The 2024 Scottish Album of the Year Award ceremony was again hosted in Stirling; for the third time the event was held in the city’s Albert Halls. Music lovers gathered to celebrate another bumper year for the Scottish music industry.
The SAY Award, run by the SMIA, was first launched back in 2012. Over 13 years, the SAY Awards has now distributed £390,000 in prize money. It is their main objective to continue to support our thriving Scottish music industry at a time when funding for the arts is low.
SAY Award returns to Stirling for 2024
Vic Galloway and Nicola Meighan hosted the show which was made to feel a little more special as Stirling is home for presenter Meighan. Opening the show was No Windows. The duo from Edinburgh won the SAY Sound of Young Scotland Award 2023 with their fusion of folk and pop music. Now they had a brilliant full circle moment with an opportunity to perform as the first act of the night. Another special guest during the night included three-time nominee Bemz.
Sound of Young Scotland (supported by Help Musicians, the Scottish Government’s Youth Music Initiative through Creative Scotland and Youth Music) is a fantastic opportunity for the next generation of musicians. The winner receives vinyl pressing from Sea Bass Vinyl and a £5,500 cash grant. In addition, the winner will also have the chance to record their debut album at Stirling’s Tollbooth recording studio and get guidance from other industry experts.
Winners at SAY Awards 2024
11 award nominees sat down to decide the Sound of Young Scotland for 2024. Dillian Barry was the lucky winner this year. Barry originally from Pitlochry moved to Glasgow in 2021 to attend the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s jazz course.
Winning the Scottish Album of the Year Award was electronic-indie band rEDOLENT with their debut album Dinny Greet. The five piece, made up of brothers Danny and Robin Harbert, Andrew Turnbull, Robie White, and Alice Handcock, took to the stage in shock to collect their award with frontman Danny describing it as a dream of a 7-year-old child.
He went on to say: ‘I always feel like we’re sprinting behind the pack trying to keep up and all I’ve wanted to do is contribute something. I’m potentially also gonna greet right now which is ironic. We’re just so grateful this helps us keep this wee club that we’ve got going. Thank you also to Young Fathers for all the cool tunes and for not releasing one this year.’
Tributes and previous SAY Award winners
Previous winners of the award include Mogwai, Fergus McCreadie, and Young Fathers, who won for the third time last year.
The SAY Award paid tribute to Scots-Canadian musician Martyn Bennett. Martyn died in 2005 after a 15-month-long battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His final record, Grit, was awarded the SAY’s 2024 Scottish Modern Classic Award.
Grit was created during a time when Bennett became too ill to play his instruments. Bennett was known for his influential and unique blend of modern Celtic music, taking aspects from traditional Celtic and modern music and blended them together. Martyn’s wife Kyrten Bennett and close friend BJ Stewart accepted the prize.
Kirsten said: ‘This is a very special award. Martyn would have loved that this represents so much of what is outstanding about Scottish music that’s happening now, no matter what genre.’
BJ Stewart: ‘It’s unbelievably 20 years this coming January that Martyn died, but his music lives on and we’re so grateful to everyone here for putting this on.’
Featured Photo Credit: Robin Herbert
