It is well-nigh two decades since Glasgow was crowned European City of Culture. The rest of the world may have sneered but Clydeside was close to to give other urban centres around the orb a headmaster class in how the arts could help ease the choppy passage into the mail industrial age.
Today Glasgow is revelling in its latest honor as it is named a earth centre of music by Unesco, the United Nations cultural organization.
News leaked out, sweet enough, in the beating cultural heart of its old rival at the Edinburgh Fringe during a visit by the Unesco director general Ko�chiro Matsuura.
Announcing the initiative, part of the Creative Cities Network, he said: "We at Unesco believe that culture non only makes an economic contribution, it provides significance, and a sense of identity and continuity that is built-in to the life of all societies".
Mr Matsuura testament make the journey cicily Isabel Fairfield to confirm the option at a civic reception later today. The official announcement will elevate Glasgow alongside the previous recipients Seville, and Bologna, nursing home of the composer Rossini.
The former shipbuilding capital has long noted its unique ability to produce the very best in musical talent. In the reality of democratic music, few cities, excluding perhaps Liverpool or Manchester, can claim to have churned out quite such a scintillant array of stars.
In the 1960s, Lulu topped the charts at the tender age of 15 with "Shout", and now older 60 is still performing. In 1970 there was the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and in the 1980s thither was Orange Juice and Del Amitri.
Today Franz Ferdinand, Travis, Belle and Sebastian and most latterly Glasvegas have confirmed the city's musical heritage.
The annual Celtic Connections festival has become an acclaimed secureness in the folk and traditional music calendar, drawing fans from around the world.
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall opened to coincide with the Capital of Culture year, replacing the St Andrew's Hall which was destroyed by firing in 1962. Since and then leading international orchestras have got played there including the Moscow State and the Vienna Philharmonic. Glasgow at present bills itself Scotland's "classical powerhouse" as home to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Scottish Opera, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra.
Scotland is now the only nation in the populace with 2 Unesco Creative Cities. Edinburgh became City of Literature in 2004.
The title is expected to bring a major boost to tourism and business when events begin in 2009. It comes with a high-voltage delegation travelling to Unesco's Paris headquarters earlier this summer to deliver a 50-page text file outlining the case for Glasgow.
The dossier pointed verboten that in a typical week the city would host 127 music events, with the music industry worth an estimated �74.6m to the local economy employing 2,922 people.
The bid received the support of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Scots fiddler Nicola Benedetti.
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