Four local line-ups take the Ironworks stage for the last time on Friday – first gig for a re-formed Shutter
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When Inverness band Shutter take the Ironworks stage on Friday night for their last performance, will it take them back to playing at the venue’s opening night?
They joined the line-up including The Joshua Hotel and Rory Baldwin of Origami Wolf and headlined by Iain McLaughlin And The Outsiders.
It was among the series of ‘last nights’ featuring some of the Inverness venue’s favourite acts as it counts down to closing next year to make way for a hotel.
But for some people who remember the post-rock instrumentalists, formed in 2004, it will be a surprise to see Will and James Roberts, Matt Campbell and Pete Macdonald back together after a long silence as they got on with their lives.
Speaking a few days before the gig, guitarist Pete Macdonald said: “We stopped playing, but we never officially broke up.
“Will moved to Edinburgh and we just sort of stopped.
“We still kept in touch, were still good friends – there were no massive fallouts or any kind of drama.
“We still kept in touch with each other and over the lockdown we had our own group chats, as everyone did.
“We always said that when the lockdown lifted we would go down to Edinburgh and have a muck about and see what happened.
“But now Will, his wife and his daughter have moved back up to Inverness.
“So in June we decided to book out Iain McLaughlin’s room at the IMOUT Studio and we just got together there – for the first time in God knows how many years.
“We played – and it sounds like a bit of a cliché – but you’ve not played with these guys for so long that you wonder what’s going to happen, but it was just like having an old friend back.
“Now, every Thursday, if we can, we all meet up and play old songs and write. And then Iain approached us about doing this gig.
“We were a bit reluctant at first, then with the Ironworks closing – and it means quite a lot to us and the whole Inverness music scene – we thought it would be silly not to.”
Pete added: “And now here we are waiting to do it.”
Looking back to Shutter’s past, Pete remembers some highlights.
“I think we started in August 2004 and throughout the time we played there were quite a lot of dream-come-true gigs.
“We played the opening night of the Ironworks, it was a local band night.
“I remember thinking there had been a wee bit of hype and so ‘There might be a few there’.
“But it was absolutely jam-packed and to see that in Inverness was ‘Wow!’. That was a highlight.
“We played Belladrum a fair few times.
“We played Celtic Connections with Twilight Sad and Camera Obscura.
“And we supported the Deftones at what is now the O2 Academy in Glasgow.
“At the time they were one of our favourite bands and that was definitely a dream come true,” Pete confirmed.
From a 2013 article, they also played: “... everywhere from the Sounds In The Grounds Festival in Stornoway to Death Disco in Notting Hill’s Arts Club in London, Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh, and provided a live soundtrack to Inverness’s November 5 fireworks display.” They had also shared stages with Aereogramme, Pelican, Red Sparowes, 65 Days Of Static and Gallows ... and at RockNess...”
“We had so many opportunities, and when you look back into it, it seems mind-blowing that some of it actually happened,” Pete said.
He tells you the band’s 2010 album Pillars is on Spotify.
Listen, and the dark soundscapes take you back – and forward to anticipating the gift on Friday.
“We had to rehearse a lot of the songs we hadn’t played for, I think, nine or 10 years,” Pete marvelled. “But this gig has given us the kick we needed to work out a set and practise. It’s very exciting.”
Iain McLaughlin And The Outsiders, Shutter, The Joshua Hotel and Origami Wolf play the Ironworks on Friday, December 30.
