Round Two

Greetings, again!

I return, as promised, to chat to you all about my second weekend down in Glasgow for Celtic Connections. This time it was just Hannah MacRae and I who got the opportunity to go through the NC Music course we're studying at West Highland College UHI in Fort William. This three day trip was actually a proper residency in all of the other students' course(s), most studying the BA in music and most based in the Uist campus, but Hannah and I were encouraged to tag along as it would be good experience for us, especially considering our preferred music genre. We had only been back home for three days since the last trip when we had another early start on the Thursday morning to get the first bus down to Glasgow.

The whole trip was virtually based in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, which I had not entered before last week and have now been in it about 23958 times. The first thing on the agenda that we managed to catch the end of was a presentation in the Lomond Foyer by award-winning actress, singer and director Gerda Stevenson. She was mainly giving advice on performance and very useful tips were given on things such as stage presence and preparation for a show. Groups of students who were performing that weekend each had a turn to enter the "stage" and present exactly what they would if it were a proper performance, then Gerda gave them feedback. Even though we didn't see the presentation the whole way through, I still took away a good few tips from this lovely lady.

Then we had some time to go for a wander, check into our hotel, grab some food (we opted for Nando's) then make our way to the Open Mic Night at the Old Hairdressers. There's a bit of a funny story there actually... You see, Hannah and I are not the most experienced with city life, and city navigation in particular. There was me thinking I was so responsible and prepared having screenshotted the simple directions to said 'Old Hairdressers' earlier in the day, and then en route just as we were thinking "yeah, we're making really good time for once!" we followed the directions down a couple more slightly shady looking streets... and right enough, as you may have been able to guess, on checking my phone once more I discovered that we were being directed not the Old Hairdressers pub and music venue but just to some random hairdressers on some unknown street! Mortified. Yet very amused. We managed to get there in the end though thankfully! The open mic night was all UHI students and contained a large variety of bands and styles of music. Hannah and I were feeling a bit tired from our early start but one act who made me really sit up and pay attention was a girl singing and playing the guitar from Colonsay I think, Caitlin McNeill. She was incredible! Not only her beautiful voice and fab guitar playing, but the songs she had written herself were just- wow. Hannah and I were sat there in envy and awe. That girl has a lot of talent and deserves recognition.

OH. Funny thing about our hotel room - by complete and utter chance, we just happened to be in the exact same room I was in the weekend before! Weeeeird... 

Anyway,

The next morning we made our way back to the Concert Hall for our wee slot on Celtic Music Radio presented by BBC Radio Scotland Young Musician of the Year 2013, Paddy Callaghan! There were UHI students going on and off from 11am till 2pm and Hannah and I were second on. We sang first a song we've arranged called Mo Ghleannan Taobh Loch Liobhainn then played a set of tunes we put together including our own composition, with questions about our playing and college course being asked in between. All went well, thankfully! Weren't too nervous or anything but dang was my mouth dry - not the best for singing, aha. Then Hannah and I stayed for the rest of the afternoon to watch all of the other groups on after us which was most enjoyable and I noted a couple of good songs I might steal for myself... mwahaha
A group I thought were particularly enjoyable were a band named Eabhal, they've just put themselves on facebook too so you should go check them out! I'm sure they'll give you all the deets about their cool new band there so I don't have to. 

Later in the afternoon there was a "Rhythm Wave workshop", a big Brazilian samba band thing led by a man who's name I've unfortunately forgotten! (if anyone could enlighten me on this, please do) He was very enthusiastic and got us all up on our feet moving, stomping, clapping then having a go of all the instruments. Then Scottish singer Aileen Ogilvie joined in and got us singing Gaelic songs. This was all topped of by a very entertaining performance featuring both the Brazilian band and Gaelic singer - very interesting indeed! Quite inspiring in a way that encouraged me to think more about mixing genres to create something which could end up being quite spectacular.

