Mill A H-Uile Rud - Biography

Biography

The band formed in 2003 and retain their original line-up of Tim Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Sgrios a h-Uile Rud (vocals, bass) and Sìne Nic Anndrais (drums). This Tim Armstrong from Seattle is a different person from the Tim Armstrong from Berkeley who sings in the punk band Rancid. This Tim Armstrong was a member and the creative drive behind several punk bands in Brunswick, ME in the late eighties including Officer Friendly. After spending some years living in Scotland and meeting other Gaelic-speaking punks such as Ruairidh of Oi Polloi both Tim and Sine, whose mother is from the Gaelic-speaking island of Benbecula, started learning Gaelic.

In April 2005, Mill a h-Uile Rud embarked on a European tour with Oi Polloi which took in Scotland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland. Much of this tour was filmed by BBC Alba for a Gaelic television documentary on Mill a h-Uile Rud and Gaelic punk. They have also played in Stornoway, on the sparsely populated Isle of Lewis, the largest town in the Western Isles of Scotland. They also recorded a live session for the BBC Radio nan Gaidheal nighttime 'Rapal' program which is broadcast nationally in Scotland. In 2005, Tim moved to Scotland full-time to study sociolinguistics and language revival, and as such, the band is less active, although they still play from time to time when Tim is back in the Seattle. Tim is also involved in the Gaelic techno/hip-hop act, Nad Aislingean, and the Gaelic rock band, Na Gathan. Sgrios remains quite active in the Seattle folk-punk scene and is involved in a number of bands in the city while Sìne now runs a goat cheese farm outside of Seattle and researches farming culture. Only their roadie, Erin, still lives on the remote punk commune in the mountains outside Seattle where the band was formed.