At Calico we strongly believe that we should all maintain a good work/life balance. So what do we get up to when we switch off our screens each night? Here’s a glimpse into Campbell’s alter-ego…

If you were in Cromarty on Saturday 11th May you may have been lucky enough to be in the audience at The Stables, one of the town’s arts venues, and seen Campbell’s Salsa band “Orquesta Latina Del Norte” in action. Campbell started the band in 2008 because he was a Salsa dancer, his wife was a Salsa teacher but it was very rare for a Latin band to come to the Inverness area that anyone could dance to. So he started his own band.

Campbell plays sax in one of his trademark colourful shirts

The band first performed in Cromarty on May 31st 2009, and the event made the news on BBC Alba. Since then they have performed around the Highlands of Scotland, including a regular spot at the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival each August. And on Saturday 11th May the band was celebrating 10 years of performing with a special party event.

This year is also a pivotal one for the band and it has cloned itself into a ‘party’ band by widening its repertoire to include other dance favourites from ‘YMCA’ though R&B, Soul, Rock, etc, and including a version of Taylor Swifts “Shake It Off”. To go with this, the band now has two names – the original ‘Orquesta Latina Del Norte’ when in Latin mode, and the alternative ‘Bonny Vista Social Club’ when in a mre general party mode.

Campbell leads the band, plays alto sax, plays some percussion, sings and writes some of the musical arrangements for the other members (which includes tenor and baritone saxes, trumpets, trombones, percussion, bass, guitar piano and fiddle).

See https://www.orquestalatina.com and https://www.bonnyvistasocialclub.com for more information, pictures and videos.

* Muy Caliente = Very Hot