![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.scottishcultureonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/TempleBigLogo.gif\" "\\"TempleBigLogo\\"")
<\/a>What is your principle company activity?<\/strong><\/p>\nRecord Label mainly. Artist Management, Publishing and some event and\u00a0concert promotion.<\/p>\n
When and where did the company first start trading?<\/strong> What made you want to work in Scottish culture?<\/strong> 1. During the late 50s and 60s I worked and went to University in 2. I became involved in the folk music scene as a performer and over\u00a0the years developed into organiser of clubs; worked with TV and radio;\u00a0spent a year in England at London School of Economics where I sat on a\u00a0committee of the first National Folk Festival at Keele University. The\u00a0Chairman by the way was Rory McEwan. It was a great Festival \u2013 lots of 3. While I was in England I became involved with Ewan Mccoll and Bob\u00a0Davenport, and I got to know a lot of other singers.<\/p>\n 4. Went back to Ulster in the mid 60\u2032s with fire burning, and started\u00a0to organise concerts with Ewan Mccoll; Peggy Seeger and Bob Davenport\u00a0and a number of others. I had them performing with local musicians and\u00a0artists.<\/p>\n 5. At the same time I started to collect songs; publish books. By the\u00a0end of the 60\u2032s had published two collections of Ulster songs and put\u00a0out a number of albums on Irish labels, and I think a few on Topic\u00a0Records.<\/p>\n 6. Also at that point, I had formed a band with Tommy Gunn on fiddle\u00a0and Cathal McConnell on flute, whistle and songs and I played bodhran,\u00a0concertina a sang as well. Slowly but surely that became Boys of the\u00a0Lough, as a request for a band name from the Aberdeen Folk Festival\u00a0one year. We did various tours of England, organised initially by Ewan\u00a0Mccoll and Peggy Seeger. I was deeply involved in this music, and this\u00a0kind of music. During those tours we met a number of Scottish\u00a0musicians, including Mike Whellans and Aly Bain who were playing\u00a0together, which was to turn into something else. We also met all these\u00a0great singers and musicians, in both Scotland and England, too many to\u00a0mention really.<\/p>\n 7. While I was at University I established the folk club which lasted\u00a0a number of years; after coming back from England I organised with\u00a0John Moulden and Dave Scott the rather grandly named Ulster Folk Music\u00a0Society, which was pretty successful I have to say.<\/p>\n 8. Right at the end of 1969 I finished my degree at Queens and came\u00a0across supposedly to do a PHD in economic and social history\u00a0department at Edinburgh University.<\/p>\n Sorry about all that preamble. I had to set the scene for you. I met\u00a0up with Aly and Mike, and I arrived over and had a few pints in Bells;\u00a0renewed acquaintances. I was invited to a Hogmannay party in Arthur\u00a0Argo\u2019s house in Glasgow. Aly and I went over together. It was a great\u00a0party, the details become a bit confused as you can imagine. During\u00a0the night a number of people played music and sang. A woman began to\u00a0sing, the room went quiet, and she held everyone, as they stood and\u00a0watched this lady sing a gaelic song. I could hardly wait to be\u00a0introduced to her. I was told it was Flora MacNeil. I knew of her I was lucky enough to get John MacInnes to do the translations of the\u00a0songs. Tangent put it out, and it was very successful. I put it out on\u00a0my label later, after they went out of business.<\/p>\n I noticed that there was no one emphasising traditional music, so I\u00a0began to transpire how to get more of that stuff heard. That was the\u00a0beginning.<\/p>\n I really was shocked how little traditional music was getting over to\u00a0the public. This great tradition which was hidden away in back rooms.<\/p>\n So that was the beginning of it\u2026<\/p>\n While I was working with Boys of the Lough, I was putting out field\u00a0recordings of great Irish musicians on Topic. I hope to put these out\u00a0on Temple in the near future.<\/p>\n Boys of the Lough were headlining a two band show at Durham Folk\u00a0Festival in 1972\/73 something like that. The opening band was\u00a0Battlefield Band. I was impressed with their music and wondered if\u00a0they would like to do an album. I sold the idea to Topic and Topic I had already met my wife Alison Kinnaird on Shetland, and had married\u00a0her much to every ones surprise. There were mutterings of it will\u00a0never last. Nah nah nah nah nah nah.