Tune Up - Music Touring Across Scotland

Malcolm Crosbie

Shooglenifty: acoustic and electric guitars

Traditionally it's the bass player, but in the Shoogles' case it's the guitarist who's the quiet man of the band - but then you know what they say about the quiet ones.

Edinburgh born and bred, Malcolm paid his dues in honourable alt-rock obscurity (bar a single mention in the NME), playing electric guitar with such conjurable names as Z and the Arabs and the Nap Daleks, his early influences ranging from Budgie to Atomic Rooster, Steel Pulse to Pink Floyd.

A chance encounter with a pair of hillbilly-impersonating buskers - or so he thought - on the Royal Mile saw him swiftly swept up into Swamptrash's hoedown frenzy, re-learning how to play the acoustic, meanwhile forging the edgy, agile, genre-spanning style that now drives those acid croft grooves.