[3] In the late 1980s, as frustration in Scotland at perceived isolation from the Thatcher government grew, pressure was applied for the creation of an official Scottish chart; Brian Guthri of the Scottish Record Industry Association claimed that the official UK charts did not pick up many sales by Scottish acts as they were not polling enough shops in Scotland, citing Win's "You've Got the Power" (the theme song from McEwan's Lager adverts) as an example[4] and a month of research determined significant differences from the UK charts, with indie acts selling particularly well.
[6] Although a Scottish chart had been broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland beforehand,[7] the first official Scottish Gallup charts were published on 17 March 1991; notably, they placed Scottish band the Silencers at number 6 in the album chart (only number 39 UK-wide) and The Simpsons Sing the Blues album higher than the Inspector Morse soundtrack, which was 11 places higher UK-wide.
[8] The launch of this chart was heralded by Neil Ross of the Scottish Record Industry Association, who again suggested that the UK charts were disproportionately slanted towards sales in London and the south of England, while music manager Bruce Findlay suggested that Scotland could potentially produce a music TV show with as much international appeal as the then-popular DEF II series Rapido.
[9] From 20 September 1991, a short weekly TV programme based around the Scottish chart was broadcast by BBC1 Scotland on Friday nights, hosted by Nicky Campbell, then of Radio 1[10] and the chart continued to be broadcast on Monday nights on BBC Radio Scotland[11] although it was dropped, along with other night-time music programmes on that station, during the last year of Gallup's contract.
[12] Frankie Miller's song "Caledonia", also included in McEwan's adverts which were only shown in Scotland and Northern Ireland, topped the Scottish chart while only being a minor UK-wide hit.