But life with traditional music line-up Jiggerypipery, based in Exeter in the south of England, is a world away from his past as a founding member of Irish punk band The Boomtown Rats.

The Rats, fronted by Bob Geldof, released their first single, Looking After Number One at the height of punk's beginnings in 1977, and it went straight into the UK singles chart. The band rode that success into their second album, including singles such as She's So Modern and Rat Trap, which became the first-ever song by an Irish band to reach number one in the UK. The Rats' second number one in 1979, I Don't Like Mondays, is probably the band's best-known song, but by 1985, the band was beginning to go its separate ways.

Looking back, Simon says: "I think the Boomtown Rats was a pop band really. We invented our own style – we were out to be successful, but not in the sense of wanting to be celebrities – though that was possibly an ambition of Sir Bob's. But we got to go around the world a couple of times – and we sold a lot of records!"

Simon moved to the West Country in the early Eighties had been playing informally with fellow musicians, including some ceilidh music, when he met Jiggerypipery's cittern-player Tony Bayliss. Tony had already been playing alongside piper James Robertson, who has in his time been a pipe major in the Scots Guards, and is the band's writer.

Simon explained: "Tony wanted to put a rhythm section around the music he had been playing with James. So we tried out a few ideas. With my background as a rock drummer, and not being from a Celtic music background, it was exciting for me.

Simon Crowe.

"When I was growing up in Ireland, traditional music was about the most uncool thing. But when I heard what Tony and James and fiddler Carl were playing, it whetted my appetite. And things have gone on from there."

Two albums have followed, and now the band is touring further afield.

* Jiggerypipery plays the Phipps Hall, Beauly, on Saturday.

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