In the process, Horne helped to establish Scotland as the most thriving hotbed of regional musical talent since the Mersey scene blossomed with Beatle mania in the mid 1960's.

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Soon record industry executives were racking up the air miles between London and Glasgow in an attempt to sign up the hottest Scottish talent: the 1980's saw acts like The Bluebells, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Simple Minds, Texas and Big Country make the leap from local heroes to national chart success. The trend continued into the 90's, with Primal Scream, One Dove, Teenage Fanclub, Travis, Idlewild and Belle and Sebastian all ensuring that a steady stream of A&R men continued to slap their company plastic down on the counters of Glasgow's trendier hotels.

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Today – over a quarter of a century since Postcard's first 7” of Orange Juice's 'Falling and Laughing' hit the shelves – Scotland's music scene is, incredibly, even stronger than it was in the previous two decades.

Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol, KT Tunstall, Mull Historical Society, Camera Obscura, Mogwai, The Delgados, El Presidente, Paolo Nuttini, Sandi Thom (pictured left) . . . the list of Scottish musical talent is as diverse as it is long.

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One of the reasons for this may be to do with Scotland's worldwide reputation as a centre for live music. As far back as before the Second World War the Glasgow Empire enjoyed a fearsome reputation amongst acts and entertainers: if you could win over the crowd at the Empire, the saying went, you could conquer any audience in the world. By the 1970's the rock and roll equivalent of the Empire was the Glasgow Apollo at the top of Renfield Street. (As Spinal Tap's Marty DiBergi would say, don't go looking for it – it was demolished in the 80's and is now a cinema complex.) The Apollo hosted concerts by everyone from The Who to Blondie to The Jam and The Sex Pistols. The Clash played there every year (and sometimes twice a year) throughout their career and their tour manager Johnny Green recalls that 'Every band loved playing Glasgow because the crowd went mental. It was a roadies' joke that a band's popularity could be judged from the bounce of the balcony at the Apollo. Apparently the Clash ran a close second to Status Quo!'

As the 1970's ended, the Apollo gave way to The Barrowlands as Glasgow's premier music venue. The old Ballroom in the city's East End had been a venue for music and dancing since the big band days of the forties and fifties. During the 1980's it would play host to pretty much every worthwhile live act the decade produced: U2, The Smiths, New Order and Simple Minds were just a few of the bands who regularly name-checked the Barrowlands as their favourite place to play in the UK, if not the world.

As the nineties unfolded, the Stone Roses played their last ever concert with their original line-up in a huge tent on Glasgow Green. A couple of years later, and a couple of miles across the city in King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, another Manchester band took the first steps towards musical history. . . .

King Tuts opened its doors in 1990 and soon became renowned as one of the best small venues in the UK, with great sound and a razor-sharp policy of booking the best new acts well ahead of anyone else. Not that the Manchester band in question were actually booked to play on the evening of Monday 31st May 1993. They simply drove up the M6 and hustled their way onto the bill. In the audience at King Tuts that night was Alan McGee, the Glaswegian boss of Creation Records. (A man whose own contribution to the Scottish music scene cannot be overstated.) On the stage were Oasis, the logical heirs to the stage vacated in Glasgow by the Stone Roses two summers before. McGee offered Oasis a record deal that night. The rest, as they say, is history.

At the other end of the scale from King Tuts, although run by the same people, DF Concerts, is T In The Park, the biggest music festival in Scotland and now one of the most important rock festivals in the world. The great and the good have come to Scotland to perform at the festival from New Order to the beautiful chanteuse, Corinne Bailey Rae (as pictured at the event on the home page). DF's Geoff Ellis attributes this success to 'a huge amount of planning, hard work, strategic thinking . . . and 75,000 of the most passionate music fans in the world!' Ellis came to Glasgow from London at the end of the 80's and began booking the bands for King Tuts. (Asked to name his favourite memory from his years at Tuts he says 'hundreds! Booking Joe Strummer and being at the show being just one.')

Also at the forefront of Scottish music is NEMIS (www.nemis.org) the organisation for the promotion of new music in Scotland, which provides information, support and advice for everyone in Scottish music – from young bands and managers, to recording studios and radio stations, to venues and media, to new and established record labels. NEMIS' mission is simply to 'bring together those with a strong interest in the promotion and development of new music in Scotland.'

Consider too that Scotland has been at the forefront of music education for close to a decade now: Stow College, Napier and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama were all among the first further education centres to offer courses specifically tailored towards young people who want a career in the music industry, teaching everything from sound engineering to artist management and marketing.

So what Scottish artists are set to emerge in the coming years? There is the highly-tipped Trap6 from Glasgow, whose fiery blend of The Jam and The Kinks have made them a much talked about live act. Or El Presidente, often referred to as 'Scotland's Scissor Sisters', whose single 'Without You' became their first top 30 hit last summer. Or 19-year-old Paisley singer-songwriter Paolo Nuttini. KT Tunstall's new album Acoustic Extravaganza is the sound of KT at her most intimate. Out now on CD/DVD, it includes brand new songs and a 'making-of' documentary. You can download a track from the album for free at www.kttunstall.com/acoustic. Geoff Ellis tips The Dykeenies (the first signings to King Tuts own record label), We Are Physics and North Atlantic Oscillation. How about Quinn or even King Creosote?

Whichever of these bands begins to emerge in the coming months and years, one thing is certain: musically, Scotland looks set to continue to thrive as it now has what it never had before – an infrastructure and support system comparable with that of the London record industry. As Geoff Ellis says '(The Scottish scene) is really buzzing. Ticket sales are strong and there are lots of good artists, all with a point of difference.' We've certainly come a long way since 1980, when Alan Horne ran Glasgow's only independent record company from a shoebox in his flat. . . .

Further Information:

Courtesy of Scottish Government - Scotland.org .

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