The Band from Rockall The Band from Rockall The Band from Rockall is a duo and solo project of Runrig songwriters Calum and Rory Macdonald. It is also the title of their debut self-titled bilingual album in English and Gaelic "The Band from Rockall" (long title being "The Band from Rockall: The Solo Project from Calum and Rory Macdonald"). The duo's name comes from Rockall, a remote rocky uninhabited islet in the North Atlantic Ocean, lying 300 miles west of the Scottish mainland. This was chosen by the brothers as a point 'half-way' between their native North Uist and the United States, representing both
Rockall from 26 May 1985 to 4 July 1985 to affirm the UK's claim to the islet. In 1997, the environmentalist organisation Greenpeace occupied the islet for a short time, calling it Waveland, to protest against oil exploration. Greenpeace declared the island to be a "new Global State" (in this case qualifying it as a micronation) and offered citizenship to anyone willing to take their pledge of allegiance. The British Government's response was to state that "anyone is free to go there" and otherwise ignore them. During his one night on Rockall, Greenpeace protester and Guardian journalist John Vidal unscrewed the