Scotland's number ones

FIRST BRITISH ROCK’n’ROLL STAR: Lonnie Donegan, 1956. Born in Scotland at Tony Donegan, he was a jazz musician who started playing what he called American folkd music - but his simplistic style was behind the skiffle explosion. His version of Rock Island Line made the top ten in January 1956 – you’ll have heard it recently in a TV advert where a car surfs on the ocean. Within months guitar sales rocketed from 5000 a year to 200,000. Lonnie and fellow Scot Chas McDevitt were the only skiffle stars to break America.

FIRST SCOTTISH ROCK’n’ROLL RIOT: The story goes that a Ricky Barnes All Stars show at Paisley Town Hall in 1956 descended into the country’s first rock battle, and it took crooner Sydney Devine’s calm tunes to soothe the hordes – but it’s almost certainly not true. Eyewitnesses say there was no such riot. The most likely second candidate is a Tommy Steele show in Dundee in 1957, where the star was ‘roughed up’ at a concert with no bouncers, and threatened to quit showbiz.

FIRST NATIONAL TALENT CONTEST: Search for Scotland’s Tommy Steele, 1957. Over 600 people entered and the winners were Alex Harvey, Sydney Devine and Joe Moretti, who spent the next few months touring together in a second-hand taxi, taking turns to bring girls ‘home’ while the others slept in railway waiting rooms. On meeting Tommy to receive his award, Alex Harvey nearly got them both arrested when they tried to break into the docks.

FIRST OVERNIGHT SENSATION: Joe Moretti, 1957 – he took the train to London, blagged his way onto the stage at the 2 I’s [correct] Coffee Bar that evening, and was signed on the spot, later touring with US heartthrob Gene Vincent and many more.

FIRST SCOTS TV MUSIC STAR: 1956, Conductor Harry Robinson, who fronted Lord Rockingham’s XI on TV’s first music show, Six Five Special – they had a hit with a jazz version of A Hundred Pipers called Hoots Mon (there’s a moose loose aboot this hoose)...FIRST BRITISH POP EXPORT: 1957, Scot Jackie Dennis. The teenager threw himself around to his hits La Dee Dah and Pueple People Eater, making a name for himself in the USA before anyone else did.

FIRST US STARS TO TOUR SCOTLAND: Freddie Bell and the Bellboys, 1957. Their big hit was Giddy Up A Ding Dong which Alex Harvey later updated as a tribute. The first solo US performer was Charlie Gracie, who still tours today – he remembers his first Scots tour warmly because he’d just got married and the newlyweds were treated like family. Thousands of fans waved them off as they took the train south and he says it’s one of the most emotional moments of his life.

FIRST BEATLES TOUR: January 1963 - Elgin, Dingwall, Bride of Allan and Aberdeen (3 bob a ticket). The Fab Four’s first Scots appearance was cancelled by snowstorms, but they went on to complete the rest of their first big UK tour and hit with Please Please Me. The rest is history.

FIRST CAREER HIJACK: When the Clyde Valley Stompers quit their agency in 1963, the bosses replaced the tartan-clad Scots with the English Leathertown Jazz Band. They toured as the Stompers for a week before breaing up.

FIRST SCOTS SUSPECTS IN THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY: Nazareth, then called the Shadettes, on 9 August 1963. The band had a yellow van and wore yellow suits, and were stopped on the road home to Dunfermline at 4am by Fife police. They were suspected of carrying out the robbery four hundred miles away, just four hours previously. They weren’t charged.

FIRST SCOTS BEAT GROUP TO SIGN MAJOR DEAL: Dean Ford and the Gaylords, who became Marmalade, in 1963. But they didn’t release the first Scots beat single – that was Now We’re Thru by the Athenians in 1964, on Scotland’s own Waverley label.

FIRST SCOTS ON TOP OF THE POPS: Lulu and the Luvvers, 1964, with Shout! Wee Marie Lawrie and the band appeared on June 3 and 10 on the first season of the legendary’s show’s 42-year run.

