We actually grew up in the same town at roughly the same time as our guest on this episode - the singer/songwriter and virtuoso guitarist Marco Rossi. Therefore, apologies in advance if the chat gets a bit 'local' in places. Marco is very much his own man, and this comes across in his gig recollections. From a pre-schooler first gig at a local event watching a jazz legend, we pass through peak punk rock, a Beatle in Paris, and our first ever mention of pop-pysch rockers Gothic Chicken! Plus, we get a live album recommendation that we concur with 100%. And, of course, we manage to chat a fair bit about Kevin McDermott Orchestra ( including a personal message for Marco) This one was well overdue, and in turn we took our time making sure we covered all the bases ( its definitely a two coffee watch/listen). Marco was great company, as we are sure will agree. Enjoy and stay safe

Arguably saving the best till last, we recently spent around 30 minutes in the company of Mike Scott from The Waterboys. Our primary conversation was on Fisherman’s Blues, the album that came out on top of our Greatest Scottish Albums poll – and Mike was generous in both his recollections on making the record and some of the frustrations that it created for him.

However, with the benefit of almost 40 years of perspective, Mike is now rightly proud of what he and his fellow musicians achieved. Mike also gave us a couple of cracking stories connected to the album, including a world-famous producer cold-calling his Mum’s house in Ayr, and reminding anyone who needs reminding of his Scottish heritage.

Mike has been a big supporting of our polling and chat on X over the last few months, which has been appreciated by everyone connected to our music channel – and we are looking forward to the release of the Atlantic Rain album and the subsequent Fisherman’s Blues Revue Tour ( and we’re going too!)

See you on the other side

We were keen to try and talk to some of artists involved in the making of some of the very best Scottish albums that make our final ‘greatest’ list.

One of those albums was Rip It Up by Orange Juice (a semi-finalist, and we were therefore delighted to be joined by their (and many other great bands) guitarist, Malcolm Ross.

Malcolm talked with fondness about how exciting music wasaround that time and gave us some lovely recollections, including being in two great bands in the space of 12 hours, recording the album in Soho London surrounded by goths, and of course making it onto Top Of The Pops. (and that infamous 2nd appearance!)

We also collectively agreed that the album has aged verywell, and is fully deserving of the recognition it is now getting.

Big thanks to Malcolm and check out the album if you haven’tfor a while. It might surprise you.

Enjoy and stay safe