‘The Catty’ | The Story of Scotland’s Rock Music Institution The Cathouse | TUNE

it's kind of like a mecca of like alternativeness and glasgow for people it's a hub for for alternative experience it just feels like a home to a lot of other queer people and a lot a lot of other alternative people it's probably one of the most inclusive places you'll ever go you know and i was scared to just like express themselves then it's just a really nice comfortable place to be they're investing in like the culture they're trying to like give you a shot at pretending you're part of the music scene without him playing the role how can you really figure out if that's you or not they give you like a safe space to pretend to be a rock star for me the cat house is like a heavy metal cheers it truly is a place where everybody knows your name [Music] when i was in my formative years there was nowhere for punks to go and so we'd go every saturday we arrive at the shuffles and we'll be allowed to uh listen to dance to three punk records in amongst sages oops upside your head and all these ned's walking about with razor blades in between their fingers i was out with my band playing a gig in pizzazz which was a club in bathgate and before i know i met the owner who says i tell you what you can have a friday night here a rock club uh you keep the door money and i'll keep the bath and uh then came the big night and uh dreading i think they're gonna be about 20 30 people there and there was a qr 300 all the way up the street within about four months we were down at brown street and suddenly the cat house was born well the cat houses get a it's a strange reputation at times because you do get the people that just haven't got a clue what it's all about it's like a revolution when they come in they actually realize it's this murderer club is a lot more than that i think the alternative community especially in scotland is just it's so welcoming because this place has home for them so they're they're more than likely have been bullied in school for the way they dress and how they look and things like me to this day i still get shouted golf on the street and i'm just like i mean yeah when you've been told all your life you're different or you're you know it's not acceptable to dress that way or look that certain way you know there's not a club lovers people feel the same way and we all just resonate with each other the life experience that goes on with being different i think is what draws everyone together and you really felt it was more than just going to listen to your favorite type of music you were going to be part of a place where you felt you actually belonged for once the cat islanders kind of stood out for me just because it was kind of a safe space for um anyone who was a rebecca didn't fit the norm was maybe not from the center of glasgow it used to be on a saturday afternoon and they would get five rolls of rock music and just hang around with our friends and just kind of grow up in the scene it's a place for us all to collectively come hang out like and we were all we all had stuff in common it was amazing you were finally around people that knew what you liked and didn't care and didn't judge the way you were and supported you and loved it and it was just such a great atmosphere i think it just comes down to the fact that we all love the same thing and we all have such a deep passion for the music it's been a breeding ground a champion of new music from many many acts and you're anthrax are the blackstone cherries queens of the stone age eagles of death metal you name your local bands like biffy clyro you've got gun oh great this is a homecoming place for them that's where we cemented our place in the glasgow music scene was at the shows there and the support slots that we were given and uh you know as time went on eventually getting to that point where we could sell out the cat house as well that was a proper milestone for us as a band the energy in that room is just nuts like and the fans they like they're not just going to stand there be like they're like they're going for it and like that's everything you want when you're playing because you know you feed off of their energy it's with our first ever tried to crowdsurf so it's like the first place i've ever crowdsurfed and then it's kind then crowdsurfing kind of in a weird way has become like my job i think that very much if you came into the house 10 years ago it'd be a very specific type of person you would see here whereas if you've ever come in now you would be surprised with the people you see we evolved musically we evolved with the fashions and the movements of the times we've not we've not cut off past periods you know now we have shared toilets you know i think it would be unimaginable you mean you've got your license back in the day when we started that now it's acceptable and rightly so it was it was just such an insane reaction it was i just brought back all the kind of feelings from the first time i went to the cat house and the first time i sort of felt you know comfortable in my own skin there was this wrestling after party and there was just such a variety of people here you know emo kids side by side be like twinkie drag fans side by side with you know big burly metal heads um and that to me like i love that so much because i kind of love this idea of people from different backgrounds kind of enjoying the same thing everybody wants to be accepted right the young the old everybody they just want to be accepted for who they are and when they walk in this door they'll leave their troubles at the door that's always been a core value of the cat house and any good alternative in the club so you can have in here you can have rappers gots moshers new metal fans and it polices itself because people inherently are good people inherently are warm people inherently friendly for me the cat house is a community it's that feeling of belonging and knowing that you're somewhere safe how can a place so brutal feels so welcoming i'm amazed that it's still there after 30 years quite honestly that's that's an achievement it's the devil holding it together man music is timeless rock music in particular and all its forms will still be getting played a hundred years from now a thousand years from now that's what makes the heart beat it's what makes us