection with the bands and the support acts. We would get tapes of bands sent through in the post but we avoided sitting at home listening to them, we just weren’t prepared to listen to anything else. I must admit we were pretty dismissive of other bands.

"People didn’t go on a whim, you were guaranteed a good evening for next to nothing, going to see a band you hopefully liked for £2."

“My favourite concert was Wire, who are still my favourite band. To organise their first ever gig in Scotland was also special.

"Putting them on was the most intense and business like piece of booking that we did. I had to deal with their manager, organise their hotel and give them a specific rider, which I think involved different types of veggie food, which was really different from the other bands we put on.

“There was so much riding on it, there was no pre-sales tickets and they were looking for far more money than any other band. My colleagues were reticent about spending £900. We had to double the admission from £2 to £4.

"And Echo and the Bunnymen were playing in the city on the same night.

“My biggest thrill was coming round the corner and seeing the queue stretching away from 46 West George St, before the venue had even opened. I realised that there was more than 200 people there and we were going to meet the outlay. In the end we sold out 450 tickets.



“Another great moment was seeing Sonic Youth sound check in a virtually empty room to Death Valley 69, a track they don’t play in their set.

"The most disappointing was the Jasmine Minks- we had a half hearted approach to putting them on.

"We got everybody we wanted to see over the space of a calendar year. Bobby Gillespie and his girlfriend Karen Parker moved to London and we had no impetus then to go on.

“Once we had seen all the bands we initally wanted to see,we stopped the club. But looking back we should have probably kept it going longer.

“I’ve had pangs of regret, not being able to see how successful it could have become, although Daddy Warbuck’s was not the best venue for music.

“It was right for it’s time.

“If we had compromised a bit more we could have kept it going.”