Latest news with #GoodbyeMrMackenzie
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
15 famous Scottish musicians of the 1980s: From new wave to jangle-pop
Time for another trip down memory lane - or a history lesson if you were a child of the 90s and beyond. While we've taken a look at some of those memorable Scottish acts that permeated the airwaves and our eardrums during the decade of the 90s, we have heard you all loud and clear - what about something a little earlier? Well, how about the 1980s? A formative year for music, with the rise of new wave, post-punk, hip-hop and the tail end of the punk movement, a rather large number of musicians who cut their teeth as part of various local scenes in Scotland would go on to form several acts that we still herald to this day; from Shirley Manson's early musical escapades before Garbage, through to the bands that ended up joining together to form Teenage Fanclub. Here's our 15 picks of bands from Scotland that formed or gained prominence throughout the 1980s, from old favourites to some even we had forgotten about. 1 . Eurythmics (Glasgow/London/Sunderland) Okay, let's get this one out of the way first. While Annie Lennox, the powerful and iconic vocalist, is famously Scottish, her co-founder, Dave Stewart, is from Sunderland, England. But you can't talk about '80s pop without mentioning the duo. With their innovative synth-pop sound, striking visuals, and genre-defining hits like 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),' they became a global phenomenon and set a new standard for electronic music and style. | Getty Images Photo Sales 2 . Goodbye Mr Mackenzie (Bathgate) Formed in the late 1980s in Bathgate, West Lothian, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie was a post-punk and alternative rock band known for their dark, theatrical sound and energetic live shows. Their music, blending gothic undertones with catchy pop hooks, earned them a dedicated cult following. The band's legacy is perhaps most famously defined by the role of their backing vocalist, Shirley Manson, who would later achieve global success as the frontwoman for the band Garbage. | Kate Garner Photo Sales 3 . The Boy Hairdressers (Glasgow) Formed in Glasgow in 1987, The Boy Hairdressers were a key part of the city's burgeoning indie pop scene. The band's lineup included future members of Teenage Fanclub and The Vaselines, with Francis Macdonald and Gerard Love at its core. Though their time together was short, releasing just one EP, their jangly guitars and melodic songwriting are seen as a direct precursor to the sound that would define Teenage Fanclub's later work. | Discogs Photo Sales 4 . The Bluebells (Glasgow) This Glasgow-based band was a key part of the Scottish jangle-pop scene in the early 1980s. Known for their infectious melodies and bright, guitar-driven sound, The Bluebells are best remembered for their enduring hit single 'Young at Heart,' which reached the UK charts in 1984. Though their career was relatively short-lived, their blend of classic songwriting and upbeat pop sensibilities left a lasting impression on the decade. | Discogs Photo Sales Related topics: BoostMusicArtistsScotlandNostalgia
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
15 famous Scottish musicians of the 1980s: From new wave to jangle-pop
Time for another trip down memory lane - or a history lesson if you were a child of the 90s and beyond. While we've taken a look at some of those memorable Scottish acts that permeated the airwaves and our eardrums during the decade of the 90s, we have heard you all loud and clear - what about something a little earlier? Well, how about the 1980s? A formative year for music, with the rise of new wave, post-punk, hip-hop and the tail end of the punk movement, a rather large number of musicians who cut their teeth as part of various local scenes in Scotland would go on to form several acts that we still herald to this day; from Shirley Manson's early musical escapades before Garbage, through to the bands that ended up joining together to form Teenage Fanclub. Here's our 15 picks of bands from Scotland that formed or gained prominence throughout the 1980s, from old favourites to some even we had forgotten about. 1 . Eurythmics (Glasgow/London/Sunderland) Okay, let's get this one out of the way first. While Annie Lennox, the powerful and iconic vocalist, is famously Scottish, her co-founder, Dave Stewart, is from Sunderland, England. But you can't talk about '80s pop without mentioning the duo. With their innovative synth-pop sound, striking visuals, and genre-defining hits like 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),' they became a global phenomenon and set a new standard for electronic music and style. | Getty Images Photo Sales 2 . Goodbye Mr Mackenzie (Bathgate) Formed in the late 1980s in Bathgate, West Lothian, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie was a post-punk and alternative rock band known for their dark, theatrical sound and energetic live shows. Their