Postcards From Scotland celebrating independent music - Kevin Buckle

Postcards From Scotland, published by Omnibus Press

Live music is provided by The Cords and author Grant McPhee will be in conversation with a host of luminaries from that time.

As the blurb for the event says “Grant will be in conversation with Katy Lironi from The Fizzbombs, Andrew Tully of Rote Kapelle / Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes, Margarita Vasquez Ponte of Fizzbombs / Rote Kapelle / Jesse Garon and Shop Assistants’ David Keegan. They will then join The Cords after their set for a special encore. The night will also include a DJ set by Chris Henman of Rote Kapelle / The Egg.”

In the latest update Fran Schoppler from Jesse Garon and Angus McPake from Jesse Garon / Fizzbombs have also been added to the line up. Andrew, of course, was the manager of Avalanche Records in West Nicolson Street and then Cockburn Street when we opened there too. Margarita was our Sunday girl in the early days.

Postcards From Scotland, published by Omnibus Press

I don’t think many of today’s music makers realise just how successful many of the aforementioned bands were compared to sales seen nowadays for local artists or how well attended their gigs were.

Avalanche opened on 1 June 1984, so the time period of the book coincides with the first decade of the shop. You will see a nod to one of these bands when I announce some of the initial 40 things we are doing to celebrate 40 years of the shop.

There is an irony in terms of success in that these bands were well aware of the huge success of those that had gone before them with Josef K, Orange Juice and Scars, and probably only the Shop Assistants reached those heights both in terms of sales and influence.

Of course other bands of the time also had great success and it doesn’t get any more influential than Kurt Cobain singing Vaselines songs in a BMX Bandits T-shirt. The Pastels too are of course still making music and head influencer Stephen is one of the owners of Monorail Music in Glasgow.

One thing for sure is that we are all a lot older now and nothing brought that home more than recently when a lot of people I knew from that first decade of the shop when the university’s Potterrow was the place to be on a Friday popped in to say hello as they were in town for the 60th birthday of one of their number.

It is hard to believe that things were actually better for artists without the internet and social media in the eighties and nineties in every possible way, from people buying their music to going to gigs to actually being heard of in the first place, but it certainly was and with the genie out of the bottle those times will sadly never return.

Postcards From Scotland is published by Omnibus Press and available from all good bookshops. Doors open at The Wee Red Bar in Lauriston Place, 7-10pm on Saturday 29 June.