Greg Lawson & Donald Shaw with Sorren Maclean - Night Flight '75

Night Flight ’75 marks the 50th anniversary of the Mull Air Mystery.

Peter Gibbs, the pilot who took off from Glenforsa airstrip that Christmas Eve, flew Spitfires during the war and later became a renowned violinist and leader of many orchestras including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

We felt it was important to commemorate the life of a fellow musician with some specially recorded new tunes. Apart from the excerpts of J.S Bach’s violin sonata No.1, this record was composed and performed by Donald Shaw and Greg Lawson with Sorren Maclean and recorded in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull.

Through Greg’s years performing with national orchestras, he had heard stories about Gibbs flying his own plane to concerts while flour bombing the orchestra bus below. Donald actually lived in the same Glasgow west end flat that previously belonged to Peter Gibbs. Sorren is a Mull musician. There seemed to be more than an element of synchronicity in bringing the project together.

Our pilot borrowed a plane from Ian Hamilton, one of the 4 students who took the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey in 1950 (coincidentally also on Christmas Eve). He left Glenforsa on the morning of December 24th with his girlfriend Felicity Grainger, flew to Broadford on the Isle of Skye, returned to Mull and then, after dinner that evening, he took off for what ended up being his final flight. One rumour at the time suggested an unidentified person came into his Glasgow flat in the early hours of Christmas morning.

His plane - Tango November, a Cessna F150H, vanished that night and was never conclusively found. Peter Gibbs’ body was discovered 4 months later on a nearby hillside lying over a larch tree. The minimal injuries on his body are still a mystery to this day.

What really happened can only be guessed at, but let’s raise a glass to high flying musicians everywhere.