Gazette interview September 2007

Malky Burns interviewed by Eilidh Whiteford

for Stornoway Gazette

September 2007

Eilidh Whiteford: I understand that the compilation CD 'Sad Day We Left the Croft' was recorded and released in 1982/83? And featured six or seven local Punk/Nu wave bands from the Isle of Lewis: Can you tell me a wee bit of background regarding the CD and its creation – who was all involved? How it came about? How it was recorded and released?

Malky Burns: It was recorded in 1980. It was released in 1981. Callum Ian Macmillan was really the person who organised the recording and release of the album, and a single - he was the entrepreneurial brains and would be able to tell you more exact dates I think.

I'd describe the bands and album as punk rather than new wave or anything else. Of course it wasn't a CD originally, but a 12 inch vinyl long playing record. There's 13 tracks, and seven named bands/artists on the original album. The bands were Noise Annoys/Dirty Girls (names for Callum Ian's band); The Rong; The Bland; The Subjects; Bruce Wayne Band. All had two tracks each except Noise Annoys/Dirty Girls which had three. The album also features two tracks by Addo who was nothing to do with the punk bands. He was a really good guitar player from the earlier generation of local bands; lovely guy, great musician, but slightly incongruous in this context, you'd need to ask Callum Ian how he came to be on the record.

From my point of view, this is what happened.

I'd already been in a band, we had played dances and recorded stuff. I took a year out from studying at Glasgow University after the summer of 1979, and I stayed in Stornoway a lot of that time. And there was at least a couple of other younger bands now on the scene, The Rong and The Subjects. I think the Bruce Wayne guys came up a wee bit later. The Rong sometimes used to rehearse using our band's equipment at my house in Newton Street. My pal Roddy Maclean had become a bit of a punk at college himself, and he was around and helping The Rong in some kind of shambolic impresario way. So there was a lot of talk of concerts and tours and putting out records and what have you - most of which didn't actually happen, needless to say. So one day I met Callum Ian and Angie Montgomery in the Acres pub. Callum Ian was home from college. He was right into music, Angie even more so. Callum Ian really wanted to be in a band, and asked if I would join one with them. I said I would play guitar for him while he looked for someone else since I was already in a band. My own band had already recorded in Noel Eadie's studio, so the conversation turned to recording and putting out records. And in the spirit of DIY we just went ahead and did it. I don't know specifically whose idea it was to have a compilation album, if anybody's, but given that there were several local bands it was an obvious kind of thing to think of doing. It was a good idea anyway. But it wouldn't have existed if it hadn't been for Callum Ian's drive to make it happen.

The album was recorded in Noel Eadie's studio in Tong - Croft Recordings. That was a shed or a wee garage at the side of his house which he turned into a studio. It was mostly for recording Gaelic stuff. It would be kind of ironic if it was remembered for a bunch of punk tracks! Cos that's not really what the studio was about. We were kind of incidental to Croft really.

Callum Ian set up a "label", Adult Entertainments. He organised a deal with Noel for us all to use the studio in the summer of 1980. Each of the bands chipped in an amount of money for Callum Ian to get the record pressed and released. And he did - it was released in 1981. There was a cassette version of it too. I think the deal with Noel was recording time in return for the right to put the album out on cassette. Something like that. I've never seen a cassette version of it but I know some people who have them. There was also a single, which featured two more tracks by Callum Ian's band, under the names Noise Annoys and Battery Boys. That actually came out before the album I think. But don't go too strongly on my dates, they're kind of vague.

EW: What was your own involvement in the CD – I believe that you were a member of one of the bands – which one were you in and what did you do?

MB: I played the guitar and wrote songs with my own band (appearing as The Bland on the album). I also played guitar and bass, and wrote songs with Callum Ian and Angie (appearing as Noise Annoys and Dirty Girls on the album, also as Battery Boys on the single). And happily, I co-wrote Union Jack for The Rong with Roddy.

I had a band when in school (I left in 1976) with Neil Finlayson and Hugh McInnes from Ness and Colin MacArthur from Stornoway. We were called various things; Revolver was an early name. At the time of the Sad Day we were known as The Bland. It was meant to be ironic. Irony is over-rated.

I had learned the guitar from my pal the late lamented and legendary Jackie Sparrow in Newton Street when we were about 12 or 13 in about 1972/73 and wanted to be in a band since then but Jack was too self-conscious (honestly, he was). So when I became pals with Neil and Colin and Hugh in school and they were all into being in a band, that's what we did. We read the NME, we listened to John Peel and we followed all the new music. We played cover versions of course, because we had to do that to play at dances, but we always made original stuff up too. In among the standard covers we copied from established local bands like the Karltoans (Donnie Caesar and Kenny Fags and them), we would do other stuff including Velvet Underground, the Ramones... Colin's older brother Ian had an early US release of The Ramones first album and we learned Sheena is a Punk Rocker. Stuff like that.

Neil and Colin and I went off to Glasgow Uni in 1977. After that the band happened at home mainly in the uni holidays. We played in places like the halls at Ness, Bernera, Back; and in the school and so on. In Glasgow we heard loads of bands, punk and all sorts of other stuff. Neil and I saw Joy Division supporting the Buzzcocks at the Apollo. But we also liked electronic music and blues and all sorts of leftfield stuff. We wrote a whole pile of songs and played them in the middle of dances.

EW: What are you memories of the making of the CD? Was it a time you remember fondly?

MB: I think our band was the first ever to record in Noel's studio, in 1978. We recorded some covers - Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, stuff we liked - in the summer holidays that year. As I recall the studio at that time was not even completely finished. Then the next year, 1979, we used the summer to do what we still think were our best recordings, things we'd written ourselves. In fact, we had about a dozen or more original songs by then. We played a set of original songs at an outdoor event in the Castle Grounds in the summer of 1979 organised by some of the guys in the older bands. We were bottom of the bill of course, that was the pecking order - but at least we were there, up on an artic trailer giving it plenty - and I should think we were the first local band to ever play a live set of all original material. We recorded some of these songs on one day in Noel's studio in 1979. They never made it on to the Sad Day record, unfortunately. Actually what happened was we (someone, no fingers pointed here) sent the master off to John Peel - doh! - and it disappeared. I like to think he would have played these if he'd heard them but I doubt if he ever did. (We recently found a cassette of these and remastered them and now Jori has added them as bonus tracks on the re-released CD.) Then in 1980 we did the other tracks which actually appeared on the album, round about the same time as the other bands were doing theirs.

Recording in Noel's studio was always very funny. Noel had been a teacher, we thought he was a wee bit serious. We were aware of his tv and record appearances with Na h-Oganaich. It wasn't our cup of meat and we weren't really his. Basically we just paid him a fee and he let us use the studio. I think it was about £25 for the day and a fiver for the master tape. Whatever it was, it was just about manageable on our meagre student incomes. In retrospect you can see he was really quite adventurous. Even now, who'd quit a schoolteacher's job to open a recording studio? Takes a bit of balls to do that. But in the studio he was a bit fussy about the needles going into the red. So we thought that was funny. He kept putting the faders down then we kept putting the faders up when he turned away. Sorry Noel!

I also have a scabby cassette tape of myself and Callum Ian and Angie writing and rehearsing some of the other songs that surfaced on the album, in my house along with Jackie Sparrow. I remember that particularly fondly, since Jackie sadly died 3 years ago.

And I remember it all fondly, because playing in a band is the best fun you can have with your clothes on - or possibly even otherwise. In fact our band - Neil and myself mainly - kept playing and writing and recording and very very occasionally performing together ever since. We've had various other names - at one point we were called The Vaughans, at another we were Spirit Host (what was that about?), and now we go under the name The Drugs. Very ironic.

EW: What was the reaction to the CD's release? I understand that there were tracks from it played by the late great John Peel – how did this come about? And do you remember what his take on the CD was? What did it feel like to have such a guy interested in music from the islands?

MB: Yeah - reaction, what reaction? :-) I guess it didn't rush to the top of the charts and stay there for like, five years. More like - what the fuck was that? But over the years I have come across quite a few people who actually bought it - the mugs! - including Kenny Stewart who has produced the documentary. So I think it became quite a cultural artefact. And a cult artefact. Legendary, almost.

John Peel played both sides of the single (which I was on), I don't know if he ever played the album though. I'm sure he would have played Union Jack if he ever heard it. I never heard him playing the tracks I was on so it was a retrospective thrill (by a factor of more than 25 years!) to hear a tape of him introducing one of them. He actually said he'd like to be invited up to Lewis! I put that up on the Sad Day Myspace site, so you can hear it there - www.myspace.com/saddaywelefthecroft - along with some other tracks. If I had heard that at the time I would certainly have called him up and invited him to come and hear the album and the bands in their natural habitat. The future could have been quite different! It could have been a big (well a John Peel sized) break for us all. As it happens, nothing else happened. Too late now. Sad day he left the croft :-(

EW: What was the music scene like back then? What kind of music did it comprise of? and where did most of the bands play (pubs & clubs)? Was it friendly rivalry between bands or was it more serious? Do you think it differs from the current thriving music scene of the islands? And do you think it lead the way for such prolific music making on the Western Isles?

MB: I think the current "Scene" is great. I think the potential for every person/generation is there to make their own. The whole punk idea was that. DIY. We did it ourselves and the kids today are doing the same thing. That is great.

I think all kinds of music are fine. The Clash loved reggae and hip hop as well as loud brash punk. To be honest, Celtic music isn't my personal favourite kind - I'd prefer Robert Johnson or some sweet soul music. But of course the blues and black American music in general came from a mix of things including Scottish and Irish folk ballads. It's a kind of seamless garment. So we can't really claim to be anything, except people who did our thing (and sometimes still do).

In 1976 before punk it was dire. It was dire the world over not just in Stornoway. And that’s why punk in 1976/77 is still seen as such a great moment.

The Lewis music scene we grew up in before punk was bands playing cover version of popular songs - charts and classics - at dances in hotels, clubs and village halls. They still do that, so plus ca change. In a lot of ways Our Small Capital are exactly like the Karltoans when they play a dance. They also play their own stuff, which is really good, and I wish they could do it more. But they have to pack in the punters! For basic economic reasons. I was at the Honcho Carnival Night at the Legion in July this year, and at the start I heard all these bands who were really good and interesting and different and talented - I was particularly impressed with meontheviolin - and I could have been in any thriving city music scene like Glasgow or Manchester - but there was almost no-one there. And then at some point I went outside to speak to someone, and when I came back in there was a band playing Hey Joe with a note perfect guitar solo, and then it was all cover versions and soon the place was heaving. It could have been the Bayhead YM in 1975. Hi Ho, Silver Lining.

Anyway, trying to make people dance, especially in Lewis, is a real education and training! So it's not necessarily a bad thing to have to do. Like I said before, we learned a lot from these dance bands. But we also wanted to do our own thing. So we did.

The other aspect of the local scene was heavy metal. If there was any rivalry, it was between those who liked heavy metal and those who liked punk. There was at least one dungeons and dragons type band, and lots of people liked - still like - all the hairy southern confederate stuff like Lynyrd Skynyrd, 40 minute guitar solos and all. Yawn. When we played people used to shout "Play Freebird". So we used to play the first few notes and then say "Fuck off!". And play a Sex Pistols song or a Ramones one instead. That really hacked them off. :-) There was an air of incipient violence! The other bands found that in spades as well - because, I should say, we could scoot off back to Glasgow where we were studying and we could see any number of bands we liked - but the younger bands were all still in school and couldn't do that. So they really had to do it for themselves.

But when the younger bands came through doing their own thing, The Rong especially because I was a bit involved with them, I kind of felt like what we had done was paving the way. And after the album, there were a few other kind of punky, indie bands - I remember one was called Swedish TV, great name, where are they now?

And after that, not much - at least in terms of new independent rock music - for about 20 odd years. And then this new Scene thang. Great.

There's a lot of similarities about today, like I said: most people like what they're familiar with and they don't like anything new. That's natural. But it's also unproductive. You have to open yourself up to new things. It was a hell of a lot harder then than now to do what we did than what the bands are doing now, in some ways. You know, now anyone can record not just a track but almost a bloody music video, more or less on their mobile phone, and then stick it out on the interweb to show the world. And they do have some more venues and so they can play more frequently than we did. But also, it's still not that easy getting recognised for the young bands on the scene now.

One of the problems I think is the great success - I am not knocking it, I do think it should be successful - of Celtic music. But then everyone expects you to be a bodhran player or a piper or sound like Runrig or something if you come from the islands. But I think the way you assimilate and respond to cultures from elsewhere is also part of your own culture. And I think that's another reason why what we were doing was valid. We were doing the punk rock thing the Stornoway way. The heart of beyond and all that. (Great book by the way). And I think it still stands up.

EW: How has the re-release of the CD come about? And what are your feelings on that? Are you pleased? What do you think/hope the reaction will be to the re-release of the CD?

MB: Back to front answers:

D - God knows. I hope people like it. If they don't like it, I hope they think it was a valid thing to do. If they don’t think that, then fuck 'em.

C - Yes, over the moon Brian.

B - I am intrigued by the enthusiasm which people have shown and sort of relieved in a kind of it-had-to-happen-it-should-happen kind of way.

A - Jori. Jori is a national treasure. The guy's a legend. And it's not just his corkscrew hair and those cool rocker type shoes. And it's not just that he has taken a shine to our musical scratchings from a quarter of a century ago. Seriously, Jori and Innes his partner-in-crime, put so much into what has become the Scene, and it has made a real impact on lots of young people's lives. I am no moralist and I am sceptical not to say phlegmatic about do-gooding people trying to do stuff for the kids. This guy says: the kids can do stuff, and by the way it's fucking fantastic. So it is. He's a catalyst for good things. I actually get the Gazette every week here in Glasgow just to see if Jori's got another excellent column in it about all the live music stuff. And I think because he cares and puts so much in and agonises and worries it all around into being (or sometimes not working out which is all part of the deal) that he could see what we were trying to do all these years ago. But I think if he hadn't have liked the music he'd have just gone, naw. But he did like it and he went COOOOL! I gotta put this out. You guys rawk! Kind of thing. So along with Donald Eadie, Noel's son, he chased down the masters which had been lying in a shed on the moor at Tong apparently, and got them all remastered, and he's put it all together and it's ready to release. It's nice to have an enthusiast.

EW: Have you been involved in the tv programme Kenny Stewart has made regarding the CD? And can you tell me a wee bit more about that?

MB: Yes. Well, Kenny approached the whole thing from a very Kenny point of view which is different from, but perfectly complementary to Jori's. I think Kenny mainly wanted to tell the story, whereas Jori mainly wanted to get the music out there. Glad to help each of them with these. I haven't seen the programme yet, so I have no idea what they've done but the idea of getting a young current local singer (Fiona) to do a bit of musical archaeology is a good hook for the programme. It makes that link. We had a good laugh with our bits of the show. Kenny wanted to get some of the bands playing the songs of the album. Neil and Hugh and myself (Colin lives in Canada so he couldn't make it) got together in Ness to rehearse over a bottle of Jim Beam, with the film crew in attendance. It was very funny. Actually when we started playing together for the first time in all those years, it felt completely natural as though we just picked up where we left off. Personally I don't feel self conscious, and I don't really care how it comes across - but it was a laugh, that was the main thing. If you see any of it, remember we were having a good crack at the time.

The next day we went down to a garage in Gress that Kenny had arranged and he filmed us playing our songs from the album and also he'd managed to get a couple of guys from The Rong, Bomber and Kenzie, and two from The Subjects, Alan Stevenson and Allan Macdonald - so they played some of their songs, including a great version of Union Jack. It was a beautiful day and it felt very good and very funny to be playing these things on a croft all these years later. It was funny to meet Kenzie that day - the last time I saw him he was probably only 15, and he had grown about a whole foot taller since then! And the documentary brought Hugh and Colin back together with myself and Neil at least virtually and we're doing some new music under the name The Drugs. You'll hear it one day soon, perhaps.

Kenny did a lot of research, and he and his director Duncan and the crew I think have put together something really interesting. I have also heard Fiona singing one of the other songs on the album in a nu-folk kind of way, and it actually sounds great. So it will be a bit different to the usual Gaelic documentary. I look forward to seeing it.

EW: I've heard rumours that copies of the original are now fetching up to the hundreds on the internet from collectors of music from that period – what do you think about that?

MB: I think the one I saw most recently earlier this year was marked at something like 70 euros which is about 40 or 50 quid. Still a lot for a record. So it is a genuine collector's item. Mainly rarity value - no indicator of quality or importance! I actually think it's funny that people might pay that for it. I certainly wouldn't pay that for a record. It's just a bit of plastic with a wee hole in it. Better to spend the money on half a dozen copies of the re-released CD with bonus tracks. Plug plug. And then give them away to your curumach relations. Ho ho. Or you could spend the money having a good night out with the blone.