 Then as Hannah and I sadly weren't taking part in the concert on the Saturday (which I hope went well!) we had the rest of the day/night to ourselves! We had been swithering between going to see Blazin' Fiddles and co. at the Royal Concert Hall or Daimh and Skerryvore at the Old Fruitmarket - why put such great bands on on the same night?!! Decisions, decisions. We ended up getting tickets for Blazin' Fiddles and made our way there after a much needed meal at DiMaggio's and settled down for what was one of the most enjoyable concerts I've been to! It wasn't as mad as the likes of Treacherous Orchestra the week before but it was enjoyable in the way that there was a lovely balance of serenity and energy. I really, really, really liked the way they did this concert. The fact that they had Bruce MacGregor narrating it as if it were a live radio broadcast and each artist being called up when it was their go again, unlike your usual: support act, support act, main act. I also liked that there was a wee corner created on the stage with a couple of couches for those who weren't playing at the time to sit, complete with lamp. I feel this whole set up really worked for the kind of concert this was and helped to create just the right atmosphere for it. 

Blazin' Fiddles were the main attraction for most, but they had with them an abundance of fab musicians including the Inverness Gaelic Choir, Aoife O'Donovan, Adam Holmes and my absolute fave Rachel Sermanni, whom I have a particular soft spot for. Blazin' Fiddles played both lovely slow sets and very energetic ones which are enhanced greatly, I think, by their fantastic body language on the stage when they're playing. The same goes for everyone who performed there, they all just get so into it and that's what I think is possibly the most important thing about music and performing it for other people - enjoying it yourself!! 

I absolutely love Rachel Sermanni and she's been an inspiration to me for years now, and even though the other two singers were brilliant and I couldn't fault them at all, there's just something when Rachel performs. I feel like fairies could exist when I hear her drifting voice and watch her float up and down with the music on her shoeless feet. Magical.

After that wonderful performance ended with a joint heart-aching rendition of one of my favourite Scots songs ever, Ae Fond Kiss, we were left quite satisfied. However, it was only 9.50pm?! We couldn't possibly call it a night then...

To the Old Fruitmarket!

After a little more navigation with my map in one hand and compass in the other, we arrived at the Old Fruitmarket, sadly missing our slightly preferred band, Daimh, but just in time for Skerryvore starting! I'd never been inside the old Fruitmarket before but I had been told of it's beauty as a venue and this can be confirmed by our friend Eddie's reaction to the sight of it: He cried because it was so beautiful. Then he cried when telling Hannah that he'd cried. Then he cried when he told me, just at the thought of it. THRICE HE CRIED (sorry, Eddie) so if that doesn't convince you how nice it is I don't know what would. After buying some ridiculously priced drinks at the bar we wriggled our way in through the crowd down near the front where we danced away to our hearts content for the rest of the night. I've never actually felt compelled to go and listen to Skerryvore but lemme tell yi, they're a fab band live. Despite getting completely soaked through with a cup of beer by a stranger whilst wearing my nice non-washable tweed coat (woop) I had a fantastic time! We sadly didn't plan ahead enough and had to give the Festival Club a miss and head back to the hotel - there's always next year though! 

Hannah and I had a right good lie in on Saturday before we made our last way to the Concert Hall to purchase some memorabilia then scooted off home to Fort William on the 3 o'clock bus, getting back just in time to grab some food and have a quick change then head out again for our usual stint at the Highland hotel. All back to normal again...

I've most likely missed out some finer details but I hope this account of our eventful weekend has entertained you a bit! I certainly had a fab couple of weekends and can't wait to return to Celtic Connections some time in the future! 

Wired to the World

Fàilte!

Busy, busy weekend.

So basically participating in the Ceilidh Trail (please see previous posts...) leads on to a lot of other exciting opportunities even months afterwards and this is a prime example.

This all started with the Blas Festival after the summer; we got 2 extra gigs to play as the Ceilidh Trail at both Roy Bridge (again,see previous post: Irish for Elbow) and then in Eden Court in Inverness where we and loooooaads of other people/groups of young folk performed as "Cèol nam Fèis". So not only did everyone have to prepare their own sets to play, but there was extra practice time for everyone to get together and prepare/learn a big finale set in which more than 100 youths were playing together- which is pretty impressive I'd say!

That gig went spiffingly but was a while ago now, so we'll focus on the more recent one methinks. 