FIRST ROCK’N’ROLL TRAGEDY: The Blues Council’s Fraser Calder and James Giffen were killed in a car crash in 1965, leaving one promising single, Baby Don’t Look Down. Alex Harvey’s brother Les was in the band – the Harveys were both victims of tragedy themselves when Les died by electrocution on stage in 1972, and Alex suffered a fatal heart attack on tour in Belgium ten years later.

FIRST BEAT MANIA MOMENT: The Beatstalkers in Glasgow’s George Square, 1965 – the band decided to put on a small show to thank the fans for their support. They expected 200 punters but over 7000 showed up, and they had to escape on the back of police horses.

FIRST SCOTTISH POP RADIO STATION: Radio Scotland began broadcasting from ex-lightship The Comet off the coast of Dunbar on Hogmanay 1965. The station was responsible for the Scottish pop explosion, publishing its own magazine and running its own concerts (clan balls) until the law forced it to close down in 1967.

FIRST SELL-OUT NON-APPEARANCE: In 1966 the Beatstalkers sent cardboard cutouts to appear on the revolving stage of Glasgow’s Dennistoun Palais. Despite knowing the band wouldn’t be there, fans sold the show out in hours.

FIRST SCOT TO ENTER EUROVISION: Kenneth McKellar with A Man Without Love in 1966. He came ninth. Lulu came joint-first in 1999 with Boom Bang A Bang – a song she hated even then.

FIRST SCOTTISH ALBUM TO TOP THE US CHARTS: Donovan’s Sunshine Superman in 1966. The arrival of recreational drugs fuelled the hippy movement and Donovan, along with fellow Scot Bert Jansch, were at the forefront from the start.

FIRST SCOTS ROCK STAR: Jack Bruce, who left Manfred Mann in 1966 and joned Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker in Cream.

FIRST AWARD-WINNING SCOTS ARRANGER: Tommy Eyre arranged Joe Cocker’s version of With A Little Help From My Friends in 1968, and was paid £60 for his trouble. Tommy went on to play in the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Nazareth, and was musical director of Wham! - which is why members of Nazareth and SAHB can be heard singing backing vocals on the popsters’ second hit Go For It and Andrew Ridgeley’s bomber solo album.

FIRST SCOTTISH BAND’S NUMBER ONE: Marmalade’s version of Ob La Di Ob La Da in 1968. They played Top of the Pops in kilts, and since fellow Scots Cartoone were on the show too, they used their equipment.

FIRST SCOTTISH SUPERGROUP: Rock outfit Tear Gas, formed in 1969, were commonly known as ‘Fear Gas’ for the noise they generated. The band consisted of Zal Cleminson and Davie Batchelor from the Bo Weavles, Eddie Campbell from the Beatstalkers, Wullie Munro from Rite-Tyme and Chris Glen from Jim Diamond’s first band, Jade. Tear Gas recorded Scotland’s first rock album, Piggy Go Getter, in 1970, and went on to join Alex Harvey in the Sensational Alex Harvey Band in 1972. SAHB were the first band ever to open a festival one year and headline it the next (Reading in 1973 and 74).

FIRST IRRITATING HIT BY A SCOTS BAND: Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by Middle of the Road in 1970. The band’s Ken Andrew recalls they had to be plied with drink before agreeing to record the number.

FIRST ARMED THREAT TO A SCOTS BAND: In 1971 Beggars Opera were told by Black Sabbath’s management they couldn’t appear at a festival after having blown Ozzy and co offstage the previous night. When the Scots group’s boss went to negotiate, a gun was drawn and he was told there’d be no bargaining. They didn’t play. Beggars Opera’s Ricky Gardiner went on to play with Iggy Pop and Bowie, writing Passenger for Iggy.

FIRST HIT WITH BAGPIPES: Amazing Grace in 1972. played by the Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. It was the best-selling single of the year and it’s notched up 13 million sales since then – even though it was recorded at the last minute to fill a gap on the band’s album. Other pipe-heavy moments include Wing’s Mull of Kintyre, AC/DC’s Long Way to the Top and tracks by Nazareth, SAHB and even Korn. Frank Zappa wanted to use SAHB’s pipers but was disappointed when he realised they could only play in one key.

