"London, New York, Paris, Munich: Nobody's talking about Robin Scott very much"
AN ART SCHOOL PEER OF Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, Robin Scott shared folk club
bills with David Bowie, managed Roogalator, produced The Slits' first demos, released the
first Adam And The Ants album on his Do It label then adopted the corporate ident of M.
The globally chart-topping 'Pop Muzik' followed, as did 'Moonlight & Musak' and 'That's The
Way The Money Goes', but nothing more was heard of M after 1983. Where are they now asks Joanna
De Fries of High Barnet?
M's Scott-plus-session players set up frequently changed, future Level 42 members Mark King
and Phil Gould were involved at one point.
"I was no multi instrumentalist," explains Scott, "and I liked collaboration I was a bit
like John Mayall, with people coming through and breaking off again ".
The crunch came when MCA disliked Scott's direction, failed to release M s third and to date,
last album the ironically titled Famous Last Words " Lots of drums and very pretentious was
their comment," rues Scott. Meanwhile, an interest in Kenyan music led to the discovery of
girl trio Shikisha.
Difficulties with the girls' South African passports eventually put paid to Shikisha's
international aspirations. Disillusioned, Scott moved on to Spain and France, swapping his
songwriting metier for production and DJ-ing. A multimedia project based on Dante's Divine
Comedy and fronted by Charlton Heston was halted by encroaching recession, a music/ fashion
collaboration with Westwood and Kim Wilde didn't materialise.
"My time was spent on speculative work,' sighs Scott 'If something fired my imagination,
I'd do it But I couldn t find a way to get back into the system, dogged by my association
with Pop Musik."
In 1989, after a re-released Pop Muzik made the UK Top 10, BMG Publishing encouraged Scott
to resume writing. He now lives in the Algarve region of Portugal, with a home studio upstairs.
"I ve found it very difficult to sell myself, but doors are opening again My daughter
Berenice who's 17, has blossomed into an incredible songwriter, so I'm working with her too. I
hope to release a new album next year, maybe as M, maybe not. If I can come up with something
impressive, I'm sure I' ll get a chance again. I haven't fallen down a black hole yet"
