The Arches Finds its Beat: 1995 - 1999

By now The Arches had become firmly established on the cultural landscape both in Scotland and throughout the UK - hosting and producing with a very busy eclectic programme of events.

Arches Theatre Company productions included I Licked A Slag's Deodorant, Under Milk Wood, Harold Pinter's The Caretaker and The Dumb Waiter, devised work like Blood And Water and various Irish plays like Cock a Doodle Dandy by Sean O'Casey, Brendan Behan's The Hostage, and the British premiere of Boss Grady's Boys by Sebastian Barry. The club programme grew from strength to strength with Lilly Savage opening the first night of Love Boutique, Daft Punk performing live at Slam with other Slam guests including Laurant Garnier, The Chemical Brothers and Carl Cox.

In 1995, the scale of club nights went up a gear with the first appearance in Glasgow of the super club, Cream - a non ticket event on the opening night, which brought 5000 people to The Arches' door. Cream was taken over a year later by the now well established InsideOut, which introduced such guests as Judge Jules, Lisa Loud, Tall Paul and Seb Fontaine. Colours built on from their Street Rave parties to establish another huge monthly club night.

On the live music side, The Arches started to programme gigs more and more frequently. The type of concerts was always wide ranging - from The Cocteau Twins, Divine Comedy, The Propellerheads and Roni Size through to The James Taylor Quartet, Courtney Pine, and Stevie Winwood.

Following the success of Alien War, another horrifying visitor attraction was hosted - Terror Under The Arches. The Arches also launched a spectacular new annual fashion event - Intervention - with catwalks running in all directions.

All the time the building continued to be cold, damp and smelly. However, in 1996, The Arches was awarded a £3.7 million Lottery Award for the refurbishment of the top part of the building and the conversion of the hitherto unused basement spaces. There would be light at the end of the tunnel...