- By the Time I Get To Greenock “When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had and never will have” – Edgar Watson Howe. Having been coaxed out of ‘self imposed exile’ by Dear Scotland, this was the first of many brilliant articles by Alec Downie on the joys of Scottish music . Happy Birthday Alec.
- Alec Downie’s Top 10 Scottish Cover Versions Earlier this year Alec brought us his top 20 Scottish cover versions. 20 through 11 can be found here. His top ten included classics from Belle and Sebastian, Aztec Camera, Travis and Biffy Clyro.
- Who is Scotland’s Greatest Ever Male Vocalist? – The Popstars, Troubadours and Rogues More on the great Scottish vocalists. Here Alec presents ‘The Popstars’, ‘The Troubadours’ and ‘The Rogues’. From today’s lists and last week’s female vocalist article, we need your help to somehow produce a top ten for next week’s public vote. Take a deep breath…
- Who is Scotland’s Greatest Ever Male Vocalist? – The Frontmen and Singers Alec’s final article in the “Greatest Ever” series is an epic. So much so that we’ve had to break it into two pieces for fear that our readers’ heads may explode. Following last week’s list of females, Alec provides 50 of the greatest ever Scottish male vocalists for you to consider. In part 1 he […]
- Who is Scotland’s Greatest Ever Female Vocalist? So we come to the last of our ‘greatest’ questions: Who is Scotland’s Greatest Ever Vocalist? Now if you’ve ever been to a football match or witnessed the pubs empty on a Friday night in Scotland, you’ll know that the Scots love to sing. And we’ve produced some of the best in the business.
- Who is Scotland’s Greatest Ever Bassist? Paul McCartney once said, “None of us wanted to be the bass player. In our minds he was the fat guy who always played at the back”. This reminded me of being a kid in the playground and how everyone wants to be Ally McCoist or Henrik Larsson and nobody wants to play in goal.
- Who is Scotland’s Greatest Ever Drummer? And Scotland’s Greatest Ever Guitarist is … Stuart Adamson, according to the readers of Dear Scotland. Thanks to all who voted. This week Alec gives us his thoughts on our greatest ever drummer. Paul Carlin (Dananananaykroyd), and John Disco (Bis) have their say too. Who do you think should be in our top 5?
- The Mafia Stole My Guitar Alec Downie’s take on Scotland’s greatest ever guitarists: Sir Alex Ferguson works on a simple premise: get a strong defence, build from the back and allow the creative players to play. Applying that theory to music you’ll find that the foundation of all Rock ‘n’ Roll is bass and drums and everything else is art.
- The Low Miffs and Malcolm Ross Rip it Up and Start Again The “wonderfully musical” yet “erratic” Low Miffs have just recorded an album with the legendary Malcolm Ross (formerly of Josef K, Orange Juice and Aztec Camera) and the album launch takes place tonight in London at Madame Jojo’s in Soho. Here, Alec tells us why he is not surprised that this collaboration works so well: