Introducing Alan Cassidy a young Scottish bandleader, songwriter and singer.
By the age of six, Alan had started his musical education having seen an old re-run of The Kinks performing the song 'All Day and All Of The Night', he then went on to teach himself how to play drums by playing along to records. In particular the first two albums of Scottish band The Silencers, which his Uncle was an original member and drummer.
Speaking with Alan it is clear he believes his story and his music is as much about others as it is about himself, "there ain't a note I write or play on stage that can't be traced back directly to my mother and father it is just the way it goes".
Having started playing from such a young age it did not mean the path chosen proved the easy road.
"I was dead weight until I was about 13 to be honest. I had a lot of energy and a lot ideas but no execution, I didn't have any real emotional outlet, it wasn't exactly the kind of thing that is encouraged where I come from. So you go a little loose get into hot water and then do it all over again... then I found this thing, I thought of myself as a drummer, but I wasn't allowed a kit at home, there had been to many drummers in the family before. So I started to write words, rhyming stuff off or just spouting out ideas that meant something to me, once I got a handle on the lyrics and worked out what I wanted to say then I'd look to put some music to it. I had guitar lessons as a wee boy, as my dad really didn't want me playing drums... but I hated the lessons so much I just wanted to be a drummer and nothing else.
It was Alan's passion for drumming that gave him his first taste of life in a band and performing to an audience.
I'd go to school by day and then hang with older guys at night playing in bars and clubs, it was exciting... then down the line I'd pluck up the courage and say 'guys I got a song and the melody and beat goes like this' we'd jam it out and take it out live, it was a good way to find out how strong your work really was..."
The apprenticeship that Alan picked up from playing in bands from such a young age taught him a lot. Both the good and the bad about the world in which trying to make a living on the road is fun but is not always easy although is always eventful.
"playing the bars was a great education as the gigs were hard going but you'd meet some characters down the road... The bar owners would go crazy if you didn't play chart music, top 40 stuff or the other money earner Commitments soul songs, there was no room for Chuck Berry, Otis Rush and other things I liked. Some of those club owners were nuts, I guess they had to be... we played up in Dundee for this big South African club owner who had booked us for a party, were half way through playing a song it was I Will Follow' by U2 and this guy from behind the bar draws out a machete jumps on stage and drives it into my floor tom. Can you see it? The place just stopped, absolute quiet, all thinking the same thing... that kid behind the drums is a goner, and he balls "I told you son to turn it down... n' get the hell outa here"... I hit the kit hard but that was an invaluable lesson in dynamics from a machete wielding South African... no matter I now had an emotional outlet, that is why I played with a lot of different bands but I wasn't satisfied, although I generally felt good about what I was doing it was frustrating in some fashion, so that is how I started thinking about singing my own songs and playing guitar with some guys I'd met on the road.
Like many that have gone before him his musical influences and reference points have been shaped by his family's record collection and the music that those close to him have loved and passed on."I got different things from different people... my Grandpa Cassidy he was a strong influence and introduced the voices like Otis Rush, Al Jolson, and guys like Sinatra and Tony Bennett... the latter of which my Gramps thought himself as Scotland's very own answer to... he was very much an influence in his own way as he would always be singing little bits and bobs of old tunes and old stories day in day out... but I remember one time he sang a tune alone at family thing just his voice alone... the whole room was taken by him... not a person moved or spoke, it was the first time I had experienced that type of feeling, he was very much someone that you could take your measure from".
From his father, Alan was influenced by the passion and volume his dad had for the great operas... "he loved the storytelling and drama of it all but most importantly... I have never heard music so loud in all my life... he would play it so big that you could hear him all the way across town". This is in addition to his fathers' love for the Rolling Stones which was one of the first concerts Alan ever attended. "I got to know the work of Elvis Costello and importantly female artists like Emmylou Harris, Roberta Flack, Dusty Springfield and Joni Mitchell... there was lots of Joni".
Alan's Uncle who was also a drummer, had a lasting influence "he had this infectious passion for The Waterboys record, This Is the Sea... that record was an important one not only as it then led me down the road to discover Van Morrison, The Undertones and other Celtic writers".
Like any son in rock'n'roll a mother plays an important part and this was no different with Alan..."my mum is like superwoman, she does it all keeps everything and everyone together but she is never happier than when she has a great book to read, she's a library girl, that is where an understanding and importance of the written word comes from... but musically she gave me a sense of history... from the town songs of Africa to the artists who recorded on the Chess Record label to the sound of old Scots songs... she would play me Glasgow singers like Matt McGinn... but the real important album was Graceland by Paul Simon... it is like a big brother it can teach you a lot, from the vocals to the rhythms it set a child’s' imagination alight... as did her love for the Tamla Motown sound that sense of melody and strong chorus's... as well as singers like Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke they are all deep routed in my childhood".
Importantly, it was Alan's mother who introduced her son to the very unique singing voices of Nina Simone and Nat King Cole, both of whom have been great influences on Alan's own voice and proved to be invaluable reference points.
Alan's first love was drumming and later on the craft of song writing, when it comes to the latter Alan believes he has found the "key to the universe".
"Last winter I wrote like a madman. Put it out, had no money, nowhere to go, nothing to do. Didn't know to many people. it was cold and I wrote a lot, and I got that huge feeling of guilt if I didn't... terrible guilt feelings like bad religious guilt like masturbation... it was that bad. I am lucky though as it taught me the discipline of making myself write and seeing the idea through. Be it on buses or on the streets I take my Dictaphone everywhere I go and I'll sing the melody and words before it ever sees a guitar or gets delivered to the band, that is how I started"
However it was in Rock'n'Roll music in particular in which Alan found his own way,
"Rock'n'Roll is a way to erase the past... you have to want to get away from something pretty bad and for me Rock'n'Roll is that chance it is my life’s blood. Nothing means as much to me or ever has. I used to be crazy about a girl, I'd walk across town to see her, stay up all night just to get close and she was really something for a very long time but I couldn't say to anyone right now they are the most important thing in my life, because nothing in my life could ever be as important as this... I have always known I wanted to play, always wanted to have a band and have that connection with others, to travel to have fun and know that freedom and all that for me is Rock'n'Roll... I just wanna be great, as great as I can be at the job... doing a job that I feel can be useful to other people and to myself...".