|
BACKGROUND - WEST RECORDS
WEST
RECORDS began in a Home Studio in Falkirk - The first record WRE101 (a 10"
EP) was made there. Realising the need for a bigger studio, Jim West
searched around Falkirk for premises. Right in the heart of Falkirk, Bank
Street to be precise, he found the Falkirk Aquarist Club had a couple of
rooms and a toilet as Club Premises and that they only needed the use of
the rooms for Meetings once a month. Following agreement and formalities
this became the first studio for recording bands and musicians. There were no residences adjoining so no near neighbours
to offend! Many great Bands were recorded at Bank Street - including The
Bay City Rollers (before they were famous)! Hugh Nicholson of Blue -
Marmalade - The Poets. Cat Violet a local 4 piece
Still
searching for slightly larger premises Jim kept looking and identified a
number of empty properties owned by Falkirk Council. The Deputy Town Clerk
(Robin ??) at the time must have been sympathetic to the cause as eventually he
identified a set of run down "rooms and kitchens" which required
"upgrading".
6a - 12a
Canal Street, Camelon, Falkirk was to become a new larger studio. Planning
permission was sought to knock 4 rooms into the studio and through the 3
foot thick wall and adjoining room would be the Control Room and so
"Central Scotland Recording Studios" was born!
In
recent Years a number of musicians I recorded way back then have been in
touch to ask about recordings I did then. Well it so happens I still have
tapes of many of these - so far - unreleased material! I am currently in contact with Richard (Dickie)
Dow who lived in Falkirk and now lives in Australia - he can't believe his
luck that I still have the tapes of most of the original recordings he did
with various bands - Aardvark, Thrush and Susan Ram. He backed the late
great singer Tam White on a track called The Knights of Bushido.
This
song was
written by a local singer songwriter Donald Cameron. Donald sadly passed
away many years ago. He was a Student at Glasgow College of Music and a prolific writer of
original songs and music. Like Hugh
Nicholson he regularly used my facility to record new songs.
My plan is to digitise these
tapes and upload them to the web for posterity. I was thinking of
monetising them on various music sites that get small payments etc. It costs
money to set it up but once up might be self financing.
Another
area I got involved with was Esperanto - it is not that I was a language
enthusiast - but I was looking for a niche. I met a Great Man - William
Auld - type that name into Google and see what comes up! Bill was a
Worldwide known expert in Esperanto - We produced a 7" EP of his Poems and
this got marketed to Esperanto Organisations around the World. A few other
records followed. I intend to add a new page detailing those here shortly
-
KREA-SONO RECORDS was the
new label for Esperanto Records
|
