Glasvegas

Abandoning a career as a lower league Scottish footballer with Falkirk, East Fife and Queen's Park, James Allan's heart-on-sleeve working class pain and love of 1960s girl groups attracted the attention of record mogul Alan McGee in 2006 and the music press was soon swooning to the Spectoresque Wall of Sound mixed with Elvis croons and strident feedback. Allan's barbed ode to his absent father on single Daddy's Gone introduced the band as an emotive force before Geraldine melted the hearts of a wider audience. Building an adoring live following by headlining the NME Awards Tour, playing the major European festivals and supporting U2, debut album Glasvegas (2008) shot to Number 2 in the UK album charts selling 56,000 in its first week. As the acclaim rained in (including a Mercury Prize nomination) they quickly followed it up with a mini Christmas album A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss) recorded in a cathedral in Transylvania.