YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE: The Scottish Pop Music Exhibition Centre Needs Your Support

KEVIN BUCKLE HAS ONE OF THE BEST IDEAS I'VE HEARD FOR A VERY LONG TIME. Kevin is owner of Edinburgh independent record shop Avalanche Records, which has been trading for over 30 years. However, for the past 3 years he's been working on a separate project, to establish a Scottish Pop Music Exhibition Centre (that's the current name; it has had other names before, and could change again). Last year he closed the shop (or put it into hiatus - although the website still operates) so he could devote more time to the Exhibition Centre plan.

The original concept for the Centre was as a museum, or display space, for artefacts relating to Scottish pop/rock music from the late '50's to the present day, Lonnie Donegan (or even Andy Stewart?) to Twin Atlantic and beyond. On hearing about it for the first time earlier this year my immediate comparison was to the the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, which we visited while on holiday in 2008 (at that time it was called The Experience Music Project).

MoPOP is a non-profit museum, dedicated to contemporary popular culture, which was founded in 2000 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen - so obviously has serious investment behind it. It's housed in a striking building, which also incorporates the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, designed by famed architect Frank Gehry, in a prime location adjacent to the Space Needle and Seattle Center Monorail. There is a bias towards Seattle-born, or Seattle-associated, performers such as Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana, but they aren't restricted by geography. It's one of Seattle's main tourist attractions.

And why shouldn't a similar museum in Edinburgh (which attracts the occasional tourist too...) aspire to something on the scale of MoPOP? What they should be thinking is: how can we do that better?

To move forward they do need financial support: donations and sponsors. Every business in Scotland which perceives themselves as being cool, or aspires to be cool, every Scottish-based corporation which supports the arts, and every music fan with an interest in Scottish pop and rock music should offer financial support. (To be clear: I have no business involvement with the Centre. I just think it's a brilliant plan, and it would be a tragedy if it fails to achieve its goals due to lack of money. Someone other than Kevin explaining the vision for the Centre just seemed like a good idea.)

Kevin has already invested a huge amount of time, and a great deal of his own money, to accomplish what he has so far, but is in urgent need of sponsorship to move the project forward. Applications for arts funding have proved to be unsuccessful (and Kevin has inadvertently become involved, via social media, in the burgeoning challenges to the long-established, indefensible bias towards classical and opera in arts funding for music - at a time when 'popular' music is in crisis, with small venues closing down, record shops closing, grassroots musicians struggling etc), and crowdfunding doesn't appear to be a viable option in this case. Edinburgh council are now extremely supportive of the venture, but have restrictions which prevent them from offering financial backing unless the Centre already has funding from other sources.

To offer financial support, or for further information, Kevin Buckle can be contacted:-
via email (kevinavalanche@hotmail.com) 
or Twitter (@HistoryofSMC).

Here is the URL for Avalanche Records' website, and Kevin's own explanation of the current status of the Centre project: http://www.avalancherecords.co.uk/2017/08/06/the-scottish-pop-music-exhibition-centre/

Kevin is uniquely well placed as the right person to establish a Scottish Pop Music Exhibition Centre. He has decades of experience supporting Scottish pop/ rock music, and contacts throughout not only Scotland and the rest of the U.K., but internationally too.

So far, to provide a flavour of what the Centre is aiming to achieve, there was a small pop-up exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, for 3 days in June, called The Only Fun In Town - named after Josef K's debut album, which was the only album released during the original lifespan of Glasgow label Postcard Records. (Incidentally, my title for this post is taken from the poem 'Your Attention Please', by Peter Porter, which was set to music by criminally-underrated Edinburgh post-punk band Scars; it was a highlight of their live shows, and is included on their only album, 'Author! Author!')
The exhibition attracted far greater numbers of attendees than hoped for, and there have been requests to stage it not only elsewhere in Scotland, and the rest of the U.K., but in other countries too. With larger premises, even greater success can be expected.

Since the exhibition, objectives for the Centre have grown more ambitious. With large enough premises, the ideal would be to also have a shop, a label, distribution for Scottish music, an advice drop-in centre, a performance space, a website promoting Scottish music, and a cafe. (What about a small recording studio too?)

