“Way up North there’s something special going on. Something to shake preconceptions and set out a glorious statement of intent from Inverness come Iain McLaughlin & The Outsiders spearheading a burgeoning musical scene in the UK’s most northerly city, Inverness.
In recent times some of the most exciting music in Scotland has been coming from the peripheries, like Fife’s Fence Collective or the scruffy pop scene in Dundee that’s grown up around The View. Now it’s the turn of Inverness to start rewriting some rule books. Despite being the fastest growing city in Europe, with a rock heritage that includes being the location for The Beatles’ first gig under that name, it’s only recently that the scene has truly burst into life. And how Rockness might have rapidly established itself as one of the finest festivals around, but it’s in the plethora of venues around town that the real revolution is taking place, aided, uniquely, by a largely free-gig culture and an enforced geographical isolation that’s helped to create a solid creative bedrock. And now it’s time to start telling the rest of the world what they’re missing.”
Paul Mathur (Former Melody Maker journalist)
2011 has been a busy year so far for Iain McLaughlin & The Outsiders, starting with Iain doing a solo support for Glasvegas on their Highlands & Islands tour, followed by the full band playing the legendary King Tuts then Iain being chosen to perform at the Inverness launch of the Pretty Green clothing line and most recently the band packing out the Sound City tent at Rockness.
Following on from Rockness the band are delighted to announce that will play a series of Festivals in August including Belladrum Festival, Gig in the Car Park, B-Fest and Wizard Festival with a warm up show at Ironworks, Inverness on July 21st as part of the venue’s Summer Showcase highlighting the very best bands in the North of Scotland right now.
Iain McLaughlin said “We are working hard and determined to get our music out there and are grasping all the opportunities that come to us”.
“These Festivals are great to play and some of them like Belladrum and Wizard Festival we played their stages for emerging talent last year” continued McLaughlin “so it’s great to get a chance to play the main stage at Belladrum and also to play the second stage at Wizard Festival”
Full list of appearances below:
July 21st – Summer Showcase at Ironworks, Inverness
August 6th – Belladrum Festival (Main stage), Beauly near Inverness
August 7th – Gig in the Car Park, Leslie in Fife
August 20th – B-Fest, Wick
August 27th – Wizard Festival (Second stage), Aberdeen-Shire
More info on the band can be found at www.wearealloutsiders.co.uk
