Since Yesterday - The Untold Story of Scottish Girl Bands

The stars of Since Yesterday 

Those of you who visit my blog regularly will likely know that I have a younger sister, Carla, who I am immensely proud of. Carla has a fierce creative energy that burns incredibly bright.  Over the last 7 or so years, quite a lot of that energy has been invested in the making of a documentary entitled SinceYesterday - The Untold Story of Scottish Girl Bands alongside her friend Blair. 

While filming a music video together, an off-the-cuff remark along the lines of 'someone should do a film about Scottish girl bands' resulted in the duo beginning to track down and interview members of bands from the 60's up to present day.

Their time, energy, resilience, empathy, hard work and patience was rewarded earlier this week on Wednesday 21st August when their documentary premiered as the closing film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. 

Photo by Euan Robertson

What began as a hobby quickly became quite serious, as Carla balanced being a music obsessive with top notch detective skills. Carla would phone me up enthralled to tell me about her day with Jeanette McKinley from The McKinleys who released Sweet and Tender Romance on Parlaphone in 1964. A young Jimmy Page played guitar with them, they supported The Beatles and played on Ready Steady Go! and with The Stones at Wembley Arena.

Sweet & Tender Romance by The McKinleys (audio)

Then Carla would tell me about The Ettes who were super DIY punk, Lung Leg who burst out of grunge and riot grrl, Sophisticated Boom Boom, His Latest Flame, The Hedrons and the wonderful tale of getting in a car with Rose from Strawberry Switchblade. Maybe that will make the book ... as there will be so much recorded that didn't make the film.

In 2021 I helped Carla and Blair take their project to the next stage by managing a kickstarter for them. 659 generous people raised almost £29,500 to allow them to develop animation, clear archive footage and bring other people on board. Suddenly, a film was appearing.

Fast forward (and it didn't feel so fast when Carla and Blair were spending weeks on end locked in an editing suite! ) 3-years and the film has arrived!

Since Yesterday is a global story told through a local lense. It's emotional, beautiful, funny, soulful, defiant and it gives a voice to some astonishingly creative, resilient and wonderful women. 

The documentary redefines success, celebrating landmark achievements that have been overlooked by the Scottish music scene and the wider industry at large. Sophisticated Boom Boom (morphing into His Latest Flame) were the first band to play The Barrowland as we know it, as they were the support act for Simple Minds. This is something that I am positive the good folk at The Barrowland will look to highlight in the venue after watching the film.

There are harrowing stories about sexual abuse being common at gigs, bands being dropped (or not even being signed) because a member was pregnant or 'could become' pregnant. Rightly, the film highlights the severe lack of diversity in publishing and at festivals. 

There are memories of how it felt to get in a room and make a noise with friends, reflections on tours, using cardboard boxes for drums and lots of funny stories - Rose McDowall could do stand up! While I love The Hedrons being interviewed together, they come across as a real gang and they giggle their way through the interview - laughing at the absurdity of 12-songs taking them around the world, but then recoiling in horror as they recall the reason why major labels rejected them.

Peel sessions, demo tapes, Smash Hits covers, Top of the Pops, supporting The Stones, Mick Jagger's catwalk, offers, rejections, fall-outs, make-ups, fanzines, touring, fun .... Since Yesterday covers all this and much, much more.

The interviews are moving, everyone opens their hearts to the camera. Carla's passion for music, her own experiences and strong feminist values must have helped with this. Blair has done a magnificent job in filming and congratulations to all the team for pulling together the interviews, old footage, memorabilia, photos and animation to create something that flows beautifully.

Since Yesterday brings us right up to the present day; Hen Hoose, Amplifi, The Cords and many more. Wonderful teenagers and women who are creating, fighting, advocating, inspiring, pushing boundaries and looking out for each other. The DIY ethic and sense of communities that are being created is exceptionally inspiring; focusing on safety, support, platforms and encouraging creativity and co-working. 

Who knows? Maybe in 20-years time there will be another documentary about them. 

Who knows where this film will go? Who will it inspire? But right now, my sister and her friends have united Scottish girl bands from the 60's to present day. They have told their stories and documented them on a film that has brought them together. That in itself, is a remarkable thing. I am intrigued as to what will stem and flower from the energy and community that I was part of for a while at the premiere. Well done to all involved.

I'm super proud of Carla and I am super proud of my youngest daughter Rosie who appears throughout the film, discovering all kinds of Scottish girl bands along the way and making friends to form her own band.

Rosie (natural poser!) and her Aunt Carla on the red carpet

Who knows if Rosie will form a band later in life?! She was buzzing at and after the premiere where she met so many strong women. The film could well position these women as role models for young girls who watch it over the months and years to come.

Here are some links (below) to interviews that Carla and Blair did ahead of and at the premiere. Lots more news to come!

The Skinny - interview by Fiona Shepherd

The Herald - interview by Lorraine Wilson

Snack Magazine - interview by Andrew Reilly (page 53 - August edition)

BBC - feature and interviews by Jonathan Geddes

The Guardian - feature and interview by Katie Hawthorne

Holywood Reporter - interview and feature by Lily Ford

Film Authority - feature

The Herald - 5 star review by Barry Didcock

Glas-goes Pop 3

Glas-goes Pop arrived on the Glasgow music scene back in 2022 as a result of the creative energy of music fans Tita Geddes and Kenji Kenji. With a major focus on independent pop music, the first festival saw performances from the likes of Lawrence's Mozart Estate, Pete Astor from The Loft/The Weather Prophets, Close Lobsters and The Orchids.

