Scottish live powerhouse return for their biggest Australian tour yet
NEW ALBUM BEAUTIFUL MISTAKES OUT NOVEMBER 6 VIA COOKING VINYL
TICKETS ON SALE 10AM, SEPTEMBER 30
There are bands you listen to, and there are bands you really need to see. Scotland’s Skerryvore fall emphatically into the second camp.
After an extraordinary Australian reception in 2025 – multiple sold-out shows, packed festival tents and audiences dancing from the opening bars – the acclaimed Scottish eight-piece will return in February and March 2027 for its biggest Australian tour yet, presented by RoadTales. And this time they’re bringing a new album with them.
The Beautiful Mistakes Album Tour will take Skerryvore from Bunbury to Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, Adelaide to Canberra, Melbourne to Sydney and plenty of places in between, alongside a return to Port Fairy Folk Festival for its 50th anniversary and an appearance at Blue Mountains Music Festival.
If Australia fell hard for Skerryvore last time around, the rest of the world has been doing much the same.
In January, the band celebrated more than 20 years together with its biggest indoor headline show to date, taking over Glasgow’s 4,500-capacity Emirates Arena as part of Celtic Connections. BroadwayWorld described a band bursting onto the stage with energy that never let up across the 90-minute set, with mass singalongs, exceptional musicianship and a finale that filled the stage with pipers and drummers.
It’s the Skerryvore effect – and Australian audiences already know it well.
For the uninitiated, trying to describe a Skerryvore show on paper only gets you so far.
Bagpipes, fiddles, accordion and whistles collide with electric guitars, bass and drums. Huge, ridiculously catchy choruses give way to instrumental passages that show just how formidable these musicians are. Traditional Scottish music sits alongside contemporary pop and rock without either feeling grafted onto the other.
But what really sets Skerryvore apart is what happens in the room.
People dance. They sing. The band and audience feed off each other until a concert starts feeling more like a celebration.
When Skerryvore returned to Port Fairy Folk Festival in 2025, they packed the festival’s legendary Shebeen – twice – and turned it into precisely that. Their reception across the festival was so overwhelming that Port Fairy subsequently described Skerryvore as “one of our most requested acts” and invited them back for the festival’s 50th anniversary in 2027.
The response followed them around the country, with numerous shows selling out. Reviewing a packed Brunswick Ballroom in Melbourne, Australian Musician described an audience dancing from the opening number and a band moving effortlessly between rock power, traditional instrumentation, virtuoso playing and irresistible singalongs.
And Skerryvore haven’t stopped moving.
They continue to build a formidable following in North America, returning repeatedly to the US and Canada and taking the same combination of musicianship, melody and joyful live energy to audiences thousands of kilometres from their Scottish island roots.
It’s a connection they’ve built the old-fashioned way: great songs, relentless touring and a live show that sends people home wanting to see them again.
There’s another reason Australia holds a special place in the Skerryvore story.
Their otherwise idyllic 2025 tour came to a decidedly sour end when, after their final Melbourne performance, the band’s vehicle was broken into and instruments and equipment were stolen – including Scott Wood’s irreplaceable, century-old bagpipes.
What happened next became an unexpected final chapter to the tour.
News of the theft spread across Melbourne radio, television and newspapers as musicians, fans and members of the public rallied to help. People kept watch online, checked pawn shops and shared the band’s appeal. Then a Melbourne tradie named Tony, who had heard Wood talking about the theft on 3AW, spotted the distinctive pipes dumped in a city alleyway and knew exactly what he’d found.
The century-old bagpipes were returned.
For a band already overwhelmed by the reception they’d received in Australia, the response left a lasting impression. Skerryvore said at the time that the extraordinary support from the people of Melbourne and beyond had helped “restore faith in humanity”.
So perhaps it’s little wonder they’re coming back. And they’re returning at the beginning of a new chapter.
Skerryvore’s new album, Beautiful Mistakes, will be released on November 6 through Cooking Vinyl, continuing the evolution of a band whose sound remains unmistakably rooted in Scottish tradition while reaching increasingly into contemporary pop and rock.
Produced by Jamie Squire, known for his extensive work with The 1975, Beautiful Mistakes retains the pipes, fiddles, whistles and accordion at the heart of Skerryvore while putting melody and songcraft firmly front and centre.
The album’s next single, While I’m Breathing featuring Tamzene, arrives October 16. Instantly melodic and uplifting, the track pairs the beautifully matched vocals of Skerryvore’s Alec Dalglish and Tamzene with Celtic instrumentation and a huge contemporary pop-rock production.
