Phamie's created a business of note

Edinburgh-based Phamie has achieved international acclaim since she produced her first album when she was 18. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation described her as a "prodigy" and German radio described one of her performances as a "masterpiece of Scottish music".

After her holiday, she will stay on in Madrid to talk to a record company who could distribute her album throughout Spain. The United States and the world will follow - and playing the Carnegie Hall alongside Bob Dylan in April is a pretty good start.

Phamie, who hails from West Struther in the Lammermuirs, graduated two years ago after a three-year course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and she is now a guest tutor there.

She produced her first album, Winged Spirit, when she was 18 and it was a prototype example of the originality of her compositions and the virtuosity of her clarsach playing. Her second album, Lammermuir - she composed all of it - was recorded at a studio in Cockenzie.

In 1998 she set up her own company, Wildfire Records, based at Bruntsfield, and she approached Scottish Enterprise for help.

She explained: "They directed me to the Business Gateway and they were so helpful. They helped me produce my business plan and introduced me to accountants. I am creative but I am not business-minded."

As regards capital requirements, she states: "In years to come I will be getting royalties - in fact, I am now getting royalties from around the world. I have registered all my music. The royalties are lucrative and I expect them to go up.

"I am the sole proprietor of the business and I like to involve musicians on the scene today. I employ a lot of outstanding musicians - seven of them on my third album which has still to be released. I like the idea of working with other people but I want to let someone else take charge of the business end."

Phamie, who is also adept on the piano, accordion and harp as well as being a composer, has performed throughout Britain and Europe, composed for film and theatre and conducted workshops and master classes in schools of music and conservatoires in France

She has performed with her five-piece band in France, Italy, Spain and Australia.

This month, she will be rehearsing with the Three Irish Tenors in Dublin before a world tour. In June, she will play the Usher Hall, has plans for a duo album in August and is planning a tour of Spain and Wales.

A year from now, she will be looking forward to the release of her fourth album, Solo Piano Pieces, and she will compose and perform all, the tracks.

And the royalties keep rolling in to her Bruntsfield flat.

Drumming up a dream

MARTIN McQUADE has been in the music business all his life but it is only recently that he has had his own music business - and that really came about by chance.

The 43-year-old from Haddington served his time in London as a recording engineer with what was then one of the biggest record companies, whose clients included Culture Club, Phil Collins and George Michael.

He decided to move back to Scotland and started doing demos. He started a band, doing the rounds of various functions - "getting the bills paid" - and keeping himself busy as a guitar player, singer and composer.

He tried to establish a recording studio in Gifford but the finances fell short. He says: "It is just as well. The amount of money I would have had to borrow I would still be paying off.

"Nowadays the cost of the technology required to do this is about a tenth of what it was then - the change has been incredible."

He moved to Longniddry 12 years ago to a place which needed a bit of work done to it. It also had stables and he set about converting them into a recording studio.

He explains: "It was a big financial investment but I am primarily a songwriter and the studio was for my own use. I am a full-time music teacher working from home and teaching people from the age of ten to 52 to play the guitar and drums.

"That is Monday to Thursday and on the other three days I am working in my studio. But in the last six months people have been contacting me and asking if they could use the studio. It is all by word of mouth and not really planned."

So to meet the demand he has formed the Ocean View Recording Studio, with advice from Business Gateway, and is looking further ahead.

He says: "Now I would like to own my own music publishing company. I think it would be successful. I am always looking for vocalists to sing my stuff."

He also sings the praises of his wife Anne for "wonderful support" and son Geoff, three, gets a mention too.