I think that, at some point in spring 2007, BBC 6music put out a call for listeners to supply mixes of their favourite Scottish artists to tie in with the Indian Summer festival that July in Glasgow’s Victoria Park (6music were sponsoring a stage there).
I sent something in (he said vaguely) and got a call to go down to London to record the show proper. It wasn’t entirely clear why I couldn’t do it from ‘home’ (something which would become even more mystifying when I got there!) but I figured that I could do it on the cheap via a couple of easyJet flights, maybe do some other stuff when I was down there and it might be a bit of fun. Might even lead to some other work – I was freelancing at the time, and I had done something for Wise Buddah (oddly enough, Mark Goodier’s production company) in the past – to be precise, interviewing a band called The Blueskins in the back of a van somewhere in Glasgow.

Got to 6Music easy enough and was basically asked some questions by a bloke – Asha wasn’t there – in fact I’m sure I was told it’d be Nemone who’d present the show, I guess it’d be interchangeable as my answers were linked, not very seamlessly, with her questions – and as you can tell from the show, it all sounds a bit underprepared, as I wasn’t told that it’d be a Q&A-style setup. Though listeners to my regular radiomagnetic podcasts will be well used to that…

I didn’t hear the thing going out live myself, it was broadcast on the weekend of Indian Summer, and I was at the festival – as were, as you can imagine, most people who’d have been interested, though there are a couple of comments that came during the live broadcast from people in Cardiff rightly praising the track from the Flying Matchstick Men. Never mind, there’s always listen again on the iPlayer or whatever the system was in 2087. Except, they fecked up and for some reason my slot was taken by Guy Garvey’s show. Wouldn’t have been a bad thing except that Guy’s show was also occupied by his, rather denying me a falsely high listenership and exchanging it with, well, no-one. Well, apart from a chap who I met 3 or 4 years later – a pal who was Xfm’s Head of Music at the time, had a 40th birthday, and one of his friends at the party had heard the show. So retrospective justification for what was a long day’s work.

And Indian Summer? Sadly, that was the last time it took place, killed off by the Connect festival, which itself then also disappeared into oblivion. There have been a couple of ’sightings’ of a reborn version of what was a very popular (but just not quite popular enough?) weekend among – in 2010 several bands including Zola Jesus included “Indian Summer, Glasgow” on their tour dates lists. Checking with the promoter was met with a “ssh”, as they had presumably set up provisional dates. Sadly, perhaps with the recession and rumours at the time of damage to the park and noise complaints from local residents, no more was heard about a revived fest. But it probably boils down to the fact that, despite a great weekend being had by all those who attended (review) the large numbers required to support an event of this size were sadly not present at Victoria Park.
We can only assume they stayed at home and listened to the radio…

Anyway, here’s the mix – not entirely sure of the legal aspects of this, complaints to the usual address…

(Photo by Ian McF, his flickr seems to be defunct now…)

However, using the term ‘blog’ in its loosest sense, I can, I hope, get away with a quickie mention of whatever said artist has coming up, with a picture, music, video, link. Maybe all four. Or maybe it’ll just be a tweet – who wants to read all this waffle when there’s music to be listened to?

So without further ado, RM Hubbert.
Am not sure when I first became aware of Hubby, though this would almost certainly have been his considerable part as guitarist in El Hombre Trajeado – a band I saw a few times in the 90s (they existed for around 10 years starting in 1995. As a few appearances would have been support slots around Glasgow I’m not entirely sure of the wheres and whens… Sleazy’s for sure, maybe a slot on Ganger’s farewell show? – but his high-energy math-rock fretwork was always a standout of their gigs. (I’d say ‘math’ rather than ‘post’ due to the speed of much of the playing, but who ever let semantics get in the way of a good tune?)

My first encounter proper would have actually been related to his (then?) dayjob – as part of an internet company, Ubisan, who were in some way related to the people who were hosting my website (long story, probably lacking in acts, so we’ll skip that bit).

Then, Hubby re-emerged, having (as became clear) a troubled time personally, and using debut ‘First & Last’ as some kind of catharsis, took to the stage again. And ‘road’, the first time I saw him solo was one of the Slow Club ‘quiet’ shows organised by Smackvan, in Edinburgh.

