Nicky Stewart, or Old Nick, has been a legend of Glasgow’s music venues since the 80s.
Now 72, and having passed his pub, McChuill’s, onto his children, he still works there every day, sweeping outside, helping pull pints, and DJing at night.
Before McChuill’s came the Mukky Duck in Shotts. Nick said: “It did quite well, but never take my advice for business. I opened a pub in a miner’s community a year before the miner’s strike, there was no chance.
“The young ones never had anything out there, so they cottoned onto the Mukky Duck pretty quickly.”
The Mukky Duck was known for many legendary nights, including two gigs played by The Pogues after Nick befriended them in London. He said: “I’m thinking they’ll stop somewhere in Wolverhampton or somewhere like that, stop for a pint and just think, oh sod it, I’m not going.” They arrived, but Spider, who Nick is still good friends with, didn’t make it on stage because he was too drunk to get up the stairs.
Elvis Costello played for twenty minutes before The Pogues. Nick said: “He was actually up trying to get off with Cait O’Riordon, the bass player, they did marry, so it wasn’t in vain.”
Nick owns up to several missed opportunities: “The Proclaimers sent me a tape, then I saw photos of them and thought Jesus, they look geeky, and it’s all ex-miners and young guys, I thought those two guys will get a doing if they’re not good.”
Before the Mukky Duck, Nick was a young mod, and travelled down to London frequently from the age of 14. He said: “I used to go down to the Flamingo Club, the Flamingo was probably the best club in Britain, I would’ve thought.”
He lists Otis Redding, Howlin’ Wolf, and Wilson Pickett as inspirations. He says: “In those days we were young musical snobs”. He had the opportunity to see Marvin Gaye and Doris Troy live, but said: “Me and my pal Jim said, we’re not going there because somebody might see us going to it.”
Later, Nick saw Kraftwerk in concert, he said: “I’d never heard anything like it in my life, I met up with Karl Bartos and he said we wanted to open people’s ears, and I said well you did!”
In 1993, McChuill’s opened. Nick said: “It was Christmas day, I was going to mass and I came by here and saw a big vacant area and thought why not, there was nothing more exciting than that.”
McChuill’s has become a favourite venue in Glasgow, and a home to Nick and his family. “I’m confident in here, because I feel as though, I’ve been here 35 years, I’ve got to be confident.”
To this day, there are Facebook groups full of people reminiscing about the Mukky Duck. Nick claims that the legends surrounding the pub aren’t all necessarily true, but many still remember everything he did for a pocket of music lovers in Shotts.
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