Cosmic Rough Riders: Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine – Billy Sloan's Scottish Best Albums

“I didn’t know them. But they recognised me and within seconds were right in my face,” recalled the singer.

“One of them said: ‘I thought it was amazing when you dedicated your song to Castlemilk. It’s going to mean a lot to a lot of people’.

“They walked off and I’ve never seen them since.”

Their gratitude was due to an impromptu moment on Top Of The Pops three days earlier.

In 2001, Wylie – and his band Cosmic Rough Riders – made their debut on the show performing the hit single, Revolution (In The Summertime).

As guitarist Stephen Fleming played the intro, Wylie grabbed the mic and told a bemused studio audience: “This one’s for Castlemilk”.

The song was a product of C-Sharp Music Factory, opened in the sprawling housing estate in 1990.

The community studio, in a local shopping centre, was the former premises of Galloway the Butchers.

The band recorded the track adjacent to the refrigerated storeroom where carcases of meat used to hang.

“It was important for me to say that. It wasn’t planned, I just did it on impulse,” said Daniel.

“I knew a lot of people in Castlemilk – in music and arts – who maybe never had the confidence or

self-belief to push themselves and go further,

all really gifted individuals.

“I just wanted to show them that if I can do this, so can you. It could be done. Hopefully what I said meant something to them.”

Appearing on Top Of The Pops was an ambition fulfilled.

“It’s every band’s dream to have a hit record and play it on the show. We were nervous. Who wouldn’t be?” he said.

“But there’s a huge difference between watching it on TV every Thursday to actually being on it.”

The BBC the production team asked them to perform live.

“Nobody else on the show was playing live, everybody was miming,” he said.

“The exception was Atomic Kitten, at No. 1 with Eternal Flame, a cover of The Bangles’ song. But they were singing to a backing track.

“The crew sprung it on us. They wanted to do something real for a change.

“We were a great live band but my immediate thought was … what if I f*** up? There will be millions of people watching. It was THE most nervous I’ve ever been in my life.

“At the time I felt everybody got a much better crack of the whip simply because they were miming. They sounded exactly like their records. But we didn’t.

“I watched the clip recently and it felt okay. Maybe it wasn’t a perfect vocal, but it was close. Live isn’t meant to be perfect.”

Wylie retains a real affection for C-Sharp, which played a crucial role in his career.

“Two local guys – Drew Phillips and Rab Patterson – came up with an idea to open a studio in Castlemilk,” said Daniel.

“They approached Urban Aid for funding and it was a huge process to get the whole thing off the ground. Anybody in the area could apply for recording time.

“The deal was you got three days, from 10am until 5pm, to record and mix your tracks. Once you’d done that you had to go back to the end of the queue and wait your turn until the next free time was available.”

Wylie and guitarist Fleming also made use of the down time at C-Sharp, often working through the night.

“It was just the two of us mostly. I wrote all of the songs. I had to learn a bit of engineering from him so I could record his parts. Stephen played the guitars and bass and we both did a bit of drums and percussion, so it was a real team effort.”

Over a two-year period, Wylie amassed a collection of demos. After receiving a small arts grant they recorded more songs at Riverside Studios in Busby.

In 1999, the Cosmics released debut album, Deliverance on their own Raft Records label, selling all 1,000 copies.

It paved the way for a second album, Panorama, 12 months later.

The artwork for both was done by graphic designer David Wells.

“David knew Alan McGee of Creation Records. They’d both been members of the band H20 a few years previously,” revealed Daniel.

“McGee was starting a new label called Poptones, named after a song by Public Image Limited.

“David sent him the albums and said: ‘I think you should sign them’.”

The Scots music maverick – who’d launched the careers of Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub, Super Furry Animals and most famously, Oasis, on Creation – was suitably impressed.

“McGee said: ‘Why don’t you take the best songs off Deliverance and Panorama and put them together?’” said Daniel.

“But he insisted I did a few new tracks too. He wanted to put it forward as a new product. That was his thinking behind it.”

Wylie wrote three new songs – Melanie, Sometime and Morning Sun – which boosted nine chosen from Panorama and three re-recorded from Deliverance.

“If McGee had said: ‘Can you make an album with none of the old songs?’ I thought I had enough already written to do that easily,” he said.

“I’d have preferred to have moved on from both records. Panorama had only been out for six months and sold 2,000 copies. So to me it was still very much alive.

