THE LIST – 2010's TOP CREATIVE SCOTS

Stuck on a train but just glad to have a train to be stuck on I had a rare chance to actually read something. Pulling The List from my bag I saw they had quite appropriately made a list of their 100 top creative Scots. Carefully reading through the list I came to the end realising that no record shops had been mentioned. Then realising the title was “Top Creative Scots” that seemed more than fair. I’m sure Stephen Pastel at Monorail would quite rightfully claim to be creative but certainly neither myself nor Raymond at One Up in Aberdeen for instance would I think claim to have a creative bone in our bodies. Influential maybe. Good at spotting creative talent hopefully.

However I then checked back to find most of Scotland’s promoters listed along with labels, publishers and bloggers. Bloggers will I’m sure point to their “creative” writing but while promoters, publishers and labels do a very important job spotting talent and that itself is a talent it is not I think a creative one. If it is then the few remaining record shops should all be in the list too as wading through the mass of music produced these days to spot the hidden gems is an art in itself. So if this is a list of  creative Scots and those that support creative Scots then why no record shops ? And while I’m asking why no Vic Galloway ? Having said that there is no Ian Rankin or Gordon McIntyre/Ballboy who qualify on several counts in any year. Matthew Young more important than Neil Pennycook ? Tracer Tails more important than Dan Willson ?

Going back to the introduction I saw that “The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist”

I suspect most folk spent 2010 waiting for record shops to drown rather than make a splash so maybe that is the answer but now I think about it given how “creative” shops have to be to survive these days maybe we do qualify. Clearly we just didn’t splash enough.

Anyway the next time a band asks me to recommend a label I shall send them to LuckyMe (No.5) who it appears are very important indeed !