History
Findlay was a well known man in the British music industry. He organised the first Edinburgh Pop Festival in 1973, which featured among others The Incredible String Band, Can, Planxty, The Chieftains, John Martyn, Kevin Ayers, George Melly and Procol Harum.
Zoom signed many Scottish punk and new wave bands, some of them, later well known and successful, like Simple Minds, who Findlay managed from 1978 to 1990. However, one of the first band signed was The Valves; the second band to sign were PVC2 (who featured Midge Ure. The Skids almost joined the label, but Findlay encouraged them to go to their Dunfermline record shop owner, Sandy Muir, out of which No Bad Records was formed.
The first single released by Zoom was "Robot Love" (with "For Adolfs Only" as B-side), by The Valves, on 30 August 1977, selling 15,000 copies.
Simple Minds signed shortly after their formation, releasing their debut album, Life in a Day and first two singles "Life in a Day" and "Chelsea Girl". Their first three albums (Life in a Day, Real to Real Cacophony and Empires and Dance) were released by Zoom and licenced to Arista Records.
Findlay now manages Aberfeldy, and has been regular host/contributor to Radio Forth and BBC Radio Scotland.
Read more about this topic: Zoom Records (Scotland)
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“Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
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