This encounter swam back to mind on reading that Time had declared Glasgow to be rock’s “secret capital” on account of its mini-pop renaissance. “In musical terms,” Time froths, “think Detroit in the Sixties and Seattle in the early Nineties; that’s Glasgow.”
Oh no it isn’t. Think, instead, of Glasgow in the 1980s and 1990s, when hundreds of hopeless pub combos were granted record contracts and were then dropped when the fickle plectrum of fate began pointing elsewhere.
The point about British rock music is that its capital is far from secret, it’s London. It should also be noted that the author of these insights, Hugh Porter, wrote a book entitled Champion on Two Wheels and is therefore not necessarily to be trusted on issues beyond cycling. Throw him to Dylan and see how his theory stands up to scrutiny.