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Press and Journal
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Press and Journal
Beloved Inverness busker John Casey on tough start in Highlands, 30 years at Victorian Market and how city centre has changed
It was 1992 when John Casey jumped on a train to Inverness with only his dog Frank and his guitar. Heartbroken after splitting up with his girlfriend at the time, he needed to get away from Edinburgh where he had lived for the previous 10 years. He has never left the Highland capital and today, 32 years later, he is well-known by pretty much every man and woman in Inverness. Mr Cassey, now 69, can often be seen busking at the Victorian Market with Moby, his five-year-old Dalmatian. He sings and plays the guitar under a sign that reads: 'Mr John Cassey is the only busker authorised by the private traders to busk in this private section of the market.' Mr Casey was born in Blackburn, West Lothian, but moved to Edinburgh in 1982. While staying in the capital, he made a living from pub gigs after previously being in a band in his teenage years and then as part of a duo named Stella's Baby with his friend Metcalfe. Mr Casey told the P&J he 'was born with a musical brain'. He added: 'I was just born lucky, because I can't read or write music but if I hear a song I can learn it just by memory and I'll get the chords.' He started playing the guitar at age 12 and wrote his first song at 16. Mr Casey explained: 'I wrote it after a breakup with my first girlfriend, and it was my first sad song. 'It was the late 60s, early 70s when I was teaching myself how to play the guitar, so I was listening to songwriters who were becoming big, James Taylor, Don McLean, Ralph McTell. It was all about singer-songwriters at that time. 'And that's what I started doing, you know, introverted, lonely, sad singer, writing all these songs about how miserable they are.' The 69-year-old still sings what he considers his best hit, That's the Difference, a country love song he wrote aged 17 inspired by the music of Kris Kristofferson. After a decade in Edinburgh, Mr Casey decided to move up to Inverness following a break-up. He said: 'I was heartbroken, I had to move away. I'd been up here before. I first came up when I was 17. 'I hitchhiked up and sang at the Market Bar. That would be around 1973. And during the 70s, I hitchhiked up and down a lot because I always loved it.' The night before his big trip, he was beaten up by a bunch of guys near Cowgate. 'There were random things happening between different factions and I was walking and got jumped by about three guys and they just kicked me for a while and then ran off laughing,' he explained. The pain didn't stop him from jumping on the train to Inverness the day after. However, he started having second thoughts by the time the service reached Aviemore. He said: 'I started to see the white on the ground. And I was thinking, am I making a mistake? Should I have stayed where I was?' Things did not get easier in the following months, as he slept in a tent near the Ness Islands for the first months from November until March. He added: 'It was a bad winter, with a lot of snow and frost'. But the musician said 'stubbornness' kept him going. 'Once I'd made the move, I wasn't going back,' he said. When he arrived in Inverness, he could not get any gigs at pubs because dogs were not allowed in for most of them. Mr Casey had travelled to Inverness with Frank, his first dog, an 11-year-old semi-stray named after Frank Sinatra. He said: 'I found that hardly any places let dogs in, so I couldn't get any gigs, so I decided to try busking. 'I was really nervous, of course. I mean, I'd sung in front of people, and I never got nervous, but for some reason busking made me really nervous at the beginning. However, he soon found his rhythm and started making a living out of it. He explained that busking was 'successful straight from the start.' He said: 'The fact is, it's gotten less and less and less over the years because there are a lot fewer people in the town centre. 'A lot of the shops closed down, a lot of the offices moved away from the centre. I made more money during the 90s than I do now.' The experienced busker started playing six days a week, three and a half hours per day. He is now doing about an hour and a half three days a week. 'My voice won't go any further than that. I want it to last,' he said. However, he does not think about retirement. He said: 'Busking is absolutely the ideal way to make a living, because it's not work. 'I just walk out with my guitar and start singing, and that's it.' Mr Cassey initially busked outside the Victorian Market entrance on Union Street. However, he said there was another busker coming to town who started bullying him. He explained: 'He started bullying me out. Two or three of the traders got to hear about this, and that's when they put the sign up for me through there. So that put a stop to him. 'It means I've always got a pitch, you know, and it's dry. So, it's a fantastic thing.' Most of the songs he plays are from the 1960s and 1970s, as he says that 'everybody is still into the 60s'. 