Glasgow, Scotland

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and has been the focus of much Scottish fanactivity. It has hosted eight Albacons, four non-Albacon Eastercons (Speculation, 2Kon, Concussion, Satellite 4), three Worldcons (Intersection, Interaction and Glasgow 2024), and a Unicon, Scone. The Satellite series is ongoing.

Marion Eadie may be Glasgow’s and indeed Scotland’s first fan. She founded the Junior Astronomical Association in 1933 and edited its journal Urania from 1935. Leading fanartist Arthur Thomson was born in the city in 1927 but wasn’t fannishly active there.

Chapter 34 of the Science Fiction League was formed in the city in the mid-1930s. Its director was Donald G. MacRae although so far no other member names have been identified. The group published a “Petition for Science” in Novae Terrae #10 (February 1937) but they collapsed soon after. Andrew Salmond from Glasgow joined the Science Fiction Association (SFA) in 1937 and seemingly had some involvement with sf and fandom through to the 1950s, including publishing a story in Astounding. Another Glaswegian, J. Gordon, joined the SFA in September 1938 but we know nothing more about him than that.

Matt Elder was an active fan by the early 1950s and in a profile in Contact #8 (February 1957) Ethel Lindsay described him as ‘The first Scottish fan’ although that is clearly incorrect and speaks to a disconnect with earlier fannish activity in the city. Elder was the founder of the New Lands SF Club in the summer of 1952, Scotland’s first known sf club. He wrote a letter advertising the group in the debut issue of Nebula, the first Scottish prozine, and this drew the attention of Lindsay. The club sponsored Haemogoblin, the first Glasgow fanzine. Its first issue appeared in 1953 edited by Fred Smith, although later issues were produced by Smith alone independent of the club. Lindsay moved to London in 1955, Smith gafiated a little later (although he returned in the 1990s), and The New Lands SF Club folded around 1957.

There doesn’t seem to have been much activity in Glasgow until the mid-1960s. The “Science Fiction Club Directory” included in the BSFA’s Vector #25 (March 1964) advised Glasgow fans to contact Donald Malcolm. This led to the formation of the Caledonian SF Group whose founders included Malcolm, Gavin Brown (also an occasional visitor the New Lands group), Harry Manson, and “possibly” (according to Then, Malcolm was somewhat vague when writing about the group in later years) A. E. Roy and I. F. Clarke . In Vector #32 Malcolm proposed a one-day Scotcon in the belief there was now enough interest among local fans but presumably there wasn’t as the convention never happened and the Caledonian SF Group folded in 1965.

The next Glasgow group was the SF circle offshoot of ASTRA, the Association in Scotland To Research into Astronautics and Scotland’s answer to the British Interplanetary Society. Checkpoint #42 (October 1973) reported that the group met on the first Wednesday of each month at the Admiral Bar, Waterloo Street. The Friends of Kilgore Trout were formed in the wake of Tynecon, the 1974 Eastercon, and included members of the earlier ASTRA SF circle. The group launched a fanzine in 1977.

The first Scottish convention, Faircon, was held in Glasgow in July 1978. A second Faircon took place in 1979, and Albacon, the first Scottish Eastercon, in 1980.

40 Years of Glasgow Conventions, by Vince Docherty.

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