© 2009 - 11 John Kelly - JK Mandolins ©

The Old Bores performing at the Annual Sandbank Gala in June 2008.  The stage is our quick-exit vehicle from potential trouble!  

From left: A Gerrish (bass), J Kelly (guitar), R Macdonald (vocals), J Thomson (mandolin), D Macdonald Accordion), G Pate (guitar).

The Old Bores are a trio of veteran musicians, (Derek  Macdonald, John Kelly and John Thomson) who play a variety of Scottish, Irish and other music, firstly for our own enjoyment and then for the pleasure of anyone who may wish to listen to or dance to our sound.  We  feature a variety of  instruments including accordion, guitar, mandolin and octave mandolin, tenor banjo, concertina, harmonica, and  bodhran  (but not all at once) and we also make quite tuneful singing noises when the mood takes us.  Rhoda, our regular female vocalist (and also Mrs Macdonald)  always sings very tunefully.  When the occasion demands we can draft in a bass player (see photo above) from one of our two friends.

We are based in the Cowal area of Dunoon on the Argyll coast of the Firth of Clyde and we originally come from Argyll, Inverness and Glasgow, so we are very much a Scottish band but with some Irish ancestry.  

Our name is the result of a mis-spelling  which happened during one of our bookings.  We had decided that The Wild Boars was a suitable name for the group as our bodhran (Celtic hand drum) had a painting of a wild boar’s head.  Between being booked and then appearing on the programme we became the Wild Bores but almost immediately this became The Old Bores and has stuck.  We like it.  It sort of sums us up, we think!

We attend, as individuals and as the group, the regular monthly open folk nights held at the Whistlefield Inn on the shores of Loch Eck where a great atmosphere is always generated and a wide variety of music is performed.  The monthly events are held from around 8.30 p.m. on the first Friday of each month throughout the year and everyone, performer or not, is made welcome.

Many of our performers and audience stay overnight in the hotel and its bunkhouse.

Whistlefield Session - with more friends.

Contact The Old Bores by e-mailing: info@luthierjohn.co.uk