Bay City Strollers

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Tomlin Leckie is a man with a vision. Fed up with what he saw as a lack of opportunities for bands in Edinburgh, he decided to ignore the traditional career path of an Edinburgh University graduate and instead set up his own record label.

As much an entrepreneur as he is a music impresario, Leckie established Strollers Records with Michael Thornton-Jones early this year, in an attempt to fill what they saw as an obvious gap in the market. Chatting to The Journal, Leckie explained what he hoped to achieve with Strollers. “Many great bands in Edinburgh are being denied opportunities to get their music heard either through recordings or gigs. So we aim to become a sort of 'super-label' which mixes the roles of promoter, distributor and label and works closely with the bands to develop them at a more relaxed pace.”

The label's first signings were local funk heroes Sup-Opt, a band who despite their obvious talent, were never going to have a commercial enough sound to attract interest from larger labels. “When I first saw Sub-Opt just over a year ago, I felt that they were making the music that I would like to be making” Leckie explains.

Offering bands a chance to better promote themselves isn't Leckie's only aspiration. Like many others, he believes that Edinburgh has a music scene that it should be proud of, and that endlessly comparing it to Glasgow is pointless. “It mustn't be forgotten that Glasgow was city of culture in 1990 and that investment gave a real advantage to them, but Edinburgh is catching up quickly. People say that Edinburgh is a club city, and its true to an extent, we always get top DJs playing here but not so many high-calibre bands whereas Glasgow has a lot more venues and promoters, that actively work to help local artists out, such as King Tuts and Rockers. I know of some amazing local bands though who just won't play in Edinburgh.”

So is it possible for bands to become successful without having to relocate away from Edinburgh? Leckie is convinced. “Absolutely, location should not be important any more and the Edinburgh music scene has so much potential plus you are a mere stone's throw away from so many great music scenes like Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester.”

It would be easy to be cynical about Strollers chances of success, but Leckie is by no means the first Edinburgh graduate to establish a record label with the intention of developing talent across the city. SL Records, home to the likes of ballboy and Misty's Big Adventure, and a long-term favourite of the much missed John Peel, was set-up by former Edinburgh student Ed Pybus, and last year celebrated its 10th anniversary.

With the music industry as we know it rapidly collapsing, it takes a brave man to stand up and dedicate his efforts to promoting bands in a city that is often ignored in favour of its larger neighbour. To individuals such as Leckie however, this is is irrelevant. All that matters to them is to ensure that the wealth of great music available right on our doorstep isn't ignored.

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