An Inner City Institution

“It has stayed true to its underground roots. It may not be the plushest of venues but that’s part of its charm; our guests love the fact that it has a real old school warehouse vibe to it.” The venue Inner City Acid promoter Claire Collins is referring to is the Soundhaus. While the masses flock to The Arches, The Sub Club or one of the many city centre haunts in Glasgow, there is one place hidden away up a quiet street near the river that has pulled in the punters for a decade now whilst never sacrificing the quality.

Last month the venue celebrated its tenth birthday with a special Inner City Acid event that summed up what makes the venue so special. As Claire explains: “The club reached capacity long before curfew. It was great to see the DJs that had played at the Soundhaus at the very beginning, and one the of the best things was seeing all the different people who attend each of the nights partying together - the Soundhaus house crowd deserves a special mention; they are the friendliest, most up for it crowd that I have ever seen in a club.”

Over the years the venue has been the home of nights such as the brilliant Traxx and Pussy Power, and has had a series of fantastic guests including the likes of DJ Pierre. “He had been on our wish list since we had started ICA,” Claire tells us, “He didn’t disappoint, he played an absolute blinder, the tunes he chose suited the night and the crowd perfectly.” Inner City Acid started at the venue in 2004 and is now a mainstay on the Soundhaus calendar. The music is varied with acid house, hip-hop and even drum and bass sometimes being heard. The guests are often top drawer and this is down to the persistence of the people behind it. “We have always thought of ICA as a long term project and worked really hard at promoting it to ensure it had longevity. We didn’t want to be another club night that was in operation for a few months then disappeared off the radar,” explains Claire.

Next month the guests are Radioactive Man (Keith Tenniswood) and Christopher D Ashley, who will also be playing together throughout the summer as Keith resurrects his love for guitar playing, truly realised in Two Lone Swordsmen with Andy Weatherall. Radioactive Man played at ICA last year to a packed crowd and tells The Skinny he’s relishing doing it again: “Glasgow is one of my favourite cities to play - very open-minded, up-for-it crowd. [the Soundhaus] is a very cool place. It’s open later than the other clubs I played and good sound too.”

The night will feature Keith and Christopher as a band, before Keith turns things up later on with DJing and bits from his new album, Growl. The album is his first for five years but that has helped rather than hindered, feels Keith: “I didn’t feel the need to get an album out for the sake of it. The good thing now is that I have loads of tracks from over that period so I also have a dub album on the way at some point this year. Growl is kinda back to basics, but hopefully has a more mature sound.”

Keith has been DJing, remixing and producing since the early rave days yet he shows no signs of slowing down due to a recent improvement in the scene: “I think there is a lot more (variation) now, people are much more open to different vibes. Not just ‘boom boom boom’ all night. More like ‘boom kacka boom boom’. Things went too dark for ages and call me old fashioned, but I like going out to dance and have a good time and get silly,” he enthuses. Lucky then that dancing, good times and the best kind of silliness are some of the things that make Inner City Acid and the Soundhaus great clubbing institutions.