A VETERAN Scottish folk musician has been forced to change his name – from his own – due to the fame of Scottish darts champion Gary Anderson.
Gary Anderson has been playing the Angus and Montrose music scenes for years and has been gigging since he was 16 years old.
He has performed all over Scotland and in Europe but the prominence of his namesake darts world champion has ruined the musician’s online presence.
He says it has become particularly hard to find his music on the web and has decided to create a new stage name – Kinnaber Junction.
Kinnaber Junction is the name of a railway junction on the North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway, located less than a hundred of metres from Gary’s house.
Gary informed fans of the name change on January 1 and plans to launch a website for the new project in the near future.
Gary said: “There are a few reasons for the change but chiefly, due to the top darts player Gary Anderson it was very difficult to find any of my material online.
“Why Kinnaber Junction? When I started planning the new album I decided to do it differently than previous and invite musicians I’d crossed paths with over the years.
“Some of them I have known for years and some for a fairly short time but all made a huge impact on me and I know they would all bring loads to the album.
“What does this have to do with Kinnaber Junction? KJ is a railway junction about 100 yards from our house. It used to be the point where the east and west lines converged before heading north to Aberdeen.
“For me the album is like a convergence of ideas and musicians who I’ve wanted to work with and therefore it seems like the ideal name.”
Darts player Gary Anderson, from Musselburgh, East Lothian, won the Professional Darts Corporation World Championship in 2015 and retained the title last year.
He is currently ranked as the second best darts player in the world.
The two Gary Andersons are not the only pair to have troubles with sharing a name.
In 2010, Justin Bieber, from Jacksonville, Florida, claimed he had been kicked off Facebook because the social networking site believed he was using a fake name.
Paul McCartney, a law partner from Cincinatti, Ohio said of sharing his name with his Beatles-star namesake: “The good thing is people tend to remember you and the bad thing is that they remember you.”
In 2015, a girl called Beyonce told the Humans of New York Facebook page:
“When the teacher started calling attendance, I got really nervous, because every time people learn my name is Beyoncé, somebody starts singing ‘Single Ladies.”
