The Great Jock n Roll Single

Jocknroll · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 9:44 am Post subject:

4. TOM MELVILLE, Cardiff, Wales

1. Idlewild - The Remote Part
Imagine having a party on a nice sunny day, no clouds in the sky. Boring
isn't it? Idlewild bring a fantastic thundercloud to this setting before setting up, joining in the festivities and being the life and soul of the party. This album is truly inspirational with songs for whatever mood you're in.

2. The Proclaimers - Sunshine on Leith
This album made the Scots duo into a household name with I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) and I'm On My Way. Cheerful melodies and good use of instruments to back the soft singing twins scottish accents make this record a must have.

3. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Winner of the Mercury Prize in 2004 this album barely puts a foot wrong,
launching the band into mega-stardom.

4. Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap
Unforunately known as 'Twee pop' by many this album has a fair few songs, which make you just want to get up and dance, even at a funeral.

5. The Beta Band - Three EPs
The Beta Band are known for their alternative work and Three EPS show us exactly what the boys can do, showcasing their best work from their first 3 albums allows you to concentrate on their awesomeness instead of changing album!

6. Del Amitri - Waking Hours
Simply a breathtaking album which every Scot who cares about music should own.

7. Travis - The Man Who
Travis' breakthrough into the mainstream came with the realease of this
album, despite its popularity it's also quite good- offering delights such
as 'Why does it always rain on me' and 'Side' the band continue to impress throughout the album.

8. Mogwai - Mogwai Young Team
Mogwai Young Team isn't exactly the type of name you'd expect from a classic album but surprises aplenty emenate from Mogwai, listening to the album is like eating candy-floss on a cloud.

9. Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
Simply a classic which a breif description here cannot do justice, buy it,
borrow it from a mate or nick your parents version and listen to it. Means a different thing to different people, make your own mind up how it affects your own life.

10. Close Lobsters - Foxheads Stalk This Land
An amusing album name for a group who like being alternative this album is certainly more than the average pop dirge, it has memorable ditties which simply are divine.

Nomination for Worst Scottish Album:

Mylo - Destroy Rock and Roll

Mylo is a chap who enjoys making noise that much is true, I choose the words noise since what he produces isn't music. What is also true is that the noise he makes resembles a cat eating its own arse going through a mangle, backwards. While not trying to make our ears bleed with his noise he is busy trying to destroy other well known tracks in order to serve his evil masters in sucking our will to live out of us.

My name is Tom Melville and from Cardiff, I heard about you from the
Idlewild forums
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Jocknroll · Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 8:16 pm Post subject:

5. HUGH MEECHAN, Glasgow

1 Dogs in The Traffic - Love and Money
Glorious sing writing, stunning singing. An album which has a number of
great songs on it - Whisky Dream, Lips Like Ether and two songs that battle for my favourite ever song Sometimes I Want To Give Up and You're Not The Only One. The fact that Mr Grant is not hugely successful is one of the things that makes me despair of other people

2 Kelvingrove Baby - The Bathers
One of those albums to put on when you've met some new friends - If they like it, you can continue to like them. If they don't, throw them out of the house, delete their phone number from your mobile and deny that you've ever talked to them.

3 Walk Across The Rooftops - The Blue Nile
A perfect shiny thing- glittering and shimmering. Feels like it has been
brought down from space.

4 Solid Air - John Martyn
Nearly put "Sapphire" in here which was the first John Martyn album I ever
bought and then worked backward from there. Again beautiful songwriting

5 Rattlesnakes - Lloyd Cole and The Commotions
Pure perfect pop - and rhyming Norman Mailer with get a new tailor. Always cheers me up and makes me feel younger.

6 Still - Carol Laula
Lovely voice - some cracking song writing - another of the why aren't these people successful when Westlife exist.

7 Songs Of The Dying West - Jackie Leven
Great talent - weird at times but like a Scots Jacques Brel or Scott Walker.

8 Beyond The Sun - Billy MacKenzie
I'd missed this at the time it was brought out and it was my partner that
introduced me to it - better than Sulk, mature brilliant and varied - and a
fitting tribute to the George Best of Scots pop in terms of talent.

9 Ferguslie Park - Stealers Wheel
Agonised over this as a number of possible albums suggested themselves but in the end this seems better and better through the years.

10 Holy Love - James Grant
Ridiculously good. All the solo stuff has been fab but this just has it all.
For me he's the finest writer in Scots pop - and given the competition
includes Roddy Frame and Edwyn Collins that's an huge accolade.

Worst

Hit The Highway - The Proclaimers

The shouty yodelling of the bespeckled ones is always a bit of a high wire act and this is where the they fell to earth. Partly this is bad in comparison to the first two albums but it's also got some truly awful stuff - "Let's Get Married" hints that it's going to be ok but "I Want To Be A Christian"!!! After listening to that I had to syringe my head for days to get rid of it. Think I also threw the album across the room to demonstrate my disgust.
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Jocknroll · Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 8:41 pm Post subject:

6. Michael Gargrave, Edinburgh

1 Reflections of the Marmalade - The Marmalade

An underated group often dismissed a pop drivel because they were daft enough to record Obla Di- Obla Da. This album contains their finest hour with Reflections of my Life, as well as a range of genres from Psych to Folk - great stuff frae the boys fi Ballieston.

2 Ferguslie Park - Stealers Wheel

Early Gerry Rafferty and this album is good pop music with singles such as Star and Everything will turn out fine.

3 Live ! - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Vambo Rules- memories of gang warfare at SAHB concerts circa 1975 - great times, enough said!

4 Peacetime - Eddi Reader

Good voice and sympathetic arrangements of songs from Reader, Burns and others.

