Growing Up In Scotland in the 70s or 80s.

2. Whatever my big sister was listening to. My big sister.

3. Listen or Bloggs.

4. Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Chou Pahrot?

5. See above.

6. No better or worse than anyone else.

Venues/places: the Hootchie Cootchie Club, Tap o' Lauriston, Waterloo Bar, Potter Row, Onion Cellar, Kaleidescope Club at the Caley

http://hemingwoid.blogspot.com

(starts again next week)

fun coloured with the shadow of random violence.

What were the best record shops?

in Glasgow there was Rat Records, Missing, old scummy Virgin before they put lights in, that one in Virginia Galleries, that one in the Sauchiehall Centre, that one that the guy from Belle & Sebastian ran etc etc

Were Bowie, Wilson and Iggy Pop really gods in Glasgow, or just amongst the cool crowd?

Wilson only amongst the cool crowd, Iggy & Mick Jagger were the real gods. Amongst older people Roy 'Tha Big O" Orbison was god.

Do Scots in general have good taste in music?

Only Billy Sloan has (local joke)

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Also worthy of mention is Bruce's Record Shop in Union St across the way from HMV, if only for the fact that (a) one Saturday after the '78 World Cup I and some of my fellow pupils went in there, bought up their stock of "Ally's Tartan Army b/w I Want To Be A Punk Rocker" by Andy Cameron (10p each), went out and smashed them in the street; and (b) we repeatedly went in and bought the same single at 20-second intervals in forlorn attempts to hype them into the charts (e.g. "Transmission" by Joy Division, "Electricity" by OMD, "She Is Beyond Good And Evil" by the Pop Group).

Wasn't Rat the one in Virginia Galleries?
There was also Metamorphic, behind the Trongate or thereabouts. And the one in Shawlands that I can't remember the name of that was good. And the old Fopp.

Wasn't there a shop that appeared near Miller St/Queen St in the late 80's, upstairs I seem to remember.

Also, did anyone go to the record fairs at the McLellan Galleries? God I loved those.

hmm, i think you're right. they did have a shop beside buchanan st underground, but now i remember they started in virginia galleries. 23rd precinct in the late 80s early 90s was an odd shop, with the dance section at the front mobbed by newly e-pacified neds & andy anorak playing beat happening records very loudly in the back room.

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Rebel Records. He didn't run it, he was employed. The owner was a guy called Pete. I suppose you could be forgiven for thinking Murdoch ran it. But he didn't.

There was a definite sixties tendency in the 80s, but a lot of the records that are now perceived as classics weren't really classics then, they were quite oddball things, fairly difficult to get hold of. Things like Love and The Seeds and Suicide and everything and all that.

Fopp was a normal shop, not a bargain bazaar.

There were a couple of shops down Partick Cross, but you knew you were desperate if you ended up there.

I also went to Paisley once. God knows why.

They say it's more difficult to find an unsigned copy of a Sonic Youth record than a signed one in Glasgow. I hope this is true.

Nice to see Andy Anorak getting a mention.

(I wasn't really growing up, I'd done that already.)

I bet they signed shed-loads of stuff that day!

As I was only born in 1980 my years of music fandom didn't really start until the 90s.
I grew up in Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, which was quite nice really. Had lots of wee friends in the street, nice primary school that encouraged us to play musical instruments and paint. Glasgow seemed very far away, even though it was a 45 minute drive.
Started going to Glasgow in my teens, attracted by all the talk of the 13th Note, Nice & Sleazys, Bis and Mogwai in the NME and MM. I remember dark and pokey Virgin on Union St and Missing in its various shops. It's really sad to see Missing reduced to little more than a second hand shop, but it's good to see Dep doing well with the splendid Monorail Records.
To answer yr questions: I found out about music through friends passing on hissy 3rd gen C90s of Nirvana and Metallica. Then I started listening to Marc Radcliffe and reading NME.
A few years previously however, Scottish music just seemed to be about Runrig, Deacon Blue, Texas and other Billy Sloan approved black denim wearing mofos. When all you've got is the Chart Show and TOTP you're never gonna hear about the Pastels or JAMC.

my, how gracious of you :)

There were a couple of shops down Partick Cross, but you knew you were desperate if you ended up there.

oh, there was a great secondhand record shop in Partick, i bought loads of seminal-for-me records there.

