The Band From Rockall
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The Band From Rockall
The Band from Rockall is a Gaelic music band from the Scottish Hebrides, consisting of songwriters Calum and Rory Macdonald. History The duo's name comes from Rockall, a remote rocky uninhabited islet in the North Atlantic Ocean, lying 300 miles west of the Scottish mainland. This was chosen by the Macdonald brothers as a point halfway between their native North Uist and the United States, representing both the Gaelic tradition and the rock and roll influence on their music. The Band from Rockall served as a side project during break in the schedule of brothers' full time band Runrig Runrig were a Scottish Celtic rock band formed on the Isle of Skye in 1973. From its inception, the band's line-up included songwriters Rory Macdonald and Calum Macdonald. The line-up during most of the 1980s and 1990s (the band's most succe .... They released the album ''The Band from Rockall: The Solo Project from Calum and Rory Macdonald'' in 2012, which reached no. 13 on the Danish a ...
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Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. It also contains more than 790 islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. Most of the population, including the capital Edinburgh, is concentrated in the Central Belt—the plain between the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands—in the Scottish Lowlands. Scotland is divided into 32 administrative subdivisions or local authorities, known as council areas. Glasgow City is the largest council area in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. Limited self-governing power, covering matters such as education, social services and roads and transportation, is devolved from the Scott ...
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Rock Music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States and United Kingdom.W. E. Studwell and D. F. Lonergan, ''The Classic Rock and Roll Reader: Rock Music from its Beginnings to the mid-1970s'' (Abingdon: Routledge, 1999), p.xi It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the blues and rhythm and blues genres of African-American music and from country music. Rock also drew strongly from a number of other genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical, and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock has centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a time signature using a verse–chorus form, ...
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Folk Music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that. Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk rev ...
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Gaelic Music
Gaelic music ( ga, Ceol Gaelach, gd, Ceòl Gàidhealach) is an umbrella term for any music written in the Gaelic languages of Irish and Scottish Gaelic. To differentiate between the two, the Irish language is typically just referred to as "Irish", or sometimes as "Gaeilge" (pronounced "gehl-guh"); Scottish Gaelic is referred to as "Gàdhealach" (commonly pronounced as "GAH-lick"). Gaelic music is also classified under "Celtic music". Gaelic music is distinguished from Anglophone musical forms in a number of ways. For example, longer narratives such as murder ballads, and songs chronicling the many woes of the singer's life (very common in England and lowland Scotland, and later, America), were seldom seen in the Gaeldom. Themes frequently found in Gaelic music include the great beauty and spiritual qualities of nature ("Chi Mi Na Mòrbheanna," "An Ataireachd Ard"), and laments for lost loved ones ("Fear a' Bhàta," "Ailein Duinn," "Griogal Cridhe"). These songs are nearly alwa ...
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Runrig
Runrig were a Scottish Celtic rock band formed on the Isle of Skye in 1973. From its inception, the band's line-up included songwriters Rory Macdonald and Calum Macdonald. The line-up during most of the 1980s and 1990s (the band's most successful period) also included Donnie Munro, Malcolm Jones, Iain Bayne, and Pete Wishart. Munro left the band in 1997 to pursue a career in politics and was replaced by Bruce Guthro. Wishart left in 2001 and was replaced by Brian Hurren. The band released fourteen studio albums, with a number of their songs sung in Scottish Gaelic. Initially formed as a three-piece dance band known as 'The Run Rig Dance Band', the band played several low key events, and has previously cited a ceilidh at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow as their first concert. Runrig's music is often described as a blend of folk and rock music, with the band's lyrics often focusing upon locations, history, politics, and people that are unique to Scotland. Songs also make references to ...
