Garry Finlayson (banjo, banjax)
Originally from Orkney, Garry began his musical career on a battle-scarred acoustic guitar aged around 13 (Garry, not the guitar), teaching himself to play from old blues records.
On moving to Edinburgh in the late 70s, he discovered the legendary sessions then going strong in Sandy Bell's bar, where a surfeit of guitarists prompted the switch to the banjo. His often psychedelic improvisations remain rooted in that jam-session dynamic, though developed through his involvement not only with Swamptrash, but fellow folk futurists Eat The Seats.
The banjax, Garry's uniquely customised electric banjo, also began to evolve during this time, spurred by the urge to boost the instrument's available warp factor, an ambition brought to fresh heights of fruition in the Shooglenifty sound. For the techno-heads out there; Garry uses an active EMG pickup which goes through a Rocktron Taboo processor.
Quee Macarthur (bass)
Shooglenifty’s bass player, Quee Macarthur is from the town of Forres on the Moray coast and is living proof that things can grow very large and with magical properties near the river Findhorn. He was an early member of Mouth Music alongside James, with whom he has also played in Rhythm Chillun, Sola, and Cappercaillie. At the present he also plays with some very talented musicians in a band called Sunhoney, check them out via our links page.
Not only a solid and inventive bass player, Quee is also a fine percussionist and composer who has worked extensively with dance and theatre companies. To find out more about this side of his work stick his name in any search engine, there is only one Quee Macarthur, though the world would be a better place with more of them!
Luke Plumb (mandolin, tenor banjo)
Luke is a brilliant young musician from Hobart, Tasmania. He plays anything that isn’t nailed down but his instruments of choice (for the moment) are mandolins by Peter Daffy and Steve Gilchrist and a mongrel tenor banjo (with a neck by Daffy). For more on Peter Daffy, see our links page. The band were lucky enough to find Luke in Tasmania through a chance meeting between him and their former bass player Conrad. A few weeks later Luke was waiting at the airport as Shooglenifty flew in to Devonport and surprised them all by not only joining the band on stage that night but, in fact, playing the whole gig. He’d got ahold of a couple of their albums and learned the lot! So, naturally, he’s been with the band since. Not only has he proved to be a first class player and a great guy, he is also a very fine tunesmith - his melodies on the new album, , deserve close listening - a natural born shoogle! He plays endlessly in the Edinburgh session circuit and has just finished a tour of Australia with Edinburgh based fiddle maestro Simon Bradley. They have also recorded an album together with Luke playing mainly the bouzouki, well worth looking out for.
Angus R Grant (fiddle)
From Fort William to Sydney Opera House via Christie's bar in Edinburgh, Shooglenifty's hirsute and obliquely-spoken fiddler has taken his native West Highland traditions onto a truly international stage, meanwhile hurling them headlong towards the 21st century.
Taught since early childhood by his father, the renowned left-handed Lochaber maestro for whom he was named, Angus Jr was lured south in the late 80s to join Swamptrash, Edinburgh's legendary psycho-bluegrass quintet out of which Shooglenifty was spawned, via a series of pub sessions in the aforementioned Christie's.
Equally at home playing melodious traditional reels or wreaking merry distortion hell, Angus is also noted for his off-the-shoulder wardrobe.
Malcolm Crosbie (acoustic and electric guitars)
Traditionally it's the bass player, but in the Shoogles' case it's the guitarist who's the quiet man of the band - but then you know what they say about the quiet ones.
Edinburgh born and bred, Malcolm paid his dues in honourable alt-rock obscurity (bar a single mention in the NME), playing electric guitar with such conjurable names as Z and the Arabs and the Nap Daleks, his early influences ranging from Budgie to Atomic Rooster, Steel Pulse to Pink Floyd.
A chance encounter with a pair of hillbilly-impersonating buskers - or so he thought - on the Royal Mile saw him swiftly swept up into Swamptrash's hoedown frenzy, re-learning how to play the acoustic, meanwhile forging the edgy, agile, genre-spanning style that now drives those acid croft grooves.
James Mackintosh (drums, percussion, piano)
Hailing from the same Highland stamping-ground as Angus (the two first met at school in Fort William), James is widely recognised today as one of the most innovative drummers to have graced the scene in many a long year.
Yet another Swamptrash graduate, like his colleagues he honed his skills in the ever-livelier melting-pot of Edinburgh's session scene, before applying them to building and splicing the deliriously danceable grooves underpinning Shooglenifty's sound.
Those same skills have also been much in demand elsewhere, James having performed and recorded with Capercaillie, Mouth Music , Sola, James Grant, and Michael McGoldrick (among many others).