Dare we envision a location, and organisational structure, which could engage and unify Scottish pop and rock music of all genres? Members of Marmalade, Nazareth, SAHB, Franz Ferdinand, and so on, dropping in to exchange stories and impart wisdom to new generations of musicians. Belle and Sebastian having coffee with Biffy Clyro; Lulu and The Pastels; Fish and King Creosote.

This is the right time to be establishing an exhibition centre for Scottish music. Almost everyone is part of the rock'n'roll generation now. Only the most senior citizens grew up as Bing Crosby fans. When I used to visit my grandparents, the Dansette would be playing Dean Martin, Glen Daly, and country music (Hank Williams and Hank Snow mostly). Now, a visit to grandparents could very likely entail having to listen to their Blodwyn Pig, Gong or Angelic Upstarts albums. I was never particularly interested in my grandfather's stories about the music hall acts he used to like, but modern youth may actually be impressed if their parents have been to live shows by Michael Jackson, Nirvana, James Brown, or The Beatles. Parents and children liking the same music is no longer unusual, even if it means rock'n'roll is, mostly, meaningless as rebellion 60 years later. Fathers and sons going to see Green Day, Queens of the Stone Age or Royal Blood together. Mothers and daughters are as likely to be having shared nights out to Take That or jukebox musicals as Ed Sheeran or Rag'n'Bone Man.

If anything, modern parents may be be more inclined to complain about modern pop music being too dull. Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror formed more than 30 years ago. GG Allin died 24 years ago. 'Trout Mask Replica' was released in 1969. Alice Cooper is 69. What parent is going to be shocked by any new rock outrage?

In comparison, some present-day pop stars make Daniel O'Donnell look like Marilyn Manson. It's the X-Factor effect. As noted elsewhere on this blog, X-Factor is not pop music, it's showbiz: the revenge of Tin Pan Alley for The Beatles ruining everything. But there are more than enough pop fans around to ensure the success of a pop/rock museum. Witness the popularity of the V&A's David Bowie and Pink Floyd exhibitions. The V&A have now acquired an extensive archive of material relating to notorious '60's underground magazine Oz (google 'oz trial', if this is unfamiliar), and are excited at plans to make use of it for a future exhibition. It's all social history now, and 'Ramones', 'Nirvana', 'AC/DC', 'Iron Maiden', and so on, have become brands to be sold by Top Shop to young people who weren't alive when those acts were in their prime.

There's a huge market for exhibitions of material relating to post-50's popular culture amidst a demographic which would otherwise rarely visit museums, and museums are beginning to recognise that. Let's help Scotland to become a destination for people who want to do that.

Wish List for artefacts to be put on display at the Scottish Pop Music Exhibition Centre. Some of them serious. (I'll add to this list if I think of anything else, or if anyone makes any good suggestions.):-

• Lonnie Donegan's guitar.
• Andy Stewart's sporran.
• Moving holographic model of Lulu's vocal cords simulating that bit at the beginning of 'Shout'.
• Original polystyrene wall spray-painted 'Vambo Rools!', from the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's stage set.
• Alex Harvey's stripey t-shirt.
• Annie Lennox's Eurythmics-era man's suit, shirt and tie, displayed on a mannequin with cropped ginger hair. Also Annie Lennox's Eurythmics-era bra, and the mask from the cover of 'Touch'.
• Original artwork by John Byrne (working under the name of 'Patrick' at that time) for albums by The Humblebums, Gerry Rafferty, Stealers Wheel, Donovan, and even The Beatles.
• The Bay City Rollers' trousers.
• The Bay City Rollers' contract with their notorious manager Tam Paton.
• The Proclaimers' glasses.
• Edwyn Collins' Davy Crockett hat.
• Front of theatre sign for the Glasgow Apollo.
• Photo and plaster cast of the original bum the Average White Band's logo was based on.
• One of Fay Fife's original plastic mini dresses from the early Rezillos time.
• Photos of Lulu as a teen pop star.
• Gallery of notable hairstyles: Eugene Reynolds (early Rezillos); Richard Jobson (early Skids); Giles from Hey! Elastica; Emeli Sandé; any other suggestions?
• Publicity photos of Boards of Canada. (so low profile they make The Blue Nile look like Kiss)
• Section featuring eccentric or left field Scottish musicians, such as Ivor Cutler, Ron Geesin, Momus, Bill Drummond, Jock Scot. (any other suggestions?)
• The inflatable tiger from the cover of Belle and Sebastian's 'Tigermilk'.
• Strawberry Switchblade dresses.
• A display covering Scottish-born musicians who may not be widely recognised as being Scottish - e.g. David Byrne, Al Stewart, the Young brothers from AC/DC, Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Jack Bruce, Brian Connolly (The Sweet - also half brother to Mark McManus, the actor who played Taggart), Mark Knopfler.
• Documentary evidence to prove that Rod Stewart isn't Scottish. (okay, his dad was Scottish)

