Sound of Young Scotland? I wish!

I watched the Caledonia Dreamin' documentary on BBC4 the other night. It was supposed to be about the growth of Scottish rock and pop music since the heady days of Postcard Records. Yes, Postcard records. If I were making a documentary along these lines, I'd include a big chunk on Orange Juice, Postcard's most prolific group. Sure enough, there were some lovely old clips of Orange Juice in it. Then of course I'd have to include Aztec Camera whose main man, Roddy Frame, has inspired and influenced so many other musicians. His influence is obvious in the work of groups like Belle and Sebastian, for example, and beyond the borders of Scotland, the much revered Johnny Marr has cited Aztec Camera as inspirational. But guess what? Where there should have been a few minutes discussion of the Aztec Camera sound and style there was instead ... nothing. A huge guitar shaped gap.

But it's OK folks, don't panic, because the documentary moved on to talk about later bands who clearly have never even heard of Postcard Records, much less been influenced by any of its artists, like Wet Wet Wet, and Texas. Mind you that was after a good ten or fifteen minutes all about Scottish nationalism and the part it played in influencing Scotland's music scene. That just makes it all the weirder that another glaring omission from the programme was Big Country, whose bagpipe style guitar sounds are about as Scottish as you can get. I simply don't see how you can go from Postcard to Wet Wet Wet without banging into Big Country.

I have to ask if the makers of the documentary actually have any knowledge of any kind of music, never mind 80s Scottish jangly guitar music? Did these people do any research whatsoever? Did they contact Roddy Frame? Did they try and dig out any archive footage? I can only think that maybe Framo (as he's known in my head) didn't want to participate. I can't think of any other reason why Aztec Camera would rate only a couple of mentions, and only one still shot. As for Big Country, I am stumped. I don't know how anyone can even think about Scottish pop music in the 80s without their memory pumping out Fields of Fire at full volume. Were the people who made this programme even alive in the 80s?

To be honest, I think it was really just a lame attempt by someone to promote Scottish nationalist politics, with some music tacked onto it to draw in unsuspecting Postcard fans, like myself, because it's obvious that whoever is behind it does not know an awful lot about music at all.