strathspey@strathspey.org:47270

George Meikle

RE: Naming of bands on music

Dec. 4, 2006, 1:46 p.m. (Message 47270, in reply to message 47227)

Ron Mackay wrote:-

> There are many RSCDS tapes & CDs where one has to search to
> find the name of the band.   Records often had a picture of 
> the band on the front but, even with them it was sometimes 
> necessary to look at the back of the sleeve to see which band 
> had made the recording.

> Could it be that so many of the RSCDS Hierarchy are RSCDS class
> teachers and are so used to teaching with a musician when most 
> of the rest of us think of the bands on the canned music that we
> dance to?Ron,

Ron,
When I was elected on to the Membership Services Committee last year I took
on the job of co-ordinating the new RSCDS recordings and I can assure you
that all new CD's do have the band name on the front cover. Off the top of
my head I can only think of a couple of older CD's which had no mention of
the band but that was due to the fact they were compilation albums with
tracks from several bands. The standard layout that we use nowadays for the
CD graphics has the band name very prominently displayed alongside the RSCDS
crown on the front cover. As a musician, (and definitely not a class
teacher!), I can assure you that this is something I will certainly ensure
happens over the period I am doing the CD's.

I should point out that I am talking about official RSCDS Headquarters
recordings and not those produced by various branches around the world. 

There has also been some talk recently about one particular branch's
recording, made by a very well known band, which omitted the band name from
the front cover. My understanding of this was that because the branch in
question had received some form of funding (lottery or otherwise) for the
production of the CD, it was thought that there could have been some problem
as regards making the CD look too commercial, hence why the band name was
omitted. The information I was given could well have been wrong but it
certainly gives an understandable explanation as to why the name was
omitted. Maybe somebody from the branch in question could answer this point?

Kind regards
George