As a West Coaster born and raised, I consider Glasgow to be my city and I defend it with (probably too much) honour. The people of Glasgow have a sense of community like no other, coming together in the best and the worst of times to celebrate and support one another. Like any city, there are people that certainly don’t fit into the mould of a hearty Glaswegian, but the majority of us gie it enough laldy (give it our all) for the slackers twice over.
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G-YOU MAGAZINE// SEPTEMBER 2021// 10
A lot of people think Glaswegians are England’s big scary cousins, but that could not be further from the case; once you get to know us you’ll realise that we are so passionate about our city that it hurts, in a good way. The official slogan for our city has been ‘People Make Glasgow’ since 2013 – chosen from over 1500 ideas suggested by 42 countries across the world. Politician Gordon Matheson said that the slogan ‘reflects the Glaswegian character’ and that the spirit of the city lies in the people who inhabit it. He’s got that right. People make Glasgow in several ways but all of the events I have witnessed provoke the same emotion: pride. Every citizen is proud to live here and every one of them wears it on their chest. Glasgow has an impressive list of born performers and artists up its sleeve: Billy Connelly, Gerrard Butler, Primal Scream, and Kevin Bridges among a few have shaped the city and its culture for decades.So much so that in 1990 Glasgow was crowned the city of culture. The ever-evolving, ever-accepting culture of Glasgow makes it a hub for live music of all genres; one of the best examples I can think of to demonstrate this ‘People Make Glasgow’ moment people speak of and reflect this sense of identity and pride is be live music events – a Glasgow crowd is simply unmatched. Artists such as Billie Eilish and Harry Styles have recently said to the BBC that there is simply nothing like a rowdy Glasgow crowd. I myself am an avid concert goer and get pretty emotional around the same time at every single gig: the encore. The ‘Here we, here we, here we f*****g go’ chant that I hope you will get to know well if you don’t already, erupts from the arena while we beg the artist to come back for one last song. So much so that my English boyfriend almost had a heart attack when we went to Kasabian in 2018
