We are pleased to welcome songwriter, vocalist, guitar & bassist KAV to the Wardlaw stable.

Darryl Hunt bassist and songwriter with The Pogues has passed away at the age of 72.

The musician, singer and songwriter was born in Hampshire in 1950, studied fine art at Nottingham Trent and formed his first band in 1973, The Brothel Creepers. He later formed punk band The Favourites before joining The Pogues in 1986.

Darryl wrote The Pogues classic song 'Love You Till The End'.

Darryl also recorded 2 albums with his band BISH.

At Wardlaw, we had the true pleasure of working with Darryl for many years, spending many hours talking music, football, & comic books. At least you saw Forest return to the Premier League.

Darryl - a true gentleman.

We are very pleased to welcome soul/funk musician Byron Byrd to our roster. Byron formed classic US funk, soul, & R&B band Sun in the mid 70's, signing to Capitol Records and having hits including 'Conscience', 'Time Is Passing', & 'We're So Hot'.

We are delighted to announce the signing of two of Scotland’s finest musical acts, Mike Clerk & Caezar.

Stepping away from frontman duties with previous outfit The Lost Generation, Fife based singer-songwriter Mike is returning to music as a solo artist and in invigorating form. Unafraid to get personal, he explores the darker side of the human psyche, with his indie/alt rock “a bit Queens of the High Flying Black Rebel Motorcycle Keys” on his forthcoming debut album ‘The Space Between My Ears’.

Caezar are Joe Donnelly and JJ Gilmour, both former members of Scottish band The Silencers. The band are back in the studio working on new songs for release in 2021, a follow up to 2018’s Time.

Along with the entire world of rock music, we were very saddened to hear of the untimely death of our dear friend Pete Way. An exceptional bassist and writer, from his early days in UFO Pete was an inspiration to a generation, with his playing of blues based hard rock and metal a shining light to so many. Artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Kirk Hammett, Saxon, Tom Morello, Pearl Jam, and Nikki Sixx all cite Pete as an inspiration.

We have had the pleasure of working with Pete for the past decade, working on new material, but more importantly getting to know the man. A true gent. Up the Villa!

Alone Together, a poem by Maya Angelou brought to life, ironically,
during this pandemic by this poignant film created by New Art Films.

Asylums Luke Branch has written the music for this reflective view of
the world, as we live in it today. Who knew? Maya Angelou knew. The
serenity and peace from every note tells us what we already know.

Pete Macleod’s track ‘Firing Line’ has debuted at Number One on the Official UK Physical UK Singles Chart on his own imprint, Stepping Stone Music.

Louise Connell’s track ‘Crossed The Line’ featuring Sharon Shannon is up to number 9 in the RTE Radio 1 Airplay charts in Ireland, sitting nicely between Marc Almond and Monty Python!

How many people listen to entire albums in the present era of streaming via the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc? Elias Leight over at Rolling Stone has written an interesting article, “Think You Have a Hit? Make Sure It’s the First Song on Your Album”. 

Headlines in every major newspaper foretell the supposed “death of the high street”. For music and media retailer HMV, it looks like a rescue operation is going to be required for the second time in six years to save the company from bankruptcy after it was announced the company had fallen into administration just after the Christmas period.

An incident that took place towards the end of the set that, although it has to be said was pretty minor, took me out of the moment and gave me some thinking to do about a problem that is facing every artist in the live circuit today: the use of mobile phones at gigs.

Wizzy Wow has been nominated for The Ivors Best Contempory Song for his contribution to Stormzy’s ‘Don’t Cry For Me’. This award recognises outstanding originality in songwriting; songs which capture the moment and/or explore the boundaries of contemporary music.

Geoff Lloyd, Absolute Radio, has made Idiot by Paperface, his Record of the Week. You can hear it every day this week, 6-9pm. Nice.

Interesting article on the rise and success of Beats Headphones on The Verge website. Is the Company really worth in excess of $3 billion, the sum that Apple recently paid for it? Apple have, of course, acquired the brand, which also includes the recently launched streaming service.

In 2014 for the first time streaming is to be included in the UK singles chart. So, for the first time since charts started over 50 years ago the addition of streaming will take into account consumption based not on purchase but on hearing something without actually owning it.

Interesting article by Ben Myers in the Guardian on December 02, BBC Sound of 2014: Where have the bands gone? Of this years shortlisted acts, 12 are solo artists with the remaining 3 being duos. As Ben states, “this list takes the middle path”. Following release of the list BBC News reported that “bands are out of fashion”.

UK electronic artist ‘Whitey’ has slammed a TV company for asking to use his music for free. Whitey bemoans the TV industry’s “culturally ingrained disdain for the musician” in an email to the production company, which can be seen in full here. Although not directly related, his comments echo those recently of David Byrne and Thom Yorke, concerning the availability and use of music.

Respected musician David Byrne outlined his thoughts on the music streaming debate in an article for The Guardian, published on October 11. His summary, “The boom in digital streaming may generate profits for record labels and free content for consumers, but it spells disaster for today’s artists across the creative industries”.

Earlier this month, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and his producer Nigel Godrich came out against music straming services, particularly Spotify.

As Spotify continues to grow into the Worlds #1 streaming site, so its detractors grow.