BBC Scotland's music show is to join the mainstream, but it won't be ditching the experimentalism

HAVING begun its life as what might be termed a humble inner-city tenement, The Beat Room has grown into a funkily refurbished penthouse suite. The fourth series of the BBC Scotland in-concert music show will make its mainstream terrestrial debut on BBC2 next month in a more lavishly equipped form and with broadened horizons.

In addition to being filmed in a swanky new Glasgow clubland setting, The Arches, The Beat Room will at long last be created at a more relaxed and expansive pace than hitherto. Whereas Iain Ross and Angus McIntyre, the show's co-director/producers, routinely used to crank out a frantic 80 shows per series for digital broadcast, they'll now be recording 10 BBC2 shows within the same two-month time-span.

''In lots of ways, as a proper grown-up show we're aiming higher than we were able to before,'' says Ross. ''We've generally always had the bigger Scottish names as one of our two bands per show. Now, though, we'll be able to offer one name band each week, plus one critically-acclaimed band, rather than having to use unsigned bands.

''In a sense, we're going to be a little more mainstream in our music polic, but only in that we'd go for Kylie Minogue, say, and never for Posh Spice.'' In other words, The Beat Room's playlist will, as ever, reflect an informed good taste as well as an insider's awareness of the shifting sands of cutting-edge critical opinion and underground kudos.

Accordingly, one forthcoming show will be graced by the presence of vintage continental crooner Louie Austen. A mature staple of cruise ships and the occasional Vegas residency, Austen has more recently been signed up by hip dance label Kitty Yo.

With increased time in which to fashion their programmes, Ross and McIntyre will be able to more fully realise their ambitions for the filmed feature material which will flesh out each programme. For instance, there'll be a weekly slot for McIntyre's acclaimed superstar puppet repertory company, Top of the Poppets, which features 2ft tall satirical representations of everyone from the Gallagher brothers to Snoop Dogg.

Says McIntyre: ''Each week, the Poppets will address the madness and badness of the world of pop as it happens in their dressing room, speaking their cartoon minds via real-life BBC audio recordings of each star on our cast list.

''Our two new presenters, Douglas Anderson and Linda Wan, will also be out-and-about on film. Douglas starts off being seen at U2's recent Glasgow gig, where he attempted to reunite Bono with an umbrella that the latter had left at a movie premiere.

''In addition, we hope to screen bizarre Japanese pop videos and download avant garde animations from the internet. On that front, we're currently negotiating with a leading American cartoonist, Peter Bagge, for a licence to broadcast his very funny depiction of the life of Beach Boy Brian Wilson's dad, plus a gangsta rap version of Star Wars.''

This all constitutes healthy testimony to The Beat Room's ongoing commitment to experimentalism. However, Ross and McIntyre confess that

previously there have been flaws in their quest for new approaches to transferring music to the small screen.

Says Ross: ''In the beginning, our radio background meant we both tried to do things that TV experts would know not to do because of the needless hassle involved in doing them. We could be a bit too daft and wacky in the past, too, but

at least we learned how to do

things properly following our

many mistakes.

''One mistake was attempting to provide three hours live coverage of T in the Park one year. Three hours is a very long time if you've only got two or three short pre-recorded items to fall back on when one of your live bands is taking an eternity to do a soundcheck . . . an endless-seeming soundcheck which consists of a loud and insistent electronic humming noise.''

In all they do on The Beat Room, Ross and McIntyre are happy to acknowledge their possession of ''a fantastic secret weapon . . . Duglas T Stewart.'' The erstwhile chief BMX Bandit has latterly moved from presenting the show to determining its musical content.

''Duglas's unparalleled musical expertise covers a huge range,'' says McIntyre. ''It means The Beat Room is different to every other TV music show in that we are madly keen to show you tons of good stuff you won't find anywhere else.''

Ross feels that The Beat Room has a technological edge on its competitors, too. ''Our cameras don't trail cables behind them, so we have a greater freedom to get you in alongside sweating crowds and pounding percussionists. Our in-your-face close-up shots give the show a distinctive energy.''

What do the duo reckon have been The Beat Room's most memorably good and bad moments over the past three years, the highs and lows?

''It's all been good,'' says McIntyre defiantly. ''Although one definite low point was filming two electronic bands, Add N (To X) and the Mount Vernon Arts Lab, playing inside an underground nuclear bunker in Fife. Very low, that was.''

Ross continues in this deliberately obtuse comic vein.''The high point for me,'' he says, ''was filming seven street-performers painted blue, and seven painted red. They were running about on top of high-rise flats in Sighthill, and I was in a helicopter hovering above them at 1500ft. You can't get much higher than that.''

Funny and accomplished fellows with an enthusiast's heightened view of music, Messrs Ross and McIntyre. Just like The Beat Room.

The Beat Room will be enlivening Friday nights from October 19.

l The Beat Room began life on the BBC's Scottish now-extinct digital TV outlet, Choice Scotland, in October 1998, with a show featuring the local band who went on to be nominated for last year's Mercury Prize, The Delgados.

l In three years, there have been a remarkable 225 editions of The Beat Room, featuring almost 400 bands big and small from all over the globe, everyone from Bellshill's finest, Teenage Fanclub, to Japanese cult favourites Cornelius and Kahimi Karie. The show has also featured acts as diverse as Mercury Rev, Yo La Tengo, Arab Strap, Fila Brazilia, Peaches, The Pastels, Toploader, Belle and Sebastian, and Stereolab.

l Including current incumbents Douglas Anderson and Linda Wan, 11 presenters have fronted The Beat Room. The show's initial host, Duglas T Stewart, subsequently assumed the in-house role of assistant producer and music consultant. Likewise, Iain Ross was an on-screen component of The Beat Room before graduating to his present executive role. Of the Beat Room's other alumni, Heather Suttie and Sarah Cawood are mainstream children's TV faces every Saturday on BBC1's Live and Kicking, while Angus Coull oversees the creation of STV listings show The Point.

l The Beat Room's comedy input, improvised around unwitting members of the public in the city centre of Glasgow by street-theatre situationists Mischief La Bas, led to a sketch series earlier this year on Choice Scotland, Weirdsville.

l Another Choice Scotland hit show, Top Of The Poppets, will be bringing its spookily real-looking rockbiz marionettes to The Beat Room on a weekly basis. The established Poppets' cast of Eminem, Destiny's Child, Dr Dre and Geri Halliwell will be joined by two new opinionated puppets, Jamie Oliver and Malcolm McLaren.

l Previous series of The Beat Room have been filmed in Glasgow nightclubs G2 and The Polo Lounge. Filming for the current 10-show series, staged in The Arches, will take place on September 25, 26, 27; November 13, 14, 15, 26, and 27. To date, the show has already captured

six-song sets by Shed 7, Mull Historical Society, Proud Mary, and Tom McCrae. Confirmed acts still to come include Slam DJs Orde Meikle and Stuart McMillan, The Beta Band, and The High Llamas. Free tickets for all Beat Room gigs are available from 0901 022 0300.