The Donald Anderson Band

The 4-piece contemporary rock band made up of established Shetland musicians has featured at Shetland’s top music festivals since 2005 including all of Shetland’s top music events such as the Shetland Folk Festival, Shetland Blues Festival, Flavour of Shetland and performed as part of the entertainment programme for the 2011 and 2023 Tall Ships Races in Shetland. The band provides an exciting platform for singer songwriter Donald Anderson’s material.

Biography

Donald Anderson

Over the last twenty plus years, Donald Anderson has performed regularly in Shetland and has made many appearances at many of Shetland festivals and at venues on mainland Scotland singing and playing his own songs and for the past 20 years has led The Donald Anderson Band.

Donald released his first album, Waterhead Sky in May 2005, which received excellent reviews and positive word of mouth feedback. Donald has also contributed to albums (The Desert, 2003 and Edges and Spaces, 2005) by local singer-songwriter Malachy Tallack, playing banjo and acoustic guitar.

Donald began playing publicly during the 1980s as a floor performer in folk clubs. Since then, he has performed in several countries as a singer and guitarist, both solo and as a member of Back up and Push and The Shining Pool.

Donald continues to write and perform his own material, both solo and with the band, at every opportunity.

Ian Barrie (2015 – present)

Ian Barrie has been playing drums and percussion in Shetland bands including the local pipe band since 1964. His legacy of playing in influential groups such as The Rainbow Pavement who continue to have a loyal following almost 50 years since their breakup is well acknowledged. His contribution to well-known bands such as The Breakaways, Bees Knees and Kinesis has made him a well sought after musician. He was also a member of The Broadcasters with Alan and Rick and The Mad Mental Ceilidh Band with Alan so it was only natural that when Duncan left the band that he should reunite with friends from previous bands.

Alan McKay

Alan is a local lad. He first became interested in music as a bairn hearing his dad and granddad playing bagpipe chanters together but when he heard the noise an electric guitar could make, he knew he’d found his instrument!

Playing in local bands with school friends fanned his interest in music.In the mid ‘70’s Alan left the islands to study architecture in Aberdeen where he started a rock band with friends playing in local clubs and dance venues. On completion of his studies, he briefly went professional playing acoustic guitar in a folk-duo (with multi-instrumentalist and singer Sean O’Rourke who was a former member of the JSD Band and Alba) appearing at folk-clubs throughout Scotland and abroad in Brittany before returning to Shetland in 1986 when he knuckled down to a career in architecture.

He continued playing in local bands over the yearsincluding: The Fantoms, Kinesis, The Broadcasters, The Mad Mental Ceilidh Band, Wayfarer, The Shining Pool and more recently The Briggiestanes Blues Band. He also enjoys providing acoustic guitar accompaniment to local singers / songwriters when the occasion demands.

Alan much enjoys playing with The Donald Anderson Band as it is an opportunity to work on original material, let his hair down (what’s left of it), and spend time with friends making music. 

Rick Nickerson

Born in Canada, in Nova Scotia, in 1949. During his high school years, he played in several cover bands but recorded his first single in the mid-sixties. After high school (Brampton, Ontario), he was employed by Capitol Records EMI (Canada) in various posts until he arrived in Edinburgh as a musician with well-known Scottish contemporary folk group, Rankin Fileand toured the UK and Europe as a professional musician for three years. The group recorded two LP’s which were reissued by Greentrax Records on CD in 1992.

He recorded albums and toured with The McCalmans and toured with other well-known Scottish artists such as Bobby Eaglesham. It was in Edinburgh that he met his Shetland-born wife, Dorothy.

Upon returning to Canada in 1973, he resumed his career at Capitol Records, rising to Marketing Manager, working with artists such as Blondie, Barry Manilow, Bay City Rollers and Alan Parsons Project (which included Shetland-born Ian Bairnson). He played and recorded with well-known Canadian rock artist Tom Cochrane (Life is a Highway) in 1974/75.

In 1979, the family returned to the UK to settle in Shetland and opened a music retail business in Lerwick, The Record Galley/Shetland School of Music. Whilst in Shetland he continued his playing with local bands such as Yorkie, The Broadcasters and Dem Lot until he joined The Donald Anderson Band in 2005. 

Previous Member – Duncan Kidson (2005 – 2015)

Duncan was born in Whitby, North Yorkshire and started playing the drums at 10yrs of age, joining his first band when atschool (interesting fact no 1. the same school had a band fronted by a vocalist called Kevin Whately, lately of Inspector Morse & Lewis fame-he actually has a really good voice).

After leaving school he joined a club band and spent the mid-70’s playing on the North of England Working Men’s Club circuit churning out Top of the Pops chart music night after night (interesting fact no 2. just hearing Jeff Beck’s “Hi Ho Silver Lining” can still turn Duncan into a nervous wreck and reaching for the Newcastle Brown Ale).

Getting married and having children put paid to any playing for many years but Duncan picked up the sticks again in the ’90’s forming an R&B/Pub Rock band to play the local Teesside & Durham pub scene at weekends (interesting fact no 3.Duncan ‘s interest in Sound Engineering was the next interruption to playing the drums, he formed a Sound & Light Hire Company with a very big (loud) PA system (interesting fact no 4. Duncan now does wear2 hearing aids -surprise, surprise).

Duncan sold his gear on moving to Shetland in 2001 and on meeting Donald in the local pub, bought another drum kit. Duncan & Donald then spent some time as a “White Stripes” style practice band before recruiting Rick, then Alan with the rest being history.

December 2024