Roy Mullane’s advice to buy CDs in case you forgot someone at Christmas did not do his band justice, but his eccentric humour gave personality to their concert.
The Weavers brought the traditional sound of Scotland, complete with bagpipes.
Award-winning “young” piper Lorne MacDougall joined founding members Mullane, on guitar and vocals, and Phil Smillie on bodhran, flute and whistles, with John Martin on fiddle.
Named for their native Paisley’s historic industry and local poet laureate Robert Tannahill, their claim to modernity is The Geese In The Bog/The Jig Of Slurs can be heard on Scottish TV advertising beer.
Mullane would have liked to see everyone get up to their rousing marches and lively jigs; tables were in the way of such activity, but the music did evoke a splendid Tattoo, bright tartan, and a Scottish highland dance.
Ballads like The Final Trawl, When The Kye Come Hame, and The Ploo’boy Laddies were easy to sing along to, all on the latest live CD.
Shoreham wasn’t the “chorus-singing capital of the Western world” Mullane had hoped for, yet his “rowdy crowd” was discernible in shouts for more at the end, fittingly rewarded by an unusual version of Auld Lang Syne.
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