Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Books

Postcards From Scotland by Grant McPhee review – a bittersweet tribute to Scottish indie bands

Filmmaker Grant McPhee delivers the definitive account of a vital period in Scottish music

The esteemed music journalist Simon Reynolds once said, “Indie music as we know it was invented in Scotland.” He wasn’t wrong, and here’s the hefty oral history to prove it. Postcards from Scotland, curated by filmmaker Grant McPhee, director of the essential Scottish music documentaries Big Gold Dream and Teenage Superstars, is the definitive account of a seminal period in pop history.

This is the story of a hugely creative and incestuous scene nominally led by the likes of The Jesus and Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, The Pastels, Primal Scream and The Shop Assistants. But to McPhee’s credit, there are no footnotes or also-rans here – practically every Scottish indie act who released a record during this fertile epoch receives their due.

The circle wouldn’t be complete without contributions from The Jasmine Minks or Meat Whiplash, or even Nocturnal Vermin and their bizarrely prescient ‘tribute’ to budding MSP classmate John Swinney.

It’s a Byzantine saga involving hundreds of musicians and ever-changing line-ups, so much so it sometimes resembles Monty Python’s Rock Notes sketch. McPhee – who provides context via clear-eyed chapter intros and outros – is aware of this, drily noting at one point that the sprawling rock family tree he’s dealing with “would send shivers down Pete Frame’s spine”.

Nevertheless, he makes compelling sense of it all. A labour of love, it’s a sometimes funny, sometimes bittersweet tribute to a gawky generation of like-minded dreamers who fully embraced the post-punk DIY ethos. They all left something indelible behind.

Postcards from Scotland: Scottish Independent Music 1983-1995 by Grant McPhee is out now (Omnibus Press, £25). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us moreBig Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

READER-SUPPORTED SINCE 1991

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Recommended for you

View all
'There's a strong anti-Bond theme': How John le Carré revolutionised the spy novel
Books

'There's a strong anti-Bond theme': How John le Carré revolutionised the spy novel

Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon review – conjuring an unhinged and vaudevillian world
Books

Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon review – conjuring an unhinged and vaudevillian world

Top 5 Midlands-based crime dramas, chosen by filmmaker and author Nigel Proctor
Books

Top 5 Midlands-based crime dramas, chosen by filmmaker and author Nigel Proctor

Big Issue's greatest interviews in history published in a collection for the first time
big issue the great interviews cover
Big Issue

Big Issue's greatest interviews in history published in a collection for the first time