We were asked to perform at Celtic Connections in Glasgow! V exciting. Content-wise it was essentially just a repeat of our Inverness concert but this time in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, which I found looked a lot smaller from the stage than seated in the audience surprisingly. An obligatory train session took place on the way down to Glasgow from Fort William of course, then we all got a VERY EARLY NIGHT (pffft) as we were up early in the morning for concert preparations. And when I say early, I mean like 6.00am - not cool. Which was a bit irritating as we didn't actually do much till about half 11... BUT, I suppose there was a nice comfy couch in our dressing room which a sleepy me made good use of...

Despite being a little bit behind time, as that's just how it goes sometimes, the gig went really well! We only really got to do one set each but, hey, I ain't complaining. Then of course the big finale song and some tunes all together at the end. Really good response from the audience and we had a great time playing. Here are a couple of pics (not mine) of our set, more great pictures of the rest of the concert can be found here.

Then we were free to roam the city of our own accord! Fellow band members Eddie and Hannah and myself stayed another night and went to the Wired to the World event that was on in the concert hall. I'll admit, we didn't really read into what the show would consist of, we just knew Treacherous Orchestra were playing. The other acts were fab, especially Michael McGoldrick and co. but also the other two African originated bands, one led by who I swear must be the happiest man on earth with some of the best dance moves. But...

Treacherous Orchestra.

Wow. 

Absolutely incredible. If someone had told me a couple of years ago that I'd be at a gig where someone was head banging playing the accordion or there was a mosh pit to a couple of guys playing the whistle I would have laughed and cringed, but somehow these guys make it seem like the coolest thing on earth. I knew it would be good but this completely exceeded my expectations - definitely very high on my list of best ever gigs. Actually definitely the best trad/Scottish gig I've ever experienced. And that's exactly what it was: a whole experience, not just watching musicians perform. Their digital music is fantastic, don't get me wrong, but there's no way any of it compares to seeing it in a live venue. The guys have so much enthusiasm and energy that they clearly bounce off of each other with when performing and the band as a whole is bursting with character. I'd like to mention my love of the general dress code, and Adam's Sutherland's get-up in particular (which you can go see in videos for yourself). Even sat in the seats high above the rolling sea of sweaty bodies below I left this gig absolutely STOKED.
And on that note I'll leave you to go and investigate this incredible band for yourself, see if they're your kinda thing, and if so, for goodness sake get a ticket to see them live!! 

http://www.treacherousorchestra.com/



I'll be back again soon telling you about what will hopefully be another eventful few days playing at Celtic Connections again this weekend! 

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The Tavern

Hi there!

Despite having finished up there (for the time being) in October, I thought I'd give a wee explanation of our run of gigs we had in the Tavern, a restaurant/bar in Fort William High Street.
By 'we' I mean Liam and I.

Thanks to my mum, yet again, for getting us this fab gig - I swear she's basically my band manager. Liam and I had a lot of fun with this regular gig that started in the summer because it was just us two playing every Thursday night for a few hours with virtually no set-up required at all, no PA system or anything, which I particularly like because sound equipment and I are not the best of friends...
Also because of the cosy, friendly atmosphere which was a lot to do with the really nice folk that work there as well as the sort of customers they get. I think I liked playing in the Tavern because it's more of a restaurant really than a pub, and quite frankly some of the other pubs in town scare me a bit, aha. Well, I'm sure they're great but I prefer not to be hassled by loud drunk people when I'm playing, thank ye very muchos.

This gig got even better once I passed my driving test at the end of July (woo!) because it understandably got a lot easier transport-wise. Having such an informal gig once every week was great to give Liam and I the chance to, like, go over tunes, introduce each other to new tunes and ideas, arrange sets, discuss other gigs AND just get the craic, eyyyyy
Cause right now we don't really meet very regularly to practice (if at all) and I've got a few ideas and stuff for us and I just know his head will be spilling over with new tunes and plans for new sets and what not to present to me, as it always is.

And I'm not gonna lie, the Tavern was goooood monay. Lovely, generous people. Not only with our payment, but the amount of TIPS we got from customers! JEEZO. There was actually a man trying to shove a tenner into Liam's pocket once while we were still playing, I kid you not. It does surprise me sometimes how much people like us/our music, but of course i'm still really grateful for all of the lovely comments and praise we received as it's obviously very gratifying and also very encouraging for us.

