While it’s a regular feature of the British popular music scene, the attention paid to Scotland comes and goes. The most recent surge in Scottish artist fortunes, though, is an extended one that can be traced to the emergence of Franz Ferdinand four years ago. Scotland’s latest impact wasn’t just the flash in the pan some critics suggested. Since then, Sandi Thom, Paolo Nutini, The Fratellis, KT Tunstall and The View have all notched up platinum debut albums in the UK as well and enjoyed comparable success at international level. And new talent Amy Macdonald’s first album has had chart success. Moreover, veterans such as Primal Scream, Mogwai and Belle & Sebastian continue to command a healthy following both at home and abroad. The difference now is that bands’ ‘Scottishness’ is a key part of their identity, rather than Scotland just being somewhere they happen to come from.
Even the most casual observer of Scottish music will have noticed that something big is taking place. For the past few years the live sector has gone from strength to strength. New venues and promoters are attracting touring bands back to cities such as Inverness, Aberdeen and Dundee. T In the Park is now the UK’s second largest festival, in August T On The [Edinburgh] Fringe sells in excess of 100,000 tickets and independently run events such as Rock Ness and Tartan Heart are proving there is demand for more.
'musical talent can be seen everywhere around Scotland'
And while Glasgow continues to act as home to many of Scotland’s most prominent music companies – including promoters DF Concerts, CPL and PCL, as well as labels Chemikal Underground, Soma and Rock Action – the past few years have seen a more even distribution of successful musical and business talent.
Fife’s Fence Collective, which is based in the small fishing town of Anstruther, was a springboard for KT Tunstall, James Yorkston, The Aliens and King Creosote, as well as the BBC’s new music guru in Scotland, Vic Galloway.
In nearby Dundee, P3 Music and 2 Thumbs are also generating income from a variety of music-related businesses. The former is co-run by James Taylor and singer/lawyer Alison Burns.
2 Thumbs, which is co-owned by Grant Dickson and producer Robin Wynn-Evans has platinum- selling indie rockers The View, as well as The Law and Luva Anna on the roster.
Dickson has made a point of developing his company in Dundee, at the same time helping to develop the local scene. He plans to embrace a new business model by turning 2 Thumbs into a subscription-based online label, making all tracks available by its artists for a flat fee. That way, he says: ‘more people will come to the shows. There is no value for small labels to do CDs (anymore)’.
While it could be argued that Dundee has a track record as a musical hotbed which dates back to The Associates and Danny Wilson in the 1980s, the re-distribution of talent around Scotland can be seen everywhere.
Chart electronica acts Calvin Harris and Mylo hail from Dumfries and Skye respectively. Moreover, Highland acts The Jyrojets have SXSW and a US tour under their belts, while Theatre Fall played the club element of Oslo’s Øya Festival in August.
The rise of artists from the Highlands and Islands has gone hand-in-hand with the emergence of Go Events, who run Scotland’s only dedicated event for the music industry, goNorth. It was launched in Aberdeen in 2002 to get acts from the North of Scotland seen by music industry professionals from the rest of the UK and also abroad. It now boasts exchanges with a wide variety of events and organisations, including Iceland Airwaves, City College Manchester, Music Export Norway and G Festival (Faroe Islands).
This year it relocated to Inverness, where two nights of showcases were followed by a weekend of performances at the goNorth stage at the 35,000-capacity Rock Ness, now Scotland’s second largest festival after T In The Park.
The latter is co-promoted by Robert Hicks, who started out putting on gigs in the small Highland town of Ullapool and continues to occupy the role of booker for goNorth as well as Tartan Heart. ‘goNorth has been instrumental in encouraging a new generation of promoters, bands and people involved in all aspects of the music industry,’ he says.
