Gaelic greats set to perform at festival
A group of local and visiting musicians are set to perform at this year’s Mull of Kintyre Music Festival Gaelic Concert at Ceol Campbeltown at the Seafield Hotel.
The August 21 event headlines with Gaelic singer Ainsley Hamill and multi-instrumentalist Toby Shaer. Ainsley, who also plays in the band Barluath, hails from Cardross, and has been involved in singing, dancing and performance from a young age, specialising in song-writing and songs in Scottish Gaelic and English.
In October 2013, Ainsley won The Silver Pendant at The Royal National Mòd and her love of Gaelic song was nurtured whilst studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where she obtained a first class honours degree in Scottish Music, with Gaelic Song as her principal study.
Toby Shaer is an up-andcoming folk musician from Leigh on Sea, Essex, who started to play music from an early age, picking up flutes and whistles at the age of seven and fiddle when he was 12.
He began his first band at the age of 14 and has worked and performed with several bands over the years from celebrated Scottish hero Dougie Maclean to outstanding Blur guitarist Graham Coxon, the most recent being renowned fiddler John McCusker.
Joining Ainsley and Toby are Iain MacPherson from Southend, Stuart Jackson from Morvern, Fiona and Calum Ross, a father and daughter from Glasgow, Christine Macintyre (Bean an tighe), who lives in Ardrishaig, Na Smeòraich, Ceòl Beag and Tarbert Tame Dragons, all from Tarbert, Raibeart MacCallum from Campbeltown, and Alex MacKinnon from Carradale, with a host of special guests still to be announced.
Tickets for all the festival events are available locally from A P Taylor and online at www.ticketweb.co.uk