[1] Inspired, after attending the farewell concert of The Rezillos at The Apollo (Glasgow), McDermott started to write and perform live, both solo, and with The Suede Crocodiles.
[1] In 1983, having changed their name to The Suede Crocodiles, they released a single, Stop The Rain, written by McDermott, on the NoStrings record label run by Nick Low and Grahame Cochrane.
[2] The Suede Crocodiles joined Nick Heyward on a UK wide tour, including two sell-out gigs at the Dominion Theatre in London.
The line-up for the album recording was Jim McDermott, Steph Greer, Robbie McIntosh, Blair Cowan, and David Crichton.
[8][1] When Island Records founder Chris Blackwell sold his stake in the company, KMO were one of several bands who lost their investment during the shake-up, and subsequently left the label.
The Big Day, a highlight of the European City of Culture celebrations, was the largest free concert ever to be held in Scotland, with a quarter of a million fans attending.
MOJO magazine described it as "the kind of album one can get evangelical about", stating that the material "joins the dots between Young, Petty, Reed and Orbison".
[13] In July 2022, the remastered Last Night From Glasgow release of Mother Nature’s Kitchen reached number ten in the Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100.
[14] In 1992, KMO took up the moniker Orphans, in order to play more intimate gigs for their core fan base and friends, via a private mailing list.
[18] However, the label released the A Terrible Beauty CD with a jewel case sticker that read, "The stunning new band featuring Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie".
This message was incorporated into the language, and song themes, to a degree that prompted the label to release the CD with a parental advisory warning.
In The Del Amitri Story, it is suggested of the "curious" A Terrible Beauty album, that Justin Currie's fans "didn't feel they were in on the joke".
[22] Classic Rock magazine described A Terrible Beauty as "a hugely entertaining debut brimming with fine detail", and NME wrote that the album was "truly wonderful".
McDermott was one of the central eight artists, led by Alec Galloway, who exhibited work across mediums including music, film, paintings and poetry.
As part of the project, he also gave songwriting workshops in Greenock primary schools, incorporating the Absent Voices historical themes.