{"id":118802,"date":"2025-09-06T14:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T14:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/118802\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T14:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T14:57:07","slug":"iconic-inverclyde-dj-features-in-new-oasis-biography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/118802\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic Inverclyde DJ features in new Oasis biography"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Greenock<\/a>‘s Andrew ‘McD’ McDermid – who is set to return to the decks at the Town Hall later this month for a one-night-only celebration of the music that defined the nineties and noughties –\u00a0features in Live Forever, an unauthorised biography of the Gallagher brothers and their bandmates, written by music journalist John Robb, which Noel Gallagher says is ‘all true’.\n<\/p>\n

\n Andrew, who\u00a0brought\u00a0Stone Roses legend Ian Brown, the Libertines, the Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder\u00a0and many more big names to Greenock, has also revealed for the first time that local music fans could have had the chance to hear Oasis play live in the town – and that it was Andrew himself who turned down the opportunity.\n<\/p>\n

\n Andrew McDermid is better known to many Inverclyde clubbers as ‘McD’.\u00a0(Image: George Munro) Andrew,\u00a056, who lives in Greenock, said: “I am going to get roasted for this!\n<\/p>\n

\n “Whiteout had a\u00a0co-headlining tour with Oasis.\n<\/p>\n

\n “In 1993, when we were sorting out gigs, the\u00a0booking agent said ‘do you want a Greenock gig?’\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n “I told him that Whiteout had\u00a0played Greenock too often, and said ‘why don’t we wait till the next tour?’.”\n<\/p>\n

\n That opportunity never came around – and the rest is history.\n<\/p>\n

\n Andrew carved out his dream job, living, sleeping and breathing music as a DJ, a promoter and then a band manager.\n<\/p>\n

\n Andrew McDermid with former student Liam McEwan who is promoting new gig\u00a0(Image: George Munro) He then used all those talents to put Inverclyde<\/a> on the music map, taking on a role as music lecturer, helping James Watt College to have the best music business course in the country.\n<\/p>\n

\n As manager of Whiteout, who came from Gourock<\/a>,\u00a0he was at the heart of it all, rubbing shoulders with the most influential figures in music.\n<\/p>\n

\n He first met Oasis at a music industry event in Manchester, at a time when the band’s members were just beginning to make a name for themselves on the local scene.\n<\/p>\n

\n Andrew said: “I am a natural networker. We played in Manchester a few times.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n “Whiteout were playing\u00a0a music industry gig,\u00a0In The City.\u00a0\u00a0After it, we went to Manchester Uni to see Shaun Ryder, and his\u00a0bass player was going out with a musician who shared a recording studio with Oasis.\n<\/p>\n

\n “It is impossible to tell someone this now, but there was a time when Oasis didn’t mean anything. At that time there was a buzz about them in Manchester.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"OasisOasis Liam and Noel Gallagher (Image: Newsquest) “I went over to introduce myself and it turns out it was Liam and Guigsy [Paul McGuigan, original bassist and co-founder of Oasis].”\n<\/p>\n

\n From there it was decided that Whiteout and Oasis would go on tour together, with Whiteout’s booking agent, who had also worked for Nirvana, and his counterpart with Oasis arranging the tour in 1994.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Over the years I got on well with all of them,” he said. “Guigsy later came up to do a lecture with my class.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Andrew gets several namechecks in John Robb’s new book – with the full title of Live Forever – The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis.\n<\/p>\n

\n “John was a journalist I was friendly with in the 1990s,” he said, “and came up to interview Whiteout.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I got to know him and he stayed at my house when he’d\u00a0just been to interview Nirvana.\n<\/p>\n

\n “He wrote a biography about the\u00a0Stone Roses and gave me a mention, when he told of the time we booked them to play Rico’s in 1988 and they didn’t show up.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Andrew still takes great pride at being in at the heart of things when a true British music revolution took hold, rubbing shoulders at gigs with the likes of Pulp, the Charlatans and Shed Seven.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Whiteout could not have been more in the loop at the time,” he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n “We were there at the start of Britpop. As a Scottish band, Whiteout didn’t benefit from Britpop, but we were definitely forerunners of it.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Growing up, it was the Stone Roses and New Order that the young McD idolised.\n<\/p>\n

\n He began organising gigs while in his teens, alongside friends, including Kenny Marshall.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I have been obsessed with music all my life,” he said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n “I felt I had missed punk. Punk was year zero, and Kenny was then my mentor, guiding me to what he probably thought I’d like.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I never thought I would make a career out of this. I was putting on gigs and starting to speak to tour managers and before I\u00a0knew it I had this network of journalists and other people.\n<\/p>\n

\n “When I was managing Whiteout, I networked\u00a0with a fax machine and a phone in my flat in Union Street.\u00a0\u00a0There were no mobiles. I was 21 years old.\n<\/p>\n

\n ”\u00a0I used to get Whiteout at my house, and we would sit round the phone waiting for the record deal to come through.\n<\/p>\n

\n “It was a brilliant time. It was phenomenal.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Whiteout got a record deal in 1993 with Silvertone Music, but one of the hardest things about managing a band was keeping them together long enough for them to be a success.”\n<\/p>\n

\n And while those days may be long gone, Andrew established a huge reputation in the music industry – something he realised while battling cancer in 2010.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Alan McGee, of Creation Records, and I had a mutual friend, and while I was in hospital Alan phoned the ward to speak to me,” he revealed.\n<\/p>\n

\n After a few quiet years Andrew – who has one daughter with wife June, to whom he’s been married for 23 years –\u00a0is back with a gig at the Town Hall on September 27 (tickets at ilshowcase.com<\/a>).\n<\/p>\n

\n It’s aimed at everyone who wants to relive the best of the 90s alternative rock scene, and all those who have fallen in love with it since.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I can’t wait for the gig,” he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n “This year I’ve found my mojo again.”\n<\/p>\n

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