He declined their offer to be involved in SEX, the Chelsea clothes shop which McLaren and Westwood launched, preferring to make his career in music.
He spent a period playing folk music clubs as a solo musician, sharing bills with emerging artists such as David Bowie, John Martyn and Ralph McTell.
When he returned, he made demos with members of the progressive rock band Camel, songwriter Terry Britten and music publisher Ronnie Scott.
In 1972, he won the Search for a Star national talent contest, and was offered a recording contract by EMI, but turned down the deal because the label would not support his backing band.
In 1973, he performed in bands with Pete Thomas (later of Elvis Costello and the Attractions), and Paul "Bassman" Riley, and also wrote a musical called Heartaches & Teardrops, a play with original songs which has parallels to The Rocky Horror Show, and the True Love and Romance comic strip genre.
Among the other musicians who played on the track were his brother Julian Scott (on bass),[4] then-unknown keyboardist Wally Badarou,[4] Canadian programmer John Lewis and backing vocalist Brigit Novik.
New York • London • Paris • Munich was recorded in Montreux, Switzerland, at Queen's Mountain Studios, and using their regular engineer, David Richards as well as Julian Scott, Wally Badarou (who would later work with Stevie Winwood, among others) and Brigit Novik.
Additional musicians on the LP included drummer Phil Gould (later of Level 42),[2] Gary Barnacle on saxophone and flute,[2] and (at the time) local Montreux resident David Bowie, who did occasional handclaps.
In late 1980, the follow-up album called The Official Secrets Act was released, containing the songs "Keep It to Yourself" and the title track, and was inspired, albeit tongue-in-cheek, by the overwhelming worldwide paranoia of the time.
The same year brought a third M album Famous Last Words, which featured many of the musicians from the previous albums, including the early incarnation of Level 42 (who by this time were having their own regular hits), producer Wally Badarou also playing keyboards, Julian Scott on bass, Brigit Novik on backing vocals, a young Thomas Dolby on programming, Yellow Magic Orchestra drummer Yukihiro Takahashi, guitarist from Gang of Four Andy Gill and Tony Levin on bass.
[8] and a compilation including both retrospective studio recording and period demos was released with title of Life Class featuring artwork from the exhibition.
Scott appeared in the Countdown Spectacular two-concert series in Australia between late August and early September 2007, where he performed "Pop Muzik" live for the first time.