Huntley's and Palmer's Audio Club: Yesterday's Sounds of Tomorrow, Today

It is important to establish something from the beginning of this article. Unless you have an encyclopedic knowledge of various genres and an open mind about music, it is impossible to hold a lengthy conversation with the minds behind two of Glasgow's finest club nights, let alone an interview.

After a photo shoot in a nearby park and narrowly avoiding a meeting with two of the city's boys in blue, who were no doubt wondering why three men and a female photographer where hanging around by the swings after dark, we retire to a bar to talk to Andrew Thomson and David Barbarossa about their creations. But where to begin? Their shared love of all things cosmic, kraut and disco? David's legendary record collection that exceeds 10,000 in number? Or perhaps their music policy that good music is good music, regardless of genre.

It is a daunting prospect, so the choosen course of action is to simply allow the dictaphone to run as Andrew and David talk at great length about the nights they both created.

"Huntleys and Palmers Audio Club began in December 2007 and Curious Curious followed around March 2008. Curious Curious kind of started for us to play music without guests. We also had After Dark which was born with Wrong Island, we were hosting nights at the Research Club and Wrong Island were hosting nights at Nice 'n' Sleazy. So we had the same kind of crowd but we were dividing the crowd. We got together and it worked well for a while but we eventually went our separate ways," says Andrew.

"I had spoken about starting a night for ages and I finally got my finger out and booked Pilooski for my first night. It wasn't that hard [to pull off] and I enjoyed it so it went on from there. Every guest we book either hasn't been booked by anyone else in the city before, or haven't played Glasgow in a while. Soon I was asked to DJ in bars and things grew from there."

"Before my first night I had so much time to plan and research everything I should be doing that I was able to make a promotional CD. I'm quite proud of it still, it's a good CD. I left it in various shops wrapped in newspaper for people to find."

"That's how I came to the night," says David, "I came across this CD and it didn't just have the same songs that every other night was playing."

"I've been DJing for years but that's because I love playing the records I've got, not because I ever wanted to be a DJ. I've run a variety of things in both Kilmarnock and Glasgow."

In return, Andrew offers:"I'd seen David play in both MacSorley's and at Optimo, then got talking to him about playing at Huntley's and Palmer's Audio Club."

Huntley's and Palmer's and Curious Curious are two separate entities, but they often come together to bring their favourite acts to Glasgow. Previous guests have included James Holden, Aeroplane and Silver Apples.

"Curious Curious has more of a psychedelic sound, what it began as and what it is going to become are two very different things. The initial plan was psyche and a mixture of everything. That has kind of streamlined out now, it's more disco. Not stupid disco but also not obscure only-for-the-bloggers stuff. Curious Curious is a party, whilst Huntley's and Palmer's is more an occasion where Andrew will just book whatever music he likes."

"Silver Apples was bizzare for me because it actually happened, Aeroplane was just great fun. No-one else really does what we do here." says Andrew.

"I think that is the benefit of the night, it's like giving your pal a tape, telling them to check this out." adds David.

This month's act is evidence of the booking policy in action at Huntleys and Palmers and Curious Curious. On 3 May Peter Christopherson - the founder member of Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Coil and SoiSong- appears at Stereo for an extremely rare live solo performance as The Threshold Houseboys Choir.

"I knew that if I didn't book them nobody else would. That's the outlook for every night. There have been a few occasions where some nights down south have had the same acts as us, but I think that's them playing catch up. It used to be that if there was an act I wanted to see I would have to go down to London to see them or maybe Manchester. Nobody would ever bring them to Glasgow," says Andrew.

"I think that's a problem with being ahead of the curve," says David.

Perhaps if you're introducing people to a new sound you can't expect them to always be aware of the acts you're booking. Is the hope that people who come down to the night will put faith in the acts they book, and come down regardless of whether or not they know the artist being showcased?

"Yeah, and I think that is beginning to happen. With most interesting guests you'll find that they have interesting tastes in music. Even though we run small nights we find that these guests agree to come up and play for us because they have a good time and we're all like-minded. But booking great guests doesn't always guarantee a crowd," admits David.

"As clubs go we are young. I've found that sometimes people are not as open-minded as I though they might be and at other times they are much more open-minded than I ever expected."

"Outwith of Berlin and London I would say Glasgow has the one of the best music scenes in the world. There is just so much choice, but a negative side of it is that there is just so much going on and not enough people to go to it all." says Andrew.

This is a problem familiar to any discerning Glasgow night owl. We talk about an occasion a few months back where Andrew put on James Holden at Stereo, the same evening that David was DJing alongside James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem at the CCA and Death Disco hosted Erol Alkan in their biggest event ever. Three massively successful nights catering to differing tastes and an example of how Glasgow is spoilt for choice when it comes to music.

After what is sure to be a memorable night with The Threshold Houseboys Choir on 3 May, David and Andrew join Jamie Thomson, T. Keeler, Brian D'Souza and James Pole for a Huntley's and Palmer's takeover of the Brunswick Hotel on 8 May. Running from 9pm until 2am, the event is free and sprawls over both floors of the hotel as each DJ brings in their enviable record collection.

After a promising start, both Huntley's and Palmer's and Curious Curious have quickly risen to become two of Glasgow's club night staples, their ground-breaking guests and diverse music policy ensuring that they have quickly gained a fanbase. With Aeroplane returning to perform on 30 May and Ewan Pearson appearing on 6 June, the winning formula is being applied to ensure that they host many more great nights in the future.