BMX Bandits are back with new album and live show

Even Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain was a fan, proclaiming: “If I could be in any other band, it would be BMX Bandits.”

Chief Bandit Duglas T Stewart, king of the tragicomic lyric, romantic-with-a-twist storyteller extraordinaire, says it still feels “amazing” to be performing and releasing new music. The band’s latest album, Dreamers on the Run, is being hailed as its best yet.

“I think, genuinely, in the 39 years since we have been BMX Bandits, this is our most acclaimed album,” marvels Duglas.

BMX Bandits frontman Duglas T Stewart (Image: Mark Gillies)

“Reviewers, and the press, love it – and a lot of people have come up to me while I’m in the supermarket shopping, or at the train station, and said, ‘oh, hi, yeah, your new album is the best one yet’.”

He laughs.

“So I’m taking that as a good sign.”

The band, in its current line-up of Duglas, Andrew Pattie, Amanda Nizic and Liam Chapman, will be kicking off the new season of Frets Concerts at the Strathaven Hotel on August 31, with special guests Wojtek the Bear.

Other acts lined up for the off-the-beaten-track gig series this autumn include Michael Head on September 6, supported by Belle and Sebastian’s Stevie Jackson; Horse, with support from Kirsten Adamson, on September 20; Norman Blake on October 19, supported by The Pearlfishers’ frontman David Scott; and The Cowboy Mouth, with support from Xan Tyler, on November 1.

BMX Bandits (Image: Harrison Reid)

Duglas is looking forward to returning to Frets.

“Frets is very much a listening audience,” he says, smiling. “I’m from a generation where audience participation at gigs was a big thing, although not necessarily the kind you wanted.

“Generally, it involved abuse being shouted at you, missiles thrown and occasionally requiring to be snuck out the back of the venue by the cops for your own safety.”

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He adds: “While there were some days when that was sort of fun, nowadays I like the idea that the audience is there just to listen to the songs. Frets is like that. I want fewer threats, more Frets...”

The new album was inspired by an animated movie Duglas watched more than 10 years ago, he explains.

“It was by French cartoonist Raymond Peynet, set to beautiful music by Ennio Morricone," he says. "A little couple, The Lovers, run hand in hand at the bottom of the screen while all these terrible things happen around them - bombs going off, riots, wars, starvation..."

He adds: “I liked the idea of certain people always being on the run from the bad stuff in the world, building their own world in dreams.

“Instead of lovers, I thought of dreamers, because not everyone has a little person to hold their hand, and of groups of friends, because that’s how bands often start – dreamers, outsiders, who congregate together because they don’t see themselves fitting into the regular world.”

BMX Bandits (Image: Harrison Reid)

The idea was shelved while Duglas recovered from health problems.

“My physical and mental health were in a bad way,” he acknowledges. “I put the idea aside, not knowing if I’d ever get round to it. Then Andrew Pattie and I collaborated on a soundtrack, and I thought, this could be the guy to make it a reality.

“I have lots of dreams and ideas for arrangements, but none of the technical skills. I’m a musical primitive.”

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He adds: “I’m ambitious – I don’t mean I want to sell out stadiums in a Taylor Swift kind of way (although, don’t get me wrong, I’d still like to have a big hit) but I’m ambitious in that I want to make a record that doesn’t sound like it was made by a musical primitive."

Duglas pauses. “The generosity of other musicians contributing to my music always amazes me.”

The band is preparing for a re-release this November of its 2007 album Bee Stings, as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations. There will also be new music, says Duglas, “although we want to keep a little bit of mystery about that for now,” he says, intriguingly.

Evolution is part of the Bandits story, and a mass reunion of the many who have come and gone since Duglas formed the band with Sean Dickson and Norman Blake in 1985, is unlikely, he says.

“I’ve always thought of us as extended family and friends who get together and have adventures,” he explains, smiling.

“Of the four people who’ll be performing at Frets, three of them were not born when BMX Bandits began.

“But all those guys, like Sean, or Norman, or Stuart Kidd, or David Scott – they are not gone forever. They have left their DNA in our music and will always be part of the band, whether they are on stage with us or not.”