Written by BBC RS
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps

Episode 1 - Al Stewart - The Year of the Cat (15 Aug 2011)
Al Stewart's 'Year of the Cat' album took the Hippie Trail mainstream. Davey Scott hears how this escapism resonated with UK listeners mired in strikes and unemployment in 1976. It was a far cry from Al Stewart's humble beginnings. As he tells it in one of his songs, "I came up to London when I was 19 with a corduroy jacket and a head full of dreams." A poetic singer-songwriter born in Glasgow, he moved to Dorset before falling in with the folk scene. So far, so Donovan, but then Al's story splinters off into peculiarly unique directions.

He bought his first guitar from Andy Sumners of The Police, shared a flat with Paul Simon and gave Yoko Ono all his money for an exhibition of naked bottoms. That came before landing in the US Top 5 with his 1976 album 'Year of the Cat'. The single of the same name is a dreamy, meandering epic about a life changing meeting between a naïve young traveller and a worldly hippy. It's absolutely of it's time, but continues to get airplay around the world and helped Al secure high-profile friends and admirers such as Tori Amos, Jimmy Page, Bert Jansch and Rick Wakeman.

Episode 2 - Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (22 Aug 2011)
Davey Scott discovers the story behind 'Franz Ferdinand' by Franz Ferdinand. With a suaveness, optimism and confidence not typically associated with bands from Scotland, the band swept into focus in 2004 with their self-titled debut. By the year's end, 'Franz Ferdinand' had bagged the Mercury Music Prize, three top-10 singles and 3.6 million album sales worldwide. They made a bigger impact on America than Robbie Williams and Oasis combined, and did it with a lot less bluster. Their influences include Talking Heads, Chic, Pulp and Joy Division, and these combined to reach a far wider audience than your average indie band.

'Take Me Out' topped several 'Best of 2004' lists and was seemingly never off the jukebox in Eastenders Queen Vic. 'Michael' gained attention for it's homoerotic overtones - "beautiful boys on a beautiful dancefloor" - while 'This Fire' is a fan-favourite and closes a typically energetic Franz Ferdinand live set. The NME called them music "intoxicating", while others compared their universal buzz to that of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Duran Duran. In this episode of Classic Scottish Albums, Davey discovers how they did it...

Episode 3 - Capercaillie - Delirium (29 Aug 2011)
Davey Scott highlights Capercaillie's dynamic 1991 crossover album Delirium. A groundbreaking record it marked a major change in their approach to Gaelic music, adding contemporary dance grooves to the traditional tunes.

It took the band from folk clubs into the national spotlight when the Gaelic waulking song, 'Coisch A Ruin', made it into the top forty.

Davey talks to the band members about how they were spotted and signed after a television appearance and to contemporary Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis about their influence on young performers.

Episode 4 - THE KLF - The White Room (5 September 2011)
The White Room - The KLF
'The White Room' by The KLF has turned 20, so join Davie Scott as he unravels one of Scotland's most fascinating pop anecdotes. Bill Drummond - son of a Church of Scotland minister - was almost 40 years old when he decided to create a 'Stadium House' band. He wanted to unite music fans with "gigantic anthems". A former top music exec, he understood pop music hype and hyperbole and used that to his advantage. While some might have judged he and partner Jimmy Cauty as over-the-hill, Bill's marketing know-how pushed The KLF to become the bestselling singles act in the world in 1991. 'Justified and Ancient' (featuring Tammy Wynette) was inescapable. It was No.1 in 18 countries and provided her highest-ever Billboard placing. 'What Time is Love' provided the first taste of The KLF's big commercial sound and was soon answered by the number 1 single '3am Eternal'.

And it wasn't just the fans who loved them. The music press couldn't get enough of their contrary ways, one journalist enthusing that "as providers of perverse, throwaway, three-minute pop-song manna... (they're) punk rock, the Renaissance, Andy Warhol and Jesus Christ all rolled into one."
The gigantic commercial success of the band flew in the face of taste-making rhetoric, and Bill and Jimmy caused further alarm when - at the height of their success - they gave a "violently antagonistic performance" at the 1992 Brit Awards and left the stage to a tannoy announcement stating that "The KLF have now left the music business". Job done