Husband and wife Donald Shaw and Karen Matheson from Taynuilt formed the band as teenagers at Oban High School, and since then Capercaillie has brought Celtic music to the world stage, in their distinctive style fusing traditional Gaelic airs with contemporary instruments.
‘Karen and I spent the first 22 years of our life here,’ Donald told the Oban Times. ‘The very first place Capercaillie played was in St Columba’s Cathedral Hall in 1983. It was a recording session, organised by BBC Radio Highland: the producer heard us playing in a pub at the Mull Music Festival.’
Over three decades the nine-strong band, named after Scotland’s native wood grouse, has achieved massive global success selling more than a million albums worldwide, including three silver and one gold album in the UK, the first Gaelic Top 40 single, and scoring the Hollywood blockbuster Rob Roy.