Gary Innes

Gary Innes (born 13 December 1980) is a Scottish musician, a former Shinty player, Composer and a broadcaster from Spean Bridge, Lochaber, Scotland.

For the English footballer, see Gary Innes (footballer).

Gary Innes with Mànran in Quimper, Cornouaille Festival (Brittany, France).

His main instrument is the piano accordion and Innes was a part-time fire-fighter in the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service in Spean Bridge from 1999 - 2015 and a First Responder from 2007 - 2016.

On 8th April 2017, Innes married Hannah Matheson, niece of Karen Matheson of Capercaillie, in a marquee on the Taynuilt shinty field. They now have one daughter called Gracie.

Music

Innes has had a professional career playing the accordion since 2003.

In 2005 he recorded his debut solo album How's the Craic? on the Skipinnish record label.

Outside of his own solo project and band, Innes is a founding member of the multi award-winning Scottish folk-rock band, Mànran.

Innes plays a mixture of festivals, concerts and functions from royalty, grand theatre's, to local village halls with his fellow highland musicians. His distinctive purple accordion and himself have travelled and performed in quite literally the four corners of the globe.

He joined Runrig on stage at their concert Beat the Drum in Drumnadrochit on 18 August 2007 where he played to an audience of 17,500[1] and has continued to join the band at many of their open air shows with 'clash of the ash This included joining Runrig for their farewell concerts at Stirling Castle on 17th and 18th August 2018 to over 50,000 people.

In 2010, Innes formed Mànran who hoped to become the first band since Runrig to enter a Scottish Gaelic song into the UK Top 40 when they released their first single, 'Latha Math' on 17 January 2011. With a midweek high of no. 29 it fell short finishing the week in 61st place, however they managed no. 1 in the UK singer/songwriter charts, no. 6 in the Scottish Charts, and no. 6 in the Radio 1 Indie Charts.[2]

Innes alongside his bandmates Mànran and Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus created the official 2012 STV Appeal charity single "Take You There" and performed it live on the show which raised two million pounds for under privileged children in Scotland.[3]

Innes was musical director of the BBC ALBA Hogmanay show in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.

In 2015 Innes created Scotland's first collaborative charity folk single with a piece of music he composed called 'Our Heroes' This was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of WW1 Battle of Festubert by recording the very bagpipes that 'Lance Corporal Donald Patterson' fell playing on 18 May 1915, 100 years to the very day, with all proceeds being donated to Scotland's veteran charity Erskine

In 2017 Innes was crowned 'Instrumentalist of the Year' at the annual MG ALBA Hands up for Trad, music awards.

Shinty

Innes started playing shinty at a young age, playing for Kilmonivaig Primary and then local side Lochaber. When their youth team folded, he moved to Fort William Shinty Club, where he developed into one of the leading players of the 2000s. He was typically to be found playing at wing centre and wing forward in his formative years.

He was captain and man of the match for their famous victory in the 2005 Camanachd Cup final over local rivals Kilmallie and the club's historic league championship in 2006.

He has also appeared fourteen times in the Composite Rules Shinty/Hurling International for Scotland. For the 2009/10 Shinty/Hurling International, Innes was named 'captain' of the Scotland team. Ireland's All Star Tommy Walsh broke Innes' nose in the opening minutes of the 2010 International at Croke Park however Innes continued and scored 7 points for Scotland eventually beating the Irish 22-21.

He has reached iconic status in the game of shinty, an image of him playing the sport being used by Runrig on the cover of their 2007 album, Everything You See.

Innes wore his No9 Scotland captains jersey on stage during Runrig's final two concerts at Stirling Castle in 2018 and then auctioned off the signed strip to raise money for youth development within the sport. The shirt sold for £4591.

In 2010 Innes was named Marine Harvest and National 'Player of the Year' and for his shinty and musical talent was invited to the Queen's garden party in Holyrood.

Transworld Sport filmed a programme on Innes which was broadcast in 2010.

Innes double career as a high-profile shinty player and musician has resulted in a lot of attention. In March 2009 Innes claimed that he knew a rival team had deliberately targeted him for injury due to his musical prowess.[4]

On 15 May 2010 in a game against Premier Division strugglers GMA, Innes scored 9 goals in a 14-0 victory. Innes claimed he was denied a record 10 by the referee didn’t notice the ball returning out of the goal after hitting the back stanchion. This would have given him the record for most goals scored in one single game.[5]

On 18 September 2010, Innes scored 2 out of 3 Fort's goals against Kingussie in the 103rd Camanachd Cup final at Bught Park in Inverness. The win against Kingussie put the team's name on the trophy for the 4th year running.[6] Innes' performance also claimed the Albert Smith Medal for the second time, having won it in 2005.[7]

Innes retired on a high at the end of the 2014 season, restoring Fort William to the Premier Division and earning his final cap for Scotland.[8] This was due to increased musical commitments.

On 30 March 2019, Innes was named by the Camanachd Association as their first ever ambassador of The Camanachd Cup.

Broadcasting

Innes' high profile has given him many opportunities to work with the media within music and sport.

From the start of the 2010 season, Innes wrote a weekly blog for bbc.co.uk and is often involved in summarising for the BBC in front of camera or from the commentary box, unless he himself is playing.[9]

In 2014 BBC ALBA filmed Innes and his band mates in Mànran for a 1 hour documentary as the band toured across Australia, America and the UK.

On 24 September 2016 Innes took over from Robbie Shepherd as presenter of Take the Floor.[10]

Innes alongside BBC Radio Scotland presenter Brian Burnett co-hosted BBC Radio Scotland 40th anniversary celebrations for radio and television from the Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom on 4 November 2018.

On April 5th 2020 Innes started presenting a new Sunday show called Take the Floor - Your Requests on BBC Radio Scotland which the station changed the name of on Nov 22nd 2020 to Your Requests with Gary Innes

Discography
  • How's the Craic? (2005)
  • Era (2017)
  • Imminent (2019)

With Box Club

  • Box Club (2008)

With Ewan Robertson

  • Shouts (2009)

With Mànran

  • Latha Math (2011)
  • Mànran (2011)
  • The Test (2013)
  • An Dà Là - The Two Days (2017)
  • When You Go (2018)

References
  1. "Daily Record & Sunday Mail - Scottish News, Sport, Politics and Celeb gossip".
  2. "BBC News - Shinty captain aims to be in charts 'alongside Rihanna'" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  3. English, Paul (27 August 2012). "Michelle McManus admits writer's block nearly ended her hopes of charity single for STV Appeal".
  4. "BBC SPORT - Other sport... - Shinty star shrugs off threats".
  5. "Fort William's Innes nets nine, claims ten".
  6. "BBC Sport - Fort William 3-2 Kingussie".
  7. "Shinty: Late Innes winner caps thrilling final triumph for Fort William".
  8. "Gary Innes: Fort William star bids farewell to shinty". 12 November 2014 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  9. "BBC Sport - Innes limbers up for start of shinty season".
  10. "Broadcaster Robbie Shepherd leaving Take the Floor after 35 years".
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