I love playing music for dancers.  I play fiddle (mostly) in various dance and ceilidh bands; The Squashy Bag Dance Band, The Highfield Reels Band, The Belle Stars, Bella McNab's Dance Band, and The Dance Bandits.... some of which are pictured above having a wee tune on The Dwarfie Stane on Hoy, Orkney.

 

Dance Bandits take you on a trip. They've been playing tunes for folk to swing and jump and skip around the floor to for many a year..... touching hearts and feet of all ages and tastes. We play all the traditional ceilidh dances and sing songs too, of a well known variety and of our own creations.

Being bandits we never reveal our true identity but you may have seen us playing in bands such as The Peatbog Fairies, Eliza Carthy Band, Aberfeldy, Harem Scarem, Squashy Bag Dance Band, Sandy Wright & The Toxic Cowboys, Orkestra Del Sol, Cera Impala and the New Prohibition, Bombskare and Heid!.

 

Here are some quotes from us.....

“We will gently waltz you then kidnap your legs! Hee hee” says Ecky Pelly

“You can have your money and your life as long as you dance when we fire notes at your feet.” says Fiddlin’ Fudge.

“You know what, when we started out, I thought we was really goin' somewhere. This is it. We're just goin', huh?” says El Jello

 

                                          www.thedancebandits.com   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Squashy Bag Dance Band have been around for millions of years. We play mostly on the west coast of bonny Schotland to wild improvisational dancers who happen to know how to do the ceilidh dances. Lead by world famous fiddler Eilidh Shaw from Morar; myself, Tam The Banjo Kinsella, Sandy Wright, and Donald Hay Drummy, we generally only play for gigs that we are sure are gonna be super great crack. Here we are playing for hogmanay on Eigg..