Having spent three decades in the police, when he retired, Ian Green fulfilled his love of traditional music by investing his police pension in launching Greentrax Records. His initial three-album gamble would become Scotland’s largest record label for folk and related music. Green’s extraordinary life trajectory took in a gardening apprenticeship, National Service in Korea, 30 years in the police, then the creation of Greentrax and, ultimately, an honorary doctorate in music.

An expansive figure with an unmistakable laugh, among musicians he was renowned for scrupulousness and straight dealing, often helping aspiring youngsters to make their way in an intimidating music business.

He was born, the youngest of three children, near Forres, where his father, John Green, was head gardener on Greshop estate and his mother, Mary Anne Bonnyman, a domestic servant. His father won prizes at horticultural shows – a trait inherited by Ian who in adulthood would win for his chrysanthemums – and was a keen piper.

Ian Green founded a label with a back catalogue that reads like a folk scene who’s who (Picture: Allan MacDonald)

The family flitted frequently, including what Green recalled as “a glorious period of my young life” at Glen of Rothes. Eventually they settled in Edinburgh, where his father became head gardener at Craiglockhart convent and teacher training college and where the 15-year-old Ian, after an inglorious period at Tynecastle School, started as an apprentice gardener. He became keenly involved in cycle speedway, but at 18 received National Service call-up papers, ending up with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in Korea and Japan at the end of the Korean War.

Returning three years later, Green joined Edinburgh City Police and in 1956 married June, whom he had met ice skating while on leave. She would become not only his wife and mother of their three children, but his tireless partner in music ventures to come. Ian remained in the police, however, until retiring as an inspector from Lothian and Borders in 1985.

He was already immersed in the folk scene. During the 1960s he established Edinburgh Police Folk Club – “Fuzzfolk” – and in 1973 co-founded the long-running Edinburgh Folk Club with John Barrow, then a student at Edinburgh University, and journalist Kenny Thomson. With Edinburgh’s folk howff Sandy Bells as HQ, the trio went on to co-edit the once indispensable Sandy Bell’s Broadsheet while, with June, he set up a mail order business, Discount Folk Records, at their home. He was also one of the organisers of the Acoustic Music Centre, a busy Fringe venue.

Things took a momentous turn, however, when Ian, fresh out of the police and toying with the idea of a modest record label, was approached by the late fiddler Ian Hardie, who was preparing a tune book which became a fully-fledged album. Around the same time, the celebrated vocal trio The McCalmans offered to record an album for the nascent venture, while Highland singer-songwriter Iain MacDonald made it a triple debut. The label’s name was chosen through a competition on Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk. One wag suggested “Copout Records”, but Greentrax it would be.

Having gambled much of his police pension on the venture, Ian would go on, as one associate put it, to “change the face of Scottish music, permanently and for the better”. Early breaks included a compilation album from STV’s series Aly Bain and Friends, which became a Greentrax best seller, as did Venus In Tweeds, the debut from “acid croft” pioneers Shooglenifty.

Some 500 albums later, the Greentrax back catalogue reads like a folk scene who’s who, embracing Scots and Gaelic singers, ceilidh bands and pipers, tradition-bearers and cutting edge fusioneers. Long established names include the likes of Archie Fisher, Barbara Dickson and Dick Gaughan, along with later arrivals such as piping maestro Gordon Duncan, Ceolbeg and Salsa Celtica.

Greentrax also released under licence recordings by artists such as the US-based Scots fiddler Alastair Fraser and the Australian domiciled Scots singer-songwriter Eric Bogle. Its acclaimed Scottish Tradition range presented invaluable archive recordings from Edinburgh University’s School of Scottish Studies, while compilations arose from events such as the Gaelic Women and Scots Women concerts at Celtic Connections or topics such as the 700th anniversary of Bannockburn.

One outstanding project was Far, Far from Ypres, a double album and touring show, prompted by Ian and June’s visit to First World War cemeteries in Flanders. Directed by Ian McCalman and featuring a legion of folk luminaries, the multi-media show culminated in an emotional evening in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on Armistice Day 2018.

In recent years a shrinking CD market and the onset of streaming saw Greentrax slim down and reduce its release quotient. Back in 2011 (the year Ian published his autobiography, Fuzz to Folk), talking in Greentrax‘s cluttered headquarters in the former Cockenzie School, he told me: “I should probably retire. There are no millionaires in this outfit, but I get so much enjoyment running it.”

His cultural contribution was recognised by the Hamish Henderson Award for Services to Traditional Music and induction into the Scots Traditional Music Hall of Fame, while he and June had tunes written in their honour. In 2006 he was “stunned but proud” to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), when he found himself sharing the platform with Annie Lennox, Tilda Swinton and Billy Connolly.

Ian was hard hit when June passed away in 2017 and had been in failing health for some time when he died. He is survived by their three children, Linda, Stephen and Andrew.

His long-time friend Ian McCalman described him as “honest, gentle, caring and clever … a revelation in the recording arena because suddenly musicians got royalties, proper copyright deals and, above all, integrity at all times.” Eric Bogle, meanwhile, posted online: “You will be sadly and sorely missed my dear friend. Safe onward journey and rest assured that, in no small part due to you, the song goes on.”

Obituaries

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Obituaries: Ian Green, former policeman who established Scotland’s largest traditional music label

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