Kirkcaldy Bands
The Kirkcaldy Bands of the '80s

Because music like ours shouldn't die

Kirkcaldy Bands Treasure Hunt

This website was originally made up of material kept over the years by Tom Reid and Ian Cargill, with much new material now been added by people from back in the day who surfed into the site, liked what they saw and leant us material to copy and upload. However, there must be a lot more material out there.

So this is by way of a request - I'm guessing if you have surfed into this site, and read any of it's content, that you must have been around Kirkcaldy in the mid 1980's and had enjoyed these bands, back in their day. So, as the years progress, the availability of the original material that these bands created, gets less and less. People move house, stuff gets lost and chucked out, etc. Having been a bit of a magpie with old tapes myself, I was pretty amazed when I heard from members of some of the other bands, how little of even their own material they still had. Check out the wording that Davie Brown wrote about The Ghost Train on their page - there were studio recordings, live tapes and even (believe it or not) videos made of them, and even Davie does not know where these are anymore. There are also a load of tapes that I knew of at one time or another that have disappeared over the years, the stories of some of these lost recordings (and sometimes the names of who / borrowed lost them!) are on the relevant band's pages.

So, if you have enjoyed this site and you were around in the day, have a think about any material you may have, or your friends may have. It would be particularly good if we can re-connect some of the ex-band members with material they thought was lost forever. I'd also just love to locate some of the tapes that got lost in the 1980's. I'm particularly interested in any audio recordings (as it was, and is, all about the music), but I'd also more more pictures, copies of flyers, posters, articles, etc, etc. Any video would be really great, this site now has enough capacity to be able to offer video for download. Photographs and other visual material make the pages about each band really come alive. We can easily make digital copies of audio (or even video) tapes, and scanning pics etc. is easy.

If you have the facilities, you can e-mail any material (mp3's, image files, etc) to the mail address at the bottom of the index page. We can even handle FTP upload, if you are really technical. If you don't have the facilities, just e-mail me on the same address and I'll send you an address in Edinburgh where tapes, vinyl and pics can be sent. We always return all material, and can share a CD copy of any audio, digitally enhanced. We can handle video transfers to digital too.

Some ex band members have suggested I add a "top 10 most wanted" list of material that keeps getting mentioned, but seems to be very rare. Here's my first attempt:

 

1. January 1985 Balwearie High School Charities Gig Video - Davie Brown remembered that someone video taped this gig on V2000 video (remember that format?). As I remember, I was standing towards the back of the hall for a bit that night and I do remember a video camera being there. This was a classic gig and was the first time I remember seeing some bands that were huge in Kirkcaldy at the time. There are still pictures of this gig on the Days of 29 and Nationwide pages (thanks Hunter). So piecing it together from these fragments and what I can remember, I think the line up included - Days of 29, Nationwide, Scarlet Lies (the bass player, Angus Rutherford, was in my year at school) and the Gimix (there is some doubt in my mind on this last point). Also, any audio from this gig. There was audio taped that night, as Mark Nicol who played drums with Nationwide at the time, had a tape of the gig that was stolen and Scotty had a tape that Mark believes was destroyed in a house fire, no luck!

2. Any more material from the "classic" Nationwide line up of Scotty, Kenny Hutchison, Alan Liddell and Jock Lessels. I've been in touch with Alan Liddell and he can't locate the demo tape he thought he had. The one fragment of the demo tape, Dusty Bedrooms (donated by Mark Nicol) is all we have. What we have is so good, that it's really sad to think that this might be all that's left.

3. More Gimix material. I know for sure there were more live tapes recorded of the Gimix. See the story on the Crucified Brains page, there was definitely a recording made of them playing Bentleys in the January 1985 charity gig, I'm sure there were many more made, I wonder how many survive? For a band that were around for so long it seems unlikely that the 4 track demo that Davie Wallace leant us is all the material that is left of the band.

4. Any material for big Kirkcaldy bands where we have blank spaces where audio should be, especially bands that were big in their day, such as Blue on Shock and Days of 29 (it's 20 years since I heard either band last).

5. Any audio containing the late Ritchie Smith. Ritchie's story is on the "workshop" page, he guested on harmonica with a number of local blues bands, often with Summerfield Blues. In discussion with Andy Carr and Dave Arcari of Summerfield Blues, they don't have any audio. Andy just told me about a gig called "United Scotland" that was played at the Windsor hotel (must have been the early '1990's) where Ritchie guested with Summerfield Blues on Harmonica. A video was recorded at this gig, it'd be great to get hold of that.

6. Who Cares? Were a short lived band in the late 1980's, managed by Treez Watson, who was very active in the Fife music scene and was, I believe, the brains behind the "Stupefied" compilation tape. There were only two gigs that we know of that were recorded, both at the Abbotshall and the good tape has been missing for 20 years now. There are also no pictures of the band.

7. Any of the lost Ghost Train video that Davie Brown lists on their page.

8. The Ghost Train versions of the Nationwide classics, "Top of the Wall" and Dusty "Bedrooms". These were released on cassette around early 1986 along with Killing Time / Hope and Glory.

9. Any pictures of the Surgical Wars playing as a band. OK, so not the biggest of the Kirkcaldy bands of the '80's, but important to us. I only know of one picture which was taken by Angela McCourt, the organiser of the two 1986 charity concerts. I saw it once and never saw it again. Thinking about it more, this picture was taken at the February 1986 Tech charity gig, so maybe there are other pics of other bands from that day. Anyway, who knows who may have been snapping away when we were up their playing, so maybe there is a pic (or pics) that I don't know about........

10. Any Screaming Heroes / Dream Children material. We think that, like Blazing Apostles / Locomotive Latenight, this was really just two names for the same band and the singer was Andy Martin. We remember Andy as the only Surgical Wars fan and Ian and I made a compilation tape for him. I think it's Andy Martin that Stevie can be heard dedicating "Fall" to in the audio of our last gig that's on the our page on this website.

 

If you do have any material you can share, you can contact me the address that is at the bottom of the index page of the website.

Of course, we know everyone has busy lives and this was all over 20 years ago - so my theory is that this website will probably stay up forever and evolve over time. It'll take me a while to do updates anyway. So don't be shy if you promised us some stuff a few months ago and never got round to it, we understand - as long as you remember Kirkcaldy bands next time you are in your attic, it does not matter exactly when.....

So, lets start the Kirkcaldy Bands Treasure Hunt, who knows what gems may be out there - because music like ours shouldn't die.