FIRST SCOTS GLAM HIT: The Sweet’s Blockbuster in 1973, starring frontman Brian Connolly, cousin of Taggart star Mark McManus. The band claimed they invented their outlandish appearance so they could spend more time with the dancers in Top of the Pops’ makeup room.

YOUNGEST STAR TO APPEAR ON TOTP: Rothesay’s own Lena Zavaroni, who was ten years and 146 days old when she performed Ma He’s Making Eyes At Me in 1974.

FASTEST CLIMB TO SUPERSTARDOM: The Bay City Rollers went from zeroes to heroes in the space of eight weeks in 1974 after a series of cunning scams invented by their management. Former Rollers David Paton and Billy Lyall decided they wanted to be musicians rather than pop stas, so they founded Pilot and hit with January and Magic in 1975.

FIRST SCOTS PUNK HEROES: The Rezillos led the pack in 1976, and Edinburgh was always the centre of Scotland’s punk moevement because it was almost entirely banned in Glasgow. West-coasters like the Jolt and the Zones did make an impact, as did Johnny and the Self Abusers, who split up the day their single was release (very punk) and came back as Simple Minds.

FIRST SCOTS DISCO KING: Martin Griffiths, formerly with Beggars Opera, discovered he had a big following in Europe after he’d quit, and went on to score a continental hit with a disco version of Israelites in 1976. Yes, really. And he was big in Ibiza.

FIRST ROCK SHOW SAVED BY A TORY: Glasgow Councillor Bill Aitken, now a Conservative MSP, agreed to allow the Stranglers to play the legendary Apollo in 1977, providing he and his licensing committee attended. They went along, met the band, were booed by the audience and had a great night.

FIRST ICONIC SCOTS RECORD LABEL: Fast Product, set up by Rezillos manager Bob Last in 1977, which starred bands like the Human League, the Scars and Gang of Four. The outfit paved the way for Alan Horne’s Postcard and Alan McGee’s Creation in later years.

FIRST SCOTS ALT.ROCK HIT: The Only Ones’ Another Girl Another Planet in 1978, masterminded by the band’s Scottish bassist and ex-Beatstalker Alan Mair. The release version is based on the demo after the full-power studio version was deemed ‘tame’ by the band.

FIRST SCOTS SOLOIST WITH MULTIPLE HITS: Sheena Easton found fame via a TV talent show in 1979, and within months she had 9 to 5, Modern Girl and One Man Woman in the charts at the same time.

FIRST VOLUNTARY STEP DOWN FROM NUMBER ONE: Jim Diamond, 1984 – after his award-nominated I Should Have Known Better reached number one, he asked everyone to buy Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas instead.

FIRST SCOTS WRITER TO WIN GRAMMY: Graham Lyle for co-writing Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got to Do With It in 1985.

FIRST SCOTTISH THREE-IN-A-ROW: IN 1988 Fairground Attraction’s Perfect made number one, followed by Wet Wet Wet’s version of With A Little Help from My Friends, followed by Doctorin’ the Tardis by the Timelords, better known as KLF’s Jimmy Cauty and Scot Bill Drummond.

FIRST SCOTS TO FIND FAME THROUGH AN ADVERT: Stiltskin’s Inside was used in a Levi’s commercial in 1994.

FIRST GAELIC HIT SINGLE: Runrig’s An Ubhal As Airde (The Highest Apple) made the top twenty in 1985, and also featured in a TV ad.

FIRST UNISGNED BAND ON TOTP: Teen-C heroes Bis performed Kandy Pop on the show in 1996, before signing a record deal and touring with Super Furry Animals and the Foo Fighters (for £50 a night).

Book preview

BRITAIN'S rock'n'roll revolution was led by a Scot. Lonnie Donegan made the top ten in January 1956 with Rock Island Line, and the music scene never looked back. He thought he was playing American folk music - but his simplistic style created the skiffle explosion, and within months guitar sales rocketed from 5000 to 200,000 a year.

