Lightning Records Press Release

The following was issued by Lighting Records in July 1978, from their London base of 841 Harrow Road, London NW10 5NH

BILBO

Earlier this year Bilbo Baggins signed an exclusive long term licensing deal with Lightning Records. The deal marks a new phase in the career of the Edinburgh based group, who've now abbreviated their name to Bilbo. Briefly, Bilbo, formed five years ago, were formerly managed by Tam Paton, manager of the Bay City Rollers and, ever since, Bilbo have been tarred with the same brush as the Tartan clad weenies. At some shows, shortsighted individuals occasionally heckler with calls for "Shang A Lang" and such like, whereas Bilbo have matured considerably since those days; in fact, those hecklers are pretty soon silenced once Bilbo's set gets under way.

Bilbo mean business this time. So much do they want to re-establish themselves in a different light that, of late, they've been prepared to lose money on the road; by charging minimal admission they're saying: "O.K. come and see us and we'll show you what we can do." In their native Scotland they're still huge, playing to 9,000 people recently at the Hearts Football Ground. But they want to crack the English audience too, even though it would be easy enough to earn more than a comfortable living North of the border.

Bilbo, who've supported Mud, The Rubettes, and, of course, The Bay City Rollers, on nationwide tours are now back on the club/ballroom grind to build up a new following that can respect them for what they are, a fine, professional pop/rock band that mixes choice oldies with a selection of highly accomplished new material. Mostly written by guitarist Brian Spence, Bilbo now intend to record only their own songs; they've already a number of potential hit singles in the pipeline, indeed enough songs for an album have been stockpiled.

Like I said earlier, Bilbo mean business. They know it's not going to be an overnight success story but they are determined that success story it will be.

Give Bilbo a chance.

Page Last Updated: 4 March, 2010

© Morley Enterprises 2006 - 2010. This site, BilboMusic, is a personal site and is not affiliate with Bilbo Baggins, Bilbo, Brian Spence, Colin Chisholm, Jimmy Devlin, Gordon Liddle, Gordon McIntosh, Tam Paton, Chisholm & Spence or anyone else for that matter. Any copyright infringement is accidental. The pictures and music on this site are there for information only. They are not there for any commercial purpose. Therefore, if anyone representing the artist(s) or record company(ies) want me to remove these items please mail me and I will remove them immediately! This site, BilboMusic, and Morley Enterprises are not responsible for the content of any other websites that are linked from here. So there.