music, blending gothic undertones with catchy pop hooks, earned them a dedicated cult following. The band's legacy is perhaps most famously defined by the role of their backing vocalist, Shirley Manson, who would later achieve global success as the frontwoman for the band Garbage. | Kate Garner Photo Sales 3 . The Boy Hairdressers (Glasgow) Formed in Glasgow in 1987, The Boy Hairdressers were a key part of the city's burgeoning indie pop scene. The band's lineup included future members of Teenage Fanclub and The Vaselines, with Francis Macdonald and Gerard Love at its core. Though their time together was short, releasing just one EP, their jangly guitars and melodic songwriting are seen as a direct precursor to the sound that would define Teenage Fanclub's later work. | Discogs Photo Sales 4 . The Bluebells (Glasgow) This Glasgow-based band was a key part of the Scottish jangle-pop scene in the early 1980s. Known for their infectious melodies and bright, guitar-driven sound, The Bluebells are best remembered for their enduring hit single 'Young at Heart,' which reached the UK charts in 1984. Though their career was relatively short-lived, their blend of classic songwriting and upbeat pop sensibilities left a lasting impression on the decade. | Discogs Photo Sales Related topics: BoostMusicArtistsScotlandNostalgia
The Herald Scotland
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Why Scotland's 'great lost rock star' is busier than ever
August, as it turns out, will be a busy month for the man of whom it was once said, by the Herald, that he 'may be Scotland's great lost rock star'. Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, fresh from a sweltering gig at Oran Mor nine days ago, are at the Doune festival on August 2. The Filthy Tongues, the darkly compelling band formed by the core musicians of Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, are playing the Famous Spiegeltent during the Edinburgh Fringe on August 13, and will also guest at A Night for Soapy, a fundraising event at Glasgow's Barrowland on August 31. Beyond that, there are dates at Irvine's Harbour Arts Centre on October 24 and Dunfermline's PJ Molloys the following night. Were all that not enough, Martin is producing the forthcoming albums by the Rezillos and The Countess of Fife. He is also, into the bargain, a talented painter. He first made his name as singer and songwriter with Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, a popular Bathgate group whose distinctive sound emerged from the post-punk scene. In 1989 their well-received debut album, Good Deeds and Dirty Rags was a Top 30 hit in the UK charts and led to eventful tours of Britain and Europe. Sadly, as was the fate of many other promising groups, they would go on to be plagued by record company indecision and internal politics. Though there were three further, very fine, albums – Hammer and Tongs (1991), Five (1994; it charted in the UK for the first time upon its reissue in 2024), and The Glory Hole (1996) – the band came to an end, with a final gig at Glasgow's The Garage in late 1995, after Shirley Manson and guitarist 'Big John' Duncan had departed. Along the way, band members had created a side-project, Angelfish, whose 1994 album was produced by Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads. Read more: The Filthy Tongues, which Martin formed alongside former GMM bandmates Fin Wilson and Derek Kelly, were initially known as Isa and the Filthy Tongues, with Stacey Chavis as lead singer, and released two albums, Addiction, a potent blend of punk, surf and blues, and Dark Passenger. They also contributed songs, including the title track, to New Town Killers, an Edinburgh-set thriller directed by the former Skids frontman, Richard Jobson. When Chavis left, the band continued as the Filthy Tongues, whose music would explore the dark underbelly of Edinburgh. Their excellent 2016 debut, Jacob's Ladder, enticed The Scotsman's reviewer to describe them as now a 'strictly testosterone-charged mean gothic blues machine. There is more than a dash of the Nick Cave in the biblical imagery of the title track and much of the album lurks misanthropically in the shadows, but the classy, drawling Holy Brothers references their own musical past with a certain urban romance'. Jacob's Ladder (2016), Back to Hell (2018) and 2023's densely claustrophobic In These Dark Places all followed. Of Back to Hell, the rock-to-punk-rock music website Louder than War observed: 'This menacingly glorious follow-up to Jacob's Ladder is packed full of richly textured musicianship sound-tracking passionate tales of desolation and pain but with a glimmer of hope to come'. Also in 2023, the Filthy Tongues featured in Revelations of Rab McVie, an acclaimed collaboration at the Traverse Theatre with artist Maria Rud and actor Tam Dean Burn. As The Herald's theatre critic, Neil Cooper, noted: 'Martin Metcalfe fronts the five-piece Filthy Tongues like some arcane preacher hurling out gothic litanies over a swamptrash voodoo backing'. A live album is currently in the pipeline. The Rezillos' and Fay Fife's new albums are being co-produced by Martin Metcalfe Martin was flattered to be approached to work on the new albums by the Rezillos, The Armoury Show and The Countess of Fife. 