<\/p>\n Finally got round to putting out an album of Alison, who\u2019s music I\u00a0still admire, so the second highlight came when I offered the album of\u00a0Alison Kinnaird, which was to be called the Harp Key. For the first\u00a0time they declined. They did not think harp music was what they wanted\u00a0to do. By this stage I had left Boys of the Lough and was at home, and\u00a0I decided to become a record company in the late 70\u2032s early 80\u2032s. The\u00a0first release was The Harp Key.<\/p>\n The album was very well received nationally and internationally. There\u00a0was a lot of mutterings about why do you want to put out harp music,\u00a0and I pointed to the album itself and said listen to the music. You\u00a0may have noticed a few more harp music albums since then, but Alison\u2019s\u00a0was the first one. I released it at the end of the 70\u2032s, and there\u00a0were no others until the mid 80\u2032s when Alison released another. You\u00a0may notice there are another few around now.<\/p>\n I think probably the next\u00a0highlight would be hearing Christine Primrose singing on the radio in\u00a0the early 1980\u2032s and being completely entranced, finding out who she\u00a0was and immediately going over to Glasgow and begging her to make an\u00a0album. She agreed and we released \u2018Aite Mo Ghaoil\u2019 in 1982. Again\u00a0mutterings of why do you want to put out Gaelic song albums, and again\u00a0I just pointed to the album. Again can I just say there are a few The next highlight I suppose was the Controversy of Pipers. This was\u00a0an album made by all the young Folk pipers who were playing in bands\u00a0and so on. They were being criticised by the establishment, and I\u00a0thought this is ridiculous these are fine musicians and should be We have done a number of great piping albums since then.<\/p>\n We have continued to put out albums that I felt should be heard –\u00a0Gordon Mooney on Lowland pipes.<\/p>\n Next highlight I supposed was Fiddlers Five \u2013 a lot of the fiddlers\u00a0playing in various band. They came in played a session. It was all\u00a0done in two days; not too much rehearsal, I wanted it to sound lively,\u00a0and if you listen to that album you will see what I mean. It is still I must say that the albums I have put out are all highlights from my\u00a0point of view. Most of them worked, and I had the arrogance of putting\u00a0out albums of musicians that I really like and liked to work with. So\u00a0we have had pipe band and so on. Those are the highlights. Mike\u00a0Whellans playing his blues; a solo drumming album and so on.<\/p>\n I did not want to become trapped putting out albums for the sake of\u00a0putting out albums. There were a number of other labels came along and\u00a0put out albums as well.<\/p>\n What are your company\u2019s plans for the future?<\/strong> All of us, not just the specialist labels, but the major labels are in\u00a0a state of crisis. Cd\u2019s are not selling; the digital world we do not\u00a0have any control over, in my opinion.<\/p>\n What the future holds I have no idea. Being a record company at the\u00a0moment is a tough ask. You keep ticking on and thinking do this, that\u00a0and the other in the hope of getting the music out there. Not an easy\u00a0time, and not an easy question to answer about the future.<\/p>\n How will you celebrate receiving Hands Up for Trad\u2019s Business\u00a0Limelight award?<\/strong> Temple Records Temple Records are the third recipients of Hands Up for Trad\u2019s Business Limelight Award. The \u201cLimelight\u2019s\u201d are a monthly initiative (launched in October 2012) that recognises the outstanding contributions made by businesses and organisations who contribute, shape and influence the arts and cultural sector in Scotland today. Temple Records have been releasing recordings since 1978 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business-limelight","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"simon","author_link":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/author\/simon\/"},"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcv15g-HX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2726,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions\/2726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI came to Scotland in 1969 and in 1978 Temple Records became a company\u00a0putting out vinyl records. A few years later (1983) we became a US\u00a0company as well trading in the United States.<\/p>\n