'I get a lot of attention from the high school kids on Fridays, when they leave school early, and they ask for the Beatles, the Stones, Pink Floyd and Dylan,' he explained. Mr Casey's favourite band is the Beatles and his favourite singer is Frank Sinatra. However, his preferred song at the moment is Piano Man by Billy Joel. He said: 'It's a great song, and everybody knows it. And it's one of those songs that every time I sing it, at least one person walks past mouthing the words.' Over his more than three decades of busking, Mr Casey has collected several generous donations while performing. Many years ago, a lady in her 90s gave him an envelope with £1,000 in £50 notes. Another woman once gave him a £100 voucher for shoes. 'I must have looked as if I needed them,' he joked. He added: 'Somebody gave me a basket of fruit once. 'I don't drink anymore, but when I drank somebody bought me a bottle of malt whisky. 'I've also had flowers. All sorts of random strange things.' After over three decades in the Highland capital, Mr Casey describes the people of Inverness as exceedingly 'friendly' He said: 'I noticed that when I first came up. People said good morning to me and that had never happened to me before. 'People that I'd never met, you know, saying 'good morning' and 'It's a lovely day.' The people are just so friendly.' Meanwhile, he thinks Inverness is a good city for busking. He said: 'I don't know financially, because that's never been a priority for me. 'I've never really had a burning ambition to be world famous or anything like that. So, this is just ideal for me. 'You know, it's just ideal. I feel like I did make it. And I've spent the last 30 years doing this and having a nice time.'
Press and Journal
25-05-2025
- Press and Journal
Weekend court roll – hotel sex attacks and a Highland League footballer bares all
Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases. An Aberdeen domestic abuser who throttled a woman with such force she heard her eye 'pop' has been jailed. Derry Low, 23, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, where he admitted a sustained and violent catalogue of abuse against his former partner over four years. It was stated that Low, who has two previous convictions for domestic abuse, repeatedly strangled and beat the woman. During one incident, the woman's neck was being gripped so hard she heard something next to her eye 'pop'. A man struggled with a door supervisor after being refused entry to a city centre bar, a court has been told. Thomas Troup had appeared 'under the influence' when he tried to get in to the Market Bar in Inverness. But when he was tod he could not come in he remonstrated with staff – resulting in a 'struggle'. Troup, 46, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a single charge of threatening or abusive behaviour in relation to the incident on July 7 last year. A man who had to be PAVA-sprayed to stop him from attacking a police officer has been jailed. Jason Mullen had overpowered the policeman, straddling him and delivering blows before the incapacitating spray was deployed. The assault took place after a man was found slumped in an alleyway near Inverness Library, the city's sheriff court heard. Mullen, 24, appeared from custody before Sheriff Sara Matheson to admit charges of threatening or abusive behaviour and assaulting the officer. A man has appeared in court in connection with a serious assault in Westhill. Police were called to the Meikle Gardens area of Westhill following reports of a woman being assaulted shortly before 6.30am on Friday. Now, 26-year-old Stuart Murison has appeared in private at Aberdeen Sheriff Court. Murison, of Aberdeenshire, is accused of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement and two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner. A sex offender with hopes of living in Peterhead following his release from prison has been jailed again for breaching his court order by contacting women online. Sandy Ross, who is not allowed to speak to women on the internet or electronically without notifying the police, was back in the dock last week. At an earlier hearing of the case against him, the 32-year-old who is currently on remand in HMP Grampian, admitted to adding two women to Facebook group chats so he could speak to them, and to causing a teenager fear and alarm when he showed up brandishing a weapon at her door. Sentence had been deferred for background reports until last Friday. An Aberdeen thug threatened to 'chop off' the private parts of a neighbour who owed his friend money, a court has heard. Lee Davidson appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, where he admitted making blood-curdling threats to the man while standing outside his flat in the Sheddocksley area of the city. Davidson, 39, uttered a series of threats, at one point telling the terrified man that his moneylender friend would 'kill him' if he didn't cough up what he owed. He then told the man, who lived only doors away from Davidson, he