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Calum MacDonald (musician)
Calum MacDonald (Scottish Gaelic: Calum Dòmhnallach /kalˠəm dɔ̃ːnəlˠəx/; born 12 November 1953) is a musician who was a founder member of, and percussionist in, the Scottish Celtic rock band Runrig, as well as their primary songwriter with his older brother, Rory MacDonald from 1973 to 2018. Generally, Rory wrote the melodies, and Calum the lyrics. Early life His brother Rory was born in Dornoch, Sutherland. His father, Donald John MacDonald of North Uist, was a World War II veteran. The family moved to North Uist, when Rory was about four years old. Calum MacDonald himself was born in Lochmaddy, North Uist. When the time came for Rory to attend High School, which at the time was situated in Portree, on the Isle of Skye, the whole family moved en masse. It was in Skye that the brothers formed Runrig along with Blair Douglas and subsequently Donnie Munro. MacDonald attended Jordanhill College and worked as a P.E. teacher until Runrig went 'professional'. Later lif ...
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Hebrides
The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation (dating back to the Mesolithic period), and the culture of the inhabitants has been successively influenced by the cultures of Celtic-speaking, Norse-speaking, and English-speaking peoples. This diversity is reflected in the various names given to the islands, which are derived from the different languages that have been spoken there at various points in their history. The Hebrides are where much of Scottish Gaelic literature and Gaelic music has historically originated. Today, the economy of the islands is dependent on crofting, fishing, tourism, the oil industry, and renewable energy. The Hebrides have less biodiversity than mainland Scotland, but a significant number of seals an ...
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Rockall
Rockall () is an uninhabitable granite islet situated in the North Atlantic Ocean. The United Kingdom claims that Rockall lies within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and is part of its territory, but this claim is not recognised by Ireland. It and the nearby skerries of Hasselwood Rock and Helen's Reef are the only emergent parts of the Rockall Plateau. The rock was formed by magmatism as part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province during the Paleogene. Rockall's approximate distances from the closest islands in each direction are as follows: It is west of Soay, Scotland; northwest of Tory Island, Ireland; and south of Iceland. The nearest permanently inhabited place is North Uist, an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, to the east. The United Kingdom claimed Rockall in 1955 and incorporated it as a part of Scotland in 1972. The UK does not make a claim to extended EEZ based on Rockall, as it has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS ...
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Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe and Asia from the "New World" of the Americas in the European perception of the World. The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and North and South America to the west. As one component of the interconnected World Ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south (other definitions describe the Atlantic as extending southward to Antarctica). The Atlantic Ocean is divided in two parts, by the Equatorial Counter Current, with the North(ern) Atlantic Ocean and the South(ern) Atlantic Ocean split at about 8°N. Scientific explorations of the A ...
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North Uist
North Uist ( gd, Uibhist a Tuath; sco, North Uise) is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Etymology In Donald Munro's ''A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland Called Hybrides'' of 1549, North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist are described as one island of ''Ywst'' (Uist). Starting in the south of this 'island', he described the division between South Uist and Benbecula where "the end heirof the sea enters, and cuts the countrey be ebbing and flowing through it". Further north of Benbecula he described North Uist as "this countrey is called Kenehnache of Ywst, that is in Englishe, the north head of Ywst".''A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland Called Hybrides''; Monro, Donald, 1549 Some have taken the etymology of Uist from Old Norse, meaning "west", much like Westray in Orkney. Another speculated derivation of Uist from Old Norse is ', derived from ' meaning "an abode, dwelling, domicile". A Gaelic etymology is also possible, with ' meanin ...
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Rock And Roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm and blues, boogie woogie, gospel music, gospel, as well as country music. While rock and roll's formative elements can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s,Peterson, Richard A. ''Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity'' (1999), p. 9, . the genre did not acquire its name until 1954. According to journalist Greg Kot, "rock and roll" refers to a style of popular music originating in the United States in the 1950s. By the mid-1960s, rock and roll had developed into "the more encompassing international style known as rock music, though the latter also continued to be known in many circles as rock and roll."Kot, Greg"Rock and roll", in the ''Encyclopædia Bri ...
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