Drunk on culture, drunk in the local Blackfriars bar: in the early 2000s The List was intoxicated by devolution and an emerging national confidence. We launched the Hot 100 at the end of 2003 and included a 16-year-old Nicola Benedetti; novelists Ali Smith and Andrew O’Hagan; actors Shirley Henderson and Brian Cox (‘something of a plague in Hollywood at the moment’, we said). A swagger was replacing the old cultural cringe: music editor Mark Robertson was bubbling about a new single from a then-unknown Glasgow art-rock band called Franz Ferdinand, so we took a risk and splashed them on the cover in January 2004. By the end of the year, they had topped our Hot 100.

Glasgow’s visual artists were dominating the Turner Prize, delivering a succession of winners and shortlisters. And in 2006 the National Theatre Of Scotland burst onto the scene. Meanwhile, Edinburgh’s festivals were blossoming: The List launched a Festival Guide which boosted newsstand sales, though in the end it would not be enough to stem a drift towards online media. In 2007, we warned of the ‘hyper-speed colonisation of the internet by big business’, knowing full well that our own indie magazine was implicated.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, politics had largely taken a back seat in mainstream culture, but now there were rumblings. In June 2005, the team led on the Make Poverty History march which we described, dubiously, as ‘Scotland’s biggest ever demo’. A free wristband covermount delivered, unquestionably, the magazine’s highest-ever sales figure.

The question of Scottish independence was emerging. In my first month as editor in 2003, we received a letter asking ‘when are you going to devote an issue to the new parliament in Holyrood? Scotland is about to get a building that will redefine democracy for the 21st century.’ In my last issue, in 2007, the debate was hotting up: a piece by our publisher Robin Hodge made an emotional case for the Union. But architect Malcolm Fraser expressed the desire for something altogether different: ‘More dissidence; less self-obsession and more care for our fellow beings; a wee revolution.’ Shortly afterwards, Alex Salmond was elected First Minister.

Nick Barley was editor of The List from 2003–2007, and went on to be director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival; he is now director of the National Poetry Centre in Leeds.

Classic Feature of the 2000s

Bridget Jones’s Diary (29 March 2001)

This was one of those rare issues when, with 48 hours to deadline, we had nothing for the cover other than a film poster image (which we never liked using as it looked like an advert) and some bland quotes released by the publicists. By chance, that evening I attended a press reception in Glasgow and saw Hannah McGill; I explained the problem and asked her to think about an angle that might work to cover the film’s release. By 9am the next day, Hannah presented her brilliant pastiche of the diary, chronicling Bridget’s heartfelt response to the filming of her story. The issue went on to sell out in many shops. (Robin Hodge)

Follow The List’s timeline for more reminiscences from magazine’s past:
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> The List at 40: Yasmin Sulaiman (editor 2014–2018) – ‘The List loved uncovering new talent and giving it a platform’