Here Come The Scots! Three-time winners of Scotland’s “Live Act of the Year” award, Skerryvore, will embark on an Australian tour in February and March 2025, presented by Port Fairy Folk Festival. In addition to their eagerly anticipated performances at the Port Fairy Folk Festival, Skerryvore will bring their high-energy live show to fans across Australia, making this tour a must-see event. This exclusive partnership with Port Fairy Folk Festival marks a unique opportunity for audiences to experience Skerryvore in both festival and standalone concert settings.
Skerryvore are one of their country’s leading forces in a thriving live music scene, having reinvented and reignited Scottish roots music with a modern alt-pop flavour that has connected with an ever-expanding multicultural global audience. They’re like no-one else. Epic of melody, intimate of feeling and plugged into the roots of Scotland but blasting out to the world.
At the forefront of a movement that has reinvented and reignited a traditional Scottish scene for a modern, multicultural audience, the band have brought their high energy performances to audiences across the globe. From their early days in Scottish West Coast halls and bars, to festival crowds in the USA, Canada, Australia and throughout the UK and Europe, Skerryvore’s wide range of influences and talent produce a musically expansive, immersive yet intimate set that excites and captivates audiences.
With a mix of bagpipes, fiddles, accordions, and whistles, alongside guitar and vocals, underpinned by driving bass, drums and keys, Skerryvore represent the best in contemporary Scottish traditional music. Their now seven studio albums demonstrate the wide range of influences the individual musicians bring to the mix – a unique fusion of folk, trad, pop and rock.
Ahead of their Australian tour, Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips caught up with Scottish band Skerryvore’s Martin Gillespie, who despite accent barriers and technical gremlins, managed to have a fine chat about the band and the upcoming tour.
MORE ABOUT SKERRYVORE AND THEIR LATEST ALBUM ‘TEMPUS’
Three singles from the latest album ‘Tempus’, released in April 2023, all featured on the BBC Radio 2 new music playlist, and the album went to Number 1 in both the Official Scottish Album and UK Folk Albums charts, and entered the Top 40 in the Official UK Charts. Skerryvore took their Tempus Tour to audiences across the UK, Europe and USA, with their unique fusion appealing to a wider mix of age groups and tastes.
Skerryvore consists of eight musicians, each of which are either classically trained or have mastered their skills within the world of live trad music: founders Daniel Gillespie (accordion), his brother Martin (bagpipes), Alec Dalglish (vocals, guitar) and Fraser West (drums), along with Scott Wood (bagpipes, whistles), Craig Espie (nicknamed The Angry Fiddler), Jodie Bremaneson (bass) and Alan Scobie (piano, keys). Almost everything they’ve achieved to date – six studio albums, a live record and a ‘best of’ collection celebrating their first decade together – has been done entirely independently. But ‘Tempus’ also represents a new beginning as their first album under a new deal with Cooking Vinyl.
SKERRYVORE TOUR DATES:
NEW SOUTH WALES
Wednesday, February 26
Crowbar, 345 Parramatta Road, Leichhardt
7.30pm
$55+bf
Tickets through Oztix
Thursday, February 27
Dicey Riley’s, 329-333 Riley St, Wollongong
7.30pm
$55+bf
Tickets through Moshtix
Friday, Feb 28-Sunday, Mar 2
Cobargo Folk Festival
https://cobargofolkfestival.com/cobargo-folk-festival-2025/
VICTORIA
Thursday, March 6
Burrinja Cultural Centre, Wurundjeri Country, 351 Glenfern Rd, Upwey
7.30pm
$55+bf
Tickets via Burrinja Box Office
Friday, March 7
Birregurra Hall, 42-44 Main Street, Birregurra
7pm
$55+bf
Tickets via TryBooking
Sat, Mar 8-Mon, Mar 10
Port Fairy Folk Festival
https://portfairyfolkfestival.com/
Friday, March 14
Brunswick Ballroom, 314 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
8.00pm
$55+bf
Tickets via Moshtix
Saturday, March 15
Archies Creek Hotel, 89-91 Archies Creek Road, Archies Creek
2.30pm
$55+bf
Tickets via TryBooking
Sunday, March 16
Theatre Royal, 30 Hargraves St, Castlemaine
7PM
$55+bf
Tickets exclusively via Oztix (Ph 1300 762 545)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Wednesday, March 12
Lion Arts Factory, 68 North Terrace, Adelaide
7.30pm
$50+bf
Tickets via Moshtix