It follows first single Fly and offers another taste of an album exploring love, heartbreak, grief and healing while retaining the soaring melodies and infectious energy that have become Skerryvore trademarks.
Four-time winners of Scotland’s Live Act of the Year award, Skerryvore have spent more than two decades building an international audience from their beginnings on the Scottish island of Tiree. Their previous studio album, Tempus, reached No.1 on both the Official Scottish Album Chart and Official Folk Album Chart and became the band’s first UK Top 40 album.
The 2027 Australian tour significantly expands on their previous visit, taking Skerryvore across six states and territories, into new markets and larger venues while returning to the communities that embraced them in 2025.
One date will be an especially big celebration. At Bellarine Estate Winery on March 6, Skerryvore will be joined by Claymore, one of Australia’s most established and dynamic Celtic acts, renowned for high-energy performances that bring together traditional Scottish and Celtic influences with contemporary instrumentation and a distinctly Australian character.
Also joining the Bellarine line-up are Tim Scanlan & Mana Okubo, whose inventive combination of guitar, fiddle, vocals and Celtic-influenced music adds another distinctive flavour to a formidable bill.
For existing Skerryvore fans, it’s the return they’ve been asking for.
For everyone else, consider this fair warning: wear comfortable shoes.
SKERRYVORE – BEAUTIFUL MISTAKES AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2027
Thursday 25 February
Prince of Wales Hotel, Bunbury WA
https://princehotel.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/13b6117f-c31d-4142-b15c-a09f0eada478
Friday 26 February
Freo Social, Fremantle WA
https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/skerryvore-scotland-beautiful-mistakes-album-tour/200966?skin=freosocial
Saturday 27 February
Kalamunda Performing Arts Centre, Kalamunda WA
https://kalamundapac.com.au/events/skerryvore/
Sunday 28 February
UniBar Adelaide, Adelaide SA
https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/skerryvore-beautiful-mistakes-album-tour-all-ages-/200740
Thursday 4 March
Prince Bandroom, St Kilda VIC
https://tickets.avclive.com.au/outlet/event/ee35c382-f917-404b-96fb-98ea0773355e
Friday 5 March
Archies Creek Hotel, Archies Creek VIC
https://www.trybooking.com/au/event/1658010
Saturday 6 March
Bellarine Estate Winery, Bellarine VIC
SKERRYVORE • CLAYMORE • TIM SCANLAN & MANA OKUBO
https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/19a9d7e3-9a7a-4d97-a22e-9dc4cdc3a4be
Sunday 7 & Monday 8 March
Port Fairy Folk Festival, Port Fairy VIC
https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/port-fairy-folk-festival-2027/193890
Wednesday 10 March
Burrinja Cultural Centre, Upwey VIC
https://boxoffice.burrinja.org.au/tiny/Skerryvore
Friday 12 March
The Baso, Canberra ACT
https://thebaso.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/f6693a7f-6a6b-4137-8125-7825e2aeec64
Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 March
Blue Mountains Music Festival, Katoomba NSW
https://events.humanitix.com/blue-mountains-music-festival-2027/tickets
Sunday 14 March
Avoca Beach Theatre, Avoca Beach NSW
https://events.humanitix.com/skerryvore
Wednesday 17 March
Crowbar Brisbane, Brisbane QLD
https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/d5c24505-324f-44df-a556-cb948052798e
Thursday 18 March
Byron Theatre, Byron Bay NSW
https://byron.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/169756
Friday 19 March
Miami Marketta, Gold Coast QLD
https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/9622ffb6-8fb9-4d7b-8657-2b5151897fd2
Saturday 20 March
Norton Music Factory, Sunshine Coast QLD
https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/12094821-6a2b-4cdb-a661-0578a3659391
Sunday 21 March
Crowbar Sydney, Sydney NSW
https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/791b9f0b-2f08-448b-95b5-0b065a4a08ca
TICKETS ON SALE 10AM, WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30
BEAUTIFUL MISTAKES Released November 6, 2026 via Cooking Vinyl
Australian fans can pre-order Beautiful Mistakes now through JB Hi-Fi: https://www.jbhifi.com.au/collections/skerryvore-beautiful-mistakes
New single While I’m Breathing feat. Tamzene – October 16
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SKERRYVORE ARE:
Alec Dalglish (lead vocals and guitar)
Daniel Gillespie (accordion)
Martin Gillespie (bagpipes)
Fraser West (drums)
Craig Espie (fiddle)
Scott Wood (bagpipes/whistles)
Jodie Bremaneson (bass)
Alan Scobie (keyboards)
LET’S FLY MUSIC VIDEO – FROM FORTHCOMING ALBUM, BEAUTIFUL MISTAKES
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