大象传媒

Great music is born from a collision of societal and political change. This series explores the origin stories of some of the UK's most vital musical movements.

In this episode, we visit Fife's East Neuk, for a sound rooted in tradition and landscape.

The East Neuk of Fife is the most unlikely place for a musical revolution. It's a string of picturesque fishing villages set between the sea and rolling fields. St Andrews is well known, but the other towns and villages are far quieter, particularly in winter. The big-city energy of Edinburgh feels far away.

According to acclaimed singer-songwriter James Yorkston, the East Neuk's proximity to the sea and lack of gig venues provided musicians in the early and mid-1990s with the space and motivation to create their own voice, even if only to break the peace and quiet.

And it was in this environment of empty houses and cheap rents that a small community of gifted musicians gathered. Echoing the new folk revolution of the 1960s, the place created the sound. The sound in this case included the psychedelic troubadours The Beta Band, multi-million-selling KT Tunstall, the aforementioned James Yorkston and the reigning monarch and lynchpin of the Fence Collective, King Creosote.

Producer: Victoria McArthur
Narrated by: Nicola Meighan
Researcher: Juliet Conway
Sound mix: Lee McPhail