So ultimately this was just a really fun gig for us to play, and I really hope we get asked back to play at some point next year!

Yaaay for slightly awkward posed photos!

Irish for Elbow

Despite the actual Ceilidh Trail tour having come to an end almost 5 weeks ago, the band's work is not finished just yet. On Friday the 5th of September we ("Feis Lochabair") joined other youthful, energetic traditional band Hò-rò and slightly less youthful yet more experienced musicians Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson for one of the first gigs of this year's Blas Festival. For those who don't know, the Blas Festival was set up to celebrate the culture of traditional music and Gaelic in the Highlands and consists of various (mainly musical) performances from a variety of different artists/bands in several venues and locations over the area. This year it's running from the 5th - 13th of September.

Our venue on Friday was the local(ish) village hall in Roy Bridge. It was nice to be reunited with the band yet the fact that we hadn't played as a full ensemble in over a month was, I imagine, lurking in the back of all our minds. We had nothing to worry about though as our little opening 15 minute slot consisting of our 3 most polished and entertaining sets (I refer largely to our step-dancing set here, starring Hannah, Joanne and their fancy shoes) went down a treat, despite the odd squeak or croak here and there...

Next up on the stage were Hò-rò, which consists of Crisdean MacDonald, Calum MacPhail, Lucy Doogan and Sean Cousins. I've met some before, seen some play, and played with one myself but I'd never witnessed them performing as Hò-rò before, and they did not disappoint! They really are a dynamic, driven group of musicians with really tasteful style and oodles of talent. They know how to get the audience going (as I've seen in videos from them playing much bigger, more bustling venues) and all of their material is finely and tightly arranged, contributing to how they come across so professional and can keep the crowd engaged. I was particularly impressed when Sean's guitar string broke mid-tune yet he did not fret (pardon the pun...) as he swiftly whipped out a second guitar from behind him after finishing of the set. I wish I was that prepared, aha. Also Lucy Doogan has the most lovely voice that I think everyone needs to hear! A song she did in particular (Mo Ghleannan taobh Loch Liobhainn) I'm doing myself for college so listening to her sing this made my heart break with both admiration and jealousy. Though good hearted jealousy! Really, it was beautiful.


I did manage to get a tiny bit of footage before my phone ran out of battery that I was going to share with you, however there's something wrong with the file and I'm too lazy to figure out what so I reckon you should just go check them oot yourself and give 'em a wee like too:
 https://www.facebook.com/MusicHoro

  It's safe to say I thoroughly enjoyed their performance that night and was left feeling energized by it myself!

Thennn after a wee break for tea/coffee and a raffle Ross and Jarlath took to the stage with their guitarist man Matheu Watson. I could go on an on about the technicalities of how good they were but I'm just going to put it plainly: they're pretty feckin' awesome. I confess that I'd never actually heard of them before we were advertised to be playing at the same gig, and even then I was too lazy to do any research. But, man, am I sorry I didn't find them sooner.
Seriously.
Amazing. 

Of course I had to buy their CD after the gig, and I would like to think that if I gave that CD to anyone who claimed they hated bagpipes that they would be converted and could really appreciate the sounds made by these incredible musicians. Like, seriously, I have tried and failed to work a set of small pipes before and they remain a complete mystery to me... It amazes me how anyone can even get one proper note out of them never mind play them like these guys do.
Here's a video I found that gives you a little taste of what they can do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UJwh7tR36o


And, like always, you've got to have a big stramash at the end when you've played with other bands. So all 15 of us squeezed onto the little stage (it was quite cosy) to play a big finale set together and get very hot and sweaty. All the while I was being punched in the ribs by the box player on my right and elbowed in the chest by the fiddler on my left. It was great fun! (Genuinely not sarcasm.)

So overall I had a fantastic night and I would imagine everyone else did too. 
And seeing these great musicians that I'd never heard of before has made me realise how much other good stuff there probably is kicking about that I'm missing out on just because I haven't looked hard enough.

I'm away to explore.




I apologise for the lack of media/pictures on this post, so please enjoy this silly picture of our fiddler (Eddie), box player (Michael) and piper (Ewen), which is one of about 800 I found after they hijacked my phone one night... thanks, guys.

