A MUCH-LOVED Scots indie band will perform tracks from their 25-year-long career in three gigs next month.
The Bis City Tour will see the punk-pop trio, who first shot to fame in 1996 with an appearance on Top Of The Pops, play three consecutive concerts in support of their fourth LP Slight Disconnects.
Each date will focus on a different era of Bis, from their first singles in the mid-1990s to tracks recorded as Data Panik, the outfit they formed after Bis split in 2003.
Though the three – Amanda MacKinnon (Manda Rin), Steven Clark (Sci-fi Steven) and John Clark (John Disco) have long since reformed, Slight Disconnects is their first album of exclusively new material since 2001’s Return To Central.
“We’d all been working on our own bits and bobs for a long time and we hadn’t stopped,” says MacKinnon. “While we knew we wanted to make a new album, we’d all just been diddling about really.”
Bis had been on the verge of beginning a Kickstarter campaign via Molly Neuman, a friend of Bis through their connections with the 1990s riot grrl movement and, until recently, the first head of music at Kickstarter.
“We were going to work with Molly and then Steven met Ian [Smith] from Last Night From Glasgow at a record fair,” continues MacKinnon.
“We arranged a meeting and we went through lots of questions and it seemed ideal. So we apologised to Molly and made a plan to go for it.”
She adds: “It was great making that plan, as that gave us a deadline. They are a very strict label with the way it all works, so there was someone kicking our butts, telling us to do stuff. And I think we needed that.”
Juggling commitments is a constant challenge for the three, who all now have young families. Steven and MacKinnon each have their own businesses, the latter’s being a badge-making firm so successful she was able to give up a radio DJ post to run the firm from home, as well as making music and managing day-to-day life with multiple sclerosis.
MacKinnon set up Wee Badgers back in 2001, originally to make badges for Bis and other like-minded DIY bands. Now she’s looking forward to meeting fans and manning the merchandise stall again in 2019 – parts of the job she’s particularly enjoyed over the years.
Slight Disconnects shows a band still very much in love with the short, sharp shout-a-longs that made their names back in the 1990s, a time when bands communicated with their fans through postcards in the mail and interviews in the NME and Melody Maker. Neither the “inkies” nor Top Of The Pops now exist.
“I just realised the other day that this album is the first I haven’t wondered if it will be reviewed in the NME,” says MacKinnon.
“There are still some places, The National included, where you would hope to get a mention. Everything has obviously changed so much. But social media is great in that it’s direct communication with your fans.”
Top Of The Pops may be a distant memory, but she still thinks of it when she drops off her eldest child at school. “I think how weird it would be if half these mums and dads knew I had been on Top Of The Pops,” she says. “Some day, it’s going to get out.”
Feb 15, The Glad Cafe; Feb 16, The Old Hairdressers; Feb 17, The Hug and Pint, all Glasgow, 8pm. Tickets from bit.ly/BisGlasgowtour
Slight Disconnects is out on February 15 via Last Night From Glasgow.
www.bisnation.com www.lastnightfromglasgow.com
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here