Review: Skerryvore, The Fleece – ‘The bagpipes came and conquered’

Way back, in the 16th century, bagpipes echo-ed around battlefields. They accompanied highland regiments, replaced the trumpet and were regarded as the sound of the battle. In fact they are the only musical instrument classed as a weapon of war.

There is a very real possibility that Skerryvore know all of these things because, for huge swathes of this evening, they have two sets of bagpipes running attack lines through their anthemic 80s style Celtic rock. The bagpipes create a ferocious sound, it’s enormous, overwhelming and stirs the blood.

This evening marks the first time this Scottish eight piece have played at The Fleece but it is evident, from the start, that they’ve found a delighted home. During the very first song lead singer, Alec Dalglish, asks for “hands in the air” and that is exactly where those hands stay for 90 minutes. Sometimes swaying, sometimes with mobile phone lights aloft, sometimes clapping uproariously.

“The bagpipes create a ferocious sound, it’s enormous, overwhelming and stirs the blood” – photo: Gavin McNamara

As much as Skerryvore employ instruments that would be, generally, associated with Folk – there are pipes, whistles, a violin, an accordion and those bagpipes – they are a Celtic Rock band at heart. Together Again is a sleek, radio-friendly rocker complete with a sing-along “oh oh” chorus. The trick is repeated later on the set with You and I. This time the 80s electric guitar is turned to stun and the chorus is a bit more “whoa, whoa”. Both are huge, stadium filling epics.

The radio-friendly sing-alongs are, it seems, what the audience have come to hear. Live Forever has yet another call and response, has yet more enraptured hands thrown to the air. It sounds like the sort of thing you’d get on the soundtrack to classic 80s teen vampire flick, The Lost Boys. Assuming, of course, that that film had been set in Caledonia rather than California. Take My Hand is just as huge, just as warmly received. Couples slow dance around one another as rock guitar and acoustic Folk instruments collide again and again.

It’s when the Folk takes centre stage that Skerryvore feel genuinely special, however. Martin Gillespie and Scott Wood are extraordinary pipe players (whether bagpipes or whistles) and on instrumental sets like The Ginger Grouse Jigs the swirl and pulse of the music that they make is breath-taking. Daniel Gillespie’s accordion doesn’t let up for a moment and then the fiddle of Craig Espie complements the pipes beautifully. The pace of his Angry Fiddler ratchets up, verging on frantic as every musician emerges from the shadows to pummel the audience into submission with another round of Tartan twirling.

Scotland might have missed out on the World Cup this year but this felt like one of their finest moments since 1978. The bagpipes came and conquered all around them.

Main photo: Darren C Photography 

Read more:

• Review: Ozric Tentacles, Gong, Trinity
• Review: iSHOWMANISM, Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath – ‘A spectacular piece of theatre’
• Venue of the month: The Fleece

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