By the time the Needles take to the stage the atmosphere is thick with sweat and excitement, as bodies sway and shout. For those with a little rock history, the Needles sound like a fusion of the New York Dolls, the Ramones and Cheap Trick. They are on the up, still laying the groundwork and winning over their audience but they have the songs, the look and the enthusiasm.
The streets outside may be cold and dreary, but in music-industry terms, Glasgow is the hottest city in the world. When a slick new four-piece guitar band called Franz Ferdinand declared their intention to “make music girls could dance to”, sceptical record companies were forced to sit up and take notice. Already the darlings of the Glasgow music scene, the art school graduates had created a buzz playing one-off gigs in the Chateau, a cool venue-cum-artists’ haunt.
Then they shimmied into the singles charts at No 3 with Take Me Out, the most precocious slice of pop heard for many a year, and followed that by breaking into the top 40 in America, where they are currently on tour and taking the country by storm. A self- titled debut album has barely been out of the top 20 since it was released at the beginning of the year. For much of that time it has been joined by the latest release from Snow Patrol, another product of the Glasgow music scene.
Call it the Franz Ferdinand effect, but Glasgow is poised to claim the same status in British pop history as Liverpool in the 1960s or Manchester at the turn of the 1990s. On a recent radio broadcast from Scotland, John Peel, the doyen of British rock music, paid tribute to the extraordinary flowering of musical talent north of the border, which has seen an eclectic mix of bands and artists emerge from clubs and studios.
Peel’s personal favourites are quirky popsters such as the Delgados and Belle and Sebastian, but for months his Radio 1 show has been dominated by a parade of independent-minded Scottish bands. The already impressive list gets longer by the day. Among those tipped for the top are Dogs Die in Hot Cars, a guitar pop five-piece from Fife with a top 20 hit, the maverick dance producer Mylo, Half Cousin, an Orkney-based band with folksy outpourings that have been described as “pagan whimsy straight out of The Wicker Man”, and the folk-flavoured popsters Sons and Daughters, currently supporting Franz Ferdinand in America.
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The critical plaudits received by Franz Ferdinand during their US jaunt reveals just how seriously the Scot pop revival is now being taken. An annual rock festival in Texas every March called South by Southwest boasted one Scottish act last year. This year there were 17, and ticketless fans had to watch through the windows.
Much has been said in the nation’s newspapers in recent months about a crisis in the Scottish art world. Crisis? Not when it comes to the most popular art form of the age. So just where did this hip revival in Scottish popular music come from? What nurtured it? And can it live up to its promise and put Jock rock firmly on the international map?
SCOTLAND has been here before, albeit on a more modest scale. In the 1980s, cult bands such as Orange Juice, the Pastels, the Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream were played on rotation on the stereos of students across the country, their faces plastered on the walls of bedsits from Bermondsey to Barra. In turn they spawned a host of successful Scottish acts such as Teenage Fanclub and the BMX Bandits. One Glasgow band, the Vaselines, were a favourite of a truly global star, Nirvana’s doomed king of grunge, Kurt Cobain.
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This small Scottish uprising registered briefly, then disappeared. Since then the silence has been broken by the poppy ballads of Travis and the dippy and introspective outpourings of Belle and Sebastian. Yet Scotland has never created a recognisable scene comparable with the the Hacienda-dominated Madchester of 1990 or the London-based Britpop buzz of five years later.
Until now. Alan McGee, the Glaswegian who signed Oasis to his Manchester-based Creation records while visiting King Tut’s in 1993, believes the Scottish scene has never been more exciting. “It is all about timing, and right now all the right elements have come together,” he said.
Although he agrees the new wave is Scotland-wide, McGee insists Glasgow is very much the hub. “Glasgow is the second city, the poor relation, and there’s something about being the underdog that seems to drive creativity,” he said.
McGee, who manages Scottish acts the Beta Band and Mogwai on his Poptones label, is not alone in recognising the extraordinary potential of the current crop of Scottish bands drawing on folk, classic 1970s rock, 1980s pop, new wave, punk and electronica to fashion a sound of their own. According to Geoff Ellis, of DF Concerts, the company behind the T in the Park festival and King Tut’s, Scottish music is in the grip of an unprecedented revival.
“In the mid-1980s all a Scottish band needed was a haircut to get a record deal, and a whole load of average bands were signed to major labels. Now there is quality in abundance and a variety of sounds.”
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According to Ellis, the Scottish music scene is no longer dogged by a perception of tweeness. This is a revival with attitude. “It is a hotbed of talent and it has more in common with the Seattle scene of the 1990s or Manchester in its heyday,” he added.
