The name of this (currently) seven-piece Scottish folk band was never meant to be permanent. In 1990 they were busking in Madrid when a bar owner offered them a gig; they just needed a name for the poster. The guitarist came up with Shooglenifty – a placeholder until something better came along.
Anyway, that’s how the story goes. It’s remembered in this documentary made after the death in 2016 of the group’s frontman and fiddler Angus G Grant from throat cancer at just 49. In photos and footage from the early days, he had it all: the charisma and the good looks. He performed topless, long hair pulled up into a bun, with an intense, barefoot mystical vibe, as if he were let into the mysteries that the rest of the world could only guess at.