Notice how this thread is all about record shops and not about bands?

i could quite happily ramble on about the Batchelor Pad, Dawson, Stretchheads, Cateran, Mackenzies, Desperadoes, etc etc but i doubt anyone would be interested

Which assumes of course that hearing about the Pastels is a good thing - well better hearing about them actually hearing them I suppose.

As I recall, both the Pastels and JAMC were on The Chart Show fairly regularly.

Surreal classic radio - Radio Clyde's Round Table singles review show with Edwin Starr and Stephen Pastel. Starr being thoroughly bemused by the latter's "Truck Train Tractor."

Sorry, I did not mean it to come out like that. I should have said 'one' instead of 'you', if anything.

I liked the Max Walls, but I can't remember the name of their shop on Byres Road.

Was the secondhand shop painted blue inside?

How did you find out about music? Beat Patrol on radio scotland and allan campbell's programme on radio forth

What were the best record shops? Avalanche and the old fopp (pre 1995)

Who were the best scottish bands? see above

Were Bowie ,Wilson and Iggy Pop really gods in Glasgow, or just amongst the cool crowd? dunno, i'm from Edinburgh but i've loved Bowie since i first heard Aladdin Sane aged 10

Do Scots in general have good taste in music - who can say, probably not

Really? Well, I suppose there was a lot of weird stuff you'd hear ten second snippets of during the indie chart. But when I was 8 and listening to Kylie I was hardly gonna pay attention to Mr McRobbie and his shambling chums. I like em now though, especially after Stephen said nice things about my zine.

i think alba is correct that one side of the scottish scene is very old-recordy, i think. (there was also a scarily progressive techno side when i lived there) not that it's a bad thing at all, you get to know about wonderful old stuff, but it can sap the life out of the present day. big star >>>>> teenage fanclub

I think that's a bit of an out of date view. The progressive techno scene still bubbles away underground but Glasgow has one of the most open musical cultures of any city in the UK. You've got weird folk artists, indie popsters, art rockers, electro-punks, laptop boffins, rock n rollers, country singers, outsider artists, a strong improv/avant/jazz scene, with a fair amount of overlap. And, I'm glad to say, surprisingly few Fraz copyists. You'd have to go to London for them.

from what i hear a lot of the people who were most into their stooges/modern lovers/velvets/mc5 purism now seem to be into laptop glitch stuff and psf style japanese noise.

in observing a large group of people i knew while in scotland (including, happily, andy anorak) who were very old recordy and who hate belle and sebastian and now who are, i think, much less old-recordy, i am trying to extrapolate this onto the youth/cultural movement of an entire country. ok?

Perhaps it is just a phase people go through, being less old recordy.

Q: What bands did you listen to and how did you find out about music?
A: 1979-84: Dead Kennedys, Revillos, Dickies, Devo, B-52s, Talking Heads, Specials, Jean Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Orange Juice, Pink Floyd, ELP, ABBA, Marillion, Meatloaf, Ivor Cutler, Ramones, Monty Python, Bonzo Dog Band, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Buzzcocks.

1984-1990: Most of the previous ones but also Foetus, BMX Bandits, Cud, Bachelor Pad, ZZT, US Punk Rock, Pastels, Cardiacs, Sudden Sway, the Stupids, Snuff, Stretcheads, Fall, McCarthy, Matt McGinn, Adam McNaughton, Wonderstuff, PWEI, Soup Dragons, Camper Van Beethoven, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth,Butthole Surfers, etc.

I found out about music from the weekly music press (Sounds, Melody Maker, NME in that order), fanzines (Coca-cola Cowboy, Are You Scared To Get Happy, Pure Popcorn, Slow Dazzle, Baby Honey, Legend!, tons of others that I've forgotten), radio (Peel, Beat Patrol, Janice Long), and listening to music in clubs.

Q: What were the best record shops?
A: CASA Cassettes deserves a mention. Very unique selection.

Q: Who were the best scottish bands?

A: The Bachelor Pad were probably the best band of the late 80's - great songs, great live, great records, great attitude. I have a clear memory of US bands playing in Glasgow and just blowing everyone away with their energy and musicianship (I'm sure no-one needs reminding that a lot of the UK indie bands of the 80s could be pretty inept performers). Redd Kross, Camper Van Beethoven and Dinosaur Jr spring to mind - I believe they had a small but significant effect on the musicians in the city at the time.

