My twenty first birthday on the Sacred isle

Traighmor was a wonderful croft which faced due south across Sandeels bay and Mull and on a clear day Jura and other isles were visible. I was working on this croft at that time with Calum Cameron. Most of the winter would see Calum and me collecting 'wreck' for the 'tattie patch' clearing iris roots out the stream and generally looking after cattle and sheep. The crofting life was a hard existence especially when you were a twenty year old aspiring musician and all you wanted to do is spend time at the Abbey with the community socialising and playing music.

One morning the old man turned and said. 'Och you know we need to get some dung out on the tattie patch before it's too wet so you go just now and do the turnips and feed the sheep then i'll meet you in the house for a coffee.

It was while having a coffee the old man explained his system. Looking up with his narrow eyes and toothless grin he told me that I could now get on with filling the dung spreader while he took a coffee.. When I'd finished loading it, then to come back into the croft house for another coffee while he went and emptied it. When he came back from the emptying, then he'd take another coffee while I went out to fill the spreader up again then I could take another coffee while he went out and continued the good work.

After loading the spreader three times I was absolutely wacked and wondered when it would be my turn to empty the spreader while the old man filled it. Unfortunately it did'nt work this way round!

That wonderful February evening the moon shone straight across the sound lighting up the bay and the sea made its familiar noises....This was the evening of my twenty first birthday and a small gathering was held at the croft. It was nothing pretentious just a few crofters and some people from the Iona community. Later I played a small concert in the Abbey. I performed some of those early songs i'd chipped away at over the months.One particular song called 'Wherever you may be' was performed recently in the 'Alone recordings' I was twenty one now and a crofter on the Isle of Iona wondering what on earth was going to happen to me in the future.

And so to Mull

By the end of that year I was married to the secretary of the Iona Community. We had spent a lot of time traversing the Western Isles looking for or own croft. During our visit to Skye i'd been accosted in Gaelic! and my Gaelic was not all that fluent so the thought of having to live in a Gaelic speaking community in a croft north of Portree was not in my mind at the time.

It was by chance that we decided to look on the neighbouring island of Mull. During our tour of the island we came upon a derelect farmhouse situated on the road between Calgary and the village of Dervaig. On inspection it looked as if the cows had made a home of it because the whole of the ground floor was caked in cow dung. The outbuildings were spacious but ramshackle and it looked fantastic.

We learned the property was up for sale and immediately set about making an offer.

Neither of had any money nor did we have a job of any kind but providence seemed to prevail and out of the thirty or so offers made for the farmhouse our meagre offer was accepted.

It was an unbelievable experience to stand on the steps of the Argyle and Bute district council offices in Tobermory to take posession of the house keys from a Mr MacNab even though there did not appear to be any discernable 'door' on hinges anywhere on the property.

Frachadil Farmhouse was void of any form of electric watersupply (which came from the Hill) heating or telephone. It had been buried in decades of dung and neglect.So over the next three years we dug the farmhouse out of the mire and renovated the property.

We shipped the majority of the fixtures and fittings and a lot of the building materials from the south of England in a rented van.

We turned the land we presently had into a huge market garden and aquired goats and cats by the dozen.

I can still remember the cats names.. Burt Purdy Scriker Greedy Puss Captain Beakie Kitcat and there must have been many more.

It was November 1977 that our phone number Dervaig 265 finally was installed..

Two problems in those days in the Isles Television and telephone lines..Frachadil could only recieve a weak 405 signal which consisted of white snow and a faint picture.

If we put a big areal out on the nearby hill and cabled it to the house our television set would recieve a faint 625 picture again showered in snow.

So our weekend out consisted of a trip to Dervaig for supper at our friends house where a colour television was available and we could watch a few good programmes.

I'd begun to write again which resulted in several new songs..eanie Blue Lonliness to me Green Green Apples and Dervaig 265 (after the new telephone number) and my mate Roddy from Calgary seemed impressed.

'You need to record them. I know someone who would listen to a tape but you need them recorded.'

I phoned an old friend in the north of England called Roger and he arranged for me to enter a studio in Rochdale Lancs in order to record three songs. We arranged the sessions and I found myself en route to Cargo Studios.

John Brierley was the engineer and for the sessions I was to work with Roger on Bass and Cirinda Sin Cabra on Guitars.

Cinders as he was known was of indian origin with a mean guitar attack. He wasted no time in getting to grips with 'Jeanie Blue' a blatant Dave Bowie influenced pop song which required hand claps and vocal chants. We also had a live drummer.

I recall getting the vocals completely out of tune and trying desperately to correct them. Cinders came up with a blistering guitar solo while the whole studio group provided the handclaps.

Recording 'lonliness to me' was quite a spiritual experience for I had written this song in Frachadil while the renovation was in full swing and we had literally no where to live. For the recording I played a slightly out of tune honky tonk piano while the drummer laid down a simple but effective drum track. I did all vocals and backing vocals and Roger did bass.

This particular track seemed to gell and was to set the precedence of style for my music in the years to come.

The song Dervaig 265 was for me a bit of a thrash. It was all instramental and sounded better solo on a grand piano than it did with all the musician backing we had in the studio. Again this song was to teach me a lesson in simplicity.

I learned that good songs can stand up with a good vocal and simple accompanyments. but I was happy and i was writing again and the songs had began to flow.

Back on the Isle of Mull the tapes were favourably recieved and Roddy began the task of 'getting them out there' as he termed it. Roger had recieved a very favourable response from some big producer in London who suggested we send him some more material meanwhile life on the island for the two youngsters was getting increasingly difficult.