John Maclean is waiting on a parcel when I call him at home in South London.
“I’m having a really boring morning,” he says with a laugh. It’s the kind of dry understatement you’d expect from a former Beta Band member turned BAFTA-winning filmmaker who’s collaborated with Michael Fassbender, Tim Roth and Jack Lowden.
But “boring” doesn’t quite suit John Maclean. Not now, and certainly not in the past.
Now 52, the Tayport-raised former Madras College pupil is in a reflective mood.
His second feature film, Tornado – a genre-defying samurai epic set in 18th-century Scotland – is hitting cinemas, including a run at Dundee Contemporary Arts which includes a recorded Q&A.
At the same time, in a move that few fans ever expected, The Beta Band – the cult experimental outfit he co-founded in the late ’90s – is reuniting for a September UK tour, including sold-out shows at Glasgow’s legendary Barrowland Ballroom. A North America tour follows.
Older and more relaxed, John is reconnecting with the chaos and creativity of the band’s past – but this time, with less pressure and a lot more perspective.
“We just started talking about doing something enjoyable,” he says when asked how the reunion came about.
“Not having to create anything new, but just going out on tour and playing the old songs, and enjoying it. Because we’re all a bit older and wiser now.
“Maybe we felt there’s a lack of proper bands around these days. And we were definitely a band. So we wanted to show people just how good and interesting we were.”
What’s the legacy of The Beta Band?
If the film High Fidelity made The Beta Band a cult name among record-store obsessives in 2000, it was their genre-hopping ambition and surreal visual flair that cemented their legacy.
From lo-fi collage videos and kaleidoscopic soundscapes to a live presence that swung between anarchic and transcendent, The Beta Band were always playing a game of their own invention.
But behind the freewheeling creativity lay a constant sense of “stressful” pressure.
“There was pressure all the way through,” he says. “Pressure we put on ourselves to constantly reinvent and not just rehash. Eventually, you sort of run out of ideas. So rather than creatively stall, we split the band up. But we all stayed friends.”
After the band’s 2004 split, John turned his energy to film.
He had already been drawn to storytelling as a child, watching Stallone and Schwarzenegger movies rented from his local Tayport video shop.
That passion deepened through his work at Edinburgh’s Cameo Cinema and by directing The Beta Band’s videos.
Taking night classes even before The Beta Band split, John began making shorts and searching for anyone in the industry who’d take a meeting.
How did work with Michael Fassbender come about?
Through a chance encounter with an agent, he was introduced to Michael Fassbender.
“Michael saw some of The Beta Band videos and said, ‘These are interesting. I’ll give you a day of my time,'” he recalls.
That single day turned into Pitch Black Heist, a short film that led to another, and soon, John was making his 2015 debut feature film, the award-winning Slow West.
His new film, Tornado, starring Tim Roth and Jack Lowden, builds on that success.
It’s a samurai story with a Scottish soul, filmed just outside Edinburgh.
Significance of The Aliens
Music never left John entirely. After The Beta Band, he formed The Aliens with his St Andrews-raised best friend Gordon Anderson. The Beta Band co-founder and musical genius known as Lone Pigeon had to step away from the original group due to mental health struggles. Beta Band drummer Robin Jones was also in the band.
“When the Beta Band ended, I felt Gordon had missed out. I wanted to give that experience back to him – touring, recording, just being in a band,” John explains.
But soon, he realised that touring life wasn’t right for Gordon either.
“It just wasn’t good for him, mentally or physically. While I’m glad we did it, I could see it was doing more harm than good.”
How the roots of The Beta Band began in Tayport and St Andrews
The story of The Beta Band and John’s creative journey is incomplete without understanding his Tayport roots.
Born in December 1972, John lived in Gateside before moving to Tayport at age 10 when his father took a job at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee.
His parents, both art teachers at Bell Baxter High School in Cupar, nurtured a creative home.
He remembers Cub Scouts in Auchtermuchty, swimming in Cupar and teenage years spent commuting to and from school in St Andrews on a riotous bus packed with teenage tribes.
“The things that happened on that bus!” he says, laughing.
“One driver – I think his nickname was Budgie – would get so wound up he’d take us straight to the police station. I remember someone lit the back seat on fire once and threw it out the window. That bus would make a good film!”
At Madras College, John met Gordon Anderson, and the two bonded instantly.
“We were the only ones who were really into art, and into music too. We’d nip into the music room to play the piano. By sixth year, we had somehow dropped everything except art.”
They both ended up at Edinburgh College of Art. While Gordon leaned into singer-songwriter influences like Neil Young, John fell in love with dance music and eclectic club culture.
“I used to go the Rhumba Club in Dundee,” he recalls. “There was this weird hip hop scene in Tayport too, people trying to breakdance, electro cassettes going around.
“When I got to Edinburgh, we started this club that played everything – Kinks, Stone Roses, Wu-Tang Clan, house music. That mash-up spirit is really what became The Beta Band.”
Rise, fall and rise again of The Beta Band
John never expected to join a band. But after moving to London and sharing a flat with Steve Mason – also from St Andrews – and Robin Jones, he started looping samples – birdsong, old film scores, obscure records. Those lo-fi experiments turned into The Beta Band’s first EP.
Now, 21 years after the band split, they’re back. The upcoming tour will feature tracks from The Three EPs and other fan favourites.
The band is performing with their original lineup of Steve Mason, Richard Greentree, John Maclean, and Robin Jones, who John has been working with in the film industry.
He’s still close to his brother, Dave Maclean of Django Django, who’s now settled back in the Tayport area where their parents still live.
Tayport remains close to John’s heart
John now lives in South London with his partner and their two children, aged four and 10. But Tayport remains close to his heart.
“We’ve got a little place up north, and we’re back in Tayport all the time. I was at the Tayport car boot sale the other week, digging for records. Some things don’t change.”
Asked whether the Beta Band reunion might lead to new material, John is cautious but open.
“There’s talk of doing something next year,” he says.
“But it’ll be compacted, because I’ll be working on film stuff too.
“After that, maybe it all goes back in the cupboard for another 25 years!”
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