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Celtic Connections - 2009

Friday 30th January

You forget how quick it is to get to Scotland sometimes, something you need reminding of when Celtic Connections is on. I left home at 4.30pm and at 8.30 pm was inside the first venue of the evening-the ABC on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow. I'd missed Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson unfortunately, as they were the support act to 'Le Vent Du Nord'- a Quebecois band who are apparently massive in Canada; four guys who sing four part harmony choruses, play hurdy gurdy, fiddle, accordion, guitar, piano and bass. They do that foot stomping thing the Canadians are so good at too, which gets the audience going, whooping and cheering. The venue was seated- a strange move, but maybe an understandable one, as it made the place appear full- the ABC being a big space to fill. The chairs didn't stop the crowd standing up to join in when asked, rocking and swaying from side to side…I left them to it and walked down to the Fruitmarket, part of the City halls complex and probably my favourite venue up here.

A late start for this gig meant I managed to see all of Galant- a five-piece harmony girl band from Quebec. All dressed in black, with the only musical accompaniment coming from a guy playing bodhran, these girls sang powerful songs from their home town, rearranged and brought up to date with modern harmonies and rhythms. All very clever.

Next up were Blazin' Fiddles, and never were a band more aptly named. First time I've seen them, and I have to confess to believing there were at least ten fiddle players. There weren't- just five, but they more than made up for their number in sheer volume and enthusiasm. And such talent- Catriona McDonald, Allan Henderson, Bruce McGregor, Iain McFarlane and Aidan O'Rourke. They play with energy and enjoyment, interacting with the crowd, and encouraging all manner of wild dancing, cheering and whistling. Supported from the back by Andy 'Birthday Boy' Thorburn on keyboards and guitarist Andy Thorburn these guys are just amazing.

Off to the Festival Club, this was in full swing when we arrived