Edinburgh’s iconic Usher Hall celebrates its 100th birthday today and The Royal Scottish National Orchestra will tonight perform a replica of the opening night concert to mark the occasion.
The hall was built after whisky distiller Andrew Usher donated £100,000 for a music hall in 1896.When it eventually opened on March 6th 1914, it was used to recruit young men for the First World War with Prime Minister Asquith making a speech to the all male audience.
Since then numerous pop, rock and classical musicians have graced the stage including Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, the Rolling Stones Fleetwood Mac and Cliff Richard.
In 1972, the Eurovision contest was held at the hall with the UK entry The New Seekers finishing second with ‘Beg Steal or Borrow.’
In 1986, the building hosted the boxing for the Commonwealth Games and four years later, the Hands off Hibs campaign held a fundraising concert.
The hall remained unchanged for over 80 years until part of the roof fell in during a Tony Bennett concert in 1996. An £18m refurbishment began, with the final building reopening in 2010.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
So the Usher hall is 31 years older than I am! Looks to be in better nick than me, although if I’d had the amount of money spent on refurbishment maybe I’d be better looking. Saw the Chuck Berry Show there in January 1965 with the Moody Blues and Long John Baldry and others in a strong supporting role. It was the week that the Moody Blues’ first number 1 and was memorable for that but, of course, Chuck Berry stole the show – well it was HIS show!
My girlfriend and I had to take the train back to Dunfermline – but it didn’t go there and we finished up in Cowdenbeath and had to phone her dad to come and pick us up – however, we survived the trauma and are still happily married and still in Fife!
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