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Winner of the MG Alba Composer of the Year 2025 Findlay Napier is widely regarded as one of the
finest performers on the UK music scene. He is as comfortable on the main Stage of Cambridge
Folk Festival with folk rock supergroup The Magpie Arc as he is in an intimate acoustic show in
the back room of a pub. This fact was further highlighted when Napier was the first solo act ever
to be nominated for Live Act of the Year at the Scot’s Trad Music awards in 2018. Tirelessly
creative he has been touring and releasing music since the early naughties. First with
groundbreaking trad folk band Back of the Moon, then with Nu-Folk pioneers Findlay Napier and
the Bar Room Mountaineers and most recently as a solo act working under the guidance of
legendary songwriter Boo Hewerdine.
In 2025 he was chosen, alongside Kate Rusby and Richard Thompson, to compose an original
song for BBC Radio 2’s “21st Century Folk”. He performed his song “Firecracker” on live on The
Jeremy Vine Show and BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.
His breakthrough solo album VIP: Very Interesting Persons, produced by Boo Hewerdine, was
number 2 in The Telegraph’s top folk albums of 2014. He followed it with 2017’s Glasgow
described by The Scotsman as “a paean to his adopted home town” which led to a number of
high profile gigs including a five tours as the opening act for Eddi Reader. In 2021 he released It Is
What It Is a collaboration album in all but name with producer and multi-instrumentalist Angus
Lyon which Folk Radio UK called, ”A captivating, indispensable work; it is what it is and what it is,
is magnificent."
Described as a “miracle lyricist’ by the Sunday Herald and “an original and engaging treat” by The
Telegraph his skills as a songwriter and collaborator have led him to work on some surprising and
interesting projects. In 2017 he was invited to take part in Greg Russell’s ‘Shake the Chains’
project with Nancy Kerr and Hannah Martin where they toured, recorded and released a double
live album. After meeting award winning songwriter Megan Henwood at an EFDSS songwriting
retreat he formed the duo The Story Song Scientists writing songs about science releasing two
EPs and touring the UK. In late 2021 he joined folk rock supergroup The Magpie Arc with Martin
Simpson, Tom A Wright, Alex Hunter and Nancy Kerr performing on festival main stages and arts
centres across the UK. Their debut album Glamour in the Grey, featuring three of Napier’s original
songs including a co-write with Maz O’Conner was released in October 2022.
He is often commissioned to write songs including one for The 2014 Commonwealth Games in
Glasgow, two songs for Morgan Fisher’s Miniatures 2020 and more recently penning the anthem
“Union Strong” for the 125th anniversary of the Scottish TUC.
As a teaching artist he regularly runs songwriting workshops. He set up Glasgow Songwriting
Festival in 2016 and consults on various other songwriting events and festivals around the UK. He
has hosted many songwriting retreats at Moniack Mhor (Scotland’s Creative Writing Centre)
alongside Boo Hewerdine, Karine Polwart and Bella Hardy and works with Vox Liminus and Feis
Rois delivering music and songwriting workshops in Scottish prisons.
Findlay lives on the Isle of Arran with his family. His latest album Outsider was released in April
2025 as a CD and an incredible 154 page coffee table book featuring augmented reality content.
PRESS FROM EPK:
"... one of the finest songwriters and storytellers of the contemporary Scottish folk scene." Folk
Radio UK (Glasgow)
"Coming on like a Caledonian Loudon Wainwright ... A superbly crafted compilation of
Songs" Acoustic Magazine (Glasgow)
Rosslyn Court
Expect a small, seated, friendly, quirky, listening venue with a heart – we have a tiny bar selling beer, wine, cider, gin! and hot and cold drinks -nibbly stuff and always a cake. The venue is accessible, on one level. You will be seated at tables or in rows, according to numbers in the audience. If you need to use your phone for texting or lyrics, please turn the brightness of your phone down and consider sitting near the back to minimise the impact.
Arrive at 7pm to get a seat, a drink and a chat before the concert.
The first hour of concerts is livestreamed on YouTube. You can watch it any time after 7.30 on the night of the concert via the Rosslyn Court Website. There is an exclusive second set for the audience in the room, including a Q&A with the performers. We ask you to make a donation, please, when you watch the livestream to help us to continue this service.
There is a Rosslyn Court raffle. £1 a ticket. You may win a CD …or a “Who Gives A Crap” emergency toilet roll! WGAC donate half their profits to water charities and are plastic free. People who donate during the concert are entered into the raffle.
There is usually a floor singer and often a 2-minute community slot informing us of what happens locally. The second half starts with a Q&A and is not livestreamed. If you think of something you want to know more about in the first half, just ask! Sometimes there is another floor song.
The concerts usually finish well before 10. Except for Tim Edey because he is unstoppable. (We also run a B&B here hahaha)
If you want to view the livestream after midnight of the concert date then go to the livestream option on the website where all the old livestreams live.
Tickets are kept as affordable as we can and there are always a few cheaper and others more expensive to help us subsidise the concessionary seats.. Sometimes tickets are a little more expensive to reflect the status of the performer.
This year we are trialling an early bird ticket price to encourage people to book at least a month in advance.
Please ring for more details, 07902140248
See you soon
Morag
Rosslyn Court
[email protected]
www.rosslyncourt.com/events
07902140248
62 Sweyn Rd Margate CT92DD
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62 Sweyn road, CT9 2DD Margate, United Kingdom, 62 Sweyn Road, Margate, CT9 2DD, United Kingdom
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