The Rogues, with support from The Johnny Cash Duo and Ruairidh Maclean, at Ironworks, Inverness.
The evening got off to a great start with a 50-minute set from a young man from Ullapool by the name of Ruairidh Maclean.
Ruairidh blew the audience away with his varied tunes on the accordion a mix of Scottish, Irish and modern. He finished the set with Fleetwood Mac’s hit ‘The Chain.’ Ruairidh accompanied this with vocals. What an amazing performance from this lad age 24.
The Johnny Cash Duo are Michelle, originally from Whitby, and Calum who both live in Ullapool and perform regularly locally and further afield. They gave their audience a great show with covers of ‘I Got stripes’, ‘Folsom Prison’, ‘Ring of Fire’, ‘A Boy Named Sue’, ‘Jackson’ and many more. Calum definitely has the Johnny Cash voice and Michelle is a lovely June Carter.
The headliners for the evening, the Ullapool based band The Rogues, certainly did a good job of getting the audience going. They consist of Calum Macrae (Johnny Cash) on Bass, David Heaney on Guitar, Nick Clooney on Vocals, Norman Maclean on Drums and Ruairidh Maclean on accordion. The guys have been together for about six years and never disappoint an audience. Truly talented musicians.
They put on a fantastic show and got the crowd dancing to everyone’s favourites, ‘Dirty Old Town’, ‘Galway Girl’, ‘Fisherman’s Blues’, ‘Whisky in the Jar’ and plenty other enjoyable numbers.
Nick sounds remarkably like Shane MacGowan and fortunately for him there is no resemblance in looks.
What more can I say Ullapool has talent!
