Ian McCallum (born September 1965) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

Early life

He was born in

Gosforth Gosforth is a suburb of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It constituted a separate Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district from 1895 until 1974 before officially merging with the city of New ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and supports Scottish football club Rangers.

Career

McCallum started writing and touring in the early 1980s. He plays

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

for

Stiff Little Fingers Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977 at the height of the Troubles, which informed much of their songwriting. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star (named after the De ...

, and is also a recording artist in his own right. He is a fan of the English folk-rock band

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important ...

, and played guitar for them on one occasion when

Simon Cowe Simon Cowe (1 April 1948 – 30 September 2015) was an English guitarist and multi-instrumentalist most noted as a member of the folk-rock group Lindisfarne from their original formation in 1970 until 1973, and then again from 1978 to his depar ...

was unavailable. He also co-wrote, with Lindisfarne member

Alan Hull James Alan Hull (20 February 1945 – 17 November 1995) was an English singer-songwriter and founding member of the Tyneside folk rock band Lindisfarne. Career Hull was born at 68 Sutton's Dwellings, Adelaide Terrace, Benwell, Newcastle upon ...

, the band's single "We Can Make It". Additionally, McCallum's album '' Take Me as I Am'' (1997) features a cover of the Lindisfarne song "Heroes" (from their album '' Dance Your Life Away'' (1986)) and a tribute to Hull "Song for Alan".

Discography

As McCallum

* ''

Left Handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

'' (1988) * '' Big Bigg Market'' (1992) * ''Take Me As I Am'' (1997)

With Stiff Little Fingers

* '' Hope Street'' (1999) * '' Guitar and Drum'' (2004) * ''No Going Back'' (2014)

References

External links

* Date of birth missing (living people) 1965 births Living people 20th-century English musicians 21st-century English musicians 20th-century English writers 21st-century English writers 20th-century British composers 21st-century British composers English punk rock guitarists English rock guitarists Musicians from Newcastle upon Tyne People from Kenton, London Stiff Little Fingers members {{songwriter-stub