North of the Border: Book Yer Ane Fest

By Ben Tipple


In the last North Of The Border, we looked at why Scottish DIY punk is significant and why it’s special. This month we take it a step further, looking at Book Yer Ane Fest – a three day punk festival from November 29 to December 1 which shows why we’re so lucky to have a thriving DIY community.

“Book Yer Ane Fest started out as a one-off all-dayer held at Mucky Mulligan’s, Perth in November 2008, essentially by accident”, says Derrick Johnston, founder of Make-That-A-Take Records, a DIY collective based on the east coast of Scotland.

“The first BYAF was held in Perth in November 2008, comprising mostly of Scottish bands (many of which are now defunct) including Kaddish, Mesa Verde, Black Channels, The Hijacks, Sunset Squad, Torturo Nervosa and more. Our only travelling (non-Scottish) band that day was our friends The Living Daylights.” It can’t be easy trying to get bands to trek up to places which may seem remote to play.

While we were provided with a strong line-up in 2008, the roster has only gotten stronger over time. BYAF has become a yearly event in Dundee’s Kage nightclub since, with this year’s festival giving us the likes of Cornish punk trio Bangers, Broadcaster from New York and The Murderburgers – our very own Scottish pop punkers.

“BYAF in 2011 was the first time that we ran for three days and it was one of the craziest weekends of my life. I get stoked for every show, let alone every BYAF, but having Leatherface headline the Saturday night of BYAF V was probably the happiest I’ve ever been at a punk rock show. We didn’t start this shit thinking that it would mean anything to anyone other than ourselves and our little community, but the fact that things seem to have grown and that it has become something significant for other people is very humbling.” Derrick has been aiming higher and higher, with a great mix of hardcore, pop-punk and emo for this year’s iteration. For those nursing throbbing hangovers, there’s also an acoustic stage over the three days featuring Lach and Billy Liar amongst others.

The festival is for a good cause, namely Safe-Tay water. Safe-Tay is a water safety charity based in Perth, Scotland, and is clearly close to Derrick’s heart. “[Our] roots and connection to Safe-Tay run [deep],” he goes on to say. “Safe-Tay is a water safety charity founded in 2006 after the death of Graham Motion, musician, drummer, active member of and enthusiast in the local DIY hardcore scene.”

“His close circle of friends (the PCC) put together Motionfest in 2006 shortly after his passing. I worked on the bar that day and it was a visceral experience. Come 2008, I asked those dudes if they’d be doing a third one, to which they replied in the negative. I then asked if we (Make-That-A-Take) threw an all-dayer, would they object if we did it as a fundraiser for Safe-Tay? Of course they didn’t.”

It’s evident that starting a punk festival is no mean feat, but Derrick’s hard work looks like it will pay off again this year. “The best thing about it for me is being in a position to raise money and awareness for a charity that is close to our collective hearts and is an issue within our community and locality. To be able to do that whilst spending time doing something that we love – getting grubby and listening to punk rock – with people from all over the world is pretty incredible to me,” he admits with abundant enthusiasm.

“It’s essentially Wrestlemania for our collective; the thing we work towards every year. From a purely selfish perspective, I get to see loads of my friends that I don’t see too often all in one place rocking out and having the best weekend. The fact that I’m largely responsible for booking it doesn’t hurt either, as I can indulge my tastes!”

Three bands will be playing their first ever shows at BYAF: Stay Clean Jolene from Manchester, Last Of Us from Perth and Lachance, a new band from Dundee. The weekend will also act as a release party for the “Roaster”10” split from Uniforms, Sink Alaska, The Walking Targets and Question The Mark, as well as being the Scottish release show for the ‘Sweden The Deal’ compilation.

Cleavers will also be playing a one-off reunion show, giving people a chance to catch their punchy, energetic live antics. Derrick’s enthusiasm is almost palpable. “Overall, I’m excited about the line-up, I’m excited to play both with Uniforms and by myself but mostly I’m looking forward to a weekend of kick-ass punk rock and celebrating the hard work that our community partakes in across the board. I’ll be pretty happy when I’m watching The Bomb close out Sunday night. I think it’ll be pretty special. I’m about ready for a party and some chaos.”

There’s not quite as much hype centred around BYAF as Fest 12, but we’re still lucky enough to have a pre-BYAF show in Scotland. “I’m looking forward to a week of madness and very little sleep.”, explains Derrick. “We’re throwing a pre-BYAF show on Thursday 28th November with The Murderburgers, Billy Liar, Uniforms, The Walking Targets and Maxwell’s Dead at The Banshee Labyrinth in Edinburgh.”

“It seems that we’re always busy with BYAF,” Derrick admits. “Every festival is a learning experience and over the last few years, we have at least tentatively planned ahead for the following year before the last one is done. Sometimes it seems like hard work; sometimes it all just falls into place. Things have been logistically challenging this year due to the sheer number of acts that we have performing and the fact that we’re running across multiple venues for the first time, so trying to avoid clashes and accommodate touring schedules has been tricky, but it’s a great problem to have.”

There are a load of punk bands worth seeing live in Scotland, but it’s rare to see such a selection playing together under one roof over a weekend. Not only that, but bands from across the country, Europe and America are gracing the stage of Kage Nightclub in Dundee. “We’ve been running a lot of shows recently and have had some incredible bands visit Dundee over the past few years; we’re very lucky to have built the friendships that we have to be able to do these sorts of things in a place like Dundee,” Derrick summarises with the humble, well-intentioned attitude that has got him this far.

SAM KANAL