INTERVIEW - Duglas T Stewart

I can still remember buying my first BMX Bandits record, 1993's Kylie's Got A Crush On Us, from Impulse Records in Motherwell. I bought the 7-inch and CD single. I was already aware of the band through my religious reading of both the NME and Melody Maker every week. Also from homemade cassettes that would get passed around. The Bellshill Beat TV show was broadcast the same year, presented by Duglas and featuring the Bandits, Fanclub, Vaselines, Pastels, Superstar and The Soup Dragons. It was like the show had been made specifically for me. All of this music seemed very real, pure and honest. Especially because it was local to me. The music weeklies were fixated on Manchester, Seattle or London. BMX Bandits and Teenage Fanclub in Bellshill were just a few train stops along the Glasgow line from me in Carluke.Over the years I'd get to know Duglas a little and eventually become friends as we would always bump into each other at shows in Glasgow, whether his own, or bands/artists that…