The Creative Universe of Callum Rae
Featuring
Callum Rae & The Corellas
The Corellas : Then and Now.
The Corellas were my first group.
We were all pupils at Eastwood High School.
Dave Hill on rhythm guitar, Ricky Jackson on lead guitar, Bill Sharpe on drums and myself on vocals.
The Concord's were the other group in our school year though they later changed their name to The Aristokrats.
They comprised of Peter May on guitar and vocals, Stephen Penn on guitar and vocals, Ian Looker on bass and Alex Smith on drums.
The current incarnation of The Corellas were founded by myself and Alex Smith when we met at a book signing in Glasgow.
The current lineup is myself on guitar and vocals, Alex Smith on drums, David McLachlan on bass and Will Purdie on percussion.
The Jesters: Portmeirion, North Wales.
Portmeirion was a magical fantasy village designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis situated by the coast in
North Wales.This is where The Jesters lived and worked. The cult British tv seriesThe Prisoner was filmed there and to this day
fans form all over the world go ona pilgrimage there...
Antwerp.
True Colours, Johannesburg
Antwerp was a magical time and place for me.
I was part of a huge group of musicians and artists, most of which were buskers and lived on the street and in the cafes.
It was a hard existance but really freeing as we answered to nobody and to no authority.
I met many interesting people there including legendary banjo player Derroll Adams who had played with Dylan among many others
True Colours
The path of true love led me from Antwerp to Johannesburg where I married and where my two children were born.
True Colours were a short lived trio composed of Doug Campbell on guitar, vocals and sequencer, Malcolm Aberdein on bass and myself on vocals.
Return to Glasgow 1991 to ?
I returned with my family to Glasgow in 1991.
An already troubled marriage ended in 1998 when I left my wife.
The pressures of work resulted in stress related problems although it didn't stop me from playing both solo and in various pick up bands.
I was also involved in promotions, running music nights here and there. Eventually i had a total nervous breakdown leading to an early retirement from the work place.
The Corellas reformed around 2015 after I met Alex Smith at a friend's book promotion.
Currently I continue writing, playing and recording music in my home studio with fellow Corellas.
I also have developed a close productive relationship with my talented friend Jim Lang, multi instrumentalist and audio-visual producer. To date we have produced three albums of original material and are working on more songs as we speak.
Lockdown was a difficult time for all of us but I had the good fortune to join Sunday Songwriting, a Zoom group founded by Becci Wallace and Rosie Bans. This group was oozing with talented singer songwriters and I made many lasting friendships with others in the group as well as producing some of my best written work.
The Corellas are currently working on live recordings in my studio without other musicians or over dubbing.
The forthcoming album will be titled Back in the Garage as it celebrates our beginings and my love for early garage-punk-psychedelic music. The show goes on!
This website and many of the photos and videos was created in conjunction with my good friend Raymond "Mundito"O'Neill at Photography by Mundito.