Music
Oban Live
Mossfield Stadium, Oban
Martin Laing
four stars
THERE IS an old saw about the sun shining on the righteous … and it could well be applied to the crowds in attendance at Oban Live on Friday and Saturday.
An electrical storm which visited thunder, lightning and torrential rain over Argyll on Saturday afternoon failed to deter the faithful, who were duly rewarded with brilliant sunshine for the duration.
Thousands of music fans turned out from late afternoon for what has become a pretty serious two-day festival of mostly Celtic and folk music.
Headliners on Friday Skipinnish, promoting their new album The Seventh Wave, were ably supported by Toploader, Manran, Admiral Fallow, Trail West and Ceol An Aire.
Saturday saw Scots pop stars Hue and Cry as second top billing but top slot went to local favourites Skerryvore, whose Daniel Gillespie is managing director of the whole shebang.
The second day also saw a stirring slot from Tide Lines but perhaps the highlight was the entertaining performance of the Oban Unsigned competition winners K9 Kev and Rory O’B, a pair of Oban rappers who treated the audience to an energetic show with a hastily formed backing group of local musicians.
Gillespie was well pleased at how the whole event turned out. ‘The weather was unbelievable and the turnout was phenomenal. We had touching on 8000 people here over the two days. People came from all over the world. We had tickets purchased from St Petersburg as well as America, Canada and Ireland.
‘K9 Kev and Rory O’B were amazing and everyone was raving about them. It was great given that we made the effort to give a local act the chance to play on the big stage. Now we start planning for next year.’
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