100 best scottish albums according to the scotsman

And the Trash Can Sinatras were only at number 89 :(

I think basically someone sat down and named all the Scottish acts they could remember, constructed a story about how Lloyd Cole counts when they couldn't think of any more and then randomly assigned numbers to them. Where the fuck were the Delgados?

Plus if Lloyd Cole and Garbage count as Scottish, then we should have Rod Stewart, Cream and Dare era Human League.

wot, no momus?

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=1388

Primal scream released their first song in 1982, how come they formed in 1984, two years after that...very strange.

i picked this up on the NewsNow news feed last Thursday [and then linked to it on my blog]

both are incorrect. the first release was "all fall down" in 1985. but they formed and recorded the unreleased "the orchard" in 1983.

: )

BTW Dave Q's "analysis" is utter bollox, since Scots drink loadsa a beer in addition to whisky!!! The real reason Scottish rock appears awful is because it isn't really, but it's filtered through the Scottish media, which really is awful as far as music coverage is concerned. Most of the coverage is in the "entertainment/arts" sections of newspapers, and tends to be written either by Bobby Blandout or Gerald Hipster types!!!! The latter tend to piss off to the NME or grow into the former!!!!! Imagine a rock landscape shaped by the music section of the Sunday Times Review, and you have an idea of how crap the Scottish media is!!!!!!!!

1982 :

http://www.soulsaw.com/pleasantly-surprised/ps001.htm

1984Two tracks on this :

http://www.soulsaw.com/pleasantly-surprised/ps003.htm.

CUT magazine circa 1987.

Scotland's current music scene is documented by

Is this music?
http://www.isthismusic.com/

compiling a list of "the best" Scottish albums is about as daft an idea as collecting bus tickets, but if it has to be done then leaving out Rod Stewart seems a bit perverse to me

Only 6 albums from before 1970, which either shows how non-rockist the Scotsman is, or else that Scottish music was really really shit in the 1960s.

Actually I wrote for the Herald, not the Scotsman. And my editor was Pat Kane, who is in the list. As is my cousin in Del Amitri. Apparently I'm just not good enough. Or not Scottish enough -- less Scottish, it seems, than that sassenach Lloyd Cole. Huh! It's pretty fucking ironic, because my forthcoming album 'Summerisle' is the most Scottish-sounding record since 'The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter'. It's also a fuck of a lot better than anything Primal Scream ever made. These blinkered bigots will be forced to recant.

The only decent Scottish publication IMHO >>> was
CUT magazine circa 1987.

Dadaismus, if you listen to Vic Galloway's program on air, which is available on the internet, the guy from the List explains the "logic" they used to come up with the list, i.e. why Snow Patrol are on there. Talking Heads entered my head at that point, but no mention. Basically, they just made it up as they went along, which is pretty much as I would have done; except, I wouldn't have had Wet Wet Wet on the list.

Vic was great and managed to slip in John Martyn, Karl Denver amongst others; people that weren't on the list.

Available until Monday:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/musicscotland/air/

Why? I fear Lena Zavaroni may not be able to take part.

I take it this Middle of the Road thing is just some sort of daft publicity stunt on their part.

There was a great news article in News of the World when B&S won a brit award about how Stuart was still working as a janitor, it was entitled "Chirpy Chirpy Sweep Sweep".

I had a single of "Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum" when I was a kid.

So like... first there was a mention, then there is no mention, then there is?

Well at least he has ditched them rather than write them himself, given his error-strewn front page article when Belle and Sebastian won their Brit.

"Did you see Billy Sloan on Scotland Today? He bemoaned the lack of midge Ure then he said that he couldn't understand why Bis were there as they hadn't sold many records and Aereogramme are on the list and they've sold even less. Arf arf. I mean by those criteria Mr Blobby would be number one. (i have it on good authority that Mr Blooby is Scottish)"

For our non-Scottish readers, Billy Sloan is Scotland's self-styled greatest rock critic (he writes for the Daily Record and Sunday Mail), and a tireless champion of black denim sporting Caledonian bombast from Deacon Blue to Runrig. I saw him at Optimo watching Franz Ferdinand in summer 03. He didn't hang around for the dancing.
His slots on the news are hilarious. He once reviewed Ian Wright's single on Scotland Today saying, "He's a rapper, he's not a singer, but I think the young people will like it." Roffle.

As for AC/DC, Vic Galloway reckons they should be in. 3 of em born in Scotland. Bon Scott was born in Kirriemuir! But I suppose they've never really worked in SCotland, unlike Snow Patrol, who aren't going to be moving away from here. Still, the DC>>>>>>>>>>>>>Snow Patrol to infinity.

I'm unsure as to how Snow Patrol are considered a Scottish band. They might live here, but then the same is true of countless Scottish bands who moved to London, where the streets are paved with gold.