'the creative industries in Scotland are higher up the political agenda than ever before'
Through the goNorth stage at Rock Ness, acts including The Haze, Six People Away, We Are The Physics, Theatre Fall, Sergeant and Luva Anna had the opportunity to appear on the same bill as The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, The Manic Street Preachers and The Charlatans.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) creative industries manager Iain Hamilton, recalls that, in the face of initial scepticism from the Scottish industry, three figures supported the concept of goNorth. ‘If you go back to the start, the people who really got things going were Duncan McCrone (MCPS), Stuart Fleming (PRS) and Ian Smith (then head of the Musicians Union, and now responsible for music at the Scottish Arts Council),’ he says. ‘And they have continued to be supportive.’
The PRS Foundation also supports new music in Scotland, funding both bands and promoters including The Hedrons and Lau and The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen.
Since those early days, times have changed dramatically, with both Inverness and Aberdeen regularly appearing on the itineraries of touring bands. Moreover, buoyed by generous grants of public money, two of Scotland’s largest music event promoters Unique and DF Concerts have got in on the act.
Like T In The Park, the Connect festival will also feature a platform for newcomers, this time sourced via the monthly Your Sound club at Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut.
Taking its queue from long-standing Edinburgh night Born To Be Wide, which was launched in early 2004 to bring together bands, journalists and people involved in different aspects of the music scene, Your Sound is an additional bridge between DF Concerts and the grassroots scene.
One of Scotland’s leading jazz guitarists, Haftor Medbøe, credits such nights with fostering collaborations with musicians from different backgrounds.
‘Born To Be Wide is the only place where I meet people working in other genres,’ he says, adding that it led to him collaborating with hip-hop artists MC Soom and Solareye.
Many industry veterans also credit the proliferation of showcase events, including T Break, goNorth and the PRS-sponsored New Music Stage at Edinburgh Fringe Sunday, with fostering closer links between acts from different parts of the country.
‘There are now plenty of opportunities for bands to meet,’ says Tam Coyle, manager of Glasgow act My Latest Novel.
Moreover, the cross fertilisation which has been taking place among musicians, is also beginning to happen among music businesses: ‘There is a lot more sharing of information among Scottish music companies, we are working more closely,’ says P3’s Taylor.
In part, he attributes this to the Scottish Parliament’s cross party committee for contemporary music, which has not only brought together many of the key players in the industry, but has also given them a direct line to sympathetic MSPs.
'cross fertilisation is happening throughout the Scottish music business'
‘The creative industries are further up the political agenda than they have ever been,’ says HIE’s Iain Hamilton. This is borne out by the establishment of the £500,000 Futures Fund, which was set up by the Scottish Parliament with the aim of helping to grow existing music companies based in Scotland.
It is clear that many within the industry see this as long overdue, and they are in no doubt about which areas need to be developed.
‘As a band manager it still saddens me that I am dealing with London for agents, labels and publishers,’ says Alec Downie, who looks after rising stars Popup, and runs the Nemis (New Music in Scotland) website which was established in 1999 as a network for everyone involved in the Scottish music industry.
His views are echoed by Radio Scotland and Radio 1 Evening Session in Scotland presenter Vic Galloway, who also fronts Fence Records act, Deaf Mutes: ‘We have the promoters and the [musical] talent, but we need more labels, more management and more publishing,’ he says.
There was some concern among labels and artists when the Fopp chain was under threat [HMV has now bought the brand and six branches including the original Glasgow shop]. But it is clear that companies such as Fence and 2 Thumbs are already bypassing traditional retail avenues, while the Futures Fund could go some way to stimulating and developing other revenue streams for existing companies.
Moreover, both the New Deal for Musicians and the numerous music industry courses, such as the one offered at Glasgow’s Stow College, are providing the environment for music business people and artists with chart experience to pass on the benefit of their knowledge to a new generation.
When Franz Ferdinand became a platinum act four years ago, some questioned whether Scotland could sustain a flow of fresh musical talent. Having proved that it can, the challenge ahead is to further develop the business talent to work the music at local level. So far, the signs are encouraging.
Olaf Furniss hosts the Born to be Wide night and works for goNorth
New Deal for Musicians:
www.scottishculture.co.uk/ndfm.html
www.nemis.org
www.gonorth.biz