“Post-punk postcards from indie-pendent Scotland: Documentary charts an era that changed music”
(c) The NATIONAL…EXCERPT BELOW:
AN AMBITIOUS feature-length documentary is about to lay bare the rise of Scotland’s post-punk/indie music scene.
The Sound Of Young Scotland will debut its eagerly anticipated first half – The Big Gold Dream – this year. The location is still to be announced, but the producers have confirmed that it will be shown in Scotland in June.
The films are being released under the Tartan Features Banner and with a nine-minute teaser already online, excitement levels surrounding the premiere are growing.
Punk truly kicked off in 1976, and slowly made its way through the UK; its grubby hands grasping Scotland in the form of the White Riot Tour – a tour that included seminal punks The Clash, The Slits as well as Scottish act Subway Sect.
This event, held at Edinburgh’s Playhouse, completely changed the music scene in Scotland, but the story of post punk actually began in an Edinburgh tenement flat. This flat was the home of Bob Last and Hilary Morrison, who from there operated the record label FAST Product. At this time, noted independent label Rough Trade was only a record shop and Factory Records did not even exist.
The flat went on to become the base of operations for the then dominant but now often forgotten Edinburgh scene, which featured bands like the Fire Engines, Scars, and Boots For Dancing.
From critically acclaimed DIY releases, including The Mekons, Gang Of Four, Joy Division and Dead Kennedys, the label expanded into publishing and management and eventually broke into the mainstream with the 1981 Christmas No 1 Don’t You Want Me from the album Dare by The Human League.
It was assumed that the Edinburgh-based Josef K would sign with the FAST label but instead, they took a left turn and signed for the Glasgow-based Postcard Records, run by the enigmatic Alan Horne with Edwyn Collins to initially release Orange Juice singles.
Seeing the clichés and stereotypes that Scots were often subjected to in music and in general, Postcard scrunched these up and threw them right in the face of the historically London-centric music industry, by setting up camp in Glasgow and refusing to budge – hereby forcing the music press to come to them.
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The Sound of Young Scotland Project 
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