Movie Review: Big Gold Dream — Scottish Post-Punk and Infiltrating the Mainstream

3.5 stars out of 5

My bad, I didn’t really do my homework before seeing this. I assumed it was a more comprehensive survey of the Scottish music scene from the late 70s on. I even thought the title came from a Simple Minds’ album, which turns out to be New Gold Dream. So as a result, “Simple Minds” showed up on a couple of show posters in the documentary early on (well, they are Scottish) and I kept waiting for an interview with Jim Kerr that never came. Again, that’s on me. (“Big Gold Dream” turns out to be a song by the band Fire Engines.)

Truth is, I don’t know a hell of a lot about Scotland. I mean, sure, Scotch tape, scotch, Scotty dogs, Fringe Festival (it sure is fun to say Edinburgh), “If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap,” etc. But I’m very aware of a lot of Scottish bands — even did a Scotland-themed radio show a couple of years back. That’s why I went to see this movie.

The focus turned out to be very specific, and quite interesting: the Fast Product label, based in Edinburgh, and the Postcard label, based in Glasgow. Bob Last and Hillary Morrison (both interviewed extensively) ran Fast, while the precious wunderkind Alan Horne headed up Postcard. Fast is best known for the first releases by (English, not Scottish) bands the Human League, Gang of Four, and the Mekons. In addition, Fast’s design aesthetic seemed to have a definite influence on the more prominent U.K. label Factory.

Postcard I’d heard of — that was Orange Juice’s early label. (Their leader, Edwyn Collins, in 1994 would have a top-40 U.S. hit with “A Girl Like You,” released on Hoboken’s own Bar/None label.) And the Postcard label was home to the slightly more prominent Scottish bands Aztec Camera and Josef K.

The mysterious Alan Horne is not interviewed, and neither is Edwyn Collins (though I know he’s had serious medical issues, and there is a separate documentary about his recovery). From the Human League we get Martyn Ware instead of Philip Oakey; for Aztec Camera we get Malcolm Ross, not Roddy Frame. Though it should be said that both Ware and Ross come across as rather charming and informative. Some of the most notable indie interviews, with Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake and the Vaselines’ Eugene Kelly, appear to have been conducted for a follow-up documentary, on the mid-80s to 90s Scottish bands that I’m much more familiar with.

Still, I couldn’t help compare the film to My Secret World, the Sarah Records documentary. That movie did a better job of tracking down key interviews, but more importantly presented a much more thorough view of the scenes around the record label. Big Gold Dream only gave me a cursory understanding of life in Edinburgh and Glasgow at the time. I certainly wouldn’t have minded a few more interviews with fans of the bands.

What Big Gold Dream does very well, however, is provide a snapshot of the Scottish indie “industry” during a period of rapid change. Last and Horne are playing a game of one-upmanship; as Edinburgh and Glasgow are on opposite sides of the country, the film cleverly makes a comparison to U.S. east coast/west coast rivalries. And the lure of pop success is strong for both label bosses, as the indie 70s became the glitzy 80s. In that regard, Last had the last word, remaking the Human League and becoming their manager for their massive hit era. Don’t you want them?