3.0 All-time: • #9,217 in Alternative Rock Best ranking: • #174 of 653 in Alternative Rock on 10Jan2007

Friday night and the buzzing metropolis of Stornoway, SY, is where it's at, man. There's a rock'n'roll/literature/ar thing going down in this remote mid-Atlantic prawn town that has yet to be discovered by any but the hippest and most discerning culture faoileags. The scene in the Outer Hebrides' capital is often likened to that in grunge-era Seattle, but with better quality padded check shirts courtesy of the Fishermens' Co-op. Or to Reykjavik in the late 90s but with slightly cheaper drink and without thon cove from Bl*r (so far). But in such a cultural hothouse, where innovation is the driving force, success is transitory. Artists develop a paranoid sense for the things that might tell them they're no longer cool, and the slightest thing can trigger a spiralling persecution complex exaggerated by the small town microcosm in which it's all happening. Thus it was the night Memphis Louie Studebaker was refused entry to the Sea Angling after last orders despite his claims to be on the guest list. For Memphis the link was clear - no admittance to Crazy Lemon meant he was no longer it. The only way from here was via relationship breakdown and unemployment to abandonment by his band and a failure to get arrested. Like everyone else in town, the very shops of Stornoway would turn their back on him and refuse to provide him with the means to end his misery. But on the plus side we got a song out of it