Tiree’s Skerryvore is Argyll’s top young entrepreneur

The Tiree band, Skerryvore,  has been named ‘Argyll’s top young entrepreneur’ at the regional finals of the 2009 Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT) Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

Presenting the band  with the £1,000 prize, the PSYBT Regional Manager said they had been selected for demonstrating ambition and for taking good ideas and transforming them into a successful, thriving business’.

They now go on to compete for the Scottish National title which will be held in Glasgow on 18th November.

Skerryvore are a 6 piece, all-male traditional band, dubbed the ‘boy band’ of traditional Scottish music. Their roots are in the west coast of Scotland and in particular on the tiny Island of Tiree. It was from a base on this island that the legendary – and reckoned to be the most beautiful – lighthouse of Skerryvore, from which the band takes its name, was built by the equally legendary Alan Stevenson from 1838-1844.

Skerryvore are:

• Daniel Gillespie – accordions
• Martin Gillespie – Highland pipes & accordion
• Alec Dalglish – acoustic & electric guitars, vocals
• Fraser West – percussion, drums
• Barry Caulfield – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Craig Espie – fiddle.

Over the past 3 years, Skerryvore’s transforming, explosive sound has seen them touring and performing at festivals world-wide including Celtic Connections, Hebridean Celtic Festival, MOK Festival, MagiaCeltica & Celtica Festivals in Italy and the Netherlands.

Throughout their travels they have appeared alongside the likes of the Peatbog Fairies, Red Hot Chilli Pipers, Lingalad, Sensational Alex Harvey Band – and also performing with Donnie Munro (formally Runrig) and Wolfstone at the Rock Celtic festival held at Glamis Castle in September this year.

Skerryvore make their debut in the USA in 2008 by accompanying Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond for performances at the Ryder Cup in Louisville, Kentucky, before blasting their sound to crowds in Chicago.

The Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT) is a charity that helps young people, aged eighteen to twenty five years old, start up and continue in business, whoever they are and wherever they come from.

With eighteen offices throughout Scotland, its regional managers offer assistance to help young people to access the support, advice, training and funding that PSYBT and its partner organisations provide. PSYBT offers loans of up to £5,000 and grants of up to £1,000 to young people planning to start up in business.

With particular concern for the disadvantaged it also offers this funding to any young person aged eighteen to thirty who has, or faces, particular challenges in their lives. More details at this website.

There must be something invigorating in the air of Tiree. Back around 2003, fellow Tiree band, Skipinnish, won the Shell young entrepreneur competition for Scotland and went on to represent Scotland in the national finals. Budding entrepreneurs are obviously advised to head west into the Atlantic to the sunshine isle, there to breathe in deeply.

Mark Morpurgo, Folk and Traditional Music Editor

For daily news on activities on Tiree, see Gordon Scott’s Isle of Tiree Diary.