Toadcast #105 – The Myopiacast
This podcast is slightly kinda somewhat about about the myopia of the London media, in particular as to how it pertains to Scotland and Scottish music, and slightly about the Glasgow media. There are a number of different triggers for this, starting with this article in the Scotsman’s Under the Radar blog last year about the rejection by the editor of a London glossy of an article on four up-and-coming Scottish bands, made even more offensive by the fact that said editor had requested the damn article in the first place.
Of course, anyone who reads the London glossies knows they don’t half cover an awful lot of shite themselves, so they really are in no position to pass judgment, but these things are about personal taste at the end of the day and you really can’t force anyone to like stuff.
Then of course there was a wee bit of chatter about the Glasgow focus of the media in Scotland – like an endless set of Russian dolls, this kind of thing really can go on forever – particularly focussed on the remarkable Glasgow-centrism of The List’s Hot 100 list and then some stupid woman on BBC radio sneering at the Edinburgh music scene despite knowing no more of Glasgow than Mogwai or Franz Ferdinand.
So yes, there’s a bit of that going on as well, but for the most part it’s surprisingly non-confrontational given the level of annoyance I felt with both the BBC lady and the List list at the time.
Toadcast #105 – The Myopiacast
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01. James Yorkston – A Man of My Skills (04.26)
02. Frightened Rabbit – The Greys (10.22)
03. Orange Juice – Blue Boy (16.02)
04. The Pogues – Rake at the Gates of Hell (18.53)
05. Fang Island – Life Coach (27.56)
06. Her Name is Calla – Long Grass (30.51)
07. Fire Engines – Get Up and Use Me (37.59)
08. Last Battle – Ward 119 (47.44)
09. Sebastian Dangerfield – Morris (49.53)
10. Sigur Ros – Gong (58.05)
you may consider it an annoyacast but I think it’s one of the best mixes you’ve ever given us
i guess you can consider that good or bad
It really is a good mix. But I have to say I prefer Frightened Rabbit when they go ‘melodramatic’ rather than guitary.
I love the Last Battle track. Absolutely brilliant. Although I have always been a sucker for a folky instrument in a pop song.
This is an issue which I wholeheartedly agree with you on. Look, for instance and the ‘BBC Sound of 2010′ longlist; fuck all Scottish bands there, and only 1 out of 65 ‘tastemakers’ on the panel were based in Scotland. There is a horrible bias, I’ve even been forced to work with American sites and magazines to get some Scottish bands exposure, namely Meursault, who should be massive. It only seems to be bias coming from Central print media, Glasgow bloggers don’t bother their arse if a band is from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, as long as they are from Scotland, which I think is pretty healthy. You’d be hard pushed to find such a tight blogging community south of the border.
That’s my piece anyway, Matthew.
I loved the mix, and the mono-spectacle. Glad you included The Last Battle.
Aw dear, just re-listened and I obviously had missed a bit, so not so much wholeheartedly agree. Oops.
firstly thanks for playing us Matthew. Great podcast. I’m just going to share some feelings about labels regarding ourselves. Any label taking any interest in us has been very flattering and obviously very encouraging. We have had some interest and are going to be talking with a couple of small labels from Edinburgh and out with. However the recent news of a much bigger label coming along has us slightly troubled. Talk of markets and “pushing through to the mainstream” isn’t why we started. Some of the girls summed it up nicely with “that doesn’t sound like fun”. Now ideas of getting some of us to head to London to “embelish” on the recordings, work on “atmospherics” and get us to re-do vocals have been pitched, which unsettles us slightly. They’ll be asking us to get haircuts and go a bit more “mumford & sons” next. We would like to evolve organically, and to sign to a big label after being a band for 6 months, to me, sounds like suicide. Hopefully, the scottish media especially will doff it’s cap to Edinburgh soon, I find The List thing strange as they have offices here. I did some writing for them last year and they sent me a list of bands playing that I could pick and write a piece on, and about 2 of them were from Edinburgh in a month of shows by us, eagleowl, enfant bastard, white heath, hailey beavis and a whole lot more. Frustrating to say the least.
I was just about to recommend Her Name is Calla to you. They emailed me that song last week and it reminds me a little of Meursault.
HaveFun – don’t get me wrong, there are some instances of centralised media bias which really get my goat, but I think a lot of people who complain about it are often being unrealistic, that’s all.
The makeup of that Beeb panel being so unrepresentative is really bad, although the bands they chose really don’t bother me – not because I agree, but because I don’t care. Being tipped to be ‘the next big thing’ is not something I personally give a shit about, so I try and remind the bands I work with not to worry about it either.
Scotty’s point about The List not even suggesting that writers cover Edinburgh gigs really irritates me, because that’s just lazy and ignorant, and the fact that their Hot 100 included awful bands like Jetpacks, whilst not one of FOUND, Broken Records, Meursault, or Withered Hand, all of whom had very strong years last year (and not just in Edinburgh either) merited a whisper, annoys the shit out of me.
Basically if they are representing Scotland, then that list is simply wrong, but then these things are a bit of frivolous fun, so maybe they just didn’t put any thought into it. Maybe we should ask people from Aberdeen or Dundee or Stirling if any of their most dedicated local figureheads got any respect – doubt it.
Having said that, though, Edinburgh is half the size of Glasgow. Until recently its lack of any real music scene will have repelled bands, whilst Glasgow’s reputation as a centre attracts them, so we should bloody well expect Glasgow to have four times more bands and general music enterprises represented in the national press than anyone else – it’s just maths.
It is to the very great credit of the brand spanking new informal online music press we’ve recently sprouted that absolutely none of that geographical tunnel vision seems to be manifested there, however. I hope that I’ve done my best by bands irrespective of where they’re from in the world, and that I don’t show too much bias even when you look at the Scottish bands I cover (although for simple logistical reasons, there probably is a bias).
Certainly Glasgow bloggers don’t seem to suffer from this kind of malaise in the slightest, and you really have to respect them for it, because there’s more than enough going on on their own doorstep that there’s probably no need at all for them to bother with other parts of Scotland.
Simply, though, a lot of the people who complain about myopia in the media deny the fact that basically, it’s often not too far wrong. London is the biggest market for music and has a massive population, so a larger number of good bands are likely to form there and a larger number of good bands are likely to move there. Ditto Glasgow when compared to the rest of Scotland. Inevitably these places will garner most of the coverage because by and large they merit it.
When that becomes wrong, however, is when it engenders willful ignorance. In cases like that stupid lady on the BBC arguing with Olaf, who was happy to just sneer at Edinburgh despite clearly having not the slightest idea whether or not anything good actually was happening in Edinburgh and – even worse – clearly not caring, then it really is a problem. If the List are, as you say, still ignoring Edinburgh bands and venues, despite the fact that they should know damn well by now that there is some amazing stuff here, then it’s a problem. But Glasgow and London having the majority of the music coverage to themselves might be frustrating but probably, on balance, it’s just about right.
As to your label chat… well, this comment is long enough already, so I might send you an email about that one!