Midge Ure Backs Scottish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Bid
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- ScotsRock has launched a bid to take over Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts on Sauchiehall Street and transform it into a Scottish Rock and Roll Music Hall of Fame celebrating the country's contribution to global music.
- Midge Ure, whose career spans Ultravox, Band Aid and Live Aid, has agreed to become ScotsRock's inaugural Patron, saying Scotland 'punches way above our weight' and questioning why Scotland lacks a counterpart to Cleveland's US-focused Hall of Fame.
- Lulu, Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, Travis and Del Amitri have also signed on in support of the project.
- Ronnie Gurr, former chief executive of the Scottish Music Industry Association, would serve as senior curator, framing the proposed hub as both a museum and live venue at a time when grassroots music venues are 'closing at a rate of knots.'
- The Centre for Contemporary Arts shut its doors in January after going into liquidation with the loss of all jobs, capping years of turbulence that began when a 2018 fire destroyed the nearby Glasgow School of Art.
- Creative Scotland, which owns the building, says it will shortly launch a formal process inviting expressions of interest in leasing or purchasing it, and previously offered the CCA's operators £1.28m per year.
- A separate collective — Vanishing Point, Groupwork, Shotput and Superfan — has also publicly expressed interest in using the space for theatre and dance rehearsal and international collaboration.
Why it matters: The CCA's liquidation leaves Creative Scotland to decide the future of a Sauchiehall Street building it previously funded at roughly £1.28m a year, and ScotsRock must now compete for it against at least one rival cultural bid. If the hall of fame bid succeeds, it would create a dedicated live performance space at exactly the moment Scotland's grassroots venue circuit is contracting.
