Mànran set to rock Fort's Nevis Centre this month
Scots trad-rock band Mànran are sure to receive a big warm Fort William welcome when they play the town’s Nevis Centre on March 30.
Mànran enjoyed a hugely successful 2018, beginning with a sold-out performance at Celtic Connections – live streamed to a worldwide audience of 125,000 people – followed by a sold-out tour of France and Germany alongside playing a host of prestigious festivals throughout Europe across the summer months.
The six-piece continued to tour extensively as well as playing another headline show at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom in a performance that was filmed for BBC Alba and broadcast on the channel at Hogmanay.
On Spotify in 2018, Mànran’s music was streamed one million times by 109,000 fans for 82,000 hours across 65 countries.
2019 sees the band continue with its European and World performances with the band just home from Canada and packing their bags for a four-week tour of Australia next month.
Mànran’s accordion player and founding member Gary Innes, who hails from Spean Bridge and also presents BBC Radio Scotland’s longest-running radio show ‘Take The Floor’, said it always felt like a homecoming show when he and Ewen Henderson got to play at the Nevis Centre with Mànran.
‘However this year’s Nevis Centre show will be an extra special one personally as we’re joined by Keri Gibson to open the night followed by a reunion of past and present members of the Cach Mhor Ceilidh Band,’ he added.
‘I first joined the Cach when I was just 13 years old and subsequently received a musical apprenticeship like no other.
‘I played with the band for nine years before moving to Glasgow, however, after a 15-year absence I can’t wait to be reunited with the band back on stage and joined by many of the ex-band members that have also toured with the Cach Mhor throughout the 25 plus years of the band’s existence. It’s definitely going to be a night to be remembered.’
Mànran formed in 2011 and it didn’t take long to release a multi-award-winning debut album. They remain the only group in the 21st century to break the UK top 40 with a song in the Gaelic language – their debut single Latha Math reached number 29.
Mànran’s music has always defied easy labelling due to the eclectic mix of influences on the band. With a central ethos built around the band’s traditional Celtic roots, fiery tunes from fiddle, accordion, flute, Uilleann and Highland bagpipes bind powerfully to a rhythm section awash with elements of funk, jazz and rock to create some of the most innovative and uplifting instrumental music around.
Coupled with songs in both Gaelic and English that undergo the same musical mixology, it’s easy to understand why Mànran are in such high demand as a live act.