It’s been almost 20 years since our debut gig at the Helensburgh Blossom Festival! Since then our folk n’ ceilidh trio of Andy Clark, Andy Bruce and leader Alasdair Allan played over 300 gigs across the country at weddings, parties and the occasional pub.

Somewhere along the journey we picked up a singing bassist, Stuart Cowan, and his addition allowed the band to effortlessly mutate from ceilidh combo to a splendid covers band. We also regularly called upon the acclaimed composer and accordionist Aileen Sweeney to provide keyboards when we needed a bigger sound. Aileen remains part of the Croft set-up to this day.  

Bizarrely we became popular with Norwegian audiences and have made over a dozen trips to play in Bergen and elsewhere. We were also once described as being “even better than music” which we will take as a compliment. 

Just before the pandemic, Andy Clark took a teaching post in China and singer Stuart retired from the band after years of loyal service. So we swiftly signed up singer and guitarist Stuart Blackwood and bassist Gregor Beattie from the popular Falkirk band Sound Cradle and Crowded Croft 2.0 was born!