5 Can't Stand The Rezillos - The Rezillos

Being from Edinburgh, I had to include something vaguelly respectable - and there is nothing else.

6 Another Night Time Flight - Blue

Another great album of pop music from Hughie Nicholson's band. I think Elton John had a hand in the production but I could be wrong. This includes the hit Capture Your Heart.

7 The Singles Collection - The Bluebells

Are compilations cheating? (YES! - The Cat) Who cares - this is brilliant collection of jangly singles for the eighties. Any album that contains Cath has to be good. (THIS VOTE WAS EXCLUDED)

8 Cut the Cake - Average White Band

Brilliant funk soul from a bunch of white guys from Glasgow and Dundee!

9 High Land, Hard Rain - Aztec Camera

What a debut album with great writing and playing from Roddy Frame. Singles like Oblivious and Walk Out To Winter lifts this into my top ten.

10 Hipsway - Hipsway

I'm not a big fan but my mate was the bass player after Johnny McIlhone left so I have to vote for it to support him.

WORST

My least favourite album is Raintown by Deacon Blue - what a lot of derivative nonsense from Ricky 'pretentious' Ross and his girlfriend who obviously didnt have to audition, as she couldnt sing a note. I could go on but I am liable to start ranting as I dislike Deacon Blue intensely (with the exception of Ewan Vernal who was, and is, a great bass player).
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Jocknroll · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:25 pm Post subject:

7. Murray Easton, Carluke

1) Bandwagonesque – Teenage Fanclub
I was 15 when this LP of pop nuggets was released in 1991. I bought it on vinyl from Missing Records and played it to death, fascinated and enchanted by the chiming guitars, glorious harmonies, humour and ability from a group of boys from Bellshill. I remember feeling strangely proud when ‘December’ was used as the background music to a feature on Blue Peter. I may rate ‘Screamadelica’ as a better album but in my heart the Fanclub and ‘Bandwagonesque’, the beautiful pink album sleeve with a bag of dollars will always be number 1.

2) Screamadelica – Primal Scream
1991 was quite a year for Scottish music as Creation and Bobby Gillespie unleashed this beast of an album. Gillespie’s musical taste and knowledge were never in doubt but few could have imagined the scope of his ambition and the lengths he would go to realise them. The Scream roped in Andy Weatherall on production duties and he took them higher than the sun. From the Stonesy ‘Movin’ On Up’ to the delicate trippy ‘Shine Like Stars’ this album took you on a trip to end all trips. Timeless. My abiding memory of this album is of playing it ten times in a row in the summer of 1994 on strawberries!

3) The Boy With The Arab Strap - Belle and Sebastian
I was lucky enough to catch B&S in Glasgow when they released ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister..’ but this was their first album I truly loved. Upbeat, clever, full of humour, featuring all kinds of musical instruments, this was a band in love with making music and you could hear the results on vinyl. My favourite memory of this album actually occurred years after the release when I was walking home from a night out in Barcelona and heard the closing section of ‘Dirty Dream Number 2’ drifting out of an open window. My girlfriend and I stopped to listen. A lovely moment!

4) A Complete History – The Vaselines
I am sure this album counts after reading through the rules. Why am I voting for it? Memories of my teenage years and the fact it contains one of my favourite songs and Eugene Kelly played an acoustic set at my sisters 21st last year! I remember hearing ‘Molly’s Lips’ and ‘Son Of A Gun’ off Nirvana’s ‘Insecticide’ album and discovering that they were originally written and recorded by a band from Scotland called The Vaselines. I tracked down the album at Missing Records and remember feeling quite cool, as the lovely female assistant seemed quite impressed when I asked for it. This is the sound of two people having fun. The results do vary but when they hit the mark they really hit the mark. A landmark album if only for the fact that it resulted in Nirvana covering 3 of the songs. The two aforementioned and the glorious ‘Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunbeam’. My abiding memory is of my sister Carla from the Futuristic Retro Champions www.myspace.com/retrochamps singing backing vocals to ‘Son Of A Gun’ with Eugene at her 21st in 2006.

5) Destroy Rock’n’Roll – Mylo
This album was like a breath of fresh air for me when it arrived in 2004. I was lucky enough to get into it from the start so I could watch it’s meteoric rise. This is a DIY punk album Noughties style. Recorded on a laptop in Mylo’s bedroom. It is jam-packed full of hooks, beautifully produced (obviously with a great deal of care by Mylo) and full of fantastic songs. It’s a strong album from start to finish. My main memory of this album is of going to see Mylo at a sold out gig in King Tuts just after the album broke and then heading down to a Saltlick aftershow party at the Riverside Club and dancing on stage while Mylo dj’d!

6) Honey’s Dead - Jesus & Mary Chain
Another album from my teenage years! I guess that is a time when you fall in love with music and the albums from that time stay with you all your life. I remember buying this album on cassette from a record shop in Cadzow Street in Hamilton.

7) Life Goes On – BMX Bandits
This is by no means a classic album but I couldn’t do a list of favourite Scottish albums without including the BMX Bandits, a band that have made me smile on many occasions since I discovered them. ‘Serious Drugs’ is a classic song.

Cool

Love – Aztec Camera
It’s got ‘Somewhere In My Heart’ on it – pop classic! Gets me singing along every time.

9) Truckload of Trouble - The Pastels
Laid back indie guitar album - brilliant.

10) KC OK - King Creosote
With a little help from The Earlies - melow gold.

Worst Scottish Album of all-time

The Meaning Of Love – Michelle McManus
McManus won a show called The X-Factor, something that she clearly doesn’t have. She wouldn’t even win the weekly karaoke competition in the Horseshoe. Now I can’t say I have actually heard this album but the very fact that it was allowed to be recorded, released and promoted is very, very sad.
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