A preview of the music acts set to appear at the Homecoming Live Final Fling

Published on Wednesday 25 November 2009 19:11

Some of Scotland's most influential music acts of the past three decades will hit the stage for the Homecoming Live Final Fling on Saturday. Here, Fiona Shepherd assesses their impact on the world of popular song

THE venues may have been downsized due to slow ticket sales, but the line-up for the Homecoming Live Final Fling remains a strapping display of Scottish musical talent from the past 30 years, offering bite-sized chunks of some of the bands and artists who have helped Scotland to punch above its weight in the pop stakes.

The bill is spread over three separate gigs in different parts of the SECC, each with a particular musical flavour. The biggest show, in the Clyde Auditorium, broadly embodies the commercial Scotpop sound of the 80s, when you couldn't move for Scottish bands on major labels. The country's grassroots indie tradition is celebrated at a gig in Hall 3, while the Lomond Suite line-up has a folkier slant.

Young, upcoming talent is represented by the likes of Tommy Reilly, Twin Atlantic and Codeine Velvet Club at the SECC and a number of acts playing over the weekend at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, but here we assess those acts on the bill who have been around long enough to make a lasting impact on the Scottish music scene and beyond.

Deacon Blue

PLAYING: Clyde Auditorium

YEARS ACTIVE: 1985-1994, 1999-

CONTRIBUTION TO SCOTTISH MUSIC: Frontman Ricky Ross originally hails from Dundee but his band's 1987 debut album, Raintown, was a feisty paean to Glasgow. Love it or hate it, the music of Deacon Blue effortlessly conjures up a time and place with a sentimental significance and rabble-rousing potential for their loyal fans.

The Skids

PLAYING: Clyde Auditorium

YEARS ACTIVE: 1977-1982, 2007-

CONTRIBUTION: Scotland's most successful punk band (there wasn't a lot of competition) came busting out of that unlikely anarchy hotbed Dunfermline, with a bouncing teen frontman, Richard Jobson, and a distinctive guitar sound, later likened to the skirl of bagpipes when Stuart Adamson formed Big Country. U2 and Green Day covered the brawny The Saints Are Coming in 2006.

Hue & Cry

PLAYING: Clyde Auditorium

YEARS ACTIVE: 1983-1999, 2005-

CONTRIBUTION: For better or worse, the suited and booted Kane brothers were the epitome of the blue-eyed Scottish soul pop sound of the 80s. They may have looked like City slickers but they stuck it to Margaret Thatcher on their best and debut hit, Labour Of Love.

Lloyd Cole

PLAYING: Clyde Auditorium

YEARS ACTIVE: 1984-1989 (with the Commotions), 1989- (solo)

CONTRIBUTION: Cole demonstrated that it was possible to be a bookish, polo-neck-wearing Englishman and still be accepted – nay adopted – by the Braveheart hordes. Arrived fully formed, along with his band the Commotions, on their timeless debut Rattlesnakes, inspired by the romance of American film and literature, yet still evocative of Glasgow. Years later, Belle And Sebastian picked up the West End lit-pop baton where the Commotions had set it down.

Midge Ure

PLAYING: Clyde Auditorium

YEARS ACTIVE: 1972-

CONTRIBUTION: Never mind Scotland – Ure fed the world. Or at least helped facilitate said feeding by writing Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas and co-organising Live Aid. Also fearlessly rocked the pencil moustache and trenchcoat look during his serious Ultravox years. Jack of many musical trades – Slik, Visage, Thin Lizzy and The Rich Kids among them – though he did turn down an offer to become the lead singer of a fledgling punk band called The Sex Pistols.

The Bluebells

PLAYING: Clyde Auditorium

YEARS ACTIVE: 1982-1985, 1993, 2008-

CONTRIBUTION: The commercial extension of Postcard Records' strident, jangling blueprint. Enjoyed another bite of the cherry in the early 90s when their single Young At Heart was re-released, went to No1 and became a chirpy Scotpop anthem. Bobby Bluebell remains a face about town in Glasgow.

James Grant

PLAYING: Clyde Auditorium

YEARS ACTIVE: 1985-1994 (with Love and Money), 1998- (solo)

CONTRIBUTION: Grant's band Love and Money were gnarlier than the pseudo-soul likes of Hue & Cry and Wet Wet Wet, but theirs was still a slickly produced, radio-friendly product. As a solo artist, Grant prefers a more exposed, honest sound, drawing on the influence of Leonard Cohen as much as homegrown roots traditions.

