He was best known as a founding member and key writer in Trashcan Sinatras, formed in his hometown of Irvine in 1986, and who has more recently stepped into the spotlight with an acclaimed acoustic solo music career.
The Trashcan Sinatras (Image: The Trashcan Sinatras PR image)
Read More: Review: Trashcan Sinatras, Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine, June 2026
The band has released six studio albums, beginning with Cake, originally issued in 1990 and re‑released in 2023, when it finally reached the UK Top 10 some 33 years after its debut.
The Herald was an early enthusiast, one of its writers noting in 1991: “Their Go! Discs debut album, Cake, was one of 1990s better efforts, marred only slightly by the band’s tendency to cram seven or eight songs’ worth of melodic invention into every single three- minute song. They wore their classic guitar-pop influences a little too prominently as well, but these minor criticisms will, I’m certain, be sunk by their second album”.
Trash Can Sinatras (aka Trashcan Sinatras), singer Francis Reader, perform on stage, Minneapolis, United States, 1991 (Image: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images)
The Trashcan Sinatras had started out as a band that played covers of songs by such bands as the Velvet Underground and the Clash, but when they started to write their own material they realised that they had a real talent for it. Demos were recorded in the highly popular Sirocco Studio in Kilmarnock, where the band’s singer, Frank Reader, was working, and mailed to record companies in London.
Billy Sloan liked what he heard and played the band on his Radio Clyde show. A&R staff at London record labels were intrigued by the music, and Go! Discs’ boss Andy Macdonald, expressed definite interest. They were signed in 1987 by Go! Discs and used the advance to purchase Sirocco Studio, renaming it Shabby Road, which had been opened in 1978 by Clark Sorley around a musicians’ collective.
Cake was released three years later and was shaped by Douglas’ song-writing and guitar playing, known for melodic sophistication, literate wordplay and emotional understatement, often wrapped in jangling, carefully arranged guitar parts.
The personnel behind Cake were John Douglas (electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards and backing vocals), Stephen Douglas (drums and percussion), Paul Livingston (electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards), George McDaid (bass guitar) and Frank Reader (lead vocals, keyboards). Sorley, who had worked on a wide range of projects first for Radio Clyde and later as a freelance, played piano or keyboards on several tracks.
Trashcan Sinatras (Image: Robin Morton Consultancy/Trashcan Sinatras/Jo Mango Management)
Read More: Review: Trashcan Sinatras, Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine, June 2026
Through the 1990s and 2000s, Douglas and the band experienced both acclaim and practical difficulties, including financial and label troubles that delayed releases. He has spoken about the long gap before their 2004 album Weightlifting, describing that period as a “troubled journey” that the band ultimately emerged from with their friendships and musical chemistry intact. That album’s title, he has said, reflected a sense of a weight being lifted as they returned to working smoothly together.
Outside of the band, Douglas toured with his partner Eddi Reader’s band, touring extensively across the UK and Ireland. He has also shared stages with friends and contemporaries such as Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Jill Jackson, James Grant (Love & Money), Withered Hand and Martin McAloon of Prefab Sprout.
The Trashcans back in the day (Image: Trashcan Sinatras)
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Reader recently cancelled her tour, announcing to fans that the cancellations came “due to unforeseen and challenging circumstances”. A statement said: “I will miss performing for you all this summer and send apologies to everyone who made travel plans, etc.
“Right now I need to be at home to give my undivided love and care.
“See you all later in the year. Much love.”
Douglas started to perform solo in the early 2020s, before those shows led directly to his self-titled debut solo album released via Reveal Records in 2023. Recorded live at Kyoti Studio in Glasgow with producer Mark Freegard, it presented intimate acoustic versions of some of his favourite Trashcan Sinatras songs alongside new material and a cover of Prefab Sprout’s We Let The Stars Go.
John Douglas (Image: John Douglas)
In recent years, Douglas balanced solo touring, work with Eddi Reader and continuing activity around Trashcan Sinatras, including the high‑profile reissue and renewed chart success of Cake.
Trashcan Sinatras released the band’s latest album Ever The Optimist last week on July 31.
The band played a “secret gig” in Irvine Harbour Arts Centre in June. The Herald’s Teddy Jamieson said the homecoming gig showed “a band at home in every sense – with themselves, with their songs and with the people around them.”
