Ceilidh band Skipinnish was the worthy winner of the 12th annual Scots Trad Awards held in December 2014.

A record breaking 100,000 public votes went towards deciding the award recipients. The best live act prize was awarded as Skipinnish’s newly released single December reached number one in the world music charts, their second number one in 2014, the first being Walking on the Waves.

Angus MacPhail, a founding member of the band said: “This is by far the best year of the band and the progress we have made in that time is amazing. For a band, winning live act of the year is the most important prize at the trad awards. Our line-up and the standard of our own material has improved, we are playing more gigs to more fans and the success of our releases has really surprised us”.

Skippinish have had a hectic year, promoting their album and playing for Team Scotland at its Commonwealth Games party but Angus picks out a performance at 2014 Tiree Music Festival as not just his highlight of the year but the best moment of his musical career. “We have had incredibly good fun this year but Tiree Music Festival was amazing. The crowd was singing along with our songs and it was my favourite musical experience in 15 years of playing.”

From a spectator perspective I can honestly say Skipinnish thoroughly deserve this accolade, they provided a stand out performance at the festival, it was completely compelling and they whipped the crowd up to a frenzy of fun and tomfoolery. Let’s hope they return to thrill us at TMF 2015!