Alastair McDonald
Alastair McDonald is firmly established as Scotland's leading musical minstrel. In addition to Television, Radio and stage appearances world wide, he is a prolific recording artiste situated in his native Scotland. Alastair's programme is selected from a vast repertoire of traditional, contemporary & original material. Born in Glasgow in 1941, Alastair emigrated to Australia with his family at the age of eight and growing up there, during a period in the outback, developed an interest in "home made" entertainment.
Four years later he returned to Scotland just in time to be excited by the emerging pop scene and in particular, skiffle music, a fusion of American folk song with overlaid jazz influences, spearheaded by Lonnie Donegan. With a variety of local groups, he played in hospitals, old folks' homes, churches, ceilidhs and even back court concerts for political campaigns and for many of his young years was a leading banjo player in the jazz scene of the period (winner of the award for best banjo player Elgin Jazz Festival 1962).
As the years passed, Alastair's musical horizons extended & in 1973 he was invited to co-host a new TV show of Scottish music entitled "Songs of Scotland" in the company of baritone Peter Morrison, with whom he has maintained a working relationship to this day. After only a few screenings, the viewing public responded so positively that the series continued year upon year, taking Alastair's music into variety shows, pantomimes and plays throughout Scotland - and the world. Alastair's commitment has always been to entertain, but he has fought to do so on terms he believes to be valuable.