Joe Moretti was part of the explosion, buying his first guitar in that first year, along with a clip-on electric pickup, although he couldn't afford an amplifier. He remembers: "The first time I played through an amp was when I met Alex Harvey. We entered a national talent contest and he let me plug into his second input. Hearing yourself through an amp was incredible - it sounds daft today but it was a huge thing at the time."

Alex, Joe and Sydney Devine won that 1957 contest, and the rest, of course, is history. Their brief joint tour was a wild party of wine, women and song - and in fact Sydney is credited with stopping Scotland's first rock'n'roll riot, although it turns out not to be true. The story goes that a Ricky Barnes All Stars show in Paisley Town Hall descended into violence, and it took Sydney's clear voice and calm performance to end the fisticuffs - but it seems the whole thing was contrived by conniving management or bored journalists.

As the rock'n'roll boom continued, Joe Moretti wound up touring with US legend Gene Vincent. Joe says: "He was a real superstar - no other word covers it. But he just wanted to be one of the boys. He used to let all twelve of us phone home on his expense account - he looked after us. One night in Glasgow the crowd was so rowdy we didn't get to play. I knew Gene was disappointed, and he was missing a taste of home, so I took the band to a hotel at Kelvinbridge where you could get the best fried chicken in Britain. Gene had a great night, and the hotel did us proud. Proper Scottish hospitality!"

The Beatles may be the biggest band of all time, but they weren't the only beat group around, and many believe they weren't even the best. Their first leg-up came when Liverpool's Cavern Club relaxed their jazz-only rule. Fionna Duncan of trad heroes the Clyde Valley Stompers recalls: "I couldn't help giggling when I heard there was a band calling themselves the Beatles. But when we arrived to play our usual Sunday show at the Cavern, the queue was all the way down the street. We thought our new album must have been released early - but it was Beatles fans waiting to see them support us."

The Stompers' Peter Kerr (now a successful author) remembers those Cavern shows too. "Being jazz men, we could be a bit snobby, so we thought all those beat groups were rubbish. The Cavern was a terrible place to play - rotten sound, pokey dressing room, tiny stage. But it was good for the audience because everyone was crushed in so tight. You'd never get away with it for Health and Safety now, but it made for a great atmosphere."

After Beatlemania came Stalkermania - the Beatstalkers were one of Scotland's biggest names in the mid-60s. Bassist Alan Mair remembers: "We decided to put a wee show on at Glasgow's George Square. We expected a few hundred fans but about seven thousand people turned up, and there were only two policemen on duty. In the end we had to escape on the back of police horses - hi ho silver! When I got home my mum told me, 'You should have put an advert in the paper and it would have gone better. Did it go alright?' I said, 'Have you seen the papers? We're on page one of every paper in Scotland!'"

As the 1970s began the big noise was heavy rock, spearheaded by Nazareth and Tear Gas, who later joined Alex Harvey to become SAHB. Naz' Pete Agnew remembers: "It was a great feeling having your first top ten - it's always nice but your first one is special. Suddenly we were being offered free equipment from all the big companies, but it didn't matter because we could now afford to buy it anyway. Jerry Lee Lewis came to one of our shows and took us for a drink afterwards, but he got really drunk and started a fight with us. His bouncers wouldn't let us hit him even though they admitted he needed a kicking!"

SAHB were perhaps Scotland's most unique musical export. The band's Chris Glen recalls: "We were very concerned when Alex said we should call ourselves 'Sensational' - but it worked in the end. Everyone thought, 'Is that so? We'll be the judge of that...' so of course we had to be good. It made us work harder, and we tried as many tricks as we could think of. I rolled on stage on a skateboard once, couldn't stop, and rolled right off the other side..."

Rollermania was the word of the mid-70s, but as Les McKeown and co became megastars, one former Bay City Roller was glad to be out of the limelight. David Paton left the band and formed Pilot, who hit with Magic and January. He says: "I had to think it through, but I realised I didn't want to be a Roller. I thought Rollermania was very amusing, but I didn't want any part of it. I knew how much work it had taken them to get there, and I might have been jealous, but by that time I'd had a hit with Magic and I was very happy with my own career."

