I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. Its cold, wet and I think the whole city has forgotten how to be happy. Its amazing how you can walk from a hugely affluent area into a much poorer area with ease. Oh and as I said earlier, its cold and wet.
Sadly the whole city appears to be propped up on students, and during the summer holidays, the easter holidays and the christmas holidays the place is a ghost town of younger kids, hoboes and tramps and successful middle aged people, none of whome ever give you the time of day. If you had a heart attack in the street a passer by will probably kick you for being an inconvenience. Brutal city trussed up by students and tourists (lots of them) because of a 500 year old image and ethos that largely doesn't fit the city any more. Its amazing how derelict buildings (including churches) can sit abandoned near the city centre because the real estate involved is too high and the Scottish executive seem somewhat feeble.
So how does the music scene work? I'm no expert but to me there are several camps that music sits in here in Edinboro. First of all the student fraternity organize their own gigs, and the tallent ranges all over the place from bad indie to well rehearsed indie. The students bring their own crowd and play charity gigs etc... though very few local Edin-bourghers (or actual Scottish people) seem to show up.
Next is the competent cover bands playing older rock stuff. I've heard very good versions of The Load and Strange Kind of Women being played by these older bands, though typically they have no stage presence and awkward dress sense (Hawaii shirts a-plenty).
Finally there is a sort of metal scene here. Seems to actually involve young local people (being emo/metal seems a real alternative to being a chav in Edinburgh thanks to even the poorest areas being acceptable in most other areas in Scotland) and this 'trickle down' effect seems to help this. Large private schools exist in Edinburgh and churn out a fair bunch of the art school fraternity so you can head out in Edinburgh and dance to Can and Kraftwerk if you really want to (and don't mind getting bashed into by people who look like they dressed themselves in a thrift store during a power cut).
Nothing amazingly lively.
I grew up in rural Scotlandshire, and there was very little there. The usual highschool band scene (you could fill a field with low end Ibanez guitars and Marshall MG50 amps if you wanted to) and the usual Greenday/Blink mixup though in some cases Ska and 'Joke' bands seemed to flourish.
There is a strong folk tradition here, ranging from people meeting in kitchens to people meeting in local halls etc... not wildly publicised outside of the area so you need to really be in to be in (so to speak). Pub rock and beer-money professional bands exist as well, even in the rural areas, though nothing amazing and no 'movement'.
This is far from complete, but hope I can help people who think Scotland is the land of milk and honey (and battles on open moorland).
