EXCLUSIVE: Dundee music legend Howie McLeod takes viewers through the decades in ambitious new film project
- Andrew Batchelor
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
Faces from Dundee’s past drift across a café window as the city changes decade by decade outside.
Musicians return to the streets they once helped define. Familiar figures appear once again. Generations quietly pass by as fashions, music and memories evolve through time.
At the centre of it all sits Howard “Howie” McLeod - the Grenadian-born percussionist whose arrival in Dundee more than 50 years ago helped shape part of the city’s musical identity.
Ahead of the public release of HOWIE - CHANGE, Dundee Culture was given an exclusive preview of the ambitious new music film project created by Howie in association with Gomni.
More than simply a music video, the project feels like a moving piece of Dundee cultural history - blending music, memory, storytelling and modern visual compositing into what its creators describe as a “cultural artifact” celebrating 50 years of the city’s musical evolution.
The film centres around Howie performing inside a café while the large window beside him transforms into a visual time machine. As the song unfolds, decades of Dundee history begin to pass outside the glass, with iconic local musicians, bands and cultural figures appearing throughout the changing streetscape.
Dozens of recognisable names from Dundee’s music scene feature across the project, including references to The View, Billy Mackenzie, AWB, The Hazey Janes, Mafia, Boogalusa and Skeets Bolivar, alongside appearances from beloved local figures both past and present.
The film also pays emotional tribute to Dundonians who are no longer with us but whose presence still lingers within the city’s cultural memory, including Breeks, Johnny Fitzgerald, Michael Marra and B.Y.
Alongside the musical references sits another quieter story running throughout the film. A local woman is seen aging across the decades, from a young girl in pink during the 1970s to later stages of life as Dundee itself evolves around her.
The effect is subtle but powerful, reflecting not only the passage of time within the city, but the shared experience of generations who have grown alongside it.
What makes HOWIE - CHANGE particularly striking is how deeply rooted it feels within Dundee itself. Rather than presenting nostalgia as something distant, the film brings fragments of the city’s past back into the present using modern visual techniques that merge memory with contemporary Dundee.
Many Dundonians will see the names and faces appearing throughout the project as more than musical references alone.
They are reminders of venues, nights out, friendships, scenes and moments that helped define entire eras of the city’s cultural life.
Howie’s story
Born in Grenada, Howie McLeod arrived in Dundee in 1972 and would go on to become one of the city’s most recognisable rhythmic figures across the next five decades.
Known professionally by many as “Bongo”, his influence stretched across Dundee’s funk, soul and live music scenes while also contributing to community music and education projects throughout Scotland.
After arriving in the city, Howie became part of a generation of Caribbean artists who helped bring new rhythms, influences and musical traditions into Dundee’s evolving music scene during a period of major cultural and social change.
Across the decades, his percussion work and unmistakable presence became woven into the city’s wider musical identity, particularly within Dundee’s grassroots live music culture.
For many people connected to Dundee’s music scene, Howie represents far more than a performer alone. He is viewed as part of the city’s rhythmic backbone - somebody whose career quietly helped shape the sound and spirit of generations of local music.
A love letter to Dundee’s music culture
In many ways, HOWIE - CHANGE feels like a preservation project as much as a music film.
It captures fragments of Dundee that risk fading with time - the faces, venues, personalities and musical movements that helped shape the city across generations. Through its blend of memory, performance and visual storytelling, the project creates something that feels both nostalgic and contemporary at the same time.
For older viewers, the film may bring back memories of Dundee’s past music scenes and personalities. For younger audiences, it offers a glimpse into the people and cultural moments that helped define the city long before social media documented everyday life.
The result is a film that feels both deeply personal and collectively shared - a love letter not only to Dundee’s music scene, but to the city’s changing identity itself.
HOWIE - CHANGE is out now.
