The 13th Note Café

The 13th Note Café was a restaurant, bar and music venue in Glasgow, Scotland.

From its beginnings on Glassford Street (what is now Bar Bacchus), the 13th Note moved to its present site on King Street in 1997.[1] A few years later, the 13th Note franchise expanded to include a larger club venue on Clyde Street. The holding company that owned both venues went into receivership in November 2001.[2] In the summer of 2002, The 13th Note Club was bought over by the Channelfly Group (owners of the Barfly franchise),[3] leaving only the café venue still open under the original 13th Note name.

The venues of the 13th Note have hosted concerts by a number of notable acts, including Idlewild, Belle & Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand.

Jim Byrne of The Hemmingways and Pat Byrne started the Kazoo Club in the 90s, where Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand had one of his first gigs. The idea was to provide a place where bands could come and perform and there was no entry fee for customers. At the launch everyone received a kazoo. The club became very popular and when management decided there was to be an entry fee, Jim and Pat Byrne gave up running the Kazoo. Alex Kapranos, the lead singer and guitarist of Franz Ferdinand took over as the music programmer at the venue prior to forming the band, hosting the Kazoo Club and 99p Club.[4][5] Another notable music programmer was Brendan O'Hare.