Barney Strachan

Well, these songs are all me, apart from some great bits and bobs by George Christie on Parallel Universe and drums on others by Tam Treanor and Mike Pelanconi. As a member of a variety of bands I've been signed, sealed and delivered. The 3 piece outfit I was in (!?) won the MTV unsigned band of the year award in 1997 (In The City) before doing two singles with Boy George's Indie label Things to Come. Then got signed to Roadrunner Records in America for alot of money, recorded an album at the Chemical Brothers' 'Orinocco' studio in London before going to San Francisco to do a bunch of promotional gigs. But... not enough of the college radio stations picked up on the singles from the album, so the record company had to make the decision whether to put $100,000 into touring us around America or not. They went for 'not'. And that's how it works kids, that with some mis-management and arguments about writing credits (ho-hum). Been on the other side too, working for five years as head of the publicity & promotions team for two of London's premier music venues the Jazz Café and the Forum (gigs included the likes of James Brown, De La Soul, Jimmy Smith, Lee Scratch Perry, Morcheeba etc etc). Put on acoustic nights (with acoustic sets by Zero7 & Damien Rice among others). Was producer Arthur Baker's (Miles Davis, Bowie etc) resident Fri/Sat night DJ at his SoulFood Restaurant/DJ Bar 'Harlem' in Westbourne Grove and Brixton for 2 years. I completed a degree in Sonic Art and now I'm back up in Edinburgh doing theatre soundtracks and sound installations, check out 'The Man Who Planted Trees" (Puppetstate.com). Currently, I'm engineering folk singer Eliza Carthy's latest album and writing some fresh stuff with nik for 3BagBrew along with a fresh project called The Armchair Orkestra.