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Photograph by Chris Corpora
Playing the Piper: Bruce Cotter, a regular at the King's Head Pub Celtic music jams, has been playing the Highland pipes for 16 years.
Guinness Gracious
The King's Head Pub is a staunch champion of Campbell's Celtic heritage
By Sarah Gaffney
'Everybody thinks 'Campbell--prunes,' " says Sam Summerscales, owner of the King's Head Pub and Restaurant in downtown Campbell. "Sorry. It goes back a little bit further than that," he laughs.
Summerscales, whose lilting Yorkshire accent brings to mind hot tea and scones, is determined to reintroduce Campbell's Celtic heritage to a city known more for its dried wrinkled fruit than for its warm woolen tartans.
Working with the downtown association, the English-bred businessman helped create Celtic Heritage Week, Campbell's annual weeklong celebration of all things Celtic.
"[The town] was founded by a Celt, Benjamin Campbell I think was his name," says Summerscales. "This is a Celtic community. ... I'm from England but I must have a Celtic heart. I've done the Scottish games in this area now for 16 years. ... I don't know why, I just have this thing for Celtic."
For the past 16 months, Summerscales has been running the show at the King's Head, where lovers of pub grub feast on traditional smashed peas, fish and chips and tall pints of Guinness. And, for those with a love for the fiddle and pipes, the cavernous pub hosts Thursday night seisun's--an intimate fireside gathering of eight to 10 musicians improvising Celtic music on traditional instruments such as the fiddle and uillean pipes.
Like the pubs of England and Ireland, audience members at the King's Head are encouraged to sit near the musicians and take part in the music and song.
"We get a lot of famous musicians and bands mid-week ... we've had some really, really talented people through here," boasts Summerscales, who had musicians from last summer's Guinness Fleadh perform at the pub.
Bruce Cotter, who has played the Highland pipes for 16 years, started playing at the King's Head last New Year's Eve as a last-minute replacement for a piper who didn't make it to the party. Since then, he's been a regular performer at the pub's Thursday night sessions.
"I don't get paid to play at the sessions. I do it because it's a fun thing to do," says the Los Gatos resident. "It's a good atmosphere. A British pub owned by British people. My friends show up dressed in their kilts and get half price on their beers."
For Summerscales, who owned pubs in England before emigrating to the United States, the best thing about being a publican is the customers.
"If you ask any of the customers who come in, they treat this as their pub. They give so much back to this pub ... people just bring things in and say, 'Can I stick this on the wall?'" says Summerscales, pointing to walls adorned with knives, swords, plaques, and the 140-pound caber used in Campbell's Highland Games. "It's their pub."
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Campbell, California