The punk revolution changed the rules once again in the late 70s. It was a London-oriented movement so it took a while for Scots to find their own handle on it. Former Beatstalker Alan Mair was in the Only Ones by this point, enjoying success with their hit Another Girl Another Planet. He says, "When we started no one really understood us, but then punk came along and we made sense. We had a great time and I was in my element supporting The Who in the States, but there were too many drugs going on and I had to leave. It's a tough thing to leave a band that's still going, but when I told them I was quitting, it turns out they all wanted to quit too."

The 1980s brought new technology and a new attitude, with many Scots bands trying to invent a more European or American sound. Del Amitri's Justin Currie remembers: "That indie-schmindie scene had a lot of inverse snobbery and deliverate amateurism. You can still hear a bit of that today in Belle and Sebastian and people like that. That little bit of talent took us round the world, though - we visited a radio station in the USA and they introduced us to our biggest fan. He was four feet tall!"

While the 80s are remembered in some circles as a dull decade, it was a golden era for Scottish rock'n'roll. Simple Minds, Runrig, the Associates, Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, Big Country and many others took our music around the planet and made us big news. Former Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson barely escaped the era with his life.

Robbo says: "I stepped in to finish Motorhead's tour after their guitarist did a runner. I was trying to learn the songs outside the Roxy in Los Angeles, and with ten minutes to go the bouncer wouldn't let me into the venue. He was a big drunk Hell's Angel - but I had to headbutt him to get by! He was so drunk he just fell flat. Lemmy was saying, 'You can't hit an Angel - we're all going to die!' and I was saying, 'I hardly touched him - when he fell over no one was more surprised than me'..."

Ian Donaldson of H2O (now with Fourgoodmen) remembers his moment on Top of the Pops: "It was like punching the air when you reached the top of the mountain. All the years of playing every toilet up and down the country were suddenly worthwhile. You can't match that feeling."

Simple Minds and Runrig became stadium rock bands - a completely different entertainment style from the more cozy shows - and eventually Runrig's Donnie Munro had to leave. He recalls his last show at Stirling Castle: "I felt I owed it to myself and the fans to do it with dignity, so it only really became emotional as I walked off the stage, past all the people I'd worked with for years. I think they're still a great band and I like what they're doing these days."

Scottish music changed again, with bands like Primal Scream and the Jesus and Mary Chain exploring new sounds and clashing old traditions with new technology. Sushil K. Dade from the Soup Dragons remembers: "Our first big gig was supporting Primal Scream, and it was my birthday. I had one wee drink early in the day, but as I was driving us home I was stopped by the police. I was okay, of course, but it scared me so much I've ended up becoming a driving instructor! And at one point I forgot how to play properly, until Tina Weymouth from Talking Heads told me to stup using a plectrum. She was right - I've never used one since."

Ex-Primal Scream member Martin St John remembers the wild nights of excess: "We played some great shows, but we were so drugged-up we don't remember them all! I sort-of remember one show where the background was all mirrors, and I was hallucinating so badly I couldn't find my way off the stage. I ended up having to escape through the audience... And there was one time Bobby Gillespie got so out of it he'd have died if we hadn't looked after him. Great days!"

The Vaselines inspired Nirvana, so when Curt Cobain and co playing in Edinburgh they asked their heroes to re-form and appear as special guests. The band's Frances McKee recalls: "That band was a joke. We never rehearsed and the set, as usual, was really bad. I only started enjoying the night just before they kicked us out. But at least I wasn't sick for once..."

Meanwhile, pop trio Bis became the first-ever unsigned act to appear on Top of the Pops. Singer Manda Rin recalls: "We were young and just wanted to have fun. I remember I bought a really cheap dress - five pounds or something - and I just jumped up and down. We toured with the Foo Fighters and Dave Grohl was really nice to us - we grew up really quickly. But then the music papers decided to hate us. They were calling me all these names, and it's very difficult for a young girl to deal with that. We wrote some great tunes though."

In recent years Scottish rock'n'roll has become truly global, with bands like Travis and Texas ruling the world. Belle and Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand, KT Tunstall and many more are keeping things noisy, continuing the grand Scottish tradition of approaching popular styles from a unique and personal direction.