Q: Were Bowie ,Wilson and Iggy Pop really gods in Glasgow, or just amongst the cool crowd?

A. The biggest gods I can think of amongst my peers and those we came into contact with were The Ramones. By my time Bowie was just an establishment fixture along with Bono and Peter Gabriel. Iggy was revered by cool types for his Stooges days and Brian Wilson was unknown but revered by a select group(Duglas from the BMX Bandits always promoted the Beach Boys and did a BBC Radio Scotland show all about SMILE in about 1990).

Q: Do Scots in general have good taste in music?

A: Have you ever listened to Runrig or Scheme? ie. No.

I don't know why they aren't better known. Not twee enough to fit the 80's/Scottish template? Being from Edinburgh won't have helped.

Basically they sacrificed their own reputation for a shot at the big time, followed by a legacy-damaging second kick at the can.

When did Billy Sloan 1st start writing for the Daily Record? Was he around in the late 70's?

DANTE VIDEO DEAD GOOD Apr 3 2005

Billy Sloan

EL PRESIDENTE nearly came a cropper while shooting the video for their great new single, 100 MPH.

Frontman Dante Gizzi had to perform the track lying on his back in a coffin.

The Glasgow band play King Tut's on May 25 as part of the annual 10 Days In May mini-festival.

He told me: 'The video is based on those 1960s picture square puzzles where you had to slide panels around.

'It was weird and very uncomfortable doing it for hours. But the end result was worth it because it looks amazing.'

Who was that other scottish rock band from lanarkshire. The singer was born in N Ireland and married to the VJ from Headbangers Ball. I can't remember his name or the bands name.
They were shite anyway. Did a cover of "You ain't seen nothing yet" and it was horrible.

By lame second Shop Assistants line-up, you mean the one that put out "The Big E Power" and "Here It Comes"? I really like that singer, actually; she sounds less Sundays, more riot grrrl. The Trouser Press says she was the bass player.

What were those shows like?

The Almighty, I think? Repressed memories come flooding back...

Were there any other Scottish heavy rock/metal bands around in the 80s? (that weren't Nazareth)

Was there a metal scene anywhere?

This second line-up was kind of a mish-mash of ex-Meat Whiplash people and ex-Shop Assistants, although I don't really remember or know for sure who was there. Saw them a couple of times in pubs in places like Troon and Ayr. A bit of a come-down as they had been headlining at the QMU only three years earlier. It wasn't too impressive since their numerous imitators had taken their template and advanced it by then, and not many people were interested. By the way, "Here It Comes" was originally the b-side to Meat Whiplash's only single "Don't Slip Up" from 1985. Now THAT'S what I call a classic.

the virgin megastore when it first opened on princes street was actually mega for a few years. it stocked every independent release that came out ( it even had a section for the homosexuals) and had the best euro / kraut rock section i have ever seen. when cds arrived, the buying policy went tits up and it went rapidly downhill. sadly most of edinburgh's great record shops - listen, phoenix, ezy rider and the other record shop all went out of business at around the same time (late 80's). by then i had moved to glasgow which also used to be a great city for record shooping.

sadly missed glasgow record shops - a1 (became fopp), ak, rat, dub2, echo.

i saw the shop assistants many, many times (the original line up) as my best friend played in a band called rote kapelle who were part of that shop assistants, jesse garon, 53rd and 3rd scene. it wasn't really my type of thing as i was a foetus freak at the time but they were very good live. must dig out 'safety net' and see how it has aged.

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Were there any other Scottish heavy rock/metal bands around in the 80s?

there were a few scottish heavy metal bands in the early 80's that were part of the new wave of british heavy metal. one that springs to mind is holocaust who were on the label of the phoenix record shop. i could be wrong but i think metallica covered one of their songs. heavy metal and the prog revival (marillion, pendragon, iq etc.) was deliriously popular on the east coast.

chou pahrot are mentioned at the top of this thread. several of my older glaswegian friends talk of them in hushed tones. did they ever release anything?

also, if anyone has any info about a mid 80's edinburgh band called the new york pig funkers, i would be very, very gratetful.