Since then, I’ve come across Hubby several times (including the apearance at Doune The Rabbit Hole, pictured)- usually I don’t chat much to performers at gigs unless they’re clearly up for it, but oddly enough I had a good natter with him at a show a couple of Christmases ago, Jer Reid (formerly of Dog Faced Hermans) had been doing a gig a day in Stereo in Glasgow throughout December, and owing to a sparse crowd – blizzards had disrupted things to the state where guest musician Luke Sutherland was also unable to appear – there was plenty of time to talk about what he was up to, as well as the occasional confusion between himself and MJ Hibbert. He was working on a new album mainly, with Alex Kapranos producing and various guests appearing. Really just kicking off, this project all sounded like it would be amazing if it came off came to fruition. And guess what, it did, a few weeks ago with the launch of the star-studded ‘13 Lost and Found‘. It’s a spectacularly good album, and despite the very technical nature of the guitar work, somehow makes all that ‘difficult’ listening that El Hombre seem a decade away.

That brings us up to date – and since I’m not sure how I’m going to round off these posts, it’s handy that there’s a brand new video for his collaboration on the new album with Marion Kenny & Hanna Tuulikki.

In fact, no. In fact, short of Jockrock’s Golden Clefts Awards (which I organised myself, so they don’t really count), the only award cermony I’ve been to was The List’s Eating and Drinking awards (I’d reviewed Stereo, and The Kalpna, the latter in particular disgracefully overlooked, but anyway, the wine flowed and the canapes were, as you’d expect, very tasty).

But aside from the massively expensive (and all for charidee) Tartan Clefs, we don’t really do awards ceremonies for music in Scotland. Which is presumably why we’re here tonight, for the inaugural SNMAs (as we’ll call them). And while they’re not quite at the £100 a ticket level (yet), that is probably the point – more of a grass roots event for sure, but without the indie-schmindie shambolic nature of something like the Jockrock show. And yes, despite much cynicism in the run-up to Scotland’s newest awards, they (spoliler alert) turned out quite nicely.

Whatever the point behind the SNMAs is, it is about honouring Scottish music. Although, what constitures ‘Scottish’ is, as in football, a grey area. There are a set of rather complicated residency conditions that could have seen Craig Mackail Smith show up if he’d made a record, and to be honest, the absence of Kevin Rutkiewicz was a bit of a surprise given the level of some of the nominees. As it happens, the equivalent of the Scottish granny rule does allow The Skinny Magazine and Fresh Air FM to collect awards, but most of the accents heard tonight are a little more broad, with presenter The Wee Man (a former Plimptons drummer, no less) and rappers Werd and Wardie Burns carrying the torch for the Scots brougue.

Nationality issues aside, the awards are open to anyone not signed to a major label – that rather vague recurring condition which excludes the big hitters like Biffy Clyro, although the boys are present in spirit – more of that later on. The organisers have already stated that the Tartan Clefs covers the big hitters, and other ceremonies such as the Scottish Alternative Awards are there for largely indie-oriented music.

So the SNMAs attempt to cover, well, pretty much everything else..

That means we have a massive and in-places baffling array of categories – 40 in all. I know from bitter experience that a 6-award ceremony will be a nightmare to organise, though to be fair we had bands playing half-hour sets. Here, it’s one song and you’re off. There’s a bunch of ‘industry’ awards to present first (which is why I’m here, having both Jockrock and isthismusic.com up for Best Website) to be followed by the more obvious ones such as Best Band. As I hinted, the category nominations are what’s caused most disquiet, with some decidedly odd lineups in ‘Rock’ and ‘Alternative’ (and, as far as I know, there may be similar mutterings among the Roots, Jazz and Folk communities).

The guest performers and presenters listed beforehand are likewise an array of same-old-same-old, and “whooooo??”, but as we arrive – 6.30 sharp! – Edward Reid is wooing the crowd. The camp comic (TM Daily Record) – I think he may have been on the X Factor? – changes his outfit around 10 times during the proceedings, but is exuberant and grabs the attention of a increasingly inebriated crowd, as well as showing off a decent singing voice, his Mariah-style version of ‘Ally Bally Bee’ keeping the comical theme going.

