 As he made his way home one day in 1997 with a recording software package, little did Simon Thoumire imagine that he was setting out on a long-term business venture that would consume him and his family.
Mighty oaks from small acorns grow, however, and from that bargain snapped up in a music shop sale, has emerged Foot Stompin' Records, home to - as the label's slogan has it - "the bright young stars of Scottish traditional music".
Not that championing the leading young musicians among Scotland's burgeoning traditional music scene - or even Foot Stompin' itself - was the initial plan when Simon, already a well-known concertinist on the music scene, and his mother, Elizabeth, a life-long fan of the music decided to form a record company.
"Back in 1997, home studios were still quite new, and I thought there were lots of things we could do with this software," says Simon. "But primarily the idea was to create a record company that made real traditional music for the tourist industry."
"We had no start-up grants or even a business plan, just some savings and an understanding bank manager, when we began," says Simon. "We also had some luck because when we ordered the first batch of cassettes, the pressing plant asked if we wanted CDs, too. The cassette soon took a huge dip in popularity, so it was fortunate that we went with CDs from the start as well."
The first release, A Trip to Scotland, featured thirty tunes with place names - real tunes researched from tune books - and also featured Simon under the nom de plume of Hamish MacGregor and the Orcadian twins Jennifer and Hazel Wrigley as the Blue Bonnets.
Further releases featuring ceilidh outfit the Robert Fish Band and another outing for "Hamish MacGregor" with his Scottish Love Songs followed. As did a defining moment when a member of the public returned a CD to a shop in Edinburgh because it was "too traditional".
Armed with this unsolicited feedback, Simon and Elizabeth decided to leave the tourist market to its own devices. With Simon's father, John, enlisted as a third director, they decided to forge ahead with releases which documented Scotland's new wave of traditional musicians. Keep it Up, a quartet featuring Simon (musician in residence!) alongside fiddler Eilidh Shaw, guitarist Kevin Mackenzie and piper Malcolm Stitt, signalled a name-change to Foot Stompin' Records (scientifically named because Simon and Eilidh were always stomping their feet when they played) and although releases such as Heat the Hoose, recorded at Edinburgh's annual fiddle festival, still appeared on Tartan Tapes, the original label's lifespan was coming to an end.
Increasingly, the concentration began to shift towards young, previously unrecorded musicians with Donegal-born Liz Doherty continuing the fiddle theme with her Last Orders CD followed by Birlin’ Fiddles (Jennifer Wrigley, Allan Henderson, Julia Legge), and Fiddlesticks, a sixteen strong fiddle orchestra made up of students from the traditional music course at University College, Cork.
"Through Simon being a traditional musician" says Elizabeth, "we knew that there were many great players out there who were keen to make traditional music their career. It seemed right to support them and help get the music out onto a world stage. There was a definite sense of a revival in traditional music, with more young people playing it and a renewed pride in their heritage. This all coincided with the setting up of Scotland’s new devolved Parliament.”
Foot Stompin' has become more than a record label. "Young musicians are dead keen to play and not having any ties, they can get out and really work at building their careers,” says Simon. “We give them as much help as we can with touring ideas, contacts, posters, passing on databases to help them reach their intended audience."
In 2000 Simon set up the Scottish Traditional Music Trust to run the inaugural Young Scottish Traditional Musician Award. This has become a prestigious annual event (now sponsored by BBC Radio Scotland) with the finals being held during the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. Winners get to record their first album for Foot Stompin' - so far fiddler/singer Gillian Frame and singer/accordionist Emily Smith have released acclaimed debuts for the label. They were also booked onto prestigious folk festivals in Canada and Denmark as part of the prize.
A constantly updated web site is indicative of the commitment Foot Stompin' put behind their artists and the music itself. "We often work on the web site (Foot Stompin’ Celtic Music) into the small hours," says Elizabeth. " It's such an important tool and we have to make the most of it. We want the Foot Stompin’ website to become a primary source for news and information, as well as the best on-line Celtic music shop. Once you start working on it, you can't stop. That's also what we've found with the label: it's no use having two or three records, you need a catalogue."
By December 2002, the Foot Stompin' catalogue had extended to twenty-five titles, with piper Finlay MacDonald, the Skye-based Scottish Stepdance Company, Croft No 5, Claire Mann, Fine Friday and Cantrip among the more recent additions. An opportunity to release the celebrated Gaelic singer Margaret Bennett's first recording, In the Sunny Long Ago, and her son Martyn's Glen Lyon, following his experiences with larger labels, was too good to miss.
It was around the time that Foot Stompin' were releasing the first album from young Highland trad funk ban Croft No. Five (when Simon, Elizabeth and John realised that almost all the musicians on their recording schedule were aged twenty-one or less) that they hit upon the strapline "the bright young stars of Scottish traditional music" to promote the label. “It really summed up what we are about”, said Simon. ““We are investing in this young talent and are totally committed to furthering our artists’ careers and bringing their great Celtic music to a wider audience.”
One among many tributes confirms that they are well on their way to achieving this aim. Critic Andy Duff, who writes for Folk Roots and Traditional Music Maker among other folk magazines, likened Foot Stompin' to Chris Blackwell's trailblazing Island Records. “Way back in the early 60’s," he wrote, "Island Records were the label that always seemed to have the coolest bands. If it came out on Island it was worth a spin. Currently for folk music, I’m beginning to find that Foot Stompin’ Records fit that bill.”
Simon acknowledges the encouragement that such comments give but emphasises Foot Stompin' will be Stomping their feet to an in-it-for-the-long-haul philosophy. “Through Foot Stompin' we want today's Celtic music and musicians to gain respect and recognition across the globe.”
Rob Adams 11/12/02 | 
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