'Tribal' band gets cold shoulder

Clan Celtica founding member Frankie Mac (right) with his band.

Highland games organisers reject group’s ‘authentic’ Scottish music although they’re in demand in Australia.

Auckland-based Scottish "tribal" musicians hoping to drum in an independent homeland tomorrow claim highland games organisers are shunning them for being too rabble-rousing.

"We come across as too raw, mongrel-like, which we believe is very authentic," said Clan Celtica's founding drummer Frankie Mac.

"We represent what Scottish people actually looked like before the rebellion of Bonny Prince Charlie in 1745."

Watch: Former PM argues against Scottish independence

Mr Mac said that although Australia's large Scottish community had begun booking the group of five drummers and a piper for events next year, it had received the cold shoulder from organisers of highland games in Auckland in November and at Waipu on New Year's Day.

He said those events were dedicated to a military band culture that effectively "anglicised" pipes and drums after Scots tartan and language was banned for about 30 years in retribution for the rebellion.

That retribution included hanging Bonny Prince Charlie's piper for playing "an instrument of war".

"They were reinstated under military regiments on the British Army's terms, so the form of music we did up to that point died out - that music had been going for a thousand years."

Mr Mac said he had nothing against military style pipe bands, even to the extent of having drummed for some, "but I also like some other forms of English music as well."

He had been told by the Auckland Highland Games Association that its committee believed Clan Celtica - which he insisted was the Southern Hemisphere's only Scottish tribal band - was "inappropriate" and did not fit the image of Scottish culture it wanted to celebrate and preserve.

Association secretary David Harvey confirmed he had relayed that advice.

"It's not that the committee doesn't want the group there - it's a matter of how it might fit in with what's been done in the past," he said.

Waipu Caledonian Society chief Colonel (retired) Fraser Sim said it would have been "very nice" to have the band on the programme for January's games, but the bill was full. "We wouldn't be able to fit them in. In the future, maybe, we'll see how it goes."

Asked whether he thought the band represented an authentic aspect of Scottish culture, he said: "Well certainly, it's different, it's unusual."

Scottish independence referendum

What is it: A referendum to decide if Scotland should become a separate country for the first time since 1707.
Who can vote: Adult residents of Scotland of any nationality.
Who can't vote: Scots living overseas.
When the polls open: 7pm tonight (NZ time) until 10am tomorrow.
When the result is expected: About 7 tomorrow night.