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Now HMV has gone will Avalanche return ?

March 9, 2017 No Comments

Edinburgh Evening News Thursday 5th January 2017

Surprisingly I have been asked this a lot. While I was happy to help out at the Offbeat Gallery before Christmas especially as it meant folk could come in to discuss the History of Scottish Music Centre the centre really now has to be my focus. More importantly HMV was really only a small part of the problem. The HMV-owned FOPP is still able to carry stock without any need for payment until sold and while there was a time Avalanche was the only indie selling “indie” vinyl now everybody is at it so as I’ve said before that particular cake may have got bigger but now everybody wants a piece!

Selling local bands’ music really was our thing and that dropped off dramatically not long after we invested in moving to the Grassmarket, which was unfortunate. Given the opportunity we could still sell hundreds of a big local artist, as happened with the second Withered Hand album but too often you could buy a release earlier, cheaper and with extra stuff directly from the label or band. If selling local bands is simply a bonus then of course you don’t care and take any extra sales you can get. Similarly if it is more of a hobby and not your main source of income then it isn’t so important. For Avalanche, though, it was different.

The PledgeMusic model has now taken things one step further and while leaving shops with little or no sales it has also often deprived the artists of an outlet long after the pledge campaign has finished.

Many labels now, especially the bigger ones, sell more of an “indies only” release than all the 300-plus indie record shops put together. Similarly they are creaming off most of the sales abroad.

There really is no point getting into an argument about it now as it has all gone too far down the line to be reversed. Similarly to promote anything an artist does on social media is normally to direct people to a link saying “don’t buy from a shop buy this better thing from us”. Of course the problem for bands starting is that they need the shops to help reach people but there is no reason for the shop to do so now. All in all, I hope folk can see why I see no future for Avalanche as a straightforward shop.

In the long run things will change. Sales are ridiculously low as streaming now means people feel no need to buy new and local bands’ music at all. One Scottish artist whose album was released last month had great press coverage and is on an established label with distribution but has registered four sales. One LP, one CD and two downloads. Now the particular label doesn’t register its own sales so they will have sold some directly but that is an album featured in some end-of-year best-of charts that is available to all the HMVs, Amazon and the indie shops and sold four. Two oddly not in Scotland!

Believe me this is not that unusual an occurrence. One Scottish Album of the Year Awards nominee that was download-only and had had a few sales in the past sold NONE the week it was featured. The irony of setting up the History of Scottish Music Centre while saying we shouldn’t wallow in nostalgia is not lost on me but that is exactly what is needed. We need to celebrate the past but look to the future.

Kevin Buckle is the owner of Avalanche Records

The name’s a mouthful but we must get the ball rock ‘n’ rolling on music centre

The History of Scottish Contemporary Pop and Rock Music Centre. Don’t worry I’ll have a better name by the time it opens. Currently it has been shortened to the History of Scottish Music Centre but of course that opens a can of worms as to what genres will be included.

The idea to have something celebrating over 50 years of Scottish music and culture first arose over two years ago. When the idea was also mooted at the first Live Music Matters meeting it was clear it was an idea that had support. However it then also became clear where popular music stood in the pecking order of the arts.

Very quickly it was obvious that music was considered less worthy certainly of funding and possibly even as one of the arts. In particular the visual arts needed millions of pounds so galleries could be free and work could be properly displayed while popular music, what with it being popular, should pay its own way. Less popular music genres needed funding, if not on the scale of the visual arts, it turned out because, well, they weren’t popular !

Now of course we have reached the point that Edinburgh is losing venues at an alarming rate while art galleries are almost immune and when one is threatened with closure all hell lets loose.

I am sure the History of Scottish Music Centre will find a home and hope to have news very soon. A huge amount of work has been done already without any funding and the centre already has a good following on twitter and facebook

So a Scottish Contemporary Pop Rock Music Centre (only with a far better name obviously) celebrating Scottish artists and labels both old and new as well as providing background on venues and clubs that have come and gone over the years. A place you will be able to buy the latest releases as well as older titles. Scottish music has had a worldwide influence that should be celebrated and this would seem the perfect way to do it.There might even be enough space to feature a few old record shops!