Indeed, the biggest name on the performers’ lineup is probably cult bluesman Dave Arcari and as we arrive he’s been roped into presenting an award, but as it turns out, the organisers must have called in a few favours or thrown some cash at the event – Des Clarke, Sanjeev Kohli and a Leon Jackson /Sandi Thom dream team double act read off the nominees in batches of five or so.
Admittedly, there’s no-one quite as big as Gary Lightbody out of Snow Patrol, but hey, we can’t expect the same highs that the Jockrock Awards reached.

Celebs aside, there’s a surreal atmosphere – former BBC presenter Tony Currie does a kind of disembodied Mysterons voiceover as Celtic Music Radio broadcasts to Glasgow and the world. Though not as surreal as “self-trained classical singer” (according to the programme) Nicola Cassells who does an operatic version of ‘Many of Horror’ backed up by function band Dignan Dowell and White.

It’s a busy crowd in the former porn cinema (downgraded from the Barras), although the amount of attendees who’ve actually showed up to collect their flashy-looking trophies is quite small, which means that proceedings crack on at a fair old pace. Adam Stafford gets an award but, sadly, was not a recipient of a pass from the flood of free tickets, so he is unable to pick up his gong for directing the video for The Twilight Sad’s ‘7 Years of Letters’. Brendan O’Hare delivers the shortest acceptance speech – “Piss off!” – for his Live Engineer prize, but despite Chemikal Underground winning Best Label, there’s no-one to collect (unusual for former Delgado Stewart Henderson to miss a chance for a party). Though given the speed we’re rattling through the awards there’s not much time for chatter, which is just as well as the venue is pretty much in pitch darkness anyway.
Artist Manager Dee Bahl (Biffy) is likewise absent, perhaps just as well given the murdering of his charges’ hit, which makes Matt Cardle’s version seem almost bearable.

That’s it for indie-ish content in the ‘Industry’ half, apart from the studios, Berkley 2 and Green Door respectively – and curiously, it’s the big hitters who seem to miss out – Celtic Music Radio winning over obvious favourites like Radio One’s Muslim Alim and Mandi Freeman. It’s not clear if these are picked by a public vote, or by judges, though given the reception that some winners receive either there’s a serious black market for tickets, or that I have been wrong about every aspect of music in Scotland. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

Another surreal moment arrives when we’re informed by Voiceover Man that the awards are running an hour UNDER time. So Edinburgh act Metal Tech – Fisher Price Slipknot in appearance and Bon Jovi-with-a-rhythm-unit musically – do a couple of numbers as the organisers attempt to pad out the missing 60 minutes.

On with the presentations. Not long to go now. ‘Roots’ goes to an infeasibly tall and blond Scottish woman, Joy Dunlop… ah, the penny drops – “that kind of Roots!” I exclaim. Though isn’t that Folk/Traditional? Apparently not.

Metal DJ Tom Russell comes up to cover the noisy end of the categories, and lives up to his stereotyope – doing the macho metal thing to a tee, he ushers his rather more glamourous colleague centre stage to give us a twirl while he hogs the mic, though he does deign to let her open the envelope and announce the winners.

Ah yes, those categories again. We have Rock, Loud/Metal, Alt/Indie… but bizarrely, no Classical. Glasgow indies Suspire are a surprise winner in the Alt category, though not as big a surprise as ska act Bombskare in Punk – the band more surprised than the audience. Sandi Thom picks up a Jazz/Blues award and tries to explain away this given that her first 2 albums were folk, Merchants and Thieves had “a more jazz / bluesey feel”. Ohhhh-kay…
Sandi then presents a batch of prizes with Leon Jackson, before wee Leon takes the stage to give us some self-penned material. Among all the oddness of the event this is the biggest surprsie – the Bathgate X-factor winner has a surprisingly fine voice, and his songwriting isn’t bad either… however, an increasingly drunken crowd are in chatting and ligging mode by now and the acoustic tunes aren’t strident enough to grab the attention.

To be honest, we’re flagging now, and as Edward fills in with some Hi-NRG disco, it’s time to call a halt – we’ll miss ‘Group of the Year’ but since we’ve heard of none of the nomimees it shouldn’t be a great loss.

