‘I can empathise with how people suffer’: Callum Beattie chats and sings on visit to Caithness mental health charity

Callum Beattie spoke about the therapeutic value of music when he visited a mental health charity in Caithness at the weekend.

The Scottish singing star, who was in the county as headline act at the Tunes By the Dunes festival, emphasised how the words of a song can help someone feel they are not alone.

Callum spent more than an hour on Saturday talking to service users at Stepping Stones in Thurso, one of two centres run by Caithness Mental Health Support Group. Service users from the group’s Wick centre, The Haven, also attended.

Callum (34), who comes from Musselburgh, has helped raise around £600,000 for good causes and is a patron of Mikeysline, the Highland mental health and suicide prevention charity.

He was appearing at Tunes By the Dunes, in Dunnet, for a second successive year.

After chatting informally to the group of more than 30 service users, Callum picked up an acoustic guitar and sang his forthcoming single, Something In My Eye, which he says is “based around mental health”. It will be released at the end of this month, with part of the proceeds going to Mikeysline.

He then played an unplugged version of his 2020 single Salamander Street.

“I kind of fell into charity work, really, in the last few years,” Callum explained afterwards.

“I started off helping people suffering from addiction and homelessness in Edinburgh with a charity called Steps to Hope. From there we’ve basically kept our charity work going.

“Between myself and my manager [Dave Rogers] we’ve raised around £600,000 for different charities.

“I’ve struggled with mental health over the years, probably more than I realised actually at times, so I can empathise with how people suffer. It’s a constant battle, so if there’s any little thing I can do to help then it kind of helps me as well.

“Songwriting is therapeutic – it’s putting your words and your feelings and your thoughts and your worries and anxieties and all that onto a bit of paper and turning it into a beautiful thing, something creative. It helps people to dissect things and makes them feel like they’re not alone, and that other people feel like this as well.”

Dave added: “We get so many messages from people saying ‘this helps me’ or ‘the lyric in this song resonated with me’. You actually start to realise that it really does make a difference.”

The video for Something In My Eye, filmed by Simon Hay from the Black Isle, features actors Sam Heughan and Richard Rankin.

Meanwhile, Callum is working on a new album and has some tour dates planned, including appearances in Inverness and Aberdeen.

Callum’s visit to Stepping Stones came on Chris Mackenzie’s last day as group manager of Caithness Mental Health Support Group before retiring. Chris spent 15 years in the role, having been in the police for 30 years before that.

“I think people can identify when somebody is really genuine about talking about mental health, and Callum Beattie is very honest on that front about his experiences through his life,” Chris said.

“He has been a fantastic supporter of mental health, homelessness and vulnerable people and I think that shone through in the interaction he had with our service users when they came up to him individually and said that his songs really touched them.

“He was obviously writing from a point of view of what his lived experience was, and you just can’t replicate that. That’s just genuine, and they feel that.

“We’re delighted that he said he would like to come back every year he’s up here.”

North Coast Entertainments, the voluntary organisation that runs the annual Tunes By the Dunes festival, issued a statement saying: “The primary aim of North Coast Entertainments is to promote music and the wider arts in the north of Scotland. However, there are secondary purposes to the organisation such as encouraging social interaction and where possible assisting community groups or projects.

“The session at Stepping Stones is a prime example of the type of initiative we are absolutely delighted to get behind and use the relationships we have generated over the years to facilitate the necessary connections. The reaction Callum generated was heart-warming to say the least and a very timely reminder that each and every one of us faces challenges daily, nothing has to be permanent, and situations can be overcome through support, talking, listening and showing people that they matter.

“Watching the interaction was very powerful and extremely rewarding. As a committee we would once again like to extend our thanks once again to Callum Beattie and Dave Rogers for creating time in their busy schedules and making the effort to come to Stepping Stones, Chris Mackenzie from Caithness Mental Health Support Group, and last but by no means least all the people that participated – they were the real stars.”

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