Music project goes from burned-out shell to making music for Nextflix

In many ways, it really shouldn’t have worked. And yet it did.

Over the last 21 years Loud ‘n’ Proud has continued to serve the young people of Renfrewshire and boasts a list of achievements that would leave many major, well-funded programmes looking on enviously.

According to the charity’s founder, local boy Tommy McGrory, Loud ‘n’ Proud was always driven by more than just ‘getting kids off the streets’, which is the narrative that tends to attach itself to projects like his.

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He wanted to do more than distract a few challenged and challenging young people with some musical instruments – instead, he set out to help those young people become musicians, with a big emphasis on the experience of performing.

His students have taken to stages of all sizes, from street-level events like Baker Street Day (a tribute to local hero Gerry Rafferty) to the stage of Paisley Town Hall and even the Wickerman Festival. An original musical celebrating the historic Glasgow Apollo was so well-received that it sold out three runs at the Armadillo concert hall.

There have been individual successes, too. More than one Young Drummer of the Year started out at Loud ‘n’ Proud, as did X-Factor finalist Emily Middlemas. Former students have also gone on to work as touring musicians, song-writers, directors of international music companies, and heads of music schools of their own.

Tommy McGrory (Image: free)

Loud ‘n’ Proud had moved to new premises in the ground floor of an office building in 2018 and spent more than a year building it up into what they needed. But the pandemic changed everything for an organisation whose activities revolved around one-to-one teaching and public performances. Culture was also shifting, with less interest in the ‘rock band’ model that had been popular for so long.

And then things got even worse. In February 2021, a fire-raising attack forced Tommy to close the doors, and it wasn’t clear that they would ever re-open.

“I spoke with my fiancé and told her it’s over – after 20 years I couldn’t face the uphill struggle of starting again. Then, just as I had come to terms with giving it all up, Gary Kerr, the owner of the building, invited me for a coffee and told me he was giving it to me.

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“At the time I was blown away by his kindness but at the same time I knew it was a huge amount of work to get the building back into a usable state.”

And so he did what he had always done: he got to work, calling in help and favours wherever possible. “It has taken us nearly two years of cleaning, painting and ripping out all the burnt-out areas. The whole place was just black. Even the parts that weren’t directly damaged by the fire were really dirty and unpleasant. We cleaned it all by hand, sometimes having to go over the same parts again and again, but we got there.”

The new building is bigger and better than anything they’ve had access to before, and that has consequently opened new horizons. The site isn’t just intended as a base for music lessons – Tommy’s vision is now far bigger.

“This will be a music hub for the local area,” he tells me.

“We’re going to have all these different people and skills in one place and people will be able to work together, ask questions and just keep getting better.”

That plan is now taking shape. In one of the downstairs corridors – the one that wasn’t “melted” by the fire – a row of professional studios have been constructed, and have in fact already been used to produce music and soundtracks for shows on platforms like Netflix.

Fire damage in the studio (Image: free)

In the long term, the goal is for these facilities to both subsidise the education programmes and provide opportunities for students to engage in real world, hands-on learning.

The area that saw most fire damage is to become a series of small practice rooms, intended for solo or paired sessions, available for use throughout the week.

Upstairs, what was an open-plan office space now features tuition rooms, teaching areas and workspaces, a transformation that has only been possible through the local council’s Community Benefit Scheme.

“Harry Clark Ltd came in here and I asked if they could build us five rooms in five days. That’s exactly what they did. For free.”

Will there still be room, I ask, for the old-fashioned business of guitar lessons and vocal coaching, or has the organisation, and the world, moved on?

“We’re still a music school. That’s what we do. We’ll still be teaching kids how to play. But this place is also going to give people progression routes into the music and creative industry itself, so there’s more we want to do.”

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Perhaps the most obvious sign of this ambition is the creation of a YouTube and podcasting studio where young people will learn to develop, produce and broadcast their own content while developing the skills they need to use industry-standard equipment.

“It will give young people the opportunity to learn how to use broadcasting equipment and get their voice heard. We’ve got facilities to give young people a professional studio experience right here.”

The idea for this particular project came from young people themselves who, when asked what the centre’s new facilities should be used for, asked for a broadcasting studio to be included.

“One of the young students said that it’s crucial to include vlogging and podcasting in the studio because it’s the way the industry is moving, and he was right.”

The new programmes are planned to start after the summer after funding was secured, allowing the latest stage in the development of Loud ‘n’ Proud to really begin. But after all these years, and so many hurdles, how does Tommy find the energy not just to hang on, but to keep pushing forward?

“I remember when I was 15 and having to leave school because my parents said I had to get a job. They couldn’t afford for me not to. My teachers were telling me to be a P.E. teacher and I got quite excited about that but as soon as I told my parents it was clear it just wasn’t an option. How were they supposed to pay for me to go to Jordanhill, you know?

“And this is the case for a lot of people, especially in places like this, and especially for people who want to do something creative. I want to do something to help them. That’s all it is really.”