Since Yesterday: The Untold Story Of Scotland's Girl Bands

Positive energy pops from the screen in this enjoyable music documentary from TeenCanteen’s Carla Easton, co-directed by Blair Young. It’s a celebration of Scottish girl bands, which comes framed as an inquiry into why so many of them are so poorly remembered despite having success at the time. When Jeanette McKinlay - who with her sister Sheila was in successful Sixties duo The McKinlays, who supported everyone from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones, says of Sheila: “I wish someone had heard her and made her what she could have been” it’s a crie du coeur that echoes down through the decades.

There has been no shortage of girl bands - a term, which, it should be noted, cuts across all genres here, from punk to soul. In the Seventies came The Ettes among others, while the Eighties saw the rise of the most successful of all to date, Strawberry Switchblade - with members Rose McDowall and Jill Bryson proving to be two of the most entertaining contributors too. The Nineties brought the likes of Hello Skinny and Lung Leg, while in 2005 it was The Hedrons, who briefly rose to pop success.

This film may largely employ a traditional ‘talking heads’ mechanic but the enthusiasm the contributors bring is infectious. By intercutting the various interviews with young girls playing pop dress-up in the image of these ‘icons’ Easton and Young bring home the argument about the importance of role models for the artists of tomorrow.

Beyond the central point, which digs deep into an industry that is so misogynistic that executives felt free to voice fears that band members would become pregnant as recently as 2010, there’s also a wealth of anecdotes.

Many of these revolve around money, or the lack of it. Jeanette, for example, recalls a birthday for Sheila on which, despite their touring success, they only had enough for “a shilling for the meter and a bag of chips”. Lung Leg members, meanwhile, talk about touring the US while still collecting their giro, while also extolling the virtues of selling band-themed knickers as merchandise.

What comes across, despite the hurdles, is the immense camaraderie and collectivism that has strengthened down the years. Small rebellions like using “Mick Jagger’s walkway” or singing, “fuck Billy Bragg”, give way to an exploration of what activists are doing now to build a better future environment for women and other under-represented groups in pop. Sharp editing and the inclusion of some animated segments also help to give flow to the film when archive footage is not available - another indication of the way in which these musicians have been undervalued. No matter how much those with executive power have muffled it in the past, the beat goes on - be prepared for a trip to your second hand record shop after watching.