Big Alasdair Cameron Mackay from Stoer – better known locally as simply Jock the Box. Skilled accordionist Alasdair was given his first box at the age of seven by his grandfather, Alaister Macleod, a crofter and former accordionist with the Lochinver Dance Band. Music ran in the family with young Alasdair’s great-uncle, the late Donnie Mackay, a gamekeeper in the Strath of Kildonan, running the Bettyhill School Pipe Band. Recalls Alasdair: “When I got my first accordion I loved it, and played it day and night. I used to drive my grandfather mad!” A former pupil of Stoer Primary School and Ullapool High School, Alasdair quickly picked up music by ear and such was his early promise that he received lessons from well known semi-professional accordionist Addie Harper of Wick.