Since Yesterday: 8 photos of Glasgow girl bands from the 80s as new documentary explores the history of Scottish music

Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands is a feature-length documentary that platforms the trailblazing popstars, post-punks and pioneers who challenged a male-dominated industry, acknowledging their rightful place in music history and examining the enduring barriers faced by women making music. 

Written and narrated by Carla J. Easton (the award-nominated solo artist and member of  TeenCanteen) and co-directed by prolific music promo director Blair Young (collaborator with Belle & Sebastian, Biffy Clyro, Teenage Fanclub and many more), Since Yesterday unearths the rich history of Scottish girl bands from the 1960s onwards. 

Blending personal anecdotes from a host of bands including Jeanette Gallacher from The McKinleys (the first Scottish girl band to break into the charts in 1964 and the first girl band to ever play Wembley Arena), The Ettes, Strawberry Switchblade, The Hedrons, Sophisticated Boom Boom, Sunset Gun, His Latest Flame, The Twinsets, Lung Leg and Hello Skinny with a scrapbook-style audio-visual aesthetic, the film takes us on a decade-by-decade adventure, crafting the ultimate visual mixtape.

Discover unheard demos, lost archives, and rare performances that celebrate the women who never compromised, and subsequently got lost in time. 

In Since Yesterday, Easton tells a powerful global story through a local lens, asking how we can inspire young women to make music, if those who do so are continuously erased from our cultural history?

Following its instant-sell-out World Premiere as the Closing Gala for Edinburgh International Film Festival, Since Yesterday was released in cinemas last year. There was a screening at the Glasgow Film Theatre, with ticket holders gaining access to a live after-screening gig at Mono where legendary 80s Glasgow girl band Sophisticated Boom Boom (Libby McArthur, Tricia Reid, Irene Brown Jacqueline Bradley and Laura Mazzolini) reformed for one night only.

Also on the bill were Scottish female and non-binary songwriting collective Hen Hoose performing songs from the film joined on stage by Louise Rutkowski (Sunset Gun/ This Mortal Coil) and Jeanette Gallagher (The McKinleys).

Carla said: “Since I first suggested to Blair the idea of a documentary about the history of women who had formed bands in Scotland way back in 2016, we’ve been excited about letting an audience hear all the great music we knew about already, and then all the music we subsequently discovered. But more than that, it became about letting people hear the experiences of the women who made the music tell their stories, something they had never really gotten the opportunity to do before.” 

Blair said: “I’m excited for people to hear this music and meet these amazing characters, both in the film and through the live events happening in conjunction with the screenings and beyond and I hope it can go some way to help change things for the bands of the future.”

Since Yesterday: The Untold History of Scotland’s Girl Bands is produced by Forest of Black and financed by Kickstarter Crowdfunder, Screen Scotland and BBC Scotland.