Caledonia Dreamin’
The impressive production line of music docs from BBC4 (Stiff records, Jacques Brel, and of course Pop Britannia being recent high spots) continues with a canter through 30 years of scottish pop. Given that C86 was year zero for me and I spent many a year trying to grow the perfect fringe then the pre-publicity suggesting that it focused around the legacy of Postcard records had me very nervous indeed. Thankfully it turned out ok.
An hour where Simple Minds get 1 line, Wet, Wet, Wet and Travis are barely mentioned wheras Josef K , Teenage FanClub and Billy MacKenzie get a full 5 minutes each is about right. The only downsides are that narrator; Edith Bowman has a few clumsy lines and there’s a dodgy middle effectively devoted to blue eyed “soul”, Pat Kane and the growth of Scottish Nationalism.
My two favourite moments are Clare Grogan (looking amazing) going dewy eyed about her memories as a schoolgirl at hanging out in a record shop just to stare at Orange Juice’ Steven Daly selling badges (who went on to write Alt.Culture) and footage of 19 year old Postcard supremo himself; Alan Horne sitting on a sofa in a Glasgow tenement next to a naked mannequin and a gorgeous Edwyn Collins looking well rather fey.
But where was Alan McGee ?
Top of the range talking heads (morley, cosgrove) and either up to date or archive footage of the participants themselves (Collins, Kapranos, Rankin, Proclaimers, Murdoch) makes for a very fine hour indeed.
Sorry, but the stalinist revisionism of the existence of Simple Minds wasn’t on. Sure, the minute Alive and Kicking was released, they became the most vile pomp rockers in their failed attempt to beat U2 to The World’s Biggest Band but they were experimental and nobody can ignore the enduring influence of Theme From Great Cities, the rest of the John Leckie produced stuff like The American and the frankly rather wonderful New Gold Dream album.
Hue and Cry could be easily dealt with in seconds, though. With a bullet to the back of the head.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable programme, with some lovely footage and excellent interviews. I could happily have lived without Wet Wet Wet and Hue and Cry, but if the programme was about the legacy of Postcard and it’s effect on Alternative pop music in Scotland then there would be a huge case for having Creation and Chemikal Underground, Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream on there. Still, the best bits easily out-weighed the rest. It’s a shame the programme that followed, about Edwyn Collins and his recovery from two strokes, isn’t on iPlayer. It was good to see the great man improving and looking forward to the future.
Kim Jerr. I overdid that a bit. You’re of course right about when simple minds turned. New gold dream (81,82,83,84) was one of my favourite albums when i was 14. And we all like “I travel” don’t we.
smithylad. I suppose they missed off alan mcgee and associated because creation really didn’t start until alan mcgee moved to london and he set up the Living Room club (whilst working for British Rail I recall)
but the big question …where was stephen pastel ?