The highland conductor with a punk warrior spirit

Rumac, real name Ruairidh MacLean, stormed to the semi-finals of last year’s Britain’s Got Talent TV show.

His wild, accordion led version of A Ha’s 1980’s hit Take on Me wowed the studio audience with judge Simon Cowell predicting: ‘You’re going to get a billion bookings after this.’ MacLean said: “Going on Britain’s Got Talent opened a few doors, but some closed too.

“They approached me to be on the show and then they wanted to manufacture my act.

“I trusted them, but they didn’t trust me.

“If folk want to go on stage and be weird, don’t bully them for it.

“Many said I was the most realistic act to be on there in years, and Simon Cowell said some nice stuff and supported me.”

MacLean, from Ullapool, grew up playing in a traditional Scottish dance band with his mother before going solo on the pub circuit.

“I wasn’t enjoying the stuff I was playing.

It was a chore. So, I began to try out metal songs on the accordion, like Master of Puppets (Metallica), War Pigs (Black Sabbath), Thunderstruck (AC/DC).

“I’d just punk it up and people went mad for the sound, which is mental.

“Now it has become a hobby that has got out of hand.”

MacLean even opened the giant heavy metal festival Download at Donington Park last month, sharing a stage with rock giants Linkin Park and Guns N’ Roses.

And MacLean will be the star turn at the Beat-Herder Working Men’s Social Club with a host of other variety acts, in between the festival bingo sessions.

“I’m from a wee fishing village north of Inverness and I’m more of a ‘sit in a dingy backstreet pub’ kind of guy.

“I find bigger stages a bit weird, so I like the sound of that.

“If people walk away thinking ‘What the heck was that, then I’m happy.”

One of Rumac’s most in demand accordion covers – apart from Flower of Scotland - is Sir Tom Jones’ classic song, Delilah.

He plays it in a style inspired by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band who were fronted by Glaswegian Harvey, one of rock’s greatest showmen.

Their live shows were often pointedly confrontational and incendiary.

“When Alex Harvey did Delilah it was a menacing, dark performance and he had those wild, staring eyes,” said MacLean.

“Folk say to me the version I do is brooding and intimidating so I hope I’ve done it justice because Alex Harvey was a genius.”

MacLean also landed a cameo role in Danny Boyle’s Zombie horror, 28 Years Later.

He was cast after two production designers saw him playing a gig in Inverness and they suggested that Boyle put him in the film, which was released last year. “I was on a ferry to Uist when I got an e-mail asking if I would be in interested in doing something, and I said ‘why not?

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