Stephen McRobbie has been running around like a madman.

"We've had a couple of people off sick in the shop, but we've got through it. We lived to tell the tale. It was actually the best day's taking of the month - we were enjoying that" he tells me.

He has been working in Monorail music, of course, the record shop he founded in 2003 based in a railway arch in King's Court, which has become central hub of Glasgow's independent music scene.

Working alongside him on one of the manic days is Eilidh, one half of SAY-Award winners Sacred Paws, who will also be playing the Maryhill Community Centre stage this weekend alongside Stephen's band The Pastels as part of the Great Western Festival.

"We've been talking about sharing equipment and I think we're both very much looking forward to the weekend.

"When we knew we were going to curate the Maryhill community centre hall space, Sacred Paws were the first band we asked. We really wanted them to play with us."

This weekend's festival is bringing together local and global acts to play in various venues around the cities west end, in a celebration of the eclectic, diverse and growing music community in Glasgow. It really is doing what Monorail, and The Pastels, have done all along.

Described once as 'one of the most misrepresented cult groups of their era', The Pastels are synonymous with the Glasgow music scene in all its shapes and forms. Forming in 1981, they forfeited travel down south to make their name, allowing the recording industry to come to them instead. And it worked: the band may have gone through multiple members and reincarnations, but so too have they gone through multiple releases and decades.

"I think that things have changed since the 80s" says Stephen.

"We felt we were the first groups that stayed in the city, and didn't move to London. It was very ambitious. Groups that we were friends with moved down because they felt like they had to, because everything was there. The scene never really got started.

"Gradually things have changed, and other people stayed in the city too. Teenage Fanclub staying was significant, so was Mogwai staying.

"The need to move to London started to disappear. It's such an expensive city -for young people putting bands together its not that appealing. Nowadays I think the opposite is happening, people moving from London to Glasgow because its more affordable, a bit of a creative environment. I don't know why" he laughs. "Maybe it's the weather."

One such band is that of the aforementioned Sacred Paws, who made the move at the end of last year.

"I think Glasgow is one of the greatest music cities in the world" says Stephen. "That was one of the reasons we opened the shop - it's really important for a music city to have a good record shop, to be a hub. The scene feels stable now, and it's important to have that connected and interwoven music in a city, I think.

"Everyone who works there plays, and we're always looking for the next big thing. It's a passion".

Stephen, who has been playing (or rather, pioneering) such a scene for the last thirty years, must have seen many things come and go. What was it that stopped The Pastels being just another forgotten indie band?

"We don't think long term" says Stephen. "If we stopped, I would still feel that we've done quite a lot. I like being creative, finding different ways of reflecting things.

"We aren't the same group that we were when we started and the music doesn't sound the same, but it reflects who is in the group.

"The music we made more recently was influenced by a break we took, where we found a new way of working that was good for us, in a way that made us want to carry on.

"I never think we'll be around for another ten years, but you surprise yourself. You want to feel proud of what you've achieved, and not undo it by becoming worse than you were. The challenge is always to make it seem better than before."

The Pastels's longevity suggests that Stephen and the band's other members are doing exactly that.

Tickets at tgwfest.com