Update: 23rd October.

Just been announced today that the National Museum of Scotland will be staging an exhibition to celebrate the history of Scottish pop music, from the 1950's to the present day, Lonnie Donegan to Young Fathers. Having seen the success of the V&A David Bowie and Pink Floyd exhibitions, the NMS have recognised what is likely to attract a wider audience to visit museums.

Running from June to November, so not only on during next year's Edinburgh Festival, but also coinciding with 2018 having been officially declared as the Year of Young People, the timing is perfect. Accompanied by a three-part BBC tv series and four-part radio series, the boost to Scottish pop and rock music, both at home and internationally, should be enormous. Exciting times for Scottish music. There should be a massive archive of material available to make this a landmark exhibition, from both artists and the public.

The museum exhibition will be called Rip It Up. The ScotPopMusicExCentre pop-up exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery earlier this year was called The Only Fun In Town. An Orange Juice single and a Josef K album, both obviously linked by Postcard Records. Hopefully as many people as possible associated with Postcard, band members and affiliates, are buying in to support both the museum and the Exhibition Centre?

Kevin from the Scottish Pop Music Exhibition Centre has been aware of the NMS exhibition for 18 months, has contributed to plans on a consultancy basis, and will continue to work in partnership with them. Both sides view their projects as being complementary, and mutually beneficial. Material from the ScotPopMusicExCentre archive is being loaned to the museum, and I'm sure many of those contributing to the museum would be happy to then pass items to the ScotPopMusicExCentre so the public will continue to have the opportunity to view these modern cultural artefacts.

The museum will inevitably have to take a more populist approach to documenting Scottish pop music, so many acts, labels, fanzines, venues and so on will have to be omitted. Postcard, Fast Product and Chemikal Underground are promised to be covered, though Edinburgh's Rational Records, Aberdeen's Oily Records, and other less celebrated labels are likely to lose out. Competing against the commercial appeal of Annie Lennox, Wet Wet Wet, Bay City Rollers, Simple Minds etc, will there be space for something as significant as The Fence Collective? The history of groundbreaking fanzines like The Next Big Thing and Ripped & Torn? The importance of venues like Glasgow's Mars Bar and Night Moves, Paisley's Bungalow Bar, Edinburgh's Nite Club?

And there we have the reason why the ScotPopMusicExCentre should be supported too. As a permanent exhibition, they could afford to devote a season to the history of the 53rd & 3rd Label, or the time folk music turned dayglo in the '60's, with the Incredible String Band, Bert Jansch, John Martyn, The Humblebums (featuring Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly) and others (for more on that, see Graeme Thomson's excellent feature in the July issue of UNCUT magazine). The market for artists who don't quite count as household names shouldn't be underestimated. That's where the real fans and genuine enthusiasts live.

The museum already have an almost fully-developed plan for what will feature in the exhibition, so I'll limit my suggestions to what they could sell in the shop during exhibition time. Aside from music books like Simon Goddard's 'Simply Thrilled: The Preposterous Story of Postcard Records', I suggest they also sell pop music-related, or music-inspired fiction by Scottish novelists.