The View

PLAYING: Hall 3

YEARS ACTIVE: 2005-

CONTRIBUTION: A Caledonian mini-Oasis with punkier pep, better hair and wider musical influences, who have gleefully taken up the Primal Scream mantle and partied for Scotland. Their instant success in 2006 shone a light on Dundee's music scene (see fellow Homecomers, The Law).

Teenage Fanclub

PLAYING: Hall 3

YEARS ACTIVE: 1989-

CONTRIBUTION: Arguably Scotland's best loved indie band who spawned a host of copyists. Initially, they were regarded as the poppier cousins to Seattle's grunge bands, but they have outlived most of their contemporaries. Most bands are lucky to have one good songwriter in their ranks – Teenage Fanclub have Norman Blake, Gerry Love and Raymond McGinley.

Idlewild

PLAYING: Hall 3

YEARS ACTIVE: 1995-

CONTRIBUTION: The formerly feral indie punks from Edinburgh have forged a more anthemic, rootsy sound on recent albums which, judging by the number of angsty, indie-folk bands who have come along in their wake, has been very influential.

King Creosote

PLAYING: Hall 3

YEARS ACTIVE: 1995-

CONTRIBUTION: As benevolent a record company mogul as you will find. King Creosote, aka Kenny Anderson, originally founded Fence Records to release his many home-recorded albums. Soon, other artists from home and abroad gravitated to the laidback Fence Collective, based in the coastal village of Anstruther, and a lo-fidelity, high-quality cottage industry has mushroomed into one of the country's great DIY successes.

The Vaselines

PLAYING: Hall 3

YEARS ACTIVE: 1986-1990, 2008-

CONTRIBUTION: First time round, lo-fi indie duo The Vaselines burned briefly but brightly enough to catch the ear of Kurt Cobain, who covered a couple of their songs with Nirvana and named his daughter after Frances McKee. McKee and former partner-in-crime Eugene Kelly reconvened last year, so now everyone can sample a bit of one of Scotland's great cult acts.

Mike Scott

PLAYING: Lomond Suite

YEARS ACTIVE: 1983-

CONTRIBUTION: There is a strong anthemic streak in Scottish pop music right now, from Snow Patrol to Idlewild and on to newer favourites Frightened Rabbit and Broken Records – but it was Mike Scott who patented "the Big Music" with his band The Waterboys (the term comes from a track on their album A Pagan Place), a pithy label for the bold strain of Celtic rock which emerged in the 80s. Scott still dances fluently between folk and rock influences, mixing in a dash of Celtic spirituality.

Eddi Reader

PLAYING: Lomond Suite

YEARS ACTIVE: 1984-

CONTRIBUTION: First made a splash in the chart-topping Fairground Attraction, but Reader's subsequent solo career has gradually inched away from polished pop towards a more fragrant folky aesthetic. She has become particularly known lately for her interpretations of the songs of Robert Burns but has also just revisited one of her earliest gigs, singing backing vocals for politicised post-punks Gang Of Four.

o Evelyn Glennie and Philip Smith

PLAYING: Lomond Suite

YEARS ACTIVE: 1989-

CONTRIBUTION: Dame Evelyn's skill and alacrity for bashing, tinkling and squeezing all manner of exotic percussion instruments has made her an international star. Despite her stature as the world's first full-time solo percussionist, she remains a very accessible ambassador for her discipline, with an almost anthropological enthusiasm for collecting instruments from around the world. She's also the only musician on the bill with her own registered tartan, The Rhythms of Evelyn Glennie.

Dougie MacLean

PLAYING: Lomond Suite

YEARS ACTIVE: 1976-

CONTRIBUTION: Well, he did write the alternative national anthem and Homecoming theme song Caledonia (covered latterly by hip young 'uns Paolo Nutini and Amy Macdonald) but that's just the tip of the iceberg. MacLean is one of the nation's most respected composers and earnest musical ambassadors, with a career stretching back to the 70s. In recent years, he's become the go-to guy for big Celtic Connections commissions on traditional Scottish themes.

Homecoming Live – The Final Fling is at the SECC, Glasgow, on Saturday.