Craig MacIntosh, from Dogs Die in Hot Cars, says the defining characteristic of the new wave is its diversity. “The bands about at the moment can’t easily be categorised, there is no specific Glasgow sound or Scottish sound,” he said. “If anything we are anti-fashion. We enjoy writing songs and trying different things and history has shown that bands like these have a better chance of longevity.”
NME, staple reading for music fans for more than half a century, has been championing a number of Scottish bands. Its new darlings are the Greenock band Kain, with their riff-heavy mix of classic rock inspired by the New York Dolls and 1970s Bowie.
Barry Nicholson, NME’s correspondent in Scotland, believes geography has a great deal to do with the success of the Scottish scene. “Scottish bands don’t feel they have to pander to what is considered fashionable,” he said. “Bands here don’t want to jump on a bandwagon, they want to create one of their own.”
And everyone wants a piece of it. Each week, half a dozen A&R scouts comb Glasgow’s less salubrious venues in the hope of signing the next Franz Ferdinand.
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“We make sure that we are aware of everything that happens in Scotland,” confirmed Dougie Bruce, A&R consultant for Sony Music, who is returning to the city for the umpteenth time this Tuesday.
Not wanting to be outdone by these southern raiding parties, Scottish labels have been quick off the mark. Glen Gibbons, A&R manager of the new independent Glasgow-based label Soma Records, has been signing up native talent before it is snapped up by the London-based record companies. John McLaughlin, the Scot behind the lyrics of boy bands Westlife and Blue, has also announced plans to set up a label north of the border, with the backing of the lingerie tycoon Michelle Mone.
The reason for this flowering of talent is hard to pin down. However, the proliferation of independent Scottish labels, venues and rehearsal facilities has been vital. “When we started playing there weren’t any supportive venues or promoters,” said Stephen McRobbie, who runs the independent label Geographic and is a member of the Pastels. “We put on our own shows in halls and hotels. It wasn’t until we started working with Primal Scream and the Jesus and Mary Chain that we felt any sense of a strong music community. And that is really important.”
This camaraderie led to the growth of collectives such as Edinburgh-based KFL records and Fife’s Fence Collective, and the creation of recognisable music scenes.
New Music in Scotland, formed in 2001 to foster new talent, has been credited with an influential role in the renaissance, fostering hot spots around the country.
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The bigger bands make sure they use up-and-coming support acts — a group of teenagers from Mull called Speechless will support Colin McIntyre’s Mull Historical Society at a showcase gig in Tobermory this Wednesday, where he will launch his new album, This Is Hope, in front of London music critics.
McIntyre believes this is more than just musical fellow-feeling. “There’s something about growing up in Scotland that gives you a stronger sense of identity. The new bands are a million miles from their Identikit equivalents in Camden. Here they are doing something they believe in and that’s important.”
Sarah Lowndes, a writer and academic from Glasgow School of Art, believes Glasgow’s music scene is intrinsically linked to the city’s successful art scene. “There is a long-standing cross fertilisation which has driven the artistic and the music communities forward,” said Lowndes.
BACK at King Tut’s the Needles gig is over and the fans straggle out, sweaty and starry-eyed. Most expect to be back before long, hoping to witness the next big thing to grace the covers of the international music magazines.
“I never used to come to so many gigs but these days there seems to be a hot new band that I should be going to see every fortnight,” says Emily Barton from Glasgow.
“I feel quite privileged really, because my dad is always banging on about the Swinging Sixties and my older brother lives in New York, so it’s nice to think that in 20 years I might be able to tell my own kids that I was in Glasgow in the mid-Noughties.”
So, where were you in 2004?
SCOT POP: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE
The world at their feet
Mull Historical Society has the potential to join Franz Ferdinand and Snow Patrol as a darling of the intelligent pop world. The brainchild of Mull’s Colin MacIntyre, the band inhabits the same kooky territory as Belle and Sebastian with lyrical, indie-driven pop. Melancholic and upbeat in equal measure.
Old, but still hip
Formed by Bobby Gillespie, Primal Scream continue to thrill with a marriage of rock and dance. Belle and Sebastian failed to match the Scream’s mainstream success, but they have been feted by the critics, and still attract a cult following with whimsical, atmospheric pop.
Bubbling to the top
After picking up a lot of Radio 1 airplay, Dogs Die in Hot Cars are set to take off with the release of their debut album next month. Sons and Daughters, including Ailidh Lennon, are supporting Franz Ferdinand in America; more like folk heroes than chart busters. Kain offer pure rock that would give the Darkness a run for their money.