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The Classic Grand
The Classic Grand is a live event venue and nightclub in Glasgow. Located on Jamaica Street, it features many live bands and also sometimes hosts specialist events such as the Glasgow Wedding Band showcase. It is very important to the live music scene in Glasgow as shows a variety of both local and well know and established acts. This gives smaller acts the opportunity to get in to the public eye while attracting customers to come see live music with the well established acts. Situated in the centre of Glasgow, the venue has a capacity for up to 800 people. The upstairs of the venue has a capacity of 550, 50 of which are in a small elevated separate bar area which is often used as a VIP section. Upstairs is where most of the live bands perform due to its size in comparison to level 1. Level 1 is smaller, with only a 250 person capacity, and has a DJ booth and a sound desk. There is also a dressing room for groups performing live at The Classic Grand on this floor. Entry to The Classic Grand on a club night normally costs £6. However, representatives of the club offer free entry to customers in pubs in the surrounding area. You can also get free entry by signing up to the guest list or by checking in to the club on Facebook.

Club Nights
As well as live music, there are different club nights throughout the week. Friday night and Saturday night are “Damnation” and “Absolution” respectively and feature £1 drinks as their main promotion. There are also cheaper nights which occur once a month. These include Contagion,  Cryotec and Subversion. Cryotec is on the first Thursday of the month and features £3 pound entry along with £1 drinks promotions. Contagion offers the same deals but is on the last Thursday of the month and Subversion has a slightly more expensive £4 entry fee on the 2nd Thursday of the month. Each night has its own specific genre theme but they play a wide variety of music on each night despite this. Classic Grand also offer special wristbands, which representatives of the club give out for free, that reduce the price of certain drinks inside the club for wearers. The bands also give the wearer discounts at Dixon Street Studios and Mo Hair. DJs may also give out the wristband if asked.

History
Originally opened in the early 20th century as a warehouse, the venue has now been a nightclub for many years. The Classic Grand was originally designed by W B White for Henry Meikeljohn. It opened as a cinema in 1915, and would originally feature a mixture of comedy, drama and newsreels. An orchestra would play the background music for the films. After its time as a warehouse it was converted in to a cinema. In the 1950s it claimed to have become a specialist “Art Cinema”, but the general consensus is that it was just showing erotic and horror films in order to boost its declining audiences. The venue was closed in 1966, however it was then re-opened in 1973 under the name Classic Grand by its new owners Classic Cinemas. It became the Cannon-Grand in 1985, then the Curzon, and finally closed as a cinema in 1992.

Transport
There are many ways to get to the Classic Grand including many public transport services.
 * Train – There are two main train stations that are well within walking distance to the Classic Grand. The closest of these is Glasgow Central Station. This is about one or two minute walk from the venue, as it is just around the corner from one of the exits of the train station. The second of these is Glasgow Queen Street Station. This is about a five or ten minute walk from the venue. To get from here to the venue you have to walk down Buchanan Street and turn right on to Argyle Street. You would then taker a left on to Jamaica Street, where the Classic Grand is situated. Argyle Street station is also close to the Classic Grand as it is a two minute walk away, but this is a significantly smaller station than the two main ones described above.
 * Bus – The main bus station in Glasgow is Buchannan Bus Station. Many busses from all over the country, Scotland and the rest of the UK, arrive here. It is about a fifteen to twenty minute walk from the Classic Grand. As well as this there are many smaller distance public bus services that run throughout the centre of Glasgow. There is a bus stop directly across the road from the Classic Grand that many public buses will stop at.
 * Aeroplane – In the event that you are travelling from abroad to attend an event at the Classic Grand, there are shuttle busses that run from Glasgow Airport to the centre of Glasgow. There are also taxi areas that you can use as taxi drivers will know how to get to Jamaica Street.
 * Subway – There are many Subway stations that are close to the Classic Grand, the closest of these being St. Enoch’s Station, which is only one or two hundred metres away. Subway stations can be boarded very easily in Glasgow as they are very common and regular among many streets.
 * Hotels – There are many nearby Hotels to stay at if you are attending an event here. There is a Euro Hostel very close by which provides cheap, budget accommodation and there are many higher quality hotels situated in the centre of Glasgow.

Well known acts
Some well-known acts that have played at the Classic Grand include:
 * Dead Swans
 * Living with Lions
 * Diana Vickers
 * Seasick Steve
 * Clutch
 * Feeder
 * 3OH!3
 * The Answer
 * Exit Ten
 * Gojira
 * Wolves in the throne room
 * A Loss For Words
 * InMe
 * Bleed From Within
 * Amy Macdonald
 * Dimmu Borgir
 * Flood of Red
 * Autumn In Disguise
 * Heart in Hand
 * Man Overboard

Competitor Music Venues in Glasgow
Being right in the centre of a very busy and exciting city, the Classic Grand naturally has many competitor venues, both for club nights and for live music. The Cathouse which is situated on 15 union street, is a rock club which originally opened its doors in 1990 before moving to its current location in 1995. These two clubs are especially competitive as they are both a very small distance from each other, you only have to cross the road to get from one of the venues to the other one. King Tuts Wah Wah Hut situated on 272 St Vincent street is another live music competitor with the Classic Grand. After being quoted as “Quite possibly the finest small venue in the world” by popular music magazine “NME” it has a very good reputation throughout the live music scene in Glasgow. There is also a pub downstairs in King Tuts beneath the main music venue section. The venue opened in 1990 and has a physical capacity for about three hundred people. Radio 1 voted it to be named the “UKs Best Live Venue” three years in a row. Glasgow Garage, situated on 490 Sauchiehall Street is a venue with the physical capacity for 700 people which has club nights as well as showcasing liver music from small bands and much more established acts. The venue also has a smaller section known as the “G2” which has the physical capacity for about 350 people. In the main venue there are three bars, one of them is situated on the balcony in the hall and the other two are situated at the back of the room on either side of the main entrance to the room. The ABC in Glasgow is a nightclub venue as well as a live music venue situated on 300 Sauchiehall Street. It is split in to two separate venues, the ABC and the ABC2. The difference in size between the two rooms inside the building is large, as the ABC has a physical capacity to hold 1250 people and the ABC2 has a physical capacity to hold 350 people. The venues main sponsor is the mobile network “O2” so the venue is often referred to as the “O2ABC” rather than just simply the “ABC” or the “ABC2”. It hosts both club nights and live music throughout the week. All these venues and more compete strongly because they have a lot of similarities. They all show live music of different degrees of size and popularity and they all host club nights playing a wide variety of genres of music. They do this to appeal to a wide variety of customer regardless of their music taste. As they are all in the or close to the centre of Glasgow they are all within easy reach of public transport and most have easy parking nearby the particular venue. The small distance between the venues increase the competition because they are all very easy to access.