Missing Records was great way back before they moved to the big shop on the corner then the even bigger shop a few streets away.
Its back now where it used to be but its 2nd hand only now. I don't even bother going in there now.

ILX Lists The Best Record Shops In The UK Thread.

I mentioned them upthread as being one of my favourites. I played "A Gasfire" recently. It's still pretty wild sounding for a Scottish band. I was also a Foetus freak at the time but I still liked RK, but they didn't really fit it with the Scottish scene at the time anyway. Unusually their label was Intape (curated by Marc "Lard" Riley), I think the only Scottish band on that label. Most of the other bands were lumpy, angular, shouty or jokey types from the Manchester area which I think suited Rote Kapelle better than the 53rd&3rd/Narodnik scene. I believe they actually date from before the whole Shop Assistants thing really took off.

Most of the members were also in either the Desperadoes or the Fizzbombs who respectively jangled and buzzed away in the common Scottish styles of the time. Is it possible that the three bands that made that little scene suffered because they spread themselves too thin? They were obviously talented but it's disapointing that none of them reached any degree of fame since all three were most righteously excellent.

just saw this upthread and i am happy to say that he is alive and well. well, he was about a week ago.

reading all this has brought back so many memories. the abiding one is moving to glasgow in '86 and being somewhat taken aback by just how many indie kids or 'cuties' as they were known there were. still, thee cutie club - texas fever - played some wonderful, wonderful music.

yey! thanks for cheering me up stirmonster - i went to school with ally and was saddened by the original post. will put on my copy of 'romping egos' now ... oh and Scheme, argh!

I don't think there was ever a question of spreading themselves too thin - you had a big line up of diverse, creative folk, who were all huge fans of different types of music. There were a LOT more than three other bands involving RK members, and there always seemed to be energy to spare.

Did the top tier really sway as much as the legend suggests?

Ha ha, actually I only said Chou Pahrot were the best band in Scotland as a joke! And now it turns out they were "some legendary 70's glasgow band"! The only reason I know of them is because I had an older cousin who used to go on about them, particularly their song "Lemons For Your Face", I think they played quite often when gigs by local bands were a rarity. From what I can gather they were a kind of Zappa/Gong influenced hippy band with saxes, funny time signatures, daft pseudonyms etc - in fact, the sort of thing that people go apeshit for these days!

We won the Cup, we won the Cup, we won we won, we won the Cup

how did I miss this thread

Painfully true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7scMC7YSDQ

Hah, yes.

School holidays were the worst though. Kids TV shows didn't start until the English kids went on holiday. Of course when we went back to school we missed out on a month of TV shows being shown.

glad to see a few scheme references on an ilm thread

this thread is a great read, even though / because it's largely about an era of glasgow a bit before anything i know.

having been away from scotland for going on five years i feel i've completely lost touch with glesga's music scene, what's going on now?

tons going on at the moment glasgow. i'd say it is probably the best it has been for music since i moved here in 1986.

in the subsequent decade since this thread was started i have finally heard legendary 70's glasgow band chou parrot's music. they sound just about exactly how i imagined. this one (which may be at the wrong speed) sounds like it should have been the theme tune to something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Q2DAvEv34

Klub Records - the same as Ally's Tartan Army and using the same producer, Peter Shipton.

Will need to listen to that when I get up the road.

Was in glasgow in the autumn for the first time in three years and all the posters for gigs were for bands I hadnae heard of, well and truly out the loop. Keep meaning to do a wee trawl of soundcloud or whatever.

Thanks Stirmonster, that Chou Pahrot EP sounds great.

Golden Teacher are the best Glasgow band right now

^^^ one of the few contemporary bands ive listened to (on the internet) and they're really great

There's a group called Haight Ashbury that are good too. I saw them supporting Young Marble Giants at Stereo last year and I'm fairly sure they're local

I don't really follow the local music scene too closely though. I know that's bad

I saw Golden Teacher in a gazebo in the dark at the Botanic Gardens in Dundee a couple of years ago, they were pretty good fun. (My old band played in a shed, the lights were on).

my last night living in dundee (mid-2011) involved a night at the botanic gardens though uh i don't remember anything, i'm sure i saw some good and interesting stuff

"Stray dogs round-up succeeds"

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/paisley-propelled-epicentre-uks-punk-24196332

More late 60s than 70s/80s but this rings true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD-y6JqXjQQ