Constant Follower live on stage at Oban’s Rockfield
A musical offering celebrating the start of Earth month at Oban’s Rockfield Centre brings Stirling band Constant Follower to the stage this Saturday (April 1).
Doors open at 6.30pm for this seated gig in the Oak Room. Tickets cost from £10 and booking is essential.
Constant Follower’s frontman is songwriter Stephen McAll who has a remarkable backstory that leads to some of the music that will be played to the Oban audience.
The band’s drifting, heart-rending sound is a dreamlike reflection of Stephen McAll’s life.
Growing up in Glasgow, Stephen was randomly attacked on his way home from his girlfriend’s house one evening around his 17th birthday.
The catastrophic head injuries left him partially paralysed, unable to write or play guitar, with all of his childhood memories up until that point gone.
He spent the next decade on Scotland’s windswept west coast recovering and gradually re-learning how to play guitar. He began reading the poetry of Norman MacCaig, as it was the only prose he could follow, and eventually the songs that formed his stunning debut, Neither
Is, Nor Ever Was, began to emerge.
The album, their first for legendary New York indie label Shimmy Disc, was nominated for the 2022 Scottish Album of the Year Award (SAY) and found its way to the top of multiple ‘best albums of 2021’ lists, leading to a string of notable performances including Austin’s SXSW 2022 and a spellbinding set from the crown of Scotland’s National Wallace Monument.
To book go here https:// www.therockfieldcentre. org.uk/constant-follower. Constant Follower’s Oban gig follows a string of dates at legendary music showcase South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
The band recently wound up its second appearance at the world’s biggest showcase of new music talent and headed to the Highlands as part of the Scotland on Tour initiative, which provides support for gigs to take place in remote areas of Scotland.
As well as Oban, the band will play Astley Hall in Arisaig tonight (Thursday March 30).
The band is riding high following its nomination for
Scottish Album of the Year Award 2022, and is releasing a new album on Friday April 14, which is a collaboration with Scottish folk guitarist Scott William Urquhart.
Audiences at the Oban and Arisaig shows will be treated to an exclusive preview of the new songs performed live and will be the only audiences with the chance to buy advance copies on vinyl and CD, two weeks ahead of release.
Bandleader Stephen McAll commented: “We’re really excited to be playing in such beautiful parts of Scotland.
“The music is so heavily inspired by the Scottish landscape, so as amazing as it has been to be playing in America, playing in Arisaig and Oban will feel like the music is in its true home.
“And we can’t wait to give Scottish music fans the first preview of the new album.”