As we hit the motorway, a dissection of the night’s events.
In some senses, the night was a disappointment. We’d expected a car-crash of an event with Sam Fox/Mick Fleetwood pairings, cocked-up lines and stumbling bands. What we got was some great turns from the presenters – especially Sanjeev who appeared twice owing to an absent Michelle McManus – very slick performances from Bombskare and Leon Jackson and the always-entertaining Dave Arcari. However, it lacked excitement – a performance from Jill Jackson, formerly of Speedway and a top 10 act (really?!?!) kind of summed things up – competent but ultimately a little bit safe and corporate, And, although potentially sounding like sour grapes, objectively there are some decidedly odd choices in some of the categories, and as the event grows, more transparency in the voting will be required – if like the Jockrock awards it’s chosen by a judge or judges, that’s fine, as long as it’s upfront, as public votes are if anything more open to abuse. But fine tuning aside there’s not much to fault about the event – if they can only figure out precisely why it exists. Adam Plimpton may have been wrong about past events, but I suspect we’ll be seeing a few more of these in coming years.

Full results, I assume, will be online at www.scotmusicawards.co.uk

Such is the respect afforded the venues by the cooler clubbers of the city that even hardened carnivores are prepared to at the very least sample the range of beers and wines – no sign of the ubiquitous T here – or organic soft drinks.

Decor in the bar/restaurant area is like everything else understated – housed in a listed, Mackintosh-designed building, exterior sineage is, it seems, forbidden, but full advantage is taken of the large picture windows. The interior is unfinished in appearance, the unisex toilets clean but spartan. All of this adds to the indie cool.
Likewise, service is friendly and not overbearing, and the extensive menu offers a laid-back flexibility – a comforting soup of the day arrives with organic bread, baked on the premises, but breakfast options are available all day so the tofu scramble serves as an evening starter. Complemented by the equally tasty tomato and apple chutney, the smoky aroma hits the nostrils before the first forkful.

The calzone comes recommended to us and with good reason, puffy pizza dough (again baked inhouse) conceals a zesty sun-dried tomato and courgette mix. The cottage pie – napalm-hot – is perhaps the only ‘traditional’ vegetable dish on the menu with lentils the meat ‘substitute’. However, it’s surprisingly moist and tasty with the potato topping showing just the right amount of crispness.

Desserts come from a daily selection of cakes and pastries, available for all-day takeaway at the deli counter, but the special – non-dairy cheesecake – tests out the vegan credentials. Thankfully, though the consistency is a little blancmange-like, a crumbly base and raspberry jus easily compensate.

With its central location and impressive housing, it seems Stereo has the lot – well, apart from the built-in record shop that its Kings Court sister venue Mono boasts. However, its stated aim is to be known as a good food establishment rather than simply a veggie restaurant. On first showing, it seems that these objectives are well within reach.

20-28 Renfield Lane, Glasgow, 0141 222 2254
Open seven days for breakfast, lunch and dinner (last orders 8pm)
Average price for two-course evening meal: £10

(review originally appeared in The List just after the venue opened in late 2007)

Until we saw a piece in the Herald that morning. A tribute to Lafayette, a superstar magician of from the early 1900s – in fact, one who’d perished 100 years ago, to the week. In Edinburgh’s Festival theatre.
It all looks like an interesting diversion. Ok, the magician paying tribute is Paul Daniels – a cheesy TV showman at best, a fairly rabid Tory supporter at worst – but putting that aside, an interesting night out. And I’m a sucker for magic and illusions, and Daniels can be relied upon to deliver. So we order online, getting cheap seats pretty close to the front of the stalls (cheap due to their being a bit to one side, I guess, but not a big problem – since much of the show turns out to involve close-up magic this proves to be a good option).

Following a quick preamble and a slideshow on Lafayette, Daniels announces that he won’t be recreating the trick that Lafayette was performing the night he died. Since that involved a lion and a horse (the magician died going back into the burning building in a vain attempt to rescue his equine partner) that’s understandable, though the theme of the tricks is pretty much vintage. and low-tech. David Copperfield this certainly ain’t.

The show itself isn’t bad. In two parts, the first half is a mix of Daniels pretty much in the persona you know from his TV appearances – doing stand-up comedy and the odd close-up trick, combined with a couple of showpiece illusions – an assistant bursts out of a dolls’ house the set almost peaks too early such is the surprise element of this trick. Some more card trickery and another more involved illusion, where a woman in a standing cabinet is split into 3 (achieved by 3 large bladed sections that slot into where her head, stomach and legs presumably weren’t).

