Punk era captured in 16 YEARS Gigs in Scotland 1974 - 1990

Around 2,000 photographs have been collected by music fan Chris Brickley from 150 private collectors for '16 YEARS Gigs in Scotland 1974 - 1990.'

Covering small, intimate gigs as well as the country's larger, more familiar venues, the book includes amateur shots as well as professional photographs. It also features an array of memorabilia including gig posters, set lists and autographed material.

Over the past couple of years Chris, 52, has painstakingly sourced images through social media, spending hours in the evenings scouring Facebook and Google.

The collection includes shots of some of the biggest names of the era - David Bowie at the legendary Glasgow Apollo in 1978, The Clash in 1985 at Edinburgh's Coasters and the Pixies at The Venue in Aberdeen in 1989.

But Chris also went to great lengths to feature towns and villages which he says are "rarely mentioned in Scottish music history".

He said: "I am a huge fan of The Cramps and The Fall - there is an infamous tour they did co-headlining in 1980 and they played the Stagecoach Hotel in a wee village outside Dumfries on a Monday night.

"I looked into it as a venue - it was just off the M74 and it was a great stop-off point and a lot of great bands played there, like Simple Minds and The Pretenders.

"There's a great story there. That's what it's all about. Everyone knows the Apollo (in Glasgow) but when you dig down, that's the nature of gig-going."

He added: "Some of the hardest pictures to source were places such as the Mars Bar and Zhivago's - that's where Simple Minds started playing their gigs. They achieved great success by playing every single toilet you'd go in.

"Most of these places are gone. That's why this has to be done now."

Chris, who remembers gigs from his home town of Glasgow as well as Dundee, raised £20,000 through sponsors, donations and crowdfunding to finance the 500 page book, which goes on sale this week.

He said he focused on the period from the 70s to 90s not just because of his own love of the music from that period, but also due to the availability of photographs from gigs.

He said: “I am interested in images and pictures and I felt I was too young for punk and I thought wouldn’t it be great to know what the atmosphere was like at these gigs.

“Quite early on I got a cracking group of punk period photographs, which is like the holy grail because nobody really took cameras to these things.

“It’s not like now when everybody photographs everything. Back then a lot of venues didn’t let you take cameras in, they would take them off you.

“If it was Tiffany’s in Glasgow, or the Apollo for example, it was hard and risky to do. It’s very hard to take photographs in a big venue like those places anyway – you really need to know what you’re doing."

Bands and artists featured include David Bowie, The Clash, Motorhead, Ultravox and the Sex Pistols – who only made one appearance in Scotland.

More than 120 venues in 32 locations are showcased in the book, including venues such as Clouds, Night Moves, Tiffany's, the Apollo and Silver Thread alongside less familiar clubs like Splash One, Subterraneans, The International Hotel, The Onion Cellar, The Stagecoach, The Venue, Fat Sams and The Tamdhu.

Chris said the main challenge had been raising the funds to print the book. Nearly 100 crowdfunded pre-orders and donations over three weeks in February this year helped reach the target.

He added: "I was staggered by the range and quality of the material available. I wanted to cover the whole of Scotland, to give a flavour of how things actually looked.

"Gig-going was a fundamental part of our social lives, democratic and affordable, and the friendships forged are enduring. I'm sure fans will enjoy looking through the book, whether they were there at the time or perhaps younger music enthusiasts tired of their parents' memories."

Ian Rankin, who wrote the foreword for the publication, said: "Chris has curated a treasure trove of concert memories from Scotland's rock music past.

"A trip down memory lane for many of us, it's also an invaluable guide to a lost world of venues, bands, fashions and moments in time."

Chris said music used to be more accessible to everyone. "People could just pitch up and go to gigs. Things cost so much more these days.

"The other angle is that I love street fashion, what people actually looked like.The ones I like the most are the crowd shots where you're right in front - you not only see the band, you see the backdrop. People's hair, split ends and leather jackets."

See www.scotgigsrelived.com to purchase the book which costs £35.