'It was the Countess herself who asked me to co-produce her album', he says. 'That came as a total shock and surprise. 'First she had asked me to co-produce the new Rezillos album, which completely blew me away. The Rezillos were after all the first band I ever saw properly, at the Glasgow Apollo, when I was 15. 'So I find it quite astonishing that I was asked to work on their album, because I never put myself out there as a producer. In fact, it's Derek Kelly who takes most of the producer's role in the Filthy Tongues. 'I've spent a lot of time in control rooms, with the likes of Reinhold Mack, who produced Queen and also recorded the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. 'So, over the years, you do get to a place where you know what you're doing. I've never imagined a career as a producer but one thing has led to another, but it's been a great experience to work with the Rezillos, the Countess and The Armoury Show'. It was a 'huge compliment' to have been asked to produce the latter band's Dead Souls, which charted at number six in the Scottish charts. It's worth mentioning that Martin and Fin also spent a year touring with the Skids in 2023-24, playing between 30 and 50 gigs and visiting such far-flung places as Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. 'To do that was really bucket-stuff list that I didn't have on a bucket-list', he acknowledges. 'In my head, or my heart, I'd love to play with Iggy Pop, I'd love to play with the Sex Pistols, I'd love to play with the Skids. It's not like a bucket-list thing you think is achievable, like climbing the Eiffel Tower or visiting the Pyramids or sailing down the Amazon. I never thought I'd visit Australia, or New Zealand – a lovely place - or Hong Kong. These were fantastic places. In Hong Kong, I thought, how the hell did I end up here? I really didn't know what it was going to be like'. Martin and his bands – Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and the Filthy Tongues – are gearing up for a busy August and beyond. He is no doubt hoping that at none of the forthcoming gigs does the temperature match that at GMM's gig at Glasgow's Oran Mor a week ago last Friday. 'It's probably the hottest gig we've ever played', he says. 'Twenty-seven degrees in the soundcheck and possibly 30 degrees during the performance. In the end it was one of the very best gigs, and great because it was shared by us and the audience. 'People will ask in years to come, 'Remember that insanely hot gig in Oran Mor?' and I will. It was a night to remember for many reasons'. * The Filthy Tongues play The Famous Spiegeltent Presents: Sounds of Scotland, in the St Andrew Square Gardens hub, Edinburgh, on August 13, 9.30pm. – August 1,2 and 3, Cardross Estate, Cardross, Port of Menteith. RUSSELL LEADBETTER
Scotsman
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Shirley Manson interview: Rock icon on Garbage and her ‘wild years' in Edinburgh band
Shirley Manson, Garbage's iconic frontwoman, speaks to the Evening News about her incredible career and the alt-rock veterans' eighth album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The band were formed in 1994, when Edinburgh-born Shirley met American bandmates Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker. They would go on to become one of the biggest musical acts of the '90s, selling over 15 million albums worldwide. Their best known songs include Stupid Girl, Only Happy When It Rains and the theme to the 1999 James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough. Before finding world stardom with Garbage, Stockbridge-raised Shirley sang with Edinburgh indie stalwarts Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. So how much of a debt, if any, does Shirley owe to her former band? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I have a huge debt to Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. Without them I wouldn't have been prepared for the insane rise of Garbage that I enjoyed. I have a lot of love in my heart for them, and it's wonderful to see them get the kind of praise they deserve. I follow them on Instagram and to see them getting rave reviews, five out of five stars, and entering the Scottish charts is really gratifying. They are insanely talented, and yeah, I'm really proud of them. It's glorious. They are lovely, special people. And they are great artists. You've said in the past it was a wild and decadent time that gave you a 'spectacular education in the world of rock and roll'. It was fantastic. EVERY. SINGLE. DEBAUCHED. GLORIOUS. MOMENT. It was a wild, wild ride. And I have zero regret. We were disobedient, untameable... and hey, that's what you're supposed to do when you're young, right? It was a riot. It was the first time I'd ever been outside of Scotland when Goodbye Mr Macknzie played on the continent and it was glorious. To see the world for the first time while in a rock and roll band - it doesn't get better than that! You famously took a call from Garbage and jumped on a plane to America to audition for the band. What would have happened if you hadn't taken that flight? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The great tragedy of Goodbye Mr Mackenzie is that we were severely mismanaged. It caused a lot of financial duress, and basically destroyed the band. And we had stopped functioning as Goodbye Mr Mackenzie by the time I got the phone call from the Garbage boys. I still think it's terrible... what I call the Swiss cheese effect... when certain things go wrong and you're involved with the wrong kind of people at the wrong time and the wrong place. And that basically hampered Goodbye Mr Mackenzie's momentum. We had run into the rocks basically. And I got this phone call... I don't know where I'd be if I hadn't. I probably would have had to go and get a job. I had no money, I was on the dole. I had no qualifications. And I didn't really know what I would do, so I got the call, and I jumped really cos I didn't have any other option. And I had no idea what I was jumping into. I literally just jumped into the void and it all paid off for me in the end. But I had no idea at the time that it would. I was like, 'ok, this is something to do. I'm gonna do it and I'll get to go to America'. And that's what happened. Did it surprise you how big Garbage became - and how many records you guys sold? Even if you'd talked to me after the success of the first three records, I would not have thought that we'd be enjoying a 30-year career. That's still astounding to me. Even today I'm still reeling from the fact I get to put new records out on a major label and be speaking to journalists like yourself.... that's still kinda wild to me. It just seems like the kinda thing that happens to others, so I don't take it for granted. And I certainly did not see it coming when I jumped on that after making the first record... I was proud of the record we'd made, but I didn't think it had any legs, at all. I was really caught off guard. And then when we released the second one, and we sold as many copies as the first album, that shocked me. So yeah, it's just bizarre. How much do you think the music industry has changed for female artists since your trailblazing early days with Garbage? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I think social media has encouraged the new generation of young women to speak out. I see that in the pop world. All these young women who are pop stars are now massively outspoken about things that they believe in - whether it's Olivia Rodrigo or Lady Gaga or Billie Eilish. They all have causes that they will speak out on - and in a forthright manner. They are way more switched on than my generation was. I was an anomaly really amongst female artists - and I'm not saying I'm the only one cos there were a lot of women in the 90s who were outspoken and talking about taboos. But as outspoken as our generation was, and as outspoken as my peers were, it's nothing compared to how women are now. And I'm so excited by it - it's thrilling to me. What are your proudest moments as an artist? Opening the Scottish Parliament. Absolutely. You have no idea what it feels like to be called up by your management and asked if you want to play at the opening of the first Scottish Parliament in 234 years - or however long it was. It was momentous. It was such a glorious evening and to sing in this spectacular setting underneath our ancient castle... it's etched in my memory and is something I am immensely grateful to have been a part of. How much has Edinburgh changed since you were a teenager? And have the changes been for better or worse? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It's changed. Of course it has. You would want it to change. Nothing stays the same. The city has its own evolution, just like a human being does. Sometimes you lose some beautiful things, and sometimes you gain a lot by change. So I do see that. I personally enjoy a lot of the changes I've seen in Edinburgh - and also I'm a little heartbroken at the death of that amazing moment in time when Edinburgh just had a burgeoning club scene. My favourite was the Hoochie Coochie club. All these kinda places where all the outsiders - the freaks and the geeks - would meet... that seems to have been eroded across the whole globe. There are different clubs that now exist, but I feel like the global communities are much more homogenised than they were when we were young. And I miss that. I miss everybody dressing differently and expressing themselves through their style in wilder, more provocative ways. I miss all the punks and rockabillies and the rockers, etc etc. They used to congregate outside Bruce's Records and places like that. And those record stores disappeared for a while. But old school record stores are coming back, and I think that's wonderful. It's exciting. The new album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, features a more optimistic tone compared to Garbage's previous work - would that be fair to say? Going into making this record, I was determined to find a more hopeful, uplifting world to immerse myself in. The title of the album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is the perfect descriptor for this new record as a whole. When things feel dark it feels imperative to seek out forces that are light, positive and beautiful in the world. It almost feels like a matter of life and death. A strategy for survival. Our last album was extremely forthright. Born out of frustration and outrage – it had a kind of scorched earth, pissed off quality to it. With this new record however, I felt a compulsion to reach for a different kind of energy. A more constructive one. I had this vision of us coming up out of the underground with searchlights as we moved towards the future. Searching for life, searching for love, searching for all the good things in the world that seem so thin on the ground right now. That was the overriding idea during the making of this record for me - that when things feel dark, its best to try to seek out that which is light, that which feels loving and good. When I was young, I tended towards the destruction of things. Now that I'm older I believe it's vitally important to build and to create things instead. I still entertain very old romantic ideals about community, society and the world. I don't want to walk through the world creating havoc, damaging the land and people. I want to do good. I want to do no harm. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad You've said in other interviews that you were 'completely cut off' from Garbage during the writing process for this new album, following hip surgery you underwent in 2023. Tell us about that. I was in Los Angeles recovering from surgery and I had a lot of brain fog going on because I was on a lot of pain medication. And I was literally learning how to walk again. So I didn't have the fortitude to go into the studio with the band. I just didn't have it in me. So for the first time in 30 years, we were forced into a different way of working. Retrospectively it was actually a gift to be able to disrupt all these old habits of ours. It was actually amazing. It was magical. I wouldn't want to do it again, but I think it really worked for us at that moment. One of the standout tracks on the album is the final track, The Day That I Met God. Tell us about that - did you meet the big man? The idea came to me when I was recovering from major surgery and I felt so raw, vulnerable and scared. I was on the treadmill for the first time following an operation when I suddenly felt this powerful sensation of healing love around me - it was a moment that uplifted me. It took me out from what had felt like hell. The vocal you hear is the writing demo, the first take. Just me sitting on the edge of my bed, in recovery, singing into a handheld microphone. I was feeling so vulnerable and I think that's what lends the song added poignancy. It's really a song about mortality but it's also an expression of gratitude. Gratitude for getting older, gratitude for the longevity of our band, for good health, for the great mystery and for the ongoing, creative adventure of life'. Garbage's new album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, is out now.
The Herald Scotland
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
'Scotland's great lost rock star' looks back at his band's debut album
It's always interesting to ask musicians how they feel about their debut albums - albums that, in some cases, might be a few decades old. Goodbye Mr Mackenzie's excellent introduction, Good Deeds and Dirty Rags, is a case in point. Released in April 1989, within weeks of such landmark albums as Pixies' Doolittle and The Cure's Disintegration, it sounds as fresh and captivating today as it did back then. It sprinted into the UK charts at number 26, contained some of the Edinburgh band's strongest material, and led to eventful tours of the UK and Europe. Live, too, they were a formidable proposition, one guaranteed to get the audience up on its feet. One review of a London Marquee gig, in 1989, begins: 'What an extraordinary bunch these Mackenzies are! If they ever become famous enough to have a cartoon series or soap opera written about them, the scriptwriters will have a field day'. Many fans of the group have fond memories of the debut and of such songs as The Rattler, Open Your Arms, Goodwill City, and Face to Face, all of which charted. When, a few months ago, the question was asked on Facebook, what's your favourite Goodbye Mr Mackenzie song?, many opted for them. 'Face to Face', said one. 'First time I heard it, have to admit brought a tear to my eye and ever since'. Wrote another: 'Now We Are Married [from the follow-up album, Hammer and Tongs] was the first song at our wedding, but I need to go with Goodwill City. Don't tell the missus'. Does Martin Metcalfe, the band's charismatic singer, feel that the album has aged really well? 'I don't think I'm the person to ask', he demurred earlier this week. 'There are fans who still love it, so it hasn't dated for them, and that's great, but it's not something I can stand back from and say, that was a timeless piece of work or whatever. Certainly, it has stood the test of time, because it keeps getting played on national radio, so I suppose it must have some kind of timeless element to it'. It was, however, something of a turning-point for the group. In a 2019 interview with Narc magazine, Martin did acknowledge that the album had been a 'defining life moment' for him: 'In those days any musician who managed to have a proper album released felt they'd arrived in one way or another. The fact that it went top 30 was yet another life landmark and I suppose would have cemented the 'arrived' metaphor if we'd managed to keep performing at that level'. Goodbye Mr Mackenzie - Martin, 'Big John' Duncan (formerly of the punk group, The Exploited, on guitar, Fin Wilson on bass, Derek Kelly on drums, and Shirley Manson and Rona Scobie on keyboards and backing vocals - were formed in Bathgate, and emerged into a thriving music scene in the capital. 'For lads coming from Bathgate and immersing ourselves in that [Edinburgh] environment, it was actually great', Martin says. 'It was an era when things were really opening up in Scotland, and Edinburgh anyway. 'I know that Glasgow had the advantage over Edinburgh regarding venues, possibly because of the size of the city. But the great thing about those days was that student unions had funding: in Edinburgh you had gigs at Telford College, Napier College, Teviot Row, and Queen Margaret College in Corstorphine. 'You had gigs in Chambers Street in Edinburgh - a huge building that had three floors, maybe four, and on three of those you could stage gigs. Also, you had Potterrow, which was a real centre of young bands. Ents committees wanted to bring local bands in and had a desire to attach themselves to local musicians. 'That college circuit in the UK, which lasted into the Mackenzie's big period, was a genuine support. They had budgets to pay bands a reasonable amount of money. That is something that hasn't happened for a few decades now. 'On top of all of that you had The Venue, on Carlton Road, where bands like Suede kicked off … then along came La Sorbonne [in the Cowgate], which was a fantastic place for bands'. Read more: The band toured widely. In Glasgow, there were gigs at the famed Barrowland venue, in 1987 (supporting the Blow Monkeys), in 1988 (supporting Aztec Camera) and headlining in 1989). Asked how Goodbye Mr Mackenzie's distinctive sound evolved, Martin responds: 'It really came out of post-punk. When punk came along it was like an adrenaline rush, an explosion, but as Steven Severin [bass guitarist with Siouxsie and the Banshees] said, it wasn't that different in a lot of ways from pub rock and rock'n'roll'. He marvels now that, looking back, the Banshees managed to influenced much of the post-punk movement without having released a record, having won invaluable exposure from John Peel sessions in 1977 and 1978. They and other unsigned, groundbreaking acts broadcast by Peel were picked up by numerous other groups across Britain, who absorbed the sound and altered their own musical style. 'Initially, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie wanted to play this punk music but by the time we were starting to play, and were a little bit older, post-punk had taken over. The bands we were listening to, and loving, were Magazine, the Banshees, the Skids, the Scars and other bands like that. And then Joy Division came along …' Good Deeds and Dirty Rags was released on the Capitol label. Listening to it afresh after 36 years is to release the truth of something that Vic Galloway wrote in 2018 - that they 'blended the feral nature of punk, arty intelligence and effortless pop melodies'. It's a well-crafted album, intelligently written. The Rattler remains, perhaps, their best-known song, a perennial audience favourite. In 1986 they performed it on the TV music show, The Tube. That same night, when they played the Hoochie Coochie in Edinburgh, the venue was rammed because everybody had seen them on The Tube. Speaking to Billy Sloan for the Herald in 2021, Martin discussed the song and some of the influences hat went into it: 'We were completely taken aback when [The Rattler] took on a life of its own. I look at Bowie and wonder why his work was such genius. I think he just sucked in information from so many different sources. In the art world you'd call it research. 'I love Iggy Pop, New Order, The Cocteau Twins and Talking Heads. All had direct input into what we were doing. I'd also seen a documentary about Woody Guthrie where he travelled from town-to-town on trains spreading a socialist message, and got up to no good while he was doing it. 'So that had an effect on the song too. It could have been about a rattlesnake but it could also have been a Freudian symbol for sex … a train going into a tunnel. [Scots poet William] McGonagall wrote a poem called The Rattling Boy From Dublin – which is absolutely hysterical – so it's in there too.' Another song on the album, Face to Face, is a provocative piece about a female hitchhiker who was repeatedly raped in a pub, only to see her attackers being acquitted in court on the grounds that she had been 'asking for it' because of the way she was dressed. Yet another track, Goodwill City, is about the Aids crisis that afflicted Edinburgh in the Eighties. 'I had a couple of friends round about that time who affected by Aids', Martin says. 'That was quite a powerful moment in time, quite a landmark affecting a small part of the Eighties. I've got a friend who is an Aids survivor from that period. He's still alive, which is amazing'. Read more On the Record: About the album as a whole, he is philosophical. 'The thing about artists is, not many of them can ever look back at their own work and think, that was great, that was perfect. The word 'perfect' never comes into it. 'Most bands hate the song that they're weighed down by - their albatross, the song that everyone shouts for, the one that everyone films on their phone and ends up on YouTube a million times. But I like listening to The Rattler. And I think it's a really good record'. Unfortunately, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie would go on to be plagued by record company indecision and internal politics. Though there were three further, very fine, albums - Hammer and Tongs (1991), Five (1994), and The Glory Hole (1996) - the band came to an end, with a final live gig at Glasgow's The Garage in late 1995, after Manson and Duncan had departed. Along the way, band members had created a side-project, Angelfish, whose well-received 1994 album was produced by Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads. As for Martin, his later projects have included the acclaimed Filthy Tongues, alongside his old Goodbye Mr Mackenzie bandmates, Derek Kelly and Fin Wilson. Profiling the Filthy Tongues in 2005, the Herald's David Belcher had this to say: 'Martin Metcalfe may be Scotland's great lost rock star. Blessed with the stature to look lanky Nick Cave straight in the eye, a dark rich baritone and the songs to match, in the 1980s and 1990s it seemed he could only pout it all away. Fate conspired to take matters out of his and Goodbye Mr Mackenzie's hands, thanks to eccentric management, and the emergence of Shirley Manson as one of the pop music icons of recent time'. During that Herald interview Martin looked back on his days as such a distinctive frontman with Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. "All that rock star stuff is just acting', he said, 'as Bowie explained with Ziggy Stardust. I used to think people like John Lydon were more real than that, but I remember reading something one of his friends said about him just pursuing the theatre of rage, just basing his character on Richard III and things like that. But I think I did an okay job of playing a rock star'. And of his old band itself he declared: "We were like a family because there were girls and boys in the band, it wasn't your average lads' band, going off and getting trashed and hanging out with women. On tour we were our own unit, we didn't need anybody else, but included our crew in that because we had a special relationship with them as well. Even though we were all quite dysfunctional people, as a band we were quite a functional unit.' Goodbye Mr Mackenzie has had a legacy. In 2007, when Vic Galloway challenged his radio listeners to name the top 50 Scottish bands of all time, they came in at number 31, ahead of Blue Nile, the Cocteau Twins and the Skids. And The List magazine once observed that they 'left behind the most complex and fascinating footprint of any Scottish band'. In 2019 Goodbye Mr Mackenzie hit the road again, to mark the 30th anniversary of the debut album. As he told the Herald's Barry Didcock at the time: 'It happened by accident. Me, trying to make a crust, had decided to try to do the album in its entirety as a solo gig. But the response I got was so incredible that I thought I can't do this without at least asking if Fin and Kelly want to do it.' In that interview with Narc magazine mentioned above, he declared: 'To be perfectly honest, I wasn't excited about revisiting the whole album as we've moved on from 80's subversive pop/rock and as a creative person it's hard not to be critical of your own work but in the end, we realised that (most of) the songs were really well crafted. 'There aren't many moments live where I think this part of the song doesn't work or that part goes on too long. I think we had a solid grasp of song arrangement back then, so in many ways, I'm proud of how we pulled it together'. He has every right to be proud. And the band are still active, still touring, still looking and sounding great on stage. Their forthcoming gig at Glasgow's Oran Mor on July 11 should be something else.
