How a punk rock band immortalised a future First Minister

My book Postcards From Scotland: Scottish Independent Music 1983-1995 was written to make this case and document its oral history. Glasgow band The Vaselines’ huge influence on Nirvana is now undisputed.

There are few moments when music has broken through to wider society and come to represent the zeitgeist. Like Beatlemania and punk rock, in 1991 Nirvana would thrust their form of music, in their case grunge, into popular culture, changing fashion and film and also making some record executives incredibly rich.

(Image: Supplied)

Had The Vaselines not decided to pick up a guitar and make a series of DIY records, then it’s quite feasible Nirvana would not have sounded as they did and perhaps not have become as successful. Music changes people.

Of course, not every indie band who formed in 1980s Scotland would have as great a degree of influence as The Vaselines and not every band would be as popular as Teenage Fanclub, Primal Scream or The Jesus and Mary Chain. But this book also celebrates those who didn’t “make it”.

For me, the heart of Postcards From Scotland is the teenage dream, the beauty of youthful fantasy believing that Top of the Pops success only required a degree of strong self-belief and a copy of Buzzcocks’ self-released Spiral Scratch EP. These bands’ early dreams of stardom are often the most enjoyable stories.

While researching the book, I found one such band, Nocturnal Vermin, who despite never releasing a slice of vinyl somehow, 40 years later, would hit the zeitgeist of Scotland in 2024, albeit very briefly (and bizarrely). Nothing could be more punk rock and that’s true success to me. One of Postcards From Scotland’s featured bands is Edinburgh’s Rote Kapelle, who in 1985 performed a benefit gig for the miners’ strike.

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I was intrigued by the support band, the afore-mentioned Nocturnal Vermin, who I had never heard before. I decided to address this intrigue to social media: who were Nocturnal Vermin? Their leader, Mark Allan, responded only hours later and told me their strange story ...

“In late 1981 Angus McIntosh and I convened in my mum’s attic over two days to record the 45 tracks (yes you heard that right) of mostly improvised tunes (the lyrics were in the main already written) for what would become our debut release, the Winter Offensive cassette.

“So named as it was recorded in winter and yes, was pretty offensive (sample track titles, Rabies, Let the babies sign on) ... we tried a multitude of guitarists who never quite satisfied our sometimes bizarre requirements).

“We asked Graham Crawford of 35mm Dreams fame to join as we were taken by his ability to play guitar with a stookie on as a result of a motorcycle accident. When he recovered and had his cast removed we decided, based entirely on his lack of a cast, that he no longer aesthetically fitted the bill.

“Kenny Mackay of The Architects of Fear also had a couple of stints but eventually we carried on as a two-piece until our final gig at the miners’ benefit in 1985 along with Buba and the Shop Assistants and Rote Kapelle, among others.

“Actually we did have one more aborted live outing at the Corstorphine Old Kirk manse of all places. John Brady, the minister’s son and big fan of the band, arranged a party when his dad was away but it was shut down quite quickly due to a noise complaint and a visit from the polis. That party is doubly relevant I guess as present at the party was one John Swinney (below), future leader of the SNP.”

Nocturnal Vermin may not have reached the level of influence and fame of some but in a stroke of bizarre foresight, in 1982 they recorded a song entitled John Swinney (We Salute You) about our future First Minister, then aged 15. Allan continues: “John Swinney was part of our extended friends group. Peter Murrell was one of four people present at another live ‘gig’ in my parents’ garage.

“We were very much a punk band. Our lyrics were generally a bit on the offensive side so the John Swinney song is uncharacteristically good-natured. Our main aim was to make ourselves and our close friends laugh so the song was very much written with that in mind. It was written in 1982 (was part of a four-track recording called the Herpes EP – so called as it was infectiously catchy) and was quite popular in the 5th/6th year school common room.

“We did get the cassette professionally duplicated. And was stocked by Ripping Records. I have a piece of paper that claims sales of a grand total of 53 although I can’t really attest to the veracity of that number.

“We did send it around a few record companies such was the belief back then that you had to be discovered (the innocence of youth) but in our usual self-destructive way we just chose companies with daft names such as Goat Records (we weren’t what they were looking for at the time and they pointed out that there was a band called Nocturnal Emissions as though that was some sort of insurmountable barrier). A few years later Ripping Records also stocked our ‘best of’ cassette that we ran with the advertising strap line ‘need change for the bus? buy this’.”

In a bid to increase their then total of 53 cassette sales the band would take inspiration from the Sex Pistols’s manager Malcolm McLaren by undertaking attempts to provoke media attention and controversy. Unlike The Sex Pistols’ notorious boat cruise stunt though, some fake letters to the Sunday Post was all Nocturnal Vermin could muster, with predictably hapless results.

Allan says: “That undoubtedly came about from drunken pub talk. I think we all admired Malcolm McLaren-esque shock tactics. It was intended purely as a laugh.

“Our pal Brian McGee wrote the letter [to the Sunday Post], never imagining it would get published. Unfortunately they edited it and didn’t actually mention the band’s name. So I was forced to write a ‘rebuttal’ the next week, making sure the band was mentioned. As a tactic it was successful in so much as we’re talking about it now and it still makes me laugh.”

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As with the vast majority of bands from the punk and DIY era Nocturnal Vermin’s existence would be short-lived but Allan continues to make music and, in the true spirit of punk, his fondest memories of that period are fun and rebellion.

He said: “It’s a small thing but my fondest memory was walking off the stage at the miners’ benefit gig and seeing Kenny McKay with tears of laughter streaming down his face. It was the ultimate job done moment for me.

“In a wider sense I think it was just being in a small gang with all the potential (ultimately unfulfilled) ahead of you. Or maybe just being able to go to the pub EVERY single night ha! ha!

These days I play bass with Shock & Awe (as Tommy Shock – I hate an alias me, ha ha!) alongside Murray Ramone (aka Bobby Awe), which has led to some great gigs over the years, last-minute call-up to support Scars at the Picture House being the highlight.”

We salute you, Nocturnal Vermin.

Postcards From Scotland is published by Omnibus Books and is available in all good bookshops including Monorail, Underground Solu’shn and Assai.