You can donate at http://www.avalancherecords.co.uk/2016/12/04/history-of-scottish-music-centre-funding. You can find us on Twitter @HistoryofSMC and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/HistoryofSMC/. Alternatively, email kevinavalanche@hotmail.com.

Don’t believe the vinyl hype

It is a pity vinyl has got caught up in such hype. CDs sold almost as many copies in the week before Christmas as vinyl sold all year but that of course is not as good a story. In fact it is because CDs make such good presents that the format will last for many years to come.

The vinyl revival will undoubtedly come to a halt in the next year or two and it just has to be hoped that there is enough support after that happens for vinyl to remain a viable format for the foreseeable future.

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/kevin-buckle-now-hmv-has-gone-will-avalanche-return-1-4331699

There was consternation if little surprise when the BBC Sound of 2017 artists were announced last week and no Scottish artists were listed. Two were from the US, there was a token Manchester band and all the rest were from London and the Home Counties. The list showed not just a geographical bias but also a genre bias as urban acts made up over half the list and indie bands almost nowhere to be seen.

Immediately there were questions raised by those in the Scottish music industry who oddly in my view then put forward their own urban acts for inclusion.

Now what Scotland does best, what Scotland is best known for and what others love about Scottish music is the indie bands it has produced over the years. Belle and Sebastian, Biffy Clyro, Frightened Rabbit, Mogwai, Franz Ferdinand, The Twilight Sad, King Creosote and Teenage Fanclub is just the start of a very long list and before them The Shop Assistants, The Pastels, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, The Cocteau Twins, Orange Juice, Josef K, The Skids and The Scars head an even longer list. Of course before “indie” existed there were bands from The Sensational Alex Harvey Band to the Bay City Rollers.

Unfortunately many in the Scottish music industry including those who were part of this rich heritage now want to convince the world that Scotland is a bit leftfield, a bit quirky and very multinational. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Scottish Album of the Year Awards but the problem is endemic.

All these genres have a place in the Scottish music scene of course but whether it is the powerful folk lobby or simply the few managers in Scotland relentlessly putting forward their artists for every opportunity, generally the contemporary rock and pop artists, as Edinburgh City Council and Creative Scotland call them, are left trailing far behind.

Part of the problem is that so much money is poured into youth initiatives and the easiest way to “prove” these are working is to give the artists involved as many chances as possible. Some young bunch of lads with no desire to network and go to workshops stand little chance of success when in the old days they would be the core demographic for a great band.

While bands like The Twilight Sad go from strength to strength currently coming to the end of a world tour with The Cure it is hard to see how new bands can follow in their wake.

The really hard thing these days is to reach people with your music and engage with them enough to make them want to buy. You can go to a seminar or a workshop or be given advice by someone who hasn’t actually been at the music industry coalface for years but unless you are unaware of the absolute basics there is little point.

What would certainly help would be if the Scottish music industry powers that be accepted the marvellous tradition Scotland has for guitar bands and great songwriters and gave more chances to genuinely new young bands.

It isn’t that bands don’t feature at all in the scheme of things but if they do they are more often than not either made up from the ashes of another more established band who already have the contacts or have gone through the youth initiative system.

There are also more established artists, some that have been helped before, ready to go to the next level and would fulfil the expectations of the wider audience for Scottish acts. Withered Hand and Meursault head that list, while of course Avalanche favourites There Will Be Fireworks have sold thousands of albums worldwide despite lack of distribution or management simply by being so good people feel the need to tell their friends who tell their friends. Sometimes the old ways are still the best! The London music industry works very hard to make sure those in the provinces get as few chances as possible and if the same then happens in the microcosm that is Scotland then it is understandable that some small unconnected indie band feels the situation is hopeless. Maybe it is time to give them hope!

Bands that get to the art of the matter

I had a rare night out on Saturday at the Filthy Tongues gig at The Liquid Room with the artist Gerry Gapinski whose artwork adorns their new album and it reminded me that I like my bands to look like a band and albums to have proper artwork.

It was something I always said about Saint Jude’s Infirmary who as part of my rare nights out double-header I had seen the week before. You could go into a pub full of people and just know they were the band without them trying too hard. Their last album cover was a self-portrait by Jack Vettriano ,who is a fan along with Ian Rankin. Martin Metcalfe is maybe even a little easier to spot these days but young bands should take note that it does no harm to make an effort !