Jesse Rae: Pilgrim

Can there be any more literal definition of a cult hero than an artist who dresses every day in full Highland battle dress – kilt, helmet, claymore sword and all? The story of this self-styled "funk warrior' from the Scottish Borders town of St Boswells may be one of the weirdest and most maverick untold tales in British pop.

After initially making his way to the US as the bassist in a heavy metal band, in the 1970s and 1980s Jesse Rae became a close companion and collaborator with some of the great American funk musicians of the era – Parliament-Funkadelic and Talking Heads' synthesiser guru Bernie Worrell, the talk-box loving Roger Troutman of G-funk progenitors Zapp and Roger (as sampled on 2Pac's California Love), as well as Keith LeBlanc and Doug Wimbish from the Sugarhill Records house band (as featured on White Lines and The Message) and many more. Between 1979 and 1987, with a little help from his friends, Rae penned a raft of slick, groovy, camp and not a little bit silly synth-funk singles, full of Celtic bon mots, sung with a thick Scottish flourish and accompanied by surreal, self-directed videos. He wrote Odyssey's 1982 hit single Inside Out and more or less disappeared having released just one major album, 1984's The Thistle.

His other brushes with celebrity and infamy include: winning an award judged by Francis Ford Coppola for his film-making prowess (Rae was way ahead of his time in advocating DIY video-making, and used to carry a camera with him everywhere he went); working as an assistant at the legendary Record Plant recording studio in Los Angeles around the time its owner Gary Kellgren drowned mysteriously in a swimming pool in 1977 and being an independent candidate in the UK general election  stating "We all should work together. We will, because the Scots are … funky.'

In recent years he has made somewhat of a reappearance opening for kindred spirit, Adam Ant, in extravagant costumes at shows in London and Glasgow. In 2012 Roddy Frame performed an acoustic cover of Inside Out at a show in Paisley, after recounting how when he was in Boston recording with Aztec Camera in the 1980s, he repeatedly used to be asked about the mysterious Scot in the kilt who had come in search of American funk before him. His 1984 album The Thistle was reissued last year too. And now, he's coming to Hoochie Coochie so head down and give this funk warrior a salute. He'll be the guy in the kilt and helmet wielding a claymore.