would 'chop off' his private parts – or find someone who could. A careless driver turned into the path of a car on the A9 and caused a crash that left a grandmother seriously injured. Deborah Crawford made the careless manoeuvre at the Tain junction near to the Asda supermarket, causing the other car to swerve and collide with a wall. The resulting crash left a passenger in the other vehicle – a grandmother returning from a day out with her husband and grandchild – with multiple broken bones. Crawford, 45, appeared at Tain Sheriff Court for sentencing having admitted a single charge of causing serious injury by careless driving. An arsonist told a woman who ended a relationship with him that a body bag for one would be needed before starting a fire at her Aberdeen home. Colin Forbes sent a number of threatening messages to his victim before arriving at the property with a jerry can of petrol and sparking a blaze. Forbes, 52, appeared calm as he left the scene of the fire in Deveron Road, in Aberdeen, and later claimed to police that a friend phoned him and told him the house was petrol bombed. He admitted wilfully setting fire to the front door of the house in the Mastrick area of the city on March 16 last year, causing damage after previously showing malice and ill will towards an ex-partner. Two Indian restaurateurs from Peterhead have been convicted of sexually assaulting a pair of teenage girls after taking them on an all-expenses-paid night out in Aberdeen. Zara's Indian Cuisine chef Muhammad Abdur Rakib and manager Muhammad Abdul Kaium stood trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, and a jury found them guilty after four days of evidence. Their victims – who were aged 16 and 17 – described how the men, both aged 37, took them to a nightclub for drinks before leading them to a city-centre hotel. Rakib, who was described as being the head chef at the Indian restaurant during the trial and as an Uber delivery driver in his police interview, was found guilty of sexually assaulting both of the girls in a room at the Mercure Hotel on Union Terrace. Every day our reporters are sitting in courtrooms around the area and now you can get their stories sent directly to you, five days a week. A careless driver turned into the path of a car on the A9 and caused a crash that left a grandmother seriously injured. Deborah Crawford made the careless manoeuvre at the Tain junction near to the Asda supermarket, causing the other car to swerve and collide with a wall. The resulting crash left a passenger in the other vehicle – a grandmother returning from a day out with her husband and grandchild – with multiple broken bones. Crawford, 45, appeared at Tain Sheriff Court for sentencing having admitted a single charge of causing serious injury by careless driving. An Aberdeen man has been jailed after being caught behind the wheel while banned for an eighth time. Robert Razey, 31, was banned from driving for eight years in February last year but has now received an additional four-year disqualification and a jail term for once again flouting the law. Sheriff William Summers told him: 'It seems you are incapable of obeying court orders.' Razey was spotted driving a silver Audi TT on Aberdeen's Auchmill Road by patrolling traffic police. A Banffshire farm has been fined £20,000 after a worker died when his hood became trapped in machinery. Adam Currie, 24, was strangled by the moving parts of a potato conveyor at Melrose Farms near Gardenstown, a court was told. While Mr Currie had received training for his employment, no guard had been fitted to the rollers of the machine. Melrose Farms appeared in Inverness Sheriff Court and admitted a single charge of failing to take effective measures to prevent anyone coming into contact with dangerous moving parts of the machinery, resulting in Mr Currie's death. A Moray man who once claimed it was a 'drunken mistake' when he sent a 13-year-old girl photographs of his private parts has appeared in court after he committed the same offence for a second time. Callum Bowie, 23, was convicted of communicating indecently with a child in 2022 after sending the photos and video to the child over Snapchat. His solicitor at the time argued that Bowie's actions were a 'drunken mistake' and there was 'no risk' that would require him to be added to the sex offenders register. However, less than a year after that court appearance, Bowie was back on Snapchat and communicating indecently with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl. A man has been placed on the sex offenders register after he sent his social worker a series of 'deplorable' sexual text messages Robert Hutchison, 56, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted to sending several messages to the woman over a weekend. These started out apparently innocently, as Hutchison discussed wallpaper, but became increasingly distressing. Hutchison has a previous conviction for exposing himself and performing a solo sex act at his window in 2023. A Deeside care home has been fined after a 95-year-old vulnerable resident was