Norman McArthur

Antiwar songs by Norman McArthur

Norman MacArthur is a piper and singer/songwriter in the Gaelic group Meantime. Along with his bandmates he is one of very few who are actually writing contemporary songs in Gaelic. 'I wrote this song after seeing images on the news of Scottish soldiers in the the Black Watch regiment marching into Basra in Iraq being led by the pipes playing The Black Bear. I felt quite confused by what I felt. On the one hand I was proud of them, on the other I was angry. Scottish soldiers fighting and dying under a British flag. Indeed fighting under an American flag in an illegal war. It reminded me of footage from the First and Second World Wars yet here we are again listening to and following the piper playing the same old tune.' www.meantimeinfo.co.uk