Glasgow's Hydro boss reflects on 40 years of music and sport

Their support act at that time was Simply Red, who are also booked to perform at the Hydro, next year.

However, while staging sell-out concerts for megastars including Stevie Nicks, Bruce Springsteen and Beyonce is now a slick operation, things were a bit less streamlined at that first gig.

Stevie Nicks will perform at the Ovo Hydro on July 6 (Image: free)

"It was a bit of a shambles," says the chief executive of the SEC recalling the UB40 gig at the SECC on October 26 1985.

"We were all learning as we went and the senior management all came from an exhibition background.

"In a theatre you don't have rows I or O usually because it gets confusing with numbers so we did the seating layout without those letters but the seating contractor who put the seats in hadn't done that and there were no S and T rows.

UB40's Ali Campbell. The band will return to the SEC after opening the venue 40 years ago (Image: freelancer)

"So there was rows I and O with no people in them and the people with tickets for rows S and T were looking for their seats.

"We learnt pretty quickly after that," he says.

Before the SECC opened its doors on September 6 1985 most of Glasgow's major events, including the carnival and circus, were hosted in the Kelvinhall.

The Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 was the start of the city building up its reputation as a major events host says Mr Duthie.

When he started with the company, which is 90% owned by Glasgow City Council, he had a desk, a landline and a notebook and the White Book, an industry guide to anything and everything in the entertainment industry.

However, while his working environment might have been modest, he had grand ambitions for Glasgow's events sector and decided to call on one of the world's biggest names in the entertainment industry for help.

One of his first meetings was with the impresario Harvey Goldsmith, the man behind seminal events including Live Aid.

Peter Duthie sought advice from top entertainment impresario Harvey Goldsmith (Image: PA)

"I told him we were growing this events space in Glasgow and could I come to speak to one of his team and I got a reply saying Harvey wanted to meet me," says the chief executive.

"He told me to come to his offices in London's Oxford Street at 9am and I was thinking no promoter ever gets up before 10am because they are always working late.

"I rang the doorbell and Harvey opened the door himself, took me into the kitchen and made me a coffee and we chatted for three hours.

"That was my biggest first lesson in live entertainment. There was a bit of self-interest there, obviously, but he was prepared to take the time to to explain to me what we needed to do as a venue, what the promoters were looking for.

"His parting shot was 'I'm not here to bring music to the people'. He was just reinforcing his focus on the bottom line - money."

However, unlike his early mentor Mr Duthie says he is, "absolutely about bringing music to the people."

"One of the things that drives me is that what we do here matters," he says.

"In economic terms, what we do here delivers close to half a billion pounds each year into Glasgow.

Peter Duthie, chief executive of the SEC is marking 40 years with the company (Image: SEC)

"But equally importantly is the two million people a year come onto the campus and we want to give them the best experience that we can," added Mr Duthie, who is married with two grown-up daughters and lives in Kilmacolm.

He can reel off starry anecdotes such as playing football with Spandeau Ballet in the halls of the SECC but it's not his style to capitalise on his privileged position.

Mr Duthie says he mainly "stays out of the way" and rarely meets the artists who are performing at the Hydro or Armadillo and while he admits there has been some strange requests from performers he won't reveal what they are.

"There are some artists I'd like to bring back again," he says mentioning Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel but perhaps because of his sporting background (he played cricket for Scotland, acquiring 53 caps) it is those events that are pinch-me moments for him.

"Watching Andy Murray play Roger Federer live in the Hydro was pretty cool," he says.

"The Commonwealth Games [in 2014] is obviously up there too.

"We had six different sports in the campus and the team did a fantastic job to the extent that there were no real operational issues.  That mattered for our reputation, for Glasgow's reputation and the SEC's reputation. 

"We won significant conferences on the back of that. It showed there was a capability there and they could trust us with their event.

"The great thing is if you can get people here, they understand why Glasgow is successful," he adds.