Ceilidh Trail highlights! (Pt 2)

Greetings!

So we return to my 2014 Ceilidh Trail highlights. To continue in linear order (note that these are not completely in order of preference), the next gig I shall highlight is

 Glasgow Green

I think it's safe to say this was the biggest stage I've ever played on...

This wasn't it on the day, there were actually people there when we were. 

But here we are looking quite the part in our swanky blue Lochaber Ceilidh Trail tshirts (which, I'll admit, did take some time to grow on me):

So this gig was obviously memorable due to the scale of it and also because it was just pretty cool to be part of the Commonwealth Games which obviously isn't something that comes round too often, so we were quite lucky. However, each group (Cairngorms Ceilidh Trail, Argyll Ceilidh Trail, and us) only played for, what, 8 minutes each I think? Which doesn't sound like a lot but we also did a big joint set at the end, which went okay I think considering we'd only had one practice at it together beforehand, aha. We were also on a bit of a tight time schedule that day, after taking the minibus down to Balloch, getting the train from there to Glasgow and then having to walk through the bustling city centre in the icky sticky heat with instruments in hand. 

AND THEN...

We had to literally run away from Glasgow Green, obviously not quick enough though because our impatient taxi drivers went away without us, thus leaving us to speed-walk back to the train on which multiple sessions were had! Which was pretty cool. I personally didn't join in because I was too tired but the tourists (and locals probably, too) were LOVING it. 30 traditional musicians crammed into a train for an hour or so; it was bound to happen. I actually heard a lady exclaim as we all piled off of the train "There's so many of them!" which I found amusing as it was as if we were some kind of different species that had infested the carriages.

So all of this rushing about was to get back to Loch Lomond shores where we all joined Breabach onstage! Despite it being literally for about 3-4 minutes at the end of their set and only a few people being able to grab mics if they could reach one, it was still a good experience. Breabach are one of my favourite bands and it's pretty cool to be able to say we've played with them. 

And to finish off this highlight, I present you with a photo that I found particularly scary:

Glenfinnan

The next gig that stood out for me was our night time session in Glenfinnan House Hotel. I am no stranger to music sessions here and they're usually always great nights to be had but this one in particular on the 31st of July was kind of extra special for me, aha. The whole day actually was because... *drumroll* I passed my driving test! Woop woop. I was obviously stoked on that for the rest of the day so that night I went and picked up the boyf myself and drove to Glenfinnan to have nice meal beforehand with some of my fam. AND THENNNN to top off a great day/night, not only was this the last gig with all 8 of us (Ewen was leaving us to go on holiday) but my good pals Kevin and Natalie who did the Ceilidh Trail last year showed up too! I hadn't seen or played with them in aages and was so so happy to see them. I guess I just generally had a really enjoyable night overall, I hope everyone else did too!

The only picture I have of that night is a very poor quality selfie of Kevin, Natalie and I looking very, very happy:

                                      Photobomb?

       Isle of Eigg

I have no idea why we didn't go here last time. 

This was my first trip to the Isle of Eigg, and, like Muck, the weather was great! People should go to the Small Isles more often. So beautiful. 

After a day of sleeping on the ferry over, lunching at Eigg's only cafe and then hanging out at our surprisingly nice accomodation, we headed over on foot to the hall where there was a sound man already waiting to set us all up. This is always good because we don't have to do much and they actually know what they're doing... 

The hall was so nice though! It was all in the forest and wooden and had pretty paper decorations hanging around the place and lots of, like, organicy eco-ey stuff as Eigg is the first place to be completely powered by renewable energy- woop!

The concert/ceilidh itself was great too, with a good turnout and very enthusiastic dancers. (I have heard that they are eager partiers on Eigg).

And that kind of leads us onto the bird man...

When we were first on our way to our house we came across a couple of girls who asked us if we'd happened to see a man dressed as a bird at all... Understandably we apologized and said no we hadn't with slight confusion and amusement, then brushed it off and continued on our way. But then later on when we were mid ceilidh and the floor was full, something caught my eye and right enough, there he was: the Bird Man. He was dancing about the hall quite the thing in his feathery suit, beak and all.

