Members of a successful Scottish folk band, performing at Peebles Eastgate Theatre on Friday, faced reality checks during lockdown

At the beginning of 2020 the band set about celebrating 15 years together and headed to Australia to perform at the iconic Sydney Opera House and continued on with a successful UK tour through February and March.

Then everything changed and the band members hunkered down in their homes, not knowing when or if they would get back out on the road.

Members of the five-piece also had to find alternative work to pay the bills, revealed Calum MacCrimmon, who earned a crust through online teaching.

The band’s return came last autumn with a successful tour of England and Scotland and their new tour kicks off at a familiar venue, the Eastgate Theatre in Peebles, on Friday.

"The Eastgate is always full and friendly. It has got to the point where we are on good terms with the in-house staff,” Calum said.

During the lockdown the band also created music for a project with animator Cat Bruce.

Calum, who said a new album was to be recorded and released in the coming months, added: "The time when we were allowed to share company we got together and made new music and also used the internet to connect to write music together.

“The new songs are very much influenced by the change in our lives over the last two years.

"I have written a song for the new album called Tight Spaces. I was playing music in one place in my flat for, essentially, two years. I would sit by the window and was doing the online teaching at the same window, so I spent a lot of time in the same room at a window in an empty street and I wrote the song about how that felt and how it felt to step outside.”

Breabach features Megan Henderson (fiddle and vocals), James Lindsay (double bass/vocals), Calum (bagpipes/whistle, bouzouki/vocals), ‘new’ band member Conal McDonagh (bagpipes/whistle) and Ewan Robertson (guitar/vocals/cajon).

The band has released six albums in its 15-year career, won multiple awards and toured internationally.

The members got back on the road again with a series of well-attended gigs in England and Scotland last autumn.

Calum said: “People really put on a show of faith and came out to the gigs. We were quite amazed because we weren’t sure whether they were going to feel comfortable in doing that. I guess people were just ready for some live music.”

For ticket information for Friday’s show go to eastgatearts.com/events/breabach-2/