Kevin Buckle: ScotPop music centre will be fascinating

I was in Edinburgh on Thursday handing over the guitar that had been on display at the Fruitmarket Gallery exhibition to Stephen Allen, the curator of the Rip It Up exhibition, which opens in June at the National Museum of Scotland.

Paul Haig's guitar - and it's definitely Lake Placid Blue

The guitar’s owner – sadly, it isn’t mine – wasn’t available and as I still had it in my possession I was happy to do the honours. Best known for being played by Paul Haig, the guitar’s provenance was further enhanced when I discovered he had bought it from Edwyn Collins. It was not therefore a great surprise when a discussion this week on Twitter about its colour – described as blue but some thought green – was joined by Edwyn himself declaring it to be Lake Placid Blue.

A quick Google later and it was clear that Lake Placid Blue was a colour that only exists in the world of Fender. Whatever the colour, it is a lovely guitar though Paul has described it as “a beast to play”.

I had been to a similar handover with the former NME and The Face journalist Glenn Gibson when he had brought in items of his that hadn’t made it into the Fruitmarket pop-up and I brought in some that had. This time all the paperwork had been done so it was simply a quick case of checking the condition and signing a couple of forms.

Do not fear, I have equally fascinating items to replace those you will be able to see at the museum ready for when the Scottish Pop Music Exhibition Centre opens and, of course, once the museum’s exhibition finishes in November they will be available to me again.

I have now made an offer for a location for the centre and hope to be able to say more on that very soon. I don’t think anybody will be disappointed! I’ve had two sponsors confirm interest, surprisingly, some might think, from London and Germany.

As if all that wasn’t enough, I had fantastic news last week when Waterstones on Princes Street agreed to support Scottish artists this year by selling music including vinyl. I have to thank Euan, the events manager, who I met when I went to the Ruth and Martin’s Album Club book launch with Martin Fitzgerald and hosted by Ian Rankin last October.

I’d commented that with both the museum and myself planning exhibitions this year Waterstones might want to stock up on their music books and did add how amazing it would be if they could support the music too. Euan was keen and asked me to send him a few ideas and then last week I got an email to say they would love to be involved. Look out not only for exclusive releases but also events! I’ll be curating a space on the ground floor and I cannot thank all those involved enough including Ian who introduced me to Euan and started the conversation.