With a million-selling debut album behind them, it's maybe no surprise the band now needs larger venues than the Highlands can offer.

But it doesn't make their manager - Inverness man Jake McNeill - any happier that the band won't be playing his home town.

He has fond memories of watching Scouting For Girls debut as festival headliners at Belladrum in 2008, surrounded by his family.

With Scouting For Girls' second album out in a month and the new tour coming up, Jake is busy organising everything that needs to be done for both.

"I'm working on presales for the tour - it was just announced last Thursday and it's already 150% up on the last one.

"I'm sorting out merchandise, logistics and production at the moment.

"We're also organising two articulated lorries and a big crew - about 18 people - and sleeper buses and we take our own PA on tour. We like to ensure that people get the best show possible."

The first clue to Jake's links with Inverness come through the name of his company, Kut Management - a direct reference to well-known veteran Inverness band The Cut.

"My uncle Kevin drummed with the band and they gave me my first experience of music.

"I remember he took me to one of their gigs at the Caley Hotel in Inverness when they were selling about 1000 tickets, after they'd been down to London and come back.

"I must have been about five or six and he put me behind the drumkit so I could look out.

And I just remember looking out and seeing all these people going crazy.

"At such a young age, it was an amazing experience."

And looking back, Jake - who went to Crown Primary before moving on to Millburn Academy - thinks subconsciously he wanted to be involved in music from that point.

"I only got one O-grade and my first job was washing dishes in the Station Hotel. But I moved to London when I was 16, then went to Paris."

It seems a very brave couple of moves for a teen.

"Brave or stupid, I don't know!" laughed Jake. "But I moved back to London, fell into football sales and did that at Partick Thistle, then at Celtic which was a dream job that turned out to be the worst job I'd ever had!"

Jake worked there in the late 90s when Celtic was going through a bad patch till Canadian tycoon Fergus McCann moved in.

"The average gate was 26,000 and they were facing bankruptcy before Fergus McCann moved in. I was cold-calling and hoping to get a Rangers fan who would take the mick about the state we were in, rather than a Celtic fan because you'd get a tirade for an hour about what was happening!"

But it wasn't until Jake moved down to Coventry City when they were managed by Ron Atkinson, that he realised he wanted to move out of sales.

"I left just before I was 20 and it had all been a great experience. I learned an awful lot from those years. But at that point I realised I wasn't destined for life in a suit, with a company car and a briefcase."

Jake returned to the Highlands, running the club night Fusion at the Bishopmill in Elgin and also nights in Aberdeen before moving on to music PR and managing DJs.

"I moved back to London again after six years. I managed to get a job in music PR, very much in a work experience situation on about £75 a week. But it's really difficult to get into the music industry. It's a small industry and - though it's less so now - there was a lot of nepotism, people getting their relations into the business.

"But there were a few of us in my situation, taking on bar jobs etc to pay the bills, doing stupid hours - 80 or 90 a week.

"But I have a great passion for it - I was just happy to be working in the music industry."

The hard work is obvious in Jake's story - but he also emphasises the luck, all along the way.

"At a pivotal point, I was lucky enough to meet the DJ John 00 Fleming's management and that's when I got into that.

"Dance was the mainstream for a long time providing lots of the top 10 hits. But it's not album based, so it's a smaller industry. You don't need the same size of a team you would to promote a band."

It meant Jake got a taste of lots of different roles.

"Working with DJs, you had to dip your toe in lots of different areas - making deals, some of the DJs run their own record labels, handling bookings as an agent and you'd go with the DJs to the gigs, so you'd be a tour manager and doing their PR as well. So I got a broad spectrum of all the positions in the music industry. And it enabled me to travel.

"I think I was doing about 200,000 miles a year for a couple of years. It would be Thursday in New York, Friday in Chicago, Saturday in Toronto, then to Montreal on Sunday before a couple of days off. Then the next Thursday in LA, Friday Las Vegas and Saturday in San Francisco.

