Glasgow music doc to premiere at Edinburgh Film Festival

The Jesus And Mary Chain
The Jesus And Mary Chain

The Grant McPhee documentary Teenage Superstars will receive its premiere at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 22.

The new film is the follow-up to 2015’s Big Gold Dream which explored the rise of post-punk and its associated labels in Glasgow and Edinburgh in the 70s and 80s.

Teenage Superstars focuses in and around Glasgow in the early 90s and features artists including The Jesus And Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, Primal Scream and The Pastels.

Director McPhee spent four years collating rare footage from the era and filmed interviews with many of the artists involved.

He says: “This film is not a history of Scottish independent music. It’s not really even that much about Scotland. It’s about young people taking control and expressing themselves creatively without seeking permission from anyone in authority first.

“This is a film that shows people what they can achieve when they break the rules. It’s part of a jigsaw that when pieced together with all the other similar scenes around the UK shows a genuine revolution – disenfranchised youth, many from working class backgrounds, getting together and forming a completely alternative record industry that became as powerful as the might of the then existing one.

“I think anyone creative today should listen to what they have to say and take note.”

The team behind the film have been running a crowdfunding campaign to pay for final licences and clearances and has just six days left to run. Find out more.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.