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Club night with music from local and visiting players. All welcome to attend.A wee message from Calum…..
My name is Calum MacColl, and I am from Fort William. I am a meteorologist and have been
sharing my passion for the weather through my forecasts, whether that be on the screen at
the BBC, or doing detailed reports for the Mountain Weather Information Service. Coupled
with my love for the weather, is my deep enthusiasm and passion for music and Gaelic; and I
have been playing the bagpipes since I was in school. I started learning the chanter at
school when I was 9 years old, and then moved on to the bagpipes after a couple of years,
and have been playing them ever since, and they will always be my favourite instrument to
play. I would play at various functions and ceilidhs over the years and also go round the
competition circuit every year which I enjoyed very much. I always had the desire to play the
accordion, and particularly the button box as this was the instrument I would hear often in my
youth, hearing great musicians like Fergie, and my own cousin who was a great player on
the 3 row Shand Morino. So after getting the opportunity of buying a Shand Morino when I
was 18, I started learning the accordion using my prior grounding in pipe music to progress
in my learning of the new instrument. And as such, my accordion playing over the years, has
been heavily influenced by lots of pipe and gaelic music.
I also started learning Gaelic back in 2016 and also several songs which my late father
would sing over the years. I also started competing at the Mod in some of the learners’
competitions and was successful in winning the Silver Pendant in Glasgow in 2019.
I then worked even more on my gaelic over the covid pandemic, and then competed at the
Inverness Mod in 2021 in the Traditional Gold Medal Competition which I was delighted to
win, singing a couple of my Great Uncle’s songs, which my father and uncle would sing often
in the past.
There is nothing better than playing music and singing songs, and I very much enjoy going
around the accordion and fiddle club circuit with my band. The Highland Accordion and
Fiddle Club has always been one very close to my heart, and it was the late Callum
MacAskill that first asked me along to play as the guest band, to which I will always be ever
thankful for along with all of his encouragement he gave to me about my music. Whilst I am
delighted to be back at the club this December to play with my band, Callum will be very
much in our thoughts that night and will very much be missed by all. Joining me in the band
for the night will be Màrtainn Skene bringing us his wonderful musicianship to the stage on
his Ranco accordion, and keeping us in time will be Alistair MacPherson on the drums. I
hope you all enjoy the night of music and song and we look forward to seeing you all there,
and there might even be a wee christmas tune to two to get us all into the festive spirit.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Highland Rugby Club, Bught Road, Inverness, United Kingdom
