Andy McGregor, writer and director of Battery Park, reveals the real-life band that inspired the play with live music coming to our OneTouch Theatre this October.

My new show Battery Park is the fictional story of a Britpop band from Greenock that almost made it. It looks at a bruised and bitter mid-forties main character and flashes back to his youth in the nineties when his band almost became the next Oasis… almost.

In one of the drafts, I wrote the line "music is the closest thing we have to a time machine". That got me thinking. I thought back to the days of my own band Blind Pew (why we were called that, I can't recall), some of which makes it into the play. I thought about the excitement and fun with pals but also the boredom, the arguments and the crushing disappointment that comes with the territory.

We don't have many candid photos from the time as this was before the age of smartphones, but it's incredible how quickly images and people come rushing back into my head when I play our old albums.

Hearing your younger self is an interesting, and complicated, thing. I can't but help attach it to mistakes made, things I wish I had done differently, all the usual stuff... but there's also a part of me that enjoys hearing the pure love that I clearly have for making a racket!

We made one ‘official’ album with a record label supposedly backing us - that I don’t think any of us like - but before that we made a tonne of music. I was always recording, buying more equipment and creating with the rest of the band.

The feeling I get when listening to this music, jumping back to 2003 (or thereabouts) is what I want to explore with Battery Park. Music is a powerful tool that can remind us of our younger selves, of good (and bad) times. It transports us somewhere else. As close to a time machine that we will ever get.

This blog was written by Andy McGregor (Writer + Director, Battery Park)

Battery Park is a play with live music from the writer and director of the five-star Spuds and Crocodile Rock. It’s about Britpop, glorious defeat and working-class dreams. A funny, earthy play that packs an emotional punch that resonates long after the final note.

Presented by Sleeping Warrior Theatre Company + Beacon Arts Centre. Supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland’s Touring Fund.