THE OCCASIONALS
Freeland Barbour (accordion), Gus Millar (drums) and Kevin Macleod (banjo, mandolin & tenor guitar) came together in 1986, and started the distinctive core sound of what has become the acclaimed Scottish ceilidh band “The Occasionals”.
Now still playing 40 years later, 7 cds, thousands of gigs, weddings, festivals, conferences, clubs, some 12 BBC ‘Take The Floor’ broadcasts and 2 BBC TV appearances, they still get huge enjoyment from playing for Scottish traditional ceilidh dancing.
The band usually has our excellent dance caller Sheila McCutcheon out front directing the dancing and also regularly features Runrig’s Malcolm Jones (guitar) and Mairi Campbell (fiddle).
Many other notable musicians have played in the band over the years; Ian Hardie, Alison Smith, Neil MacMillan, Angela MacEachern, Duncan MacGillivray, Jimmy Little, Jim Barrie, Iain Fraser, Ally MacIntyre, Becky Hunter, Alison Hiley, Robert Whitehead, Brian Miller & Charlie Soane.
You can find out more about the band on The Occasionals - Freeland Barbour
Booking enquiries for the band can be also done through this link The Occasionals - Freeland Barbour
THE OCCASIONALS at 40
New CD & Download on Bonskeid Music # BONS CD 707
Release Date 28th September 2026
2026 sees The Occasionals celebrating 40 years as a band
and to mark this milestone BBC Radio Scotland's 'Take The Floor'
programme put out a special programme from Glasgow's Celtic Connections on January 24th 2026. The new Occasionals CD is the band's contributions to that programme - 14 tracks of the best in Ceilidh and Scottish dance music.
And it was the big band too, 9-strong, with a guest appearance on one track of one of the 'greats' of Northumbrian music, Jimmy Little, on the harmonica. As usual Freeland Barbour was joined by his Occasionals colleagues Kevin Macleod, Malcolm Jones, Mairi Campbell, Alison Smith, Gus Millar, Neil MacMillan, Angie McEachern, and Duncan MacGillivray, and in the words of Gary Innes, the programme's presenter, 'The Occasionals are as relevant today as they were 40 years ago.”
This new CD is the first of 3 releases by The Occasionals, the second one being a studio recording, and the third a collection of live performances from over the entire 40 years of the bands' life.
Freeland Barbour is also working on a new book of his own compositions and the aim is to have it published towards the end of 2026. There are also plans afoot for some new recordings - watch this space!
The Occasionals - at Kelso Accordion & Fiddle Club, 30th April 2025, Malcolm Jones, Gus Millar, Kevin Macleod & Freeland Barbour
REVIEW
THE OCCASIONALS AT 40, is everything it suggests , a recording of the 40th anniversary of the celebrated Ceilidh band Charlton delivers 50 minutes of Scottish and Highland Dance Music. Recorded at Celtic Connections on the 24th January 2026 in front of a very appreciative appreciative audience the nine piece band, plus guest Jimmy Little are on fine form. As you would expect from a dance band the ensemble’s pulse is rock solid with metronome like precision from Gus Millar’s drums and Neil MacMillan’s double band. The Occasionals’ playing is infectious throughout with pieces like opening classic “The 51st Highland Division” and “The Thistle Of Scotland” “The Military Two Step” flowing straight down to the feet.
“On tracks like the wonderful “The Pride Of Erin Waltz” Freeland Barbour’s accordion provides colourful opening flourishes then joins the Wurlitzer like bubbling pulse of the tune with the big band’s fiddle players. At times like on “The Flying Scotsman” the nippy playing of this layered group is pushed on by an enthusiastic hand clap from the engaged audience. Whoops, handclaps and Duncan MacGillivey’s fine pipe playing runs through energetic closer “Strip The Willow”. Slower “The Southern Rose Waltz” is drifting glide with a sparser arrangement of wafting accordion, fiddles, Duncan’s whistle and Kevin Macleod’s rhythmic banjo.
This is a warm and visceral conversation between an almost telepathic sounding seasoned band and appreciative audience. What could be better source of an inner glow in the season of dark nights, closed curtains and warming fires.
Marc Higgins
The Occasionals, The Occasionals At 40 (2026) Bonskeid Music – Time Past and Time Passing