injured in a fall. Cubanhall Limited, which owns and runs Annesley House in Torphins, admitted breaching health and safety laws over the incident, which happened in June 2023. The company directors, husband and wife team Alan and Winifred Cordiner, sat in the public gallery of Aberdeen Sheriff Court as details of the case were read out. Depute fiscal David Glancy described the layout of 36-bedroomed Annesley House, explaining that one of the two residents' lounges on the ground floor was 'supervised'. A repeat offender who got locked out of his house in his underwear and became violent has been jailed. Lee Fairbairn appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, where he admitted hurling verbal threats to police when they met him on Park Street, Aberdeen, in April this year. Standing in his boxer shorts, the 38-year-old told the two officers he would 'burst' them and 'put the hit' on them. He then kicked one of them as they tried to get him into a police van. A Tain man was caught with more than 200 indecent images of children stored on his devices. Police seized mobile phones, a hard drive and laptop from Peter Foster's home and found sick photos of children aged six to 15. Some of the photographs were classed as category A – showing the most serious abuse. Foster, 49, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a single charge relating to the downloading of the material. A Highland League footballer has been fined after admitting a charge of public indecency during a night out in Aberdeen. Cameron Heslop, 24, who plays for Huntly FC, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to admit exposing his penis whilst on Union Street last year. The court heard that shortly after midnight on September 8 last year, Heslop was walking from Union Street to Bon Accord Street and stopped in front of a police van, which was stationary at the traffic lights. Fiscal depute Kirsty Martin said: '[Heslop] was observed walking in front of the police van and he then stopped to face them. Every day our reporters are sitting in courtrooms around the area and now you can get their stories sent directly to you, five days a week. A man has been jailed after he carried out a brutal revenge attack inside the halls of Elgin Sheriff Court. Lossiemouth man Tony Arbuthnot permanently disfigured his victim during the assault, which saw him kick and punch the man to the ground and then flee the scene. Defence solicitor Brent Lockie told Inverness Sheriff Court that his client, who pleaded guilty to assaulting his victim to his permanent disfigurement, had been the recipient of an earlier attack involving members of the man's family. The man was waiting for his case to be called at Elgin Sheriff Court on March 24 last year when Arbuthnot, 26, saw him emerge from the waiting room and repeatedly punched him. A Buckie man who told fast food workers he should be allowed to order from the drive-thru because he 'identifies as a car' went on to make a series of racist remarks. Ryan Morrison appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court on Thursday for sentencing after having earlier admitted to acting in an aggressive manner at the McDonald's restaurant on Linkwood Place on March 26 this year. Deferring sentence on the case for one month, Sheriff David Harvie branded the 39-year-old's behaviour 'appalling'. The court heard that Morrison's tirade at the McDonald's came just hours after he was released on bail at Elgin Sheriff Court. A Nairn man has been jailed after sexually assaulting two girls. One of Gary Powell's victims was under 13 years old, the other under 16 at the time of the assaults in 2023. He told one of his victims: 'You are practically a woman,' and asked the other: 'Is this how you play with your boyfriend?' Powell, 67, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing, having previously admitted two counts of sexual assault, which took place between June 3 and August 20 of 2023. A pair who got involved in a vicious crack cocaine-induced baseball bat assault on their neighbour have been warned they are in the 'last chance saloon'. Callum Mathieson, 29, and Elizabeth Milne, 31, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where they admitted the assault at a flat in the Northfield area of the city. During a hallway scuffle, Mathieson struck his neighbour across the head with a baseball bat. Milne – who has a long record of previous convictions – then charged into the man's flat and attacked him. An HGV driver has been jailed after he hit a Land's End to John O'Groats charity cyclist on the A9, leaving him seriously injured. James McTaggart failed to spot James Baker as he drove north on the trunk road between Dunkeld and Pitlochry. Dashcam footage from his lorry was played to Inverness Sheriff Court and showed the moment he collided with Mr Baker's bicycle in the early hours of the morning. The court was told that later the same day, McTaggart tested positive for cocaine in a roadside drugs test – but it could not be conclusively proven he had been under the influence at the time of the collision.
