Belle & Sebastian’s Richard Colburn shares his memories of Alan Rankine as a teacher

Belle & Sebastian’s Richard Colburn wrote about the late Alan Rankine, a musician and university professor who was instrumental in the band’s early days.

The drummer revealed yesterday (January 4) in a Facebook post that the former guitarist for Scottish ex-punk and pop band The Associates, who died after spending Christmas 2022 with his family, was an important mentor and protector of his music in the middle. – nineties.

In a post, the Belle & Sebastian drummer said: “I met Alan in 1995 when I was studying at Stow College. He was my music business course teacher. The university had their own record label, Electric Honey Records, and thanks to my relationship with the band I was able to give him the first demo of ‘Dog On Wheels’ As soon as Alan heard the demo, he decided that this was the song and the band that was going to represent him performed on Electric Honey Records that year.

“Usually the record company would put out two or three singles, but Alan had the foresight (and a slightly bigger budget than the previous year) to ask us if we could record a full album instead. We did, and it was the result. Tigermilk, recorded in five days at CaVa studios in Glasgow.

“I can’t stress enough the impact he had on Belle and Sebastian at the start. He was very inspiring. Thanks to his knowledge and contacts, he was able to make what we had done with Electric Honey Records promote throughout the music industry and create a real buzz in I return to the group.

We are very saddened to learn that Alan Rankine has passed away. Richard was a student in 1995: “I met…

Posted by Belle and Sebastian on Wednesday, January 4th, 2023

“He also organized the first two shows we did. The first show was Stones in Edinburgh, followed by another one at Dunkirk. Both were chaos, because most of us in the band had no idea what we were doing, but Alan was patient and always helped us, if it wasn’t for Alan our path would have been very different, we owe him a lot.

“Alan was a wonderful, generous and talented man and will be sorely missed by all of us who knew him.

“My thoughts and condolences go out to his family, from me and all of Belle and Sebastian.”

Rankine formed The Associates in the late 1970s with singer Billy Mackenzie, and released three albums, “The Affectionate Punch” (1980), the compilation singles “Fourth Drawer Down” (1981), and “Sulk” (1982) .

After leaving the band in 1982, Rankine became a successful producer, working on albums with the Cocteau Twins and others, before embarking on a solo career in 1986.

Later, he taught at Stow College in Glasgow and helped students set up the Electric Honey record label, which was instrumental in the careers of Biffy Clyro and the Snow Patrol, as well as Belle & Sebastian.

Others have paid tribute to Rankine, including BMX Bandits singer Douglas T Stewart, who tweeted: “​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​a. I met Alan through The Associates and got to know him a little later. Loving his family and everyone he loved.”