The positive response meant that the friends could take things forward and in 2023 they brought together BMX Bandits, Stevie Jackson, Robert Forster and many more.

At my age, summer festivals are quite difficult to plan for, especially at the end of July when it is my wife's birthday and around the time of an annual wild camp with my daughters. 

However, early rumours coming out of the Glas-goes pop socials hinted heavily that Gerry Love would be playing. I bought a weekend ticket and hoped that I'd be able to go.

And go I did! Although I merely scratched the surface in comparison to some indie-pop devotees who travelled from as far afield as Brazil, America and Japan, with many more coming from across Britain for a summer holiday in Glasgow and Scotland. Quite a few are staying up to check out Scotland and then come back to Glagsow for Belle and Sebastian's SWG3 weekender coming up.

On the Friday night, due to ongoing issues with trains, I opted to drive into the West End of Glasgow and the wonderful setting of the Glasgow University Debating Chambers.

I arrived in plenty of time to catch The Jasmine Minks, formerly of Creation Records. Indeed, their debut single Think! was released 40-years ago with the catalogue number CRE004. With 3 guitars on stage, The Minks created a beautiful racket, at times chiming, melodic and pure, at others, driven, raw and punky. New songs sounded superb alongside old, with Cut Me Deep being a personal favourite. 

The Bluebells absolutely smashed it out the park. Arguably, they should have headlined. Ken McCluskey bounded about the stage with the energy of someone half his age. Daddy Was An Engineer was blue collared Glasgow bar soul music, Forever More was stunning, as was Red Guitars. 

Bobby Bluebell and Ken McCluskey's voices gel effortlessly and the crowd lapped up the songs and between song banter. Some Sweet Day was ... sweet, Stonehouse Violets and Anyone Could Be a Buzzcock highlighted that the band, who formed in 1981, are still full of energy and capable of producing brilliant guitar pop.

Cath was brilliant and the crowd sang along. Bobby mentioned Alan Horne and Postcard before Everybody's Somebody's Fool, while I'm Falling was my personal favourite from their set. The flowing melodic chorus and then the sublime outro melted hearts. The room was pretty warm too!

Not many bands who play Glas-goes Pop will have appeared in Smash Hits, been on Pebble Mill and so on and so forth (as the band highlighted on stage), but then not many bands have a song like Young At Heart. It's an absolute gem of a song with an incredible chorus that can be sung heartily, whether you have known the song for years or just discovered it. Perhaps, the title describes the band perfectly, young at heart, still inspired by The Buzzcocks, The Velvets and guitar pop music all these years and decades down the line.

The Bluebells didn't want to come off stage, ripping into a cover of The Velvets What Goes On with Bobby on lead vocals. Then going into a jam of Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth. The Bluebells have never cared about being cool, they just want to create and play music and have fun. They did. It was a brilliant set.

That was it for me on the Friday, a flying visit in and out, so I didn't see headline act The Softies.

On Saturday, despite continued train issues, I braved public transport to enjoy a few beers. After getting off the underground at Kelvinbridge I treated myself to a Guinness outside The Doublet in the sunshine before heading round to the Debating Chambers.

A number of friends raved about opening band The Lovely Basement and I will definitely be checking up on them this week. Many people had been up until the small hours, staying on after The Bluebells to watch The Softies and then dancing to DJ's until 1am. There were after parties too!

Lung Leg were on at 6.55pm prompt (the sound engineer and tech team did incredibly well all weekend to keep the show running to time) and they absolutely blew me away. 

Jane (McKeown) Egypt on bass and lead vocals locked in superbly with Paul Thomson (formerly of Franz Ferdinand) on drums to create some real funky and punky grooves. Annie Spandex created scratchy and catchy riffs on guitar and two new(ish) members on additional guitar and keys helped create energetic melodies, harmonies (at times 4 part) and hooks that were ridiculously catchy. Like playground rhymes backed by new wave / punk art riffs and grooves.

Many songs were under 2-minutes, others were well under 1-minute. Kung-Fu on the Internet (the first song to mention the Internet?!), Maid to Minx and the short, fun and bonkers Eek! were fast and fun. 

Tony Molina was not a band I had heard of before Glas-goes pop. However I checked them out online and liked the sound of their guitars. So I was a little surprised when they took to the stage as a 4-piece of keyboards, 2 guitars (one a 12-string) and bass. Surprised, but delighted, they were superb. I will need to find out if they have an album that is stripped back like this. 

Then it was time for the maestro - Gerard Love and his band. They blew me away, this was the tightest and hardest I have seen them play. That said, they started gently with the sublime Going Places. Then it was power and psychedelic pop perfection. Don't Look Back sounds better every time I hear it. Star Sign saw the normally chilled Tom Crossley on key/flute break away to dance manically on stage. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Muddy Rivers was stretched out beautifully at the end, while new songs keep me wondering when Gerry will release something. You can't rush a perfectionist though.

Ending with a sky scraping Ain't That Enough and a euphoric Sparky's Dream, Gerry and his band lay down a bit of a gauntlet for headliners Heavenly. I had to dash for my last train home, so I couldn't stay to see how they responded. It's safe to say that they had a lot of fans in the crowd.

Well done to all who organized and delivered Glas-goes Pop. The festival went on into the Sunday with a pub quiz hosted by Duglas T Stewart (won by friends Ruthie and Anne-Marie and their team - well done) and a closing party at Mono featuring The Cords.