Scottish Fiction - A Year In The Life

" Basically this blog is aimed to run in tandem with my show on Pulse Community Radio 98.4 FM, and I'll aim to post reviews of singles/EP's/LP's/gigs/etc. as often as I can. This is an often thankless and time consuming task, so bear with me! "

That's how the Scottish Fiction blog began a year ago*.  Hardly inspiring, yet I like to think over the past twelve months I've managed at least somewhat to offer some interesting features, slightly coherent reviews, and new enjoyable music to those hardy souls who have kept reading these interweb pages.

*It's actually over a year now, nearer 13 months.  Sue me!

The very first band I ever posted about were now (very) defunct I See Shapes which gives me a lovely opportunity to post this video and also encourage you to click on the above link to download their final EP for free.

I'm not one for sentimental markings of passing of arbitrary time (despite hosting a birthday radio show and a gig to celebrate one year of blogging...) but I thought I'd use this opportunity to look back on some of the better things that I've managed to do whilst under this auspicious rank of 'blogger'.  Here's our Scottish Fiction 'top moments'.

- Branching out further from the blog in July 2011 we put out the first Scottish Fiction EP comprised of Michael Cassidy, Night Noise Team, Adam Holmes And The Embers and Campfires In Winter.  We started with an absolute belter of a line up and things have continued along the same vein.  You can get all our previous EP for FREE right here.  This coming July will mark 12 EP's released and we've got summat special in the pipeline for this.  All will be revealed in due time, but trust me, it's gonna be huge.

- One of the most enjoyable and also nerve racking things about doing the live Scottish Fiction show has been welcoming guests onto the show.  Luckily all these shows are archived* meaning you can listen to them all again!  Whilst all have been great fun my personal favourites have been RM Hubbert, Where We Lay Our Heads and Beerjacket.  Hopefully we'll have many more in the future!

*I'm currently in the process of moving all our archived shows from Soundcloud to Mixcloud, so some may not be available at the time of reading.  Bear with me as this is both monotonous and time-consuming.

- Following on from the above, we had the very talented Michael Cassidy, Shambles Miller and Julia Doogan all in the studio for our first birthday show way back in January this year.  It was an absolute pleasure and remains a highlight of doing the radio show.  If you missed it, then listen back here.

- I've mentioned the Scottish Fiction EP's already, but December 2011's EP holds a special place, as we organised seven artists contributing a track each and raised £109 for Shelter.  Incredible to be able to both spread new music and help a worthy cause.

- Perhaps more importantly than anything has been the sheer education I've had in the amount of outstanding music about at the moment.  I considered myself well versed (why start a blog otherwise), but through doing this I've been introduced to more brilliant music than I could have imagined.  You'll find reviews and mentioned through the blog history, but this 'Best Of 2011' post probably sums up things quite well.

- One particular feature I've enjoyed has been the rather self indulgent, if a tad infrequent, '31 Songs'.  It's nice to be able to simply ramble about why I love a song so much once in a while.  Have a wee read through if you haven't before.

- In terms of one of the most fun things I've done on the blog, the Scottish Fiction Words With Friends Cup has to be up there.  It makes a change writing the blog being able to do something a little bit different, and hopefully for people reading it wasn't simply just geeky self indulgent fun.  Re-live the drama and see our overall winner Boab Canavan of Campfires In Winter spell his way to glory.

- Officially we celebrated a year of the blog with our Scottish Fiction Presents Gig on Sunday 17th June.  With a bill including Saint Death, Queen Jane, The Spook School and Michael Cassidy (we quite like him you know) we had a great night in The Captain's.  So good, I might even be mad enough to do it again!  Check out some pictures here, and also a lovely review from Songs Heard On Fast Trains here.

- Finally probably the most exciting thing that's happened via this blog takes place tomorrow night.  Inexplicably I was asked to be a nominator for the SAY Awards, and have been lucky enough to be invited along to the award ceremony tomorrow night.  I'll be oozing with excitement.  I've also blogged a fair bit about the awards which you can read here.


So to the future, and hopefully another productive and fun filled year of blogging, presenting, reviewing and discovering new Scottish music.  If you could grant me one birthday wish, it would be more interaction with the people who read this blog on a monthly basis.  Leave a comment now and again, we'll be nice I promise!

Thanks to all who've read, downloaded, listened or came to our gig.  Much appreciated.

Neil.

I leave you with this, my favourite song of 2011 and still going strong.  xx