Eilidh Steel & Mark Neal

Eilidh Steel and Mark Neal are a Scottish music duo playing traditional and contemporary tunes and songs with many of their own compositions on fiddle, guitar and vocals. Continuing in the traditions of Scottish music with many influences from Argyll and the West Coast of Scotland, they blend the historical and modern perspective using older and newer compositions. Both Eilidh and Mark are prolific composers writing tunes and songs, taking influences from a wide range of music from piping and fiddling to indie/funk/jazz and everything else around… In addition to playing, Eilidh and Mark are both experienced teachers in their instruments, and are available for workshops and master classes in single instrument or mixed instrument settings.

Eilidh and Mark have toured extensivly around Europe as well as play gigs from the Royal Concert hall at Celtic Connections, outdoor gigs to over 4000 people in Verona, support to pop band Madness and being the backing band for legendary actor Ewan McGregor.

Eilidh Steel grew up in Helensburgh, Argyllshire where she started playing fiddle at the age of six. She was awarded the Sir Jimmy Shand Scholarship for musicianship to study a BA Honours degree in Scottish Music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow. Eilidh is a prolific composer and her tunes are now being played throughout the world. Eilidh has won many awards including 'Best Achevement for Argyll' and was a semi-finalist in the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year.

Eilidh has always been influenced and interested in the music from her home area of Argyll researching this as part of her degree, and this along with many of her other musical interests forms part of the duo’s repertoire.

Mark is a multi instrumentalist focusing on playing guitar and singing, but can be found playing many other instruments. Having started learning to play the piano at the age of 5 in his hometown of East Kilbride, he then moved on to learn various other instruments throughout school including violin, flute, drums and guitar. He moved to Edinburgh to study for a physics degree in 1993 then followed a musical acoustics PhD getting involved with the folk scene throughout his studies went on to do full time music.

In addition to performing Mark also runs the recording studio “The Sonic Lodge”, runs the Edinburgh ceilidh club and does some teaching. Mark has always been interested in many types of music and has played with a number of different bands in many different genres and on various instruments. He enjoys blending the traditional songs and tunes with influences from a number of different styles, creating something contemporary but still linked to its musical heritage.

Mark manages and plays in the folk/rock ceilidh band Teannaich and has in the past played in a number of other bands including funk band Hejira. He is also a dance caller at many of the regular ceilidhs around Edinburgh with and extensive repertoire of Scottish dances new and old. Mark is an experienced tutor both individually and in group settings for guitar, mixed instruments, sound recording and occasionally whistle, percussion and ceilidh dance.