The second half is better in a sense, though the use of doves and rabbits might have animal rights types up in arms, though none of these were harmed in the making of some convincing slight of hand by guest Scott Penrose. His short set, presumably based around the tricks of Lafayette’s time, includes a set of Chinese Linking Rings, a trick which has fascinated me since a friend of my father’s – the late Henderson Lynn, a Glasgow magician – showed me the trick up close. It is baffling (solid brass rings link and pass through each other as if they had gaps cut in them. No, they don’t).
One of the most fun afternoons of my childhood was when Harry (his real name) got me up on stage at a kids’ party and proceeded to draw blood from my arm, and then changed it into coke and squirted it into a glass for me to drink.

I’d not expected to be taking the stage again, but yes, perhaps due to our closeness to the front of the stage, Paul Daniels picked (on) me to come onstage, along with another chap, Andy, “for laughing at him getting picked”.
Our task: to tie Debbie McGee to a chair, so that in a mock seance trance she would be unable to start throwing around a variety of tin cups and plates. To be honest, this trick is the least interesting of the show, or would be if I wasn’t standing on the stage – I say this because there’s not much to it and could be achieved by someone clad in black hiding in the seance cabinet along with the lovely Debbie.)
(Edit: In fact, Paul Daniels has blogged on the show and says: “I forgot to tell them to pick the cabinet up to show no-one was concealed inside it.” That would have changed things somewhat…)

After that, I’m forced into a bet with a fiver that he can’t pick the card I selected (he can of course, it turns up in his sealed wallet). and I’m offstage. That’s actually when the show hots up a little as Andy and another audience member end up sitting on chairs which mysteriously become ‘electrified’. Maybe for the best I missed out on that one.
Anyway, that was my evening and my brush with fame. In all, a fitting tribute to the man who was by that era’s standard, a magical megastar – on a level of Paul Daniels, but as he readily admits, a status achieved without the power of TV.
Happily, the 1911 show wasn’t recreated too accurately – no fire, no-one died. But as would have been the case in 1911, an audience left wondering exactly “how did he do that?” Well, as Mr Daniels would cheesily say, “that’s magic!”

And it is a sizeable throng that greets Moniack, another bunch of homecoming heroes. At this, their first Edinburgh gig in over three years, band and audience connect and seem almost overjoyed to be in each other’s company. Mind you, via their 70s prog leanings (as well as hair and shirts), the 5-piece are decidedly luvved up. Sonically they’re more aggressive – a steamrolling stop-start set is punctuated by some intricate moments of guitar; think King Crimson being bludgeoned by Motorhead.

Lapsus Linguae also have quiet contemplative passages in a multi-vehicle pile-up of a set – their trademark tinkling piano is more in evidence than in recemt gigs adding colour to their darkly gothic canon. They launch headlong into the Liberace-does-death-metal of ‘Parade’ and career through a set that mixes golden oldies with some nerve-jangling new material, which, they announce, will be on an album next year. “Buy it, you ****s” screeches an eerie disembodied voice which may have come from the merchandise table. Could be an ideal present for Xmas 2004.

Stuart McHugh

Will you be taking requests?
If someone yells something and I still know how to play it! A lot of people shout for songs that for the life of me I couldn’t remember how they go. I didn’t like doing Hüsker Dü or Sugar stuff with bands ,I thought it was nice to keep it intact, but as time has gone on I’ve sort of changed my mind on that.

Still getting shouts for Husker Du songs you didn’t write?
No. If they do I don’t hear them!

Ah yes, how is the tinnitus? (Mould famously stopped touring due to hearing problems).
On the band tour I worked with less amplifiers and less volume and it wasn’t so bad; I was able to get a lot of good sleep on the road – my head wasn’t ringing as bad as it usually does after a few shows.

You’ve been working with a lot of bands on remixes, that must be keeping you on top of what’s happening?
Yes, the Interpol remix turned out great, there was one for Low’s ‘Monkey’… here the music’s been pretty bad, the hiphop stuff’s been unbearable, though The Postal Service had a lot to do with merging electronic and pop. In Europe it’s always been a little more open… I have to get this Rammstein mix done today, I’m having a really hard time with it because it’s so fast – a really big German metal thing. I’m not really quite sure what I’m doing with it yet.

