Welcome to the Victorian Underground Project

The Highlanders was a band hailing from Thurso Scotland. You can see the 3 members in photograph #1. From left to right we have military drums played by Tosh, Iron Bruce on vocals and Guthrie on the bagpipes.

They played an aggressive type of music which sounded much like the archetypal punk band, and they certainly had the spirit of punk rock pumping through their veins. Their songs would drift from condemning child labour to celebrating alcohol, as well as the occasional grievance towards the British Parliament.

They would often cross the Scottish Border into the north of England and play some shows there. As we can see from this collection, the band had an enthusiastic following who would dress in red tartan and refer to themselves as ‘The Clan’. This was generally regarded as obscene by polite society and so by dent of circumstances they became a gang.

We would also like to note that if our research is correct, photograph #10 depicts a youth holding up the sign of the horns. This is the first ever photograph to show this particular hand gesture with this specific meaning.

Many thanks,

TVUP