Here are my suggestions, as a starter:-

Iain Banks - Espedair Street

Martin Millar - Suzy, Led Zeppelin And Me

Gordon Legge - The Shoe

David F. Ross's 'Disco Days' trilogy

David Keenan - This Is Memorial Device

So Farewell Then, Glen Campbell

There have already been a great many tributes to Glen Campbell following his death in Nashville on August 8th after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, but, considering the name of this blog is adapted from one of his songs (1968 single 'Dreams of the Everyday Housewife'), and that's his photo at the top of the page (cover of that single), I feel justified in adding a few more words to the deluge of praise.

Glen Campbell was born in 1936 in Billstown, Arkansas, the seventh son of 12 children, living on a farm, where the family struggled to survive by growing cotton, corn, watermelon and potatoes. He started playing guitar at age four, after his uncle Boo give him a five-dollar guitar as a gift. By age six he was performing on local radio stations, and continued to practise throughout his youth when he wasn't working in the cotton fields, with Django Rheinhardt as his key earliest influence.

Despite his success (over 45 million records sold; a career stretching from 1958, with his final album, Adiós, released in June this year), Glen Campbell is no doubt widely viewed as simply a MOR country/ pop singer (he basically invented the country/ pop crossover), due to enormous hits like 'Rhinestone Cowboy' - though even slightly more serious fans will recognise that, between 1967 to 1969 he recorded 3 of the greatest pop records ever released: 'By The Time I Get To Phoenix', 'Wichita Lineman' (cited by some as the greatest pop song ever written) and 'Galveston'. All written by Jimmy Webb, who became his lifelong friend and collaborator - despite the clash between Campbell's southern conservatism ("people who are advocating burning draft cards should be hung") and Webb's liberalism.

Since it's referred to in many of the recent tributes, his less recognised role as one of the most significant contributors to the history of pop music should also now become more universally celebrated. In an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year, Jimmy Webb makes a case for Campbell's impact and significance to 20th century pop music as having been equivalent to an American Beatles. In July, just weeks before Campbell's death, journalist Matthew Walther, writing in The Week, hailed him as "...the most underappreciated musician in America". 

As a member of the famed group of L.A. session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew, Campbell played guitar on countless classic records throughout the 1960's (according to Wikipedia, by 1963 his playing and singing were heard on 586 recorded songs), often uncredited, but including songs by Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Phil Spector, Sam Cooke, Dean Martin, Simon and Garfunkel, Jan and Dean, The Byrds, The Monkees, and The Righteous Brothers' 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin''. These were times when it was common for bands not to play on their own records, the record companies opting to bring the professionals in to get the job done quickly and efficiently, rather than deal with unreliable, drug-addled hippy band members. Leave the bands to do the things they were good at: buying kaftans and hanging out with Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper.
I like to think of Glen Campbell playing on records by everyone from Conway Twitty to The Mothers of Invention, and doing an equally fantastic job on all of them. Tributes are filled with comments like Brian Wilson's "An incredible musician and an even better person", so if they actually had worked together, perhaps even Frank Zappa would have been charmed by him too.

Unlike most of the actual Beach Boys, he played on 'Pet Sounds' (and many of their other records too), and between 1964 to 1965 he was a touring member of the band, as a replacement for Brian Wilson, following the latter's nervous breakdown and withdrawal from live performances.

In an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year, Jimmy Webb lists The Velvet Underground and Jefferson Airplane as artists on whose records Campbell played - though I can't find anything else which confirms that. Perhaps some confusion over the fact Campbell recorded The Velvet's 'Jesus' (from their 3rd album, 'The Velvet Underground') on his 2008 album (his 60th album) 'Meet Glen Campbell' - an album of covers of songs by rock artists, such as U2, Foo Fighters, Green Day, The Replacements, and Travis. Though Jimmy Webb may be right, and Campbell is also key to the early growth of alternative rock too; Webb is certainly in a position to know more about it than most.

Other achievements:-

From January 1969 to June 1972 he hosted The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, a music and comedy variety show on CBS. A young Steve Martin (in his first writing job) was a writer on the show, and has commented as follows: "He just went along with it. He was completely game, and completely fun, and had kind of a down-home sense of humor. It was just an incredible treat for us young writers to be introduced to talent at that level at such a young age."

There was some acting too, most notably co-starring with John Wayne in True Grit. No clash in political ideologies there then.

It's a mighty legacy. I think I made a good choice when borrowing his song title and photo for this blog.