WATCH: BMX Bandits perform a 40th anniversary track for the Scotsman Sessions
Welcome to the Scotsman Sessions, a series of short video performances from artists all around the country introduced by our critics. Here, Duglas T Stewart and Rory Haye of BMX Bandits perform Scalawag Song from the 1973 film Scalawag
Something worth celebrating this year is the 40th anniversary of cult Scottish indie legends BMX Bandits, a beguiling pop group who've been gently led throughout the years by mild-mannered maverick Duglas T Stewart.
Although they never quite managed to break into the mainstream, they're still here and still making great records; their most recent album, 2024's Dreamers on the Run, was hailed by many fans and critics as a crowning achievement.
"A lot of people have told me it’s their favourite BMX Bandits album," says Stewart. "I'm glad people like it so much. This many years in, it's good to know people think we're still making music as good as or better than we were making decades ago. I'm very proud of that."
Released later this month, their career-spanning compilation 15 Big Ones features tracks personally chosen by Stewart himself to reflect the band's development and the hits that could've been.
"I would've loved to have a hit that everybody knew and would get up and dance to at family celebrations," he says, "a bit like Young at Heart or Come On Eileen. Something that crosses the boundaries of age, class and perceived coolness. A lot of my favourite music, stuff that's inspired me, didn’t make the hit parade. It isn’t of less worth to me because it didn’t get in the charts or because the music press wouldn't have seen it as cool. It would've been nice to be marginally more popular, enough to not have to worry about the bills quite so much."
The beautiful song he's chosen to perform for The Scotsman Sessions alongside fellow Bandit Rory Haye is Scalawag Song from the 1973 family film Scalawag.
As he explains, "Rory and I have been performing it at duo shows recently and it's always received a lovely reaction. It's one of those songs that I heard once in that movie and then not again for decades, but it stayed in my head. It had a real impact on me from just seeing it once, I'm sure, at the George Cinema in Bellshill. As I get older I find myself returning to things that had an impact on me as I was growing up."
Naturally, Stewart's 40 years as a BMX Bandit have had a profound effect upon his life.
"Most of the major things have come about from me being in BMX Bandits, including relationships, my children and so many lasting friendships."
"Ultimately," he says, "my favourite bit is getting to be in the studio with other members of my musical family, each time creating something that didn't exist before that moment. Then there's the excitement of anticipation, that sometime in the not too distant future other people will listen to it, and that could be anywhere in the world. That's the thing I love the most, that there are people out there who want to listen to the music we make. What a thrill. That is what I do it for."
15 Big Ones is released on 27 November via Tapete Records, see https://shop.tapeterecords.com/en/a-z/bmx-bandits/
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