But yes, Snow Patrol shouldn't be mentioned in the same. Sentence as AC/DC.

I'll find it hard to ever think of Men at Work as Scottish, what with phrases like "Down Under" and "Vegemite Sandwich" etc. going round my head!

Or is it simply a case of the Scottish media adopting the band as one of their own so they can get a piece of the action?

Stuart Murdoch and Chris Geddes have just been on Off the Ball on Radio Scotland cashing in on their new-found fame, and have been treated with total indifference by the presenters, affecting silence whenever any of the callers praised Belle and Sebastian, assuming that anyone who knows anything about them is (a) a friend of the band or (b) a stalker, that sort of thing. It was a bit pointless.

and in that one word you encapsulate the entire problem. no need to look any further for your analysis. a modest, unassuming band with modest, unassuming fans. putting on my journalist's hat, i'd say the problem with that is you just can't make it interesting.

putting on my rock hat again, i'd say the problem with that is it just isn't interesting.

there's also a preciousness about B&S that really bugs me. they mooch about being all shuffly and self-deprecating (cf also the pastels), but then get incredibly pissy when people don't treat them like gods. at the leaving party for andrew jaspan, erstwhile editor of the aforementioned sunday herald, stuart and stevie were asked to play a couple of songs: andrew is a die-hard fan, and the sunday herald has done more than any other mainstream paper to support them.

they did one and a half numbers, then quit in a huff. the official reason was that the sound wasn't good enough, but it didn't bother the other band ... the impression everybody else in the room had was that the boys had taken the hump because we weren't paying attention.

now, i'm sorry: i was there to wish farewell to my former boss, not to listen to a band i don't even like very much. i certainly wasn't going to drop everything and stare agog while they strummety-strummed their way through a selection of mediocre indie anthems.

it's this attitude, this preciousness, this odd mixture of aloofness and shyness that really prevents me from liking them. that said: "the boy with the arab strap" (the album, not just the song) will always have a very special place in my heart.

How do you do that! In all honesty though, that's pretty small potatoes next to say, Elton John, who I love in places. Do you let people's behaviour put you off liking someone in general.

I bet OMD behave like twats sometimes!

Why? His days of the NME were filled with his writing the most tedious tosh about "rockism" that make the people using the term on ILM seem reasonable and well balanced. He could write up a storm if he was covering Womack and Womack or other mid 80s mainstream American r'n'b but his ability to cover anything featuriing white people or guitars was abysmal.

Anyway, Scotland music then. Strange list, very little 60s stuff, Marmalade surely were pretty populat from the Scottish beat boom. Only Nazareth for 70s rock then, no Frankie Miller, Stone the Crows...

What is remembered from the punk / post punk era is odd too. No Josef K, Scars, Flowers, Positive Noise. C86 is odd too, The Pastels but no BMX Bandits?

I'll have to read this to believe it. You lot must have good memories. I remember the bloke, but can't remember anything about his writing.

I love Marmalade.

Hi Sandy.

My exasperation at dance music fans trotting out the rockism cliche is that as far as I'm concerned Cosgrove won the debate about 20 years ago, but hes an ungracious winner and it is no at all suprising that Cosgrove treats B&S with dismissive contempt.

Actually I've just noticed that the post I wrote where I said that has been swallowed by the interweb. What I said, kind of, was that I'd expect tosspottery from Tam Cowan, as ignorance of anything going on outside Motherwell and the SPL is his schtick. Also I said maybe they are that shit to all their guests but I just never noticed as my hackles are instantly raised when people get lamped into B&S in a way that I don't usually get when Cosgrove and Cowan direct their ignorance and stupidity at the likes of Sandy Clark and Jimmy Calderwood. (Scottish football managers, for those following this thread that have no idea what this Off the Ball diversion is - it's a football show with occasional studio guests who have something to say about football. Murdoch once paid for a www.belleandsebastian.co.uk advertising hoarding behind the goal at Somerset Park, Ayr, therefore is on a par with Wet Wet Wet in terms of subsidising shitey wee teams).

it's not just about that incident, though. it's about the weird B&S dichotomy: on the one hand they're this strangely unassuming band, on the other they seem to think they've got an automatic right to be loved. i just don't get it. to be honest, i think i'd like them a lot more if they had some balls about them (which sir elt most certainly does). i'd have been a lot more impressed if they'd actually kicked the fuck off at us at the SH party and called us all cocks; as it was, they just looked like huffy teenagers.

and god yes, OMD could be right wankers from what i've heard ;0

You can vote here

DAMIEN RICE

A public vote for the top 100 Scottish albums. The writers got to choose last issue and now we've got the punters' choice. I think there has been some organised voting - Peeps Into Fairyland at number 8?! Wtf?
Teenage Fanclub's Grand Prix no1, Franz at no2, while the writers list wasn't numbered.