“But the opportunity for McGee to get those songs to more people was really appealing.”

The Cosmics joined a rag-tag roster of new artists on Poptones, which included US band Oranger, UK duo The Montgolfier Brothers and El Vez, an Elvis Presley tribute act from Mexico.

“There weren’t too many bands signed to Poptones at the time. McGee was choosing carefully,” recalled Daniel.

“It was a big deal for us to be connected with him. When somebody like that is involved you know all the right people will get to hear your music. And if the album was as good as I believed it to be … I thought it could do well.”

Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine was released in November 2000. Revolution (In The Summertime) was a strong radio hit and cracked the Top 40.

“A few years earlier, I’d been an apprentice joiner and attended Langside College to study carpentry,” revealed Daniel.

“At the end of the week, I’d head over to Queen’s Park with the guys in my class. It was summer time and the place was full of pretty girls. We’d relax and have a few beers.

“One time there was an army recruitment stand set up in the park with tanks and armoured vehicles as part of the presentation.

“The squaddies were handing out leaflets trying to recruit young guys to join up. I remember actually saying to one of them: ‘We don’t need a revolution in the summer time’. As silly as it sounds, that’s how the song came about.”

The Pain Inside – originally on Panorama – gave the band their second hit single.

“We had so many great reviews in the music press the file was as thick as a telephone directory,” he said.

“It was one of those records which earned 99 per cent positive reviews across the board.

“And every time we gigged, sales increased. We opened for U2 at the SECC and sold 3,000 copies in the following week. So people seemed to like it.”

The album spent 17 weeks in the top 200 and sold in excess of 100,000 copies. Q-Magazine named it one of the best 50 records of the year.

“Every now and again, McGee will send me a Facebook message saying: ‘Dan, I was listening to

Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine today and it’s a f****** true work of genius,” said Daniel, laughing.

“And his marketing idea worked brilliantly. He did exactly the same thing with The Hives on their UK debut album, Your New Favourite Band.

“Next month, our record is being reissued on the Last Night From Glasgow label. It was remastered by Paul McGeechan, and he sent it over to me.

“I listened to it all the way through for the first time in many years.

“There wasn’t one single second where I wanted to take it off. I’m as pleased with the album now as I was when it was finished in 2000.”

* THE Billy Sloan Show is on BBC Radio Scotland every Saturday night at 10pm.

COSMIC Rough Riders played some of the biggest gigs of their career thanks to the success of the album.

They couldn’t believe their luck when asked to support U2 at the SECC in Glasgow at just

48-hours notice.

The Irish supergroup announced dates for their Elevation world tour and omitted Scotland from the schedule.

There was a public outcry. I led a hastily organised campaign asking them to rethink. It paid off.

“It was the biggest audience we’d faced on home soil. Their road crew couldn’t have been more helpful,” recalled Daniel.

“After the first night, U2 had a string of limos parked outside our dressing room so they could make a quick getaway.

“I saw Bono running down the ramp from the stage – wearing a hooded boxer’s dressing gown – and he said: ‘Hey Daniel, thank you for doing the gig’.

“It was our pleasure. We were such huge fans. He even name checked us from the stage.

“People talk about Bono and his politics. Some don’t like him for that. But I’d first met the band at Tiffany’s in Glasgow. I thought they were nice guys then. And seeing them years later, when they were one of the biggest bands on the planet, I don’t think they’d changed at all. They were still

down-to-earth and very normal.”

I hit the road with the Cosmics – Wylie, Fleming plus Gary Cuthbert, James Clifford and Mark Brown - when they played the Summersonic Festival in Japan.

They shared a bill with Marilyn Manson, Primal Scream, Ocean Colour Scene, Slipknot and Elbow.

But their appearance was like something from the spoof rock movie, This Is Spinal Tap.

“We were playing a 15,000 capacity arena and our stage time was 11am,” recalled Daniel.

“I thought, there’s going to be nobody there. Who goes to a gig that early?

“But when we walked on stage, it was full. The audience knew our songs and were singing along with them. We went down an absolute storm.

“Our album was released on Sony there, the same label as Abba and Michael Jackson. It did pretty well. We sold 9,000 copies.”

“The Japanese audiences have also got to be the most polite you can play for. They go crazy during the songs. And they stand in total silence to listen to what you’re saying between numbers. They were so well mannered.

“Can you imagine that happening at Barrowland?”