SAY AWARD SAY it is so (from top, clockwise): Auntie Flo, Jarlath Henderson, Emma Pollock, Anna Meredith
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Rustie or RM Hubbert or Belle & Sebastian or Boards of Canada. Or even Emeli Sandé. It seems to be a statement to have an award like SAY at the moment. Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland all do; England doesn’t, but let’s not go there . . .
The SAY gives us something to rally round every year, to look back and see what’s worked and what hasn’t. While labels have to pay to enter the Mercury, the SAY is open to public nominations; having a lot of people involved in the decision-making is as egalitarian as it gets. But then if enough people play it safe, it can’t help but let your Primal Screams in?
I know where you’re coming from, that there’s a whole strata of good underground Scottish music that doesn’t seem to get recognised by the SAY. But how do you do that without rigging it? I’d say the award is dei nitely meant to support the industry, but they’ve done a good job of giving the grassroots a boost: that 20k will have come in very handy to winners like RM Hubbert and Kathryn Joseph.
Stewart I appreciate SAY has to include some populist choices in order to hook in a wider audience, but I am a bit uncomfortable with the idea of public money propping up the marketing campaigns of established mainstream acts. By that I don’t mean your Admiral Fallows so much as your Primal Screams or, in previous years, Mogwai and Belle & Sebastian. Acts on that level don’t need SAY, although in publicity terms, perhaps SAY needs them.
30 THE LIST 2 Jun–1 Sep 2016
There’s a wider context to my comments on the spending of public money; when you see the Scottish Government giving money to T in the Park but failing to save The Arches, it looks a bit like socialism for the rich and austerity for the rest of us. It’s not that the grassroots should have to rely on public cash, but if you want to scale things up from a local DIY level, then funding is essential.
It’s not that SAY is hogging funding that would otherwise go to the grassroots, but I do think that as a publicly-funded award, it needs to be about more than simply boosting the Scottish music industry. Of course, SAY is not a panacea; there’s a wider conversation to be had about public funding and the Scottish music scene, and hopefully this discussion can be a contribution to that. To end on a positive note, who would you like to see win this year? For me, it’s got to be Anna Meredith.
David I’m staying quiet on the winner, but I’m sad Spook School weren’t nominated. They play the jangly, excitable indie for which Scotland’s scene is renowned, with added comment on gender which is, I think, really ground-breaking. But there’s always next time.
David Pollock is a freelance arts, culture and feature writer based in Edinburgh, and Stewart Smith is a writer and researcher based in Glasgow. Read a longer version of this conversation at list.co.uk
THE SAY AWARD LONGLIST 2016
Admiral Fallow Tiny Rewards
Anna Meredith Varmints
Auntie Flo Theory of Flo
C Duncan Architect
CHVRCHES Every Open Eye
Django Django Born Under Saturn
Dunedin Consort Bach Magnii cat
Emma Pollock In Search of Harperi eld
FFS FFS
Hector Bizerk The Waltz of Modern
Psychiatry
Hudson Mohawke Lantern
Iain Morrison Eas
Jarlath Henderson Hearts Broken, Heads Turned
Lau The Bell that Never Rang
Steve Mason Meet the Humans
Miaoux Miaoux School of Velocity
Primal Scream Chaosmosis
Rachel Sermanni Tied to the Moon
The Revenge Love that Will Not Die
Young Fathers White Men Are Black
Men Too
The shortlist is announced
on Thu 16 Jun, and the winner is revealed on Wed
29 Jun.