Eden Court date for Willie ahead of 100th online spoon-playing session
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Councillor Willie Mackay is gearing up for a century of Tunes on the Spoons this weekend – after taking part in a concert of Shetland music at the Highlands' leading arts venue.
Since starting his Saturday night spoon-playing sessions in May 2020, Willie has now clocked up 99 consecutive weeks and he continues to attract admirers from around the globe on social media.
He is on course for his 100th internet performance this Saturday – but first, on Friday evening (March 25), he has a date at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness.
Willie will demonstrate his skills on the spoons as part of a Shades of Shetland concert being given by traditional musicians Leonard Brown and Maggie Adamson in Eden Court's OneTouch Theatre. Compere will be John "The Prof" Matheson, with the Elizabeth Fraser dancers also on the bill.
Spoons on the Tunes began when Willie used soup spoons purchased in a Thurso charity shop for 20p to record a Facebook video lasting one minute and 45 seconds as a tribute to NHS and frontline workers. It was also in appreciation of his two daughters, Samantha Law, an advanced nurse practitioner at Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin, and Kirstin Mackay, a sonographer/radiographer in Caithness General Hospital.
Since then, Willie's feelgood musical accompaniments have delighted his many followers across Scotland and Europe and as far afield as Canada, the USA, Argentina, Australia, Jamaica and New Zealand.
The sessions are filmed by Willie’s wife Glynis in the role of producer, director, stage lighting specialist, sound engineer and wardrobe assistant.
Willie, of Oldhall, Watten, is an independent Highland councillor for Wick and East Caithness and Provost of Wick. He is originally from Embo in Sutherland.
He learned to play the spoons in 1968 when working at Craibstone agricultural college at Bucksburn in Aberdeen. In those days the spoons were often played at bothy nights around Aberdeenshire.
Willie will mark his 100th online performance on Saturday with two of the fastest tunes he has spooned to – The Bluebird, played on the accordion by Brandon McPhee, and The Flying Scotsman, played by Leonard Brown.
