Founding the Liam Colgan Fund
A new memorial fund has been established by the family of Liam Colgan, a former graduate of the University of the Highlands and Islands.
The Liam Colgan Fund will create two annual awards for music students at the University of the Highlands and Islands. The Liam Colgan songwriting award and The Liam Colgan music production award will provide students with the opportunity to develop and enhance their song writing and performing skills and keep Liam’s music alive.
Liam, from Inverness, began his musical studies in 2006 receiving an HNC in music at North Highland College UHI Alness campus. He went on to gain a BA (Hons) in popular musical performance at Perth College UHI in 2010. At university he joined the band Waterday, with friends Johnny Tait, Danny Kelly and Jordan McKay. As a four piece the group played a number of venues in Glasgow, the most prestigious being at King Tuts. He later formed a two-piece band, Old Old Wooden Ship, with lifelong friend Sean Fleming before continuing to perform as a solo artist.
In setting up the award his father, Brian said:
“Liam’s family and close friends were devastated by his untimely death. I wanted to find a way of ensuring that something positive came out of this devastation. I originally planned to set up a separate charity to achieve this but once I had been in touch with the university to explain my plans, they couldn’t have been more helpful and already had a framework in place which fulfilled all of my objectives – to help students who were following the same path as Liam did; and to try to make Liam’s music available to as wide an audience as possible.”
The Liam Colgan songwriting award will give an aspiring songwriter the opportunity to study the art and craft of songwriting with a master songwriter of their choice. The Liam Colgan music production award will provide an opportunity to study the art and science of music production through tuition or studio time with a renowned producer of their choice.
Peter Honeyman, Creative and Cultural Industries Subject Network Leader at the university, said:
“We remember Liam as an inspirational and highly committed performer and composer who impressed us all at Perth College UHI with his enthusiasm and energy. Songwriting was his passion and we are delighted that this generous award will allow others to further pursue their own ambitions and dreams. Liam’s memory will live on in this award and the work of those who benefit from
Liam was just 29 when he tragically went missing in Hamburg in the early hours of 10 February 2018 whilst on his brother Eamonn’s stag weekend. Eamonn and his friends launched a multinational publicity campaign to help find Liam. However, efforts sadly proved to be in vain and Liam’s body was recovered from the river Elbe on 23 April 2018.
Alison Wilson, the university’s Head of Development, said:
“We are very grateful to Liam’s family for thinking of giving back to the university in this way and it’s lovely to know that Liam will now be remembered for helping other music students. We hope that others might also consider donating to the fund to add to the generous gift we have received from the Colgan family to establish these awards.”
Donations to this fund can be made by visiting the University of the Highlands and Islands development page, where you can listen and enjoy some of Liam’s music.
University of the Highlands and Islands music students wishing to be considered for these awards should express their interest to David Watt, Sector Manager, Music and Music Business (david.watt.perth@uhi.ac.uk) by Monday 2 September.