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Donald MacLeod: Heid-bursting, but I shouldn’t worry about Scottish Music Awards

Paolo Nutini has been confirmed as a headline act at TRNSMT 2022.
Paolo Nutini has been confirmed as a headline act at TRNSMT 2022.

The great and the good (and the not so good!) of the Scottish music scene turned out in force last night for The SSE Scottish Music Awards at Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket.

As chairman of Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland (NRS) this annual event, now Scotland’s official music awards ceremony, is the highlight of my year. But I have to confess, beforehand, I really dread it.

It’s a feeling shared by radio broadcaster Billy Sloan and a few others on our committee.

Why? My Speech! The legendary Chairman’s Address!

They worry I’ll insult someone when I’m babbling from the podium, but I always promise I won’t.

Adding to my trepidations, the feeling of dread comes from carrying the burden of expectation that the night is a success.

There are demands from the sponsors, VIPs, guests, presenters, performers and award winners, all to be worried over.

There are the requests from the media, artist liaisons, PR companies and paparazzi. They all want the best pics, the best interviews and the best stories.

Then there is the apprehension over the night’s running order, the fear that one of the acts may throw a wobbly.

And will the dinner be hot? Will it be edible? And so on.

It can really burst yer heid!

It’s the same every year. But every year my fears have proven groundless, melting through the night like the ice in my (more than one!) Jack & Coke.

My biggest worry, though, which I have no control over, is that we don’t raise a decent sum of money for NRS.

It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year, the main reason we came up with the awards in the first place.

As the event has grown, so has the size and reach of NRS.

Starting with two members of staff in a single room in Roswell with 30 clients, it now has four bases, 20 staff and nearly 500 clients.

These clients have a range of conditions including dementia, autism, learning difficulties and life-limiting illnesses.

The costs of providing music therapy and meeting the ever- increasing demand for our services has shot up.

And without any Scottish Government or Creative Scotland funding forthcoming (which I think is disgrace given the awards promote Scotland and Scottish music) the financial pressures put on the awards to help meet NRS’s year-end targets also increase.

No doubt, as you read this, all these worries were groundless and last night was a huge success.

The acts and winners, Altered Images, Murray Chalmers, Model Aeroplanes, Rab Noakes, White, Kloe, Noel Gallacher, Stephen McCrorie, Foxes, Paulo Nutini and The Bay City Rollers, will have had a ball as will the guests, presenters and sponsors such as SSE, who we really

couldn’t do this without.

The money raised for NRS will have been a record-breaking amount and my speech will have earned rave reviews from Billy Sloan and the committees.

OK, I’m pushing my luck about the speech!