Any pre-tour butterflies?We’ve been rehearsing for the last few weeks and it’s sounding fantastic, so I’m not nervous about that. It’ll be interesting with the festivals in the summer when we’re third on the bill to Kasabian and Killers, but for our own gigs we can change lots of things around, playing songs a James fan wouldn’t expect at all.

The shows sold out in 2 hours, so there must be a few fans just waiting for this reunion?
Yes, 5000 people – it’s like the Pixies I think, you almost get bigger when you’re away. I think James has been very much taken for granted, so it’s great that the music’s done a lot of work for us in the years we’ve not been around.

Does the reunion mean the solo career is on hold?
I’ve two collaborative albums that are going fine, but I’ve had to put the acting down for a good 8 months – that and screenwriting, but you can’t be in two places at once. It’s not a wrench though, as I’m having such a great time doing the James stuff 

And the reasons for the band’s initial split, all put aside?
So far, it’s working really well. In the last few years of James, the way we were working… was very dysfunctional. 
So this is going to be alive and raw and creative – that’s the rule and if people can’t keep up with that they won’t be in James – and if WE can’t we won’t have a James, so we’re being quite ruthless on this.

Stuart McHugh

1. Gigs by the band are rare thanks to their peccadilloes – most famously turning down 80s TV show The Tube (and a helicopter ride there) because it clashed with a Tranmere Rovers match. Other means of transport are no more popular – the Renfrew Ferry even being rejected as a Glasgow venue owing to it being a (kind of) boat. (Long tours are out thanks to singer Nigel Blackwell’s “own bed, own bog” motto).

2. Their love of obscure or failed football teams means they have much in common with their large Scottish following (see ‘I Was a Teenage Armchair Honved Fan’, ‘Dukla Prague Away Kit’.)

3. They’re adored by journalists since any piece can simply consist of a string of song titles – ‘Paintball’s Coming Home’, ‘The Bastard Son of Dean Freidman’, ‘Twenty Four Hour Garage People’. See?

4. Take the chance to see what they look like as no proper publicity shot exists from after 1986 (perhaps due to Blackwell’s likeness to Dutch defender Jap Staam).

5. Aside from their fabled cutting lyrics they have a real knack for singalong anthems which have inspired ringing endorsements from fans ranging from Tracy Emin to Jarvis Cocker, while the late John Peel described the band as “a national treasure”.

HMHB play Edinburgh Liquid Room on October 1st

The Americans seem to love you, but you’ve been touring the world, so what’s your favourite place?
I have to say England because I live there… no, wait, I’d better say Scotland! My mum’s side of the family are all from Leith.
I really like Berlin, the people are having so much fun, drink’s cheap. And I like Moscow, I got this great big glam fur coat, which I can wear there.

You’ve picked up a bunch of celebrity fans like Graham Coxon, The Libertines, and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter)
I remember reading that a while ago, I think (Radcliffe) just likes all guitar bands. People keep saying Madonna likes us. And David Johansen from the New York Dolls, which is kinda cool.

Your lifelong ambition was to appear on Top of the Pops – what is there left now that’s gone?
It’s rubbish, isn’t it? Pop music isn’t popular any more. Our plan is now to being back Top of the Pops, and write the theme tune.
There was a petition to get us on TotP, 7000 people signed it – now, if they’d just bought the single in the first place…!

Your new album is entitled It’s A Bit Complicated – how hard could it be?
Our first album was just all our songs at that time, and we couldn’t all go into the studio at the same time because we all had jobs – this album we had to sit down and write! Plus we could get there together and say: “What that needs is a trumpet and backing vocals.” So it’s more like a pop album.

You have a unique ‘franchise’ system where ‘other’ Art Bruts spring up across the world – e.g. We Are Scientists are Art Brut # 47. What on earth is that about?
Art Brut’s a good name, we felt guilty about having exclusive use of it. Though there must be hundreds of them now – people show up: “Hi, I’m Art Brut 17,” and give me a CD. I’m like a proud father, but I’m glad they’ve all left home!

Stuart McHugh

(More at www.artbrut.org.uk)