Biography

Angus C. MacLeod was born in Scalpay in December 1927. He was the sixth child of Coinneach Iain 'ic Dhòmhnaill 'ic Chaluim from Scalpay and Margaret Flora Campbell, who was born in Plocrapol. She was named after her mother, Flora, because her father Murdo, Murchadh Aonghais an t-Siorraim, died when she and her two brothers were children. Flora was originally from Scalpay and returned to live there when she lost her husband. Angus himself added Campbell to his own name shortly after he won the Gold Medal at the Mod. He was named after his mother's brother, and this was surely done as a tribute to him. He attended school in Scalpay until he was fifteen, then moved to Inverness where he worked as a joiner.

His powerful singing voice came from his father's side of the family, with a special vocal quality from his maternal grandmother. His mother also had a beautiful voice. The schoolmaster, James MacIntosh, who spoke no Gaelic when he arrived in Scalpay, had a great interest in music and played the fiddle. Angus sang at ceilidhs when he moved to Inverness and entered the Mod in Inverness in 1949. John MacSween from Scalpay won the Gold Medal that year, but Angus won it in Dunoon in 1950, which gained him great popularity at concerts and ceilidhs across the country. Around that time, the start of the fifties, he went to Aberdeen to study engineering. After that, he earned his degree at Heriot-Watt University in 1955. While in Aberdeen, he accompanied other musicians and dancers to perform in Quimper, Brittany, where he would sing for the dancers.

He met Margaret Fraser from Bearsden at concerts in which she was performing. For the big annual concerts held by the likes of the Lewis and Harris Society and the Uist and Barra Society in Glasgow, they always had one Scots singer, and Margaret was very often chosen. She was also in a group called The Saltire Singers, and she and Angus would often be on the same stage as part of that. But it was in London, at two parties, one in November and the other for Burns Night between 1957 and 1958, that they really got to know each other. They married in August 1958.

Angus was then living in Elgin, working for Crowley-Russell. He designed and supervised the workmen who built a bridge across the River Lossie. It was a stone bridge and Angus really enjoyed observing the skills of the masons. The family then settled in Inverness in the mid-1960s, and Angus had three contracts from Crowley-Russell: the road from Sconser to Sligachan; a pier in Kyle of Lochalsh; and a new road to Ullapool. Unfortunately, the company was bankrupt, and without any warning Angus was made redundant. They moved to Bishopbriggs, where he worked in various jobs until his untimely death in a road accident in September 1973.

Angus and Margaret had three children: Christine, Kenneth, and Billy.

Angus recorded two EPs and an LP, A Night with Angus, for Murdo Ferguson at Gaelfonn. The Harris poet, Murdo Morrison, who wrote songs including A Nighneag a Ghràidh, once said that a night Angus sang on stage at the famous St Andrew's Hall in Glasgow was his favourite of all:

"They wouldn't let him off the stage. He sang eight songs, one after the other. His heart, his language, and his memory were so unified in every song he sang. You would think you were before the poet who composed the song."

Angus had a strong, powerful, clear voice and rarely needed a microphone. He often sang beside the pianist on stage. His lungs were strong and his voice so robust that Professor John MacInnes remarked, "You could do a Schottische on his stomach."

Many thanks to Angus's sister, Morag MacLeod, for providing this information.