I even spoke to a nice American lady in the break who was very bewildered about the Bird Man and told us that nobody had even blinked an eye when he entered, yet nobody actually knew his story. I guess they just accepted it.

(I'm hoping this video actually works as I am still new to this blogging business and it's being a bit weird)

I also wish I got a proper video because, as you can see, this was saved from my snapchat but it's the only evidence I have of the mysterious Bird Man.

AND SO

my 2014 Ceilidh Trail highlights come to an end. There were so many other good experiences and great things that happened but these are just the ones that stood out for me. 

I hope this has entertained you a little and it will hopefully not be as long until my next post as I have been kept very busy with lots of other gigs recently!

Adios!

I'm not sure what my privacy settings are like on Facebook, but just in case you missed it there, here's a link to my beautiful photo album of sleeping Ceilidh Trailers which I take great pride in:

https://www.facebook.com/lauren.byrne.165/media_set?set=a.917732764919776.1073741828.100000491831407&type=3

Ceilidh Trail highlights! (Pt 1)

Well, well, well

I was kind of planning on keeping an account of the 2014 Ceilidh Trail while it was happening but I'm quite happy that I didn't because I don't think would've had the energy or concentration to even construct one simple sentence during the past 3 weeks due to how drained I was from the tour. 

So for those of you who don't really know, the Ceilidh Trail is put together by Feisean nan Gaidhael and it's basically a ceilidh band (with a maximum of 8 members) that different people, aged 16-25, can audition for each year and they go on tour around their area for maybe 3 or 4 weeks in the summer. It changes each year. So there are many ceilidh trails for different areas of Scotland, for example Lochaber (woo!) or Stirling or Argyll and loads loads more. 

This year they TOTALLY crammed in the gigs for us, with us only having one day off in the whole 3 weeks, including 2 gigs a day sometimes and a few overnight stays. We had, say, like, 20 gigs overall? It was hard going but also extremely fun! And since I did it last year and enjoyed it so much I found it hard not to keep comparing this year's to last's, though I wouldn't be able to make a decision to say which was better because I kind of knew what to expect this time and there were different people and different gigs and what not, so they were different, yes, but I enjoyed them the same for all different reasons!

Since there were so many gigs and so much that happened throughout the whole tour, I won't bore you completely with my account of the whole entire thing (plus I think that would be impossible for me to type out) so I'll pick out my personal highlights of this year. 

        Arisaig - Astley Hall

Monday the 21st of July was our first proper concert gig (the others before were all sessiony) and the reason I liked this one is largely because of the overall success of the gig! Considering it was pretty much all us- we just hired the hall and got on with it. We did have our good parents helping out with raffle tickets/drinks etc. which was handy. So we did some of our arranged concert sets at the beginning then moved on to a proper ceilidh, which were both well attended largely thanks to our local Arisaig fiddler Eddie (3rd along) who got all his pals to come, and who seemed to get a noticeably louder cheer than the rest of us when the band was introduced...  

            Isle of Muck

For those unsure of the location/size of Muck, here is where it is and how we got there (with a nice big handy and probably unnecessary red arrow)

 

It's pretty darn tiny! 

Although we got such good weather for Muck! The reason I liked this one so much was probably not so much for the gig itself but for the swimming! We basically just hung out at our own wee private beach all day, which isn't actually as seaweedy as it might look. It was so, so nice- almost felt like we were abroad. However a few of us, who are probably so used to swimming in rivers and freshwater lochs, may have forgotten that the sea happens to be a wee bit salty... bleh. And the people of Muck are so friendly and hospitable- I think most small communities tend to be. I so wanted to stay longer there!

And here we all are on the ferry over, featuring our new friend in the centre, the King of Photobombing. He totally wanted to be in the band.

Aaaaand I'll stop here for now and continue with my favourites in my next post because I don't want to rush it and cram it all in at once. I'd say there's another 2, maybe 3 gigs I'll highlight, including when we played at the Commonwealth Games! 

So bye for now, and I hope this was at least a little bit interesting to read!

To be continued................. (haha)

I stole a few of these photos from fellow band members, hope y'all don't mind!