"It was fantastic. But you didn't really get a chance to see the places. I saw lots of airports and Sheratons and clubs. And after a while, it really got to you."

Jake McNeill (bottom left) with Scouting For Girls (centre) and the team behind them as they celebrated their debut album going number one for the first of two weeks.

Jake decided to look out for a band to develop.

"I listened to a show on XFM radio station in London that showcased three new unsigned bands every week and people would vote for the best one. I had been listening to the show every week for a year, looking for a mainstream act. At the time The Feeling were out and I thought there was a gap for a band like that - a great pop band with good songs who were also great live.

"But I'd stopped listening to the show for a while, then switched it on again for some reason - and that's when I heard Scouting For Girls.

"They played Elvis Is Dead and I just thought 'That's got to be a hit'.

"I went to their Myspace site and listened to She's So Lovely and It's Not About You and then got in contact with them in a very over-excited manner!"

Having hooked up with Scouting For Girls, as Jake explained: "It all happened very quickly.

"I went to see them at rehearsal with my business partner Diane Wagg, who has worked with people like Beth Orton and Republica in the past. We just said 'We have to sign this band'.

"That was in December 2006. We got the record deal on St Valentine's Day 2007. That was very quick because it would normally take at least six months.

"But the band was an overnight success that took 10 years of their hard work. They are very determined.

"While all their friends were starting to get mortgages and cars, they still had part-time jobs. But it is a testament to their character that they kept going with the band."

Once the band had signed to Epic, the debut EP It's Not About You was released as a limited edition in June 2007 and was the first EP ever to chart. In September 2008, She's So Lovely went to number seven and hung around the top 10 for six more weeks, becoming one of the songs of the summer.

In September, the self-titled album came out and went to number one - with a little help from the Wolfcub members, wooed with hand-burned CDs and treats from the monthly club run for years by the band themselves.

Now, there's a lot of pressure on the band - and Jake - to come up with a worthy second album. Singer and songwriter Roy Stride has already talked in interviews about the number of songs written, recorded and rejected before they got a second album they were happy with. He also said that the band work with a team who "speak their minds".

Jake laughed: "Part of the second album 'problem' is that when a band sells one million albums, those around them don't want to fall out with them, but the artists need the team around them to be truthful."

Jake first got to hear what the second album might be like while enjoying one of the band's greatest experiences so far.

But he feels part of his role is to tell it like it is: "It's not easy to say to someone you're very proud of that you don't think a song is quite strong enough or 'You can do better'.

"When the band writes a song, they can't help being emotionally involved. But Roy is very grounded and he can step back and look at it objectively. He takes the attitude 'OK, I can do better'."

Jake must be pleased that when he picked his band to back, he picked well.

But he just laughs: "I was lucky - and they deserve everything that has come their way."

Though the band has already toured and had success in Australia, Japan and Europe, this is the year that the band is set to spread their wings internationally.

"This is more of an international album and we are looking at taking it global. There is much more to achieve."

The first gig in Inverness was in the Raigmore Motel, the second was headlining Belladrum: "I missed the Raigmore gig, but when they headlined Belladrum, I was standing at the back of the stage with my mother and my granny and the whole family - the clan and it was very enjoyable for me!

"And it's one of the band's favourite-ever shows. It was the first time they headlined a festival and they were really excited - and a wee bit anxious!

"We'd love to come back up and play a festival," said Jake.

"To come back and play Belladrum or to play RockNess would be great, but it's all in the hands of the promoters and agents."

Though Jake emphasised how hands-on he likes to be with Scouting For Girls, he is also working with Glasgow band Gogobot.

And would there be room for a Highland band on his roster?

"I've probably got enough to focus on at the moment," he laughed.

"But I'll always listen."

* Scouting For Girls new album Everybody Wants To Be On TV is out on April 12, first single from it is This Ain't A Love Song, out on March 29.

entertainment@highland-news.co.uk

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