SAMAs 2012 ★★★★

The Garage, Glasgow. 01/02/12


Best Acoustic: Brown Bear And The Bandits
Best Hip-Hop: Madhat McGore
Best Electronic: Fridge Magnets
Best Live Act: We Were Promised Jetpacks
Best Metal: Ten Tonne Dozer
Best Rock-Alternative: Fatherson
Best Newcomer: Bwani Junction


The Scottish Alternative Music Awards, in their third year, have grown immensely. Having started out in the small room in Classic Grand, it sold out the Garage tonight and had some big names in the music business presenting the awards. BBC Radio 1's Ally McCrae presented best acoustic and best hip-hop; BBC Radio 1's Vic Galloway presented best electronic and best live act; and Clyde 1's Jim Gellatly presented best metal and best rock alternative, with SAMA founder Richy Muirhead presenting best newcomer.


Opening the night were Vukovi. Nice female vocals and normal rock music beats, they had a well-received set. The backing vocals harmonised beautifully with the lead and we would recommend doing more of that! The lead seemed (understandably) nervous, but got more confident as the set went on and was able to make a bit more contact with the audience. Hopefully she is able to interact more with the crowd the more gigs they do, as they were a good band to start off with. 

The host of the evening was comedian Billy Kirkwood. First impressions weren't brilliant - why get all kilted up and then wear trainers...whit you doing man? Other than that, he managed to get the crowd enthused and kept them smiling with a variety of slip-ups and deliberate jokes, making himself a memorable host.

Madhat McGore took to the stage after being announced as winners for best hip-hop. Ally McCrae mentioned how Scottish hip-hop is greatly overlooked, and we agree. However, we don't think the Scottish accent and hip-hop should necessarily go together, and it seems quite an acquired taste. That said, Madhat McGore was better than expected, with his accent not too strong but still keeping a Scottish flair. The first song "Healthy" wasn't brilliant, but managed to get some of the crowd involved. His acapella song was the best in the set, as we think the backing tracks were generally just faded out rather than ended with the lyrics, making it all seem unfinished. Even just cross fading the tracks into each other could greatly improve the performance. 

The next live performance was from Fridge Magnets, our surprise favourites of the night. Being an electronic band, we were expecting to see only a laptop and synthesiser, and were impressed when an electric drumkit and guitars all appeared on stage. It was a very nice change to see an actual band and instruments for an electronic band, and they did brilliantly. The vocals are fantastic and they got the audience bobbing along to their catchy tunes. Deserving winners in our opinion.

Best rock alternative winners Fatherson were next to perform. Reminding us initially of early Biffy Clyro, the lead had good soft rock vocals and lyrics to go with the fairly standard light rock music, and the introduction of a double bass halfway through the set was particularly suited to this.The vocalist and bassist were are the front of the stage, and seemed quite shy. Given the fairly large audience and having just won an award, it's understandable, but in their case it was quite endearing and we would suggest they hold on to that.

The final live performers were Bwani Junction. We, unfortunately, were unimpressed with this band. They did nothing wrong; they had catchy, radio-friendly indie-pop tunes, good vocals and a lively attitude. However, being so radio-friendly we were disappointed with their appearance in an alternative music setting, and this was the second year they had been nominated for best newcomer - defeating the whole purpose of that award. That said, for fans of that style of music, this band would go down well.


The night was a success, and SAMA is something we hope continues to grow. We think that in order for it to grow further it should increase the number of awards and have a clearer definition of genres. They sound clear-cut as it stands, but the nominees for best metal were primarily emo/alternative, with the winners Ten Tonne Dozer being the only metal band in the category. With it only being the third year of these awards, this is fairly excusable, and hopefully will be rectified in years to come. Everyone seemed to enjoy the night and it is a significant step for each of the nominated acts in their respective careers to be involved in the awards. For this and the fact the SAMAs are promoting local Scottish music, this event deserves the recognition it is now getting.