Alan McGee: An original beauty is born in Scotland's rock'n'roll city

In the past two-and-a-half years, Glasgow has produced the greatest band not just to come out of Scotland but to come out of Britain, and that band is Glasvegas. They are about to become the biggest band Britain has seen for years. Since Orange Juice, Glasgow has been producing really top acts. There was Aztec Camera, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Teenage Fan Club, Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian. We are talking really great bands here. Only Glasgow could have produced these or a character as original as James Allan (Glasvegas singer). He is from Dalmarnock – the sort of place where I would be abducted.

But James Allan finds beauty in settings like this, which makes him the greatest genius to come out of the city for decades. Because of the internet you can stay anywhere in the world and be part of the music industry. It has made the world a very small place. Glasvegas broke through by playing loads of gigs and be being on MySpace. But the reality is that if you want to be big in Britain you have to spend a lot of time in London, just as if you want to make it in the United States, you have to be in New York.

But if I ask myself why Glasgow has produced so many great bands since the 1980s, it is because of its unique class structure. Edinburgh might have the Parliament and all the internet companies but it is quite middle class. In Glasgow there is the underclass, then there is the working class but there is barely any middle class and definitely no upper class. There are only four ways out – football, fashion, music or crime. Glasgow loves rock 'n' roll.

Alan McGee founded Creation Records