\nHow much time do you have Simon. Let me just do bullet points.<\/p>\n
\nBelfast.<\/p>\n
\nScots \u2013 Jimmy MacBeath, a great character and Fred Jordan from\u00a0England. The both became great friends, and I had to look after them\u00a0at the Festival.<\/p>\n
\nthrough the BBC collections, which Hamish Henderson was involved in,\u00a0there were Irish collectors and so on. Flora was now living in\u00a0Glasgow, no longer on Barra, and was bringing up her family in\u00a0Glasgow. My immediate response was were was I going to get a recording\u00a0of her. I was shocked and horrified that there did not seem to be any
\nrecordings of this wonderful singer. Being \u2018young and enthusiastic\u2019, I\u00a0decided that I was going to have to put a recording out of Flora\u00a0MacNeil, as people must hear this lady. I ended up doing a recording\u00a0at REL, remember them, of Flora for an English company called Tangent.<\/p>\n<\/a>Can you tell us of any particular company highlights?<\/strong>
\nLet me talk about a personal highlight first. Tommy Gunn had decided\u00a0he did not want to tour anymore, he was older than we were, and liked\u00a0the comforts of home. Cathal and I kept touring, made many friends in\u00a0Scotland. Cathal stayed here, and obviously Sandy Bells and all that\u00a0stuff. One day I was offered, can\u2019t remember the guys name, but he ran
\nthe Newcastle Folk Festival, this would have been around 1971, and he\u00a0offered us a gig. Cut a long story short, we had played a lot, and met\u00a0Aly and Mike at various gigs, and I wondered if he would be interested\u00a0in booking them, and we would do two duet sets and then join together\u00a0for the second half for a band. I had not mentioned this to Aly and\u00a0Mike, so I said I would suggest this, and that\u2019s were Boys of the\u00a0Lough came from. We named ourselves that for the night, and it took\u00a0off from there. That took off, and the two boys were professional, so\u00a0we had to decide to give up, as it was not fair on them, or Cathal and\u00a0I had to turn professional as well. I gave up my studies, and Cathal\u00a0was happy to do, and there is fully professional Boys of the Lough. A\u00a0professional band before the Chieftans; Planxty and all that. Enough\u00a0of that, it\u2019s not about Boys of the Lough.<\/p>\n
\ntook it on. That was a highlight, as still involved with the band. By\u00a0the 1980\u2032s I became their manager as well as their record label.<\/p>\n
\nGaelic song albums around now.<\/p>\n
\nheard. We did an album, I am not going to name names, but they were\u00a0the top pipers playing in band and some pipers from pipe bands, and we\u00a0put out an album which was well received. Again it was the same\u00a0question asked and the same response by myself.<\/p>\n
\na great album. Again mutterings why do you want to put out a fiddle\u00a0orchestra album. My response was \u2013 Just listen to it, and see. By the\u00a0second track the people that were listening were smiling. You may have\u00a0noticed a few other fiddle bands around since then.<\/p>\n
\nI have no idea, because most of the stuff I have done, has happened\u00a0because I wanted it to, and because no one else was.<\/p>\n
\nWe will let people know about it. Will be very pleased to receive it,\u00a0and I hope it will sell a few more album; draw attention to the label\u00a0and more importantly the music. Still some great music out there, and\u00a0I don\u2019t think the Scottish Establishment understands what a cultural\u00a0asset they have. When they do push music I do have certain\u00a0reservations about what they are putting out there as important\u00a0Scottish msuic. Everyone deserves to make a living. I really do want\u00a0people to listen to music that is really steeped in the tradition. I do think that traditional music develops organically and I think these\u00a0people that are pushing forward the image of Scotland should know that\u00a0an interest in traditional music is backward looking by any\u00a0definition. By any definition tradition is a living thing and it has been my privilege to work with a lot of people who really know and\u00a0have chosen to play music steeped in that great tradition and know that carrying it forward is something that happens naturally and\u00a0cannot be forced.<\/p>\n
\nShillinghill
\nTemple
\nMidlothian
\nEH23 4SH
\nScotland
\nUK
\ninfo@templerecords.co.uk<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.templerecords.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"