Bad Actress: Meet the five friends from the Highlands who hope to pack out stadiums with their glam rock band

Press and Journal

2 days ago

'You go to a Bad Actress show and you just see so many happy faces.'
Shaun Middleton, from Inverness, has only been an official member of the glam rock band for about a week.
But already he says his time playing bass guitar for the group has been 'unreal'.
'Everybody's always dancing and the mix of ages is fantastic,' he told The Press and Journal.
'Especially lately. It's been insane.'
Chick McFarlane is quick to agree with him, noting their recent performance at Elgin's MacMoray, where 10,000 people packed out Cooper Park.
Chick, 24, along with his brother Lui, 21, were still pupils at Forres Academy in 2017 when the band first formed.
They joined forces with Tommy Bell, 28, and former members Vinnie and Fearghas to create the band Airrade.
The name didn't stick.
After a bad review was less than complimentary about their choice, the group became Bad Actress – after a 'lesser-known' Def Leppard song from the album Songs from the Sparkle Lounge.
Since then, they have been a major hit in the Moray music scene as well as further afield.
Now, the band, made up of Shaun Middleton, Euan Campbell, Tommy Bell, Chick and Lui McFarlane, are playing a series of gigs across the UK.
And they are thinking big.
Their dreams are to do music full-time and they 'hope to pack out stadiums one day'.
At present, they have an array of jobs, from waitering and dishwashing, to working in retail and joinery and in a warehouse and joinery.
The McFarlane brothers first met Tommy when Chick auditioned to play drums in his band.
Chick was unsuccessful, but months later Tommy joined what would later become Bad Actress.
Chick said: 'Me and Lui wanted to start a new band, playing the type of music we're performing now.
'I asked Tommy if he wanted to join and he said 'as long as Chick isn't playing drums' – which I wasn't because I was playing guitar, so it worked out.'
Ever since the band was formed, they have been practising in Chick and Lui's dad's house in Forres.
They became even more familiar with the practise room during the Covid pandemic.
The band used the time that afforded to better promote themselves, which led to the group gaining attention from new fans in England and Wales.
Only a week ago, musicians Shaun Middleton and Euan Campbell, both from Inverness, joined the band.
Euan, 19, is now the youngest member and was originally a fan of Bad Actress.
So, when he was asked to play drums for them it was a 'full circle moment'.
Meanwhile, Shaun, 37, also joined as a permanent member a week ago.
'People compare us to a lot of different bands,' said Chick, who revealed band members take inspiration from acts such as AC/DC, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Van Halen, The 1975 and Tenacious D.
'A lot of people describe our music as a mix of glam and hard rock.'
Bad Actress are particularly looking forward to their gig at the Tooth and Claw in Inverness on June 13 as well as a show in Elgin on August 30.
'The show is really important to us,' Chick added.
'We love performing with a bit more flair.'
Lui, who is from Forres, was previously the drummer for Bad Actress.
Now he's now the lead singer.
In fact, MacMoray was only his second time performing as a vocalist.
He said: 'Our top goal would obviously be a stadium tour.
'That would be amazing and that's what we're working towards.'
Donnie Squair is manager of Elgin Town Hall and first watched Lui – then just nine – and Chick perform at the Wall of Rock in Lossiemouth in 2014.
He knew right away they had something special.
When asked if he thinks Bad Actress can make it big, he is very optimistic.
'The potential they have, the people they're meeting, the bands they're playing with, the audiences they're getting, I really can see it,' he said.
'When they played MacMoray, they held their own on that stage.
'You could see the talent years ago, and they're just something else now.'
With an album in the works and a line-up of gigs and festival performances for the rest of the year, who knows what they will do next.