Gymnastics at the Hydro at the 2014 Commonwealth Games (Image: Newsquest)

Mr  Duthie qualified as a PE teacher but says the opportunities at that time "weren't looking too great" so he did a postgraduate MSC course in recreational management at Loughborough University.

"It was a bit of a general manager's qualification," he says. "But just as I was finishing that I read in the papers that the chief executive has just been appointed at the SECC.

"In many ways it was similar in concept to the NEC that had opened in Manchester a few years before.

"I knew they staged indoor events and concerts so I wrote to him and said there must be an opportunity to staging indoor sport events because there was no major events space in Scotland at that time.

"He said 'Come and see me' and offered me a job."

He says he looked out his offer of employment letter in advance of The Herald interview in which he was offered a salary of £7,200 per annum with a remit to grow the business in sports and other special events at the SEC.

He says he quickly saw the potential for live entertainment.

The Hydro opened up opportunities for the world's top artists to perform in Glasgow, says the chief executive.

"We were building a temporary concert environment in an exhibition space [at the SECC} So you are building seats, building a stage."

This all changed with the arrival of the 12,000-capacity venue, which opened in September 2013.

It is consistently ranked among the world's top five music venues, one year surpassing New York's Madison Square Garden.

"We have really enthusiastic audiences that the artists love performing in front of," says the chief executive with a smile.

There is one artist that he wasn't a particularly big fan of until he watched him perform.

"The one that really stands out is Prince," he says.

The singer and multi-instrumentliast played his last Scottish gig at the Hydro in May 2014.

The hit-packed setlist was a dream, while a full mobile phone ban in the days when such a thing felt a novelty meant the evening was free of distraction. Two years later he tragically died.

Prince played his last Scottish show at the Hydro in May 2014 (Image: Agency)

"The live entertainment team took a call from his agent saying that he wanted to play four dates in the UK in two months time and he doesn't want to play London," says Mr Duthie.

"It was sold out within two weeks and the show happened a couple of weeks later," he says.

"I wasn't a big Prince fan but I remember going in to watch that show and I was completely blown away," he says.

"He was extraordinary. Prince was really excited that we were able to turn the Hydro purple for him."

Fleetwood Mac icon Stevie Nicks will perform at the Hydro on July 6. Tickets sold out in less than two weeks with some selling for upwards of £300.

"We don't control ticket prices," says Mr Duthie. 

"Ticket prices have been rising significantly but equally production costs have been rising significantly as well.

"When you see the quality of the productions and the amount of money they spend on productions to give audiences a real show and the cost of taking that round the countries is huge.

Beyonce played two dates at the Hydro in 2014 (Image: Newsquest)

"Do I wish tickets were more affordable? Absolutely." he says "The A-listers, they charge, for sure but people are prepared to pay it."

He says the terror attack at the Manchester Arena on May 2017 following a performance by Ariana Grande did not affect bookings but led to industry-wide changes in security arrangements.

Twenty-two people including Barra teenager Eilidh Macleod died and hundreds were injured when Salman Abedi detonated his homemade device in the foyer of Manchester Arena as crowds left the concert on 22 May 2017.

"The biggest single learning from that was that the show is not over until it's over in the sense that generally security was focussed on stopping people getting in that weren't authorised to get in to see the show.

"But what happened in Manchester was post-show when security tends to be scaled down.

"We ramped up our security physically, quite significantly", he says. 

There was criticism last year when it emerged that six bosses at the council-owned complex, including Mr Duthie, were awarded bonuses of almost £150,000 amid the cost of living crisis.

We don't have public sector pensions and sometimes that balance there gets lost," says the chief exec who says ultimately bonuses are governed by SEC revenues in a very competitive market.

He says he doesn't plan to leave until a planned £80million expansion  is complete.

"It's been an enormous privilege to be on the journey with the company and the industries," he says.

"Any time I've thought I should go and get a proper job there has been a change in responsibility.

"I just love seeing audiences enjoying themselves. If you host sport, half the audience leave disappointed but if you have an audience coming out of the Hydro, everyone is up."