1125 Argyle Street Finnieston. Jamhot Studios Past.

As we get ready to move to a new studio space soon, we thought we'd have a look back at Jamhot studios of the past, a wee bit of reminiscence if you will allow us to be so self indulgent. 

This is the place where it all started in 2008, when we took what (at the time) seemed like a scary decision to commit to paying for a space for the studio. Back then, Finnieston was not the nicest area in the world, but it had one main thing going for it... it was cheap as chips (back when chips were cheap). 

We fancied getting a space within the Hidden Lane, and the owner Joe showed us a few places that were available. For the final viewing, we were taken out on to the main street and along to a cool little building. We went through the alley into what felt like a secret courtyard, then up a flight of stairs into the first floor.

Hidden away in there was an experimental music store called Volcanic Tongue alongside a collection of small rooms - upstairs there was a writer and a fabric maker. As soon as we saw the place we were sold. The room that was available was very small, but had enough space to fit two desks (and a kettle), and was a steal at £180 / month including electric & heating.

It was perfect, and we grabbed it with both hands. 

For a year, this special little space was the home of Jamhot. And we loved it. We became good friends with David & Heather who ran the record shop, and met a colourful collection of characters that moved in and out of the building over the 12 months we were there - including the guy in the office next door who was running some fraudulant wine mail order company - we once heard him on the phone claiming loudly 'I'm back stage at the MTV awards right now...' 

While there wasn't much happening in the area at that time, there was one excellent bar - Gazelle, that did a mighty (and very spicy) Thai Chicken Curry, and we used to pop there on a Friday for a pint and a bite to eat, amazed (and often terrified) that we were running a studio. We still miss that curry, it was tasty. 

One of the highlights at 1125 was when the owners of the Russian Cafe below chapped the door to ask if anyone could help them retrive a pequluar item... as they all got drunk on whisky a gathering the previous evening, following a heated argument one of the owners threw their partner's antique hat stand down to the old railway line that ran below the building. Very strange, although quite fitting - as they later got thrown out of the building when they put posters up covering the cafe windows advertising their comedy night called 'Funny as Fuck.' It's fair to say that the landlord did not approve.

We also found some strange grafitti on the entrance door to the building one day that stated 'David Keenan Is My Dick' - David at the record store was not best pleased about that. We're still not sure quite what to make of it. 

These were good times. Simple times. Times that we look back on with a lot of happy memories as we worked hard day & night to get Jamhot up and running. 

When the studio space proved far too small to have anyone in for meetings, we reluctantly decided it was time to move to a new larger home, and so we picked up our laptops, and headed over to The Hidden Lane to begin the next chapter of Jamhot. 

The building is now home to a great bar & restaurant called The Finnieston, and the space where our little office & Volcanic Tounge was has now been converted into a larger bar space. Whenever we are back in for a beer it always makes us happy thinking of the good memories that came along with starting the studio.