How far would you go to realise your dream of pop stardom? Would you tell a great big fat lie?
I'm with the father of Gonzo journalism, Hunter S Thompson, on this. He (allegedly) said: "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
There's dispute over whether those are Thompson's exact words and whether he may have been talking about the TV world, but, either way, it's true!
As is the fact that the global music corporations with their bloated expense account A&R men and six-figure advances given to up-and-coming bands have been dumped in the dustbin of history along with cassette tapes and sleazy Top of the Pops DJs.
What will never be erased by the march of progress, though, are the dreams and aspirations of young musicians.
And sometimes, to get to the toppermost of the poppermost, you have to take extreme measures - particularly if you're Scottish.
That's why two lads from Arbroath and Dundee ended up convincing top record company executives that they were cool young rapper dudes from California. Quite an achievement, as neither of the kids had been to the USA!
What they did have was bags of musical talent, chutzpah and, not least, an ability to pull off authentic West Coast accents.
The story of Silibil'n'Brains (real names - Billy and Gavin) is told in a terrific new documentary, The Great Hip Hop Hoax, which is opening in Scottish cinemas this week.
The boys were mocked when they went to an audition in London and performed in their Scottish accents.
Record company bosses laughed at them and said they were "the rapping Proclaimers", but when they rang the same companies, using American accents, they were immediately invited to send in a demo, and were quickly signed up to a major label.
The pressures of living a lie 24/7, even appearing on TV in the fake identities, led to the situation spiraling out of control, but only after the boys had lived the rock'n'roll high life for quite some time.
I really wish they could have turned it around and used the revelation of the hoax as a brilliant piece of marketing for their launch as a cool Scottish duo - after all, they're no more fake than any of the other manufactured bands that have made it big over the years.
In contrast, it was an English company, the RSC, that commissioned a very Scottish play back in 2000, which is now being staged in Scotland for the first time.
David Greig's Victoria is about three women, all called Victoria, who live in different decades across the 20th century. Are they the same woman? You'll have to figure that out as the story weaves through three generations of a Highland community
This intriguing play is on at Dundee Rep until September 21.
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