WHEN Blur played in July 1990 the band hadn’t even released a single and 40 people turned up,

One year later, with There’s No Other Way in the top 10, door staff at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut were turning fans away.

The legendary St Vincent Street venue, where Blur’s Britpop rivals Oasis were famously signed by Creation boss Alan McGhee, will mark its 30th birthday next month.

Promoters DF Concerts has promised a return by some of the bands that made their name in the compact and atmospheric venue for a year-long celebration but no further details have been released as yet.

Radiohead, The Verve, Pulp, My Chemical Romance, Biffy Clyro, Manic Street Preachers, Elastica, Beck and Texas are just some of the bands who have performed on the tiny stage along with Florence & the Machine, Paloma Faith and Lewis Capaldi, more recently.

King Tut’s was set up by DF Concerts’ founder Stuart Clumpas in February 1990 in the former Saints and Sinners pub. He later said it was thanks to money made from promoting Deacon Blue he was able to take over the venue.

It was launched to give new and emerging acts a platform as well as giving bigger names a chance to play a more intimate venue.

Oasis are said to have turned up at the venue one evening in May 1993 and demanded to be added to the bill. They took to the stage, performed four songs to a small crowd (including a cover of the Beatles’ I am the Walrus and unknown to them independent label boss Alan McGee was in the crowd and signed them after the gig. Both Radiohead and The Verve played there in the same month.

Oasis returned to the venue for a private after-party, following a sell-out gig at the SECC and in November 2017, the venue served as the location for Liam Gallagher’s Come Back to Me.

Jonathan Trew, of Glasgow Music Tours, said: “Glasgow Music City Tours wish King Tut’s a very happy birthday.

“We’ve enjoyed many a great gig there over the last three decades and have lost count of the number of acts that have played Tut’s and gone on to become megastars.

“It is the final stop on our Music Mile tour and our guests love being able to take selfies on the stage where acts like Blur, Oasis, Manic Street Preachers and Calvin Harris have played. Here is to the next 30 years.”

King Tuts was named Music Week’s ‘Best Live Music Venue’ in 2006 and is the third busiest in the UK in the Pollstar Report 2019.

Geoff Ellis said of the venue: “It always struck me that its stature was greater than its physical size.

“King Tut’s has become quite representative of the buzz that’s in Glasgow.”