Dear Scotland

I recently received a copy of Minstrels Poets and Vagabonds, the history of rock music in Glasgow from the sixties up to the present day. Written by promoter and DJ Robert Fields the book is a fascinating history of a musical genre that is at best ignored, at worst ridiculed.

I think that it says almost everything about the year of Homecoming that I have almost no thoughts about it at all, but then I suppose it wasn’t for me. Some insist that the year has been successful in promoting the country around the world, but I’m not sure how such things are calculated.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the Scottish Songbook concert at the Concert Hall in Glasgow last Saturday night (Thanks Chris!) I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but it was a grand evening. More contemporary than I was expecting. Performers included Karine Polwart, who was the director of the evening, Ricky [...]

In 1981 the NME wrote of Scottish post punk band Scars that “Scars will be stars: they’re the new craze. The stage is theirs.” It didn’t happen like that, but when you see the video below, filmed around Edinburgh in 1981, you might think it still looks ahead of its time.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. And neither was the highly reputed reputation of The Blue Nile created over one musical night. As the band hits almost thirty and begins its fourth decade in the music industry, they are in no rush to add to their discography which consists of five lines, including the [...]

I’m walking towards the Atelier in Luxembourg. It is Monday August 17th. Primal Scream are in town and about to play a gig here. It is apparently their first visit to the country.  Their latest studio album is entitled Beautiful Future ; their 9th album on the trot. An eighty foot bus with only the [...]

We like music do us Scots. But we have an extra special affection for Scottish music. Kenny McColl of the Tartan Specials tackles one of the fundamental questions facing Scottish music fans : Rod Stewart, Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol, AC/DC, Men at Work – are they really Scottish? Film of AC/DC at the Apollo below.

On June 3, 1990 an estimated 250,000 people enjoyed performances of pop, rock, folk, jazz and classical music from more than fifty artists, spread over eleven hours. Three stages at George Square, Custom House Quay and Glasgow Green allowed mainly Scottish artists to perform before huge live audiences, with millions more watching on Channel4.

In 1965, Scottish music fans were split between the Beatstalkers and Dean Ford and the Gaylords as to who was the biggest band in Scotland. And when The Beatstalkers decided to put on a free show for a few hundred fans in Glasgow’s George Square, it became apparent just how big they had become.