Sam Fender has gone from a bottom of the bill pub gig at Glasgow’s Tenement Trail in 2014 to securing his first number one single with powerhouse pop star Olivia Dean.
Scotland’s festival for music discovery, Tenement Trail is a day of performance that brings together gig-goers ready to be introduced to their new favourite band.
Growing from Tenement TV - an online platform that began broadcasting live sessions from the front room of founder Chae Houston’s tenement flat - it launched to champion Scotland’s thriving grassroots music scene and is celebrated for spotlighting emerging indie, rock, and alternative artists.
Founder Chae Houston explains: “We started the festival with a much smaller footprint, the idea was you could make your way down Sauchiehall Street and watch bands play. Kassidy were one of the first bigger bands we had, when they were playing things like South by Southwest. Since then we have started to attract a lot of touring bands. It’s become one day to go see lots of bands to get excited about.”
Chae says Tenement Trail presents the opportunity for local musicians to step up to a bigger stage. “We have venues like Saint Luke’s where Glasgow bands can have their first play and win over new people. That also brings bands from elsewhere that want their first gig in Glasgow when they are starting to generate a bit of a buzz.
“There is a big crowd that just loves to hear new music, it’s a stepping-stone towards headline shows and can lead on to other festivals in Scotland. Glasgow is where bands arrive to get noticed in Scotland and we’d like to think we’ve been part of that story for the last ten years.”
Sam’s longtime pal, Lewis Capaldi, also played an early gig as part of Tenement Trail. “We knew at the time that he was an amazing talent, but when you pay him £50 to play the bar in the Art School, you don’t know he’s own his way to global success” Chae says.
The two success stories have forged a bromance since living just minutes apart in north London alongside Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten. And in July they surprised a crowd of 65,000 fans at Capaldi’s BST Hyde Park gig by bringing out Fender as a special guest to perform Rein Me In together, with their version gaining massive plaudits from fans and critics alike.
Sam Fender has a long history with TRNSMT Festival. Debuting in 2022, the talented songwriter from North Shields’ music career went into overdrive playing the Glasgow Green festival multiple times and was hailed by TRNSMT boss Geoff Ellis as a prime example of massive artists who progressed from smaller festival stages to headline status.
Signed to Polydor Records in 2018 he released his breakout critically acclaimed EP Dead Boys tackling the serious issue of male suicide. He won the coveted Critics’ Choice Award at the BRIT Awards the following year and released his debut number-one album Hypersonic Missiles.
His second album Seventeen Going Under also reached number one status with the title track becoming his biggest hit. Sam has since supported iconic rockers like Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones and his third studio album People Watching debuted at number one and won the 2025 Mercury Prize.
His collaboration with pop superstar Olivia Dean on Rein Me In has broken records as one of the longest running number one singles in UK history.
In 2014, Sam was just another 20-year-old singer with an acoustic guitar, on the lower deck of the bill for Tenement Trail that year.
Chae remembers: “That’s him just on Sauchiehall Street pointing to his name. At that time he was a really hard worker, he would grab his guitar and he’d be up and down the country playing shows.
“You could tell he was going to go on to do good things.
“He first came up to Glasgow for Tenement Trail in 2014 and we put him on in Flat 0/1 on Bath Street. Then when he came back in 2017 it was downstairs in Nice N Sleazy.
“The place was packed out for that show, you could see the difference from that previous set, I remember it being a really buzzy show to be at. It felt like something was happening by then.”
Musical acts continue to arrive in Glasgow to build their reputation.
Chae said: “We see bands that think of playing here as a kicking off point, then by the time they come back they may be able to fill Barrowland or some go onto arena level. We saw that with Yungblood who also played Tenement Trail.
Tenement Trail 2026 runs at the Barrowland, BAaD, McChuill’s, Van Winkle, 226 Gallowgate and Saint Luke’s on October 10, with performances from headliners Baby Strange - celebrating 10 years of their album ‘Want it Need it’ - Cliffords, The Orriells, Willie Jay Healy and many more emerging local artists.