Buzz in the air over vote for best album

THE people of Scotland have spoken. After weeks of heated, sometimes controversial, debate the people have voted who they wanted to see, or rather, hear, in a new record compilation called Scotland’s Greatest Album.

The STV show, of the same name, had a panel of experts – music producers, songwriters, award-winning DJs and tabloid journalists – trawling through 40 years of popular Scottish music. With 15 tracks selected by the panel from each decade it was up to members of the Scottish public to choose who they believed best represented the country’s rich musical heritage.

No easy task, as you might imagine. Who to put forward, who to leave out?

It seems the prospect had social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter buzzing with all sorts of possibilities. The climax of that debate was revealed last Thursday when the STV programme’s host Clare Grogan (former singer with the New Wave band Altered Images) took TV viewers through the results. Apparently more than 120,000 votes had been cast.

There were some surprises and some glaring omissions. Bands like Wet Wet Wet, Del Amitri, Idlewild and Runrig did not make the grade. Yet The Proclaimers had two of their songs selected: “Sunshine on Leith” from the 1980s and “(I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles” from the ’90s.

And there was posthumous recognition of the singer songwriter Gerry Rafferty who also had two tracks selected – “Baker Street”, which was a massive worldwide hit in 1978, and “Stuck in the Middle With You”, also from the ’70s, which he wrote in collaboration with Joe Eagan when the two played together in Stealers Wheel.

Another Paisley-born musician, Paolo Nutini, had his 2009 track “Candy” picked. And, of course, the Dougie Maclean anthem “Caledonia” – only this time the Frankie Miller version – was also selected. Was there ever any doubt?

So we will have had plenty of practice when it comes to the country’s next big referendum, this time on the subject of independence. What choices will we be able to make? Full separation, devo-max, inde-lite... only time will tell.

FUNNY, though, how some politicians would deny us the right to vote in a referendum in the first place. How is it that politicians always suck up to people when they need their votes at election time and then quickly ignore us, assuming they know what’s best? Well, eh, no... it’s our country and we’ll decide thank you.

The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party had a chance to change the record last week but bottled out of it when it came to the vote.

After a near wipeout at the Holyrood elections, four candidates had put themselves forward to take over from their Scottish leader Annabel Goldie, who had announced she was standing down. What might have been a fairly innocuous affair descended into bitter, internecine division when one of those candidates, Murdo Fraser, announced he was standing on a ticket to disband the Tories north of the border.

The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP had apparently commanded the overwhelming support of parliamentary colleagues who agreed that the Tory brand in Scotland was too “toxic”. Fraser had proposed a new right-of-centre party, independent of but somehow allied to the Conservatives at Westminster.

It seems the radical breakaway plans were just too much for the rank-and-file membership who voted, instead, for a relatively unknown, untried and untested Ruth Davidson. At 32 years of age the openly gay former Territorial Army soldier has youth and energy on her side. Looks like she will need it, despite declaring the Conservatives are “alive and kicking” in Scotland many remain unconvinced.

GLEN Campbell, the Rhinestone Cowboy, is still alive and kicking despite revealing he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Campbell, who features in a new Radio 2 series, is on record – and podcast – in which he shares fascinating insights into a career that has spanned 50 years during which he sold 45 million albums.

Now embarking on a farewell tour he has also been reflecting on his childhood and how he rose out of extreme poverty from a family of 12 children (eight boys and four girls) who grew up in Billstown, near Delight, in the US state of Arkansas.

The legendary musician who played with Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra and made his fame with timeless classics like “Wichita Linesman”, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “Galveston” and “Rhinestone Cowboy” admits there were times in his life when he “got off the beaten track”. The renowned artist, who has been married four times and has variously struggled with addictions, tells listeners how “the devil led me astray”.

The Radio 2 interview is truly compelling stuff as Campbell, born during the American Depression of the 1930s, claims Irish and Scottish ancestry.

He describes his apprenticeship touring across the States, later becoming a session musician and collaborating with the rich and famous. Regarded as a crossover artist, he has a musical canon that knows no boundaries having played in the gospel, country and rock traditions.

An obviously religious man, Campbell, whose varied life has given him much to reflect on, cites childhood influences such as Hank Williams, the country music icon. Radio 2 will be broadcasting Glen Campbell in Concert on November 17. I, for one, can’t wait.

MIKE Mills, who introduces the Radio 2 tribute to Campbell, claims the Rhinestone Cowboy was a huge influence on his band. REM, one of the most popular alternative American rock groups, has just announced its intention to disband after 30 years together.

Unlike Campbell, though, there will be no farewell tour for REM fans. Band members – who wrote songs like “Losing my Religion”, “Man on the Moon” and “Everybody Hurts” – have decided to go their separate ways. The split, which they say is not acrimonious, means they can go out at the top of their game.

They will be releasing their own final “greatest hits” album. Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage is said to describe how one band member summed up the group.

Michael Stipe, REM’s frontman, when interviewed on the Simon Mayo Drivetime radio show, said if they have any influence on people their message was simply: “Go pick up a guitar. Write a poem. Find a singer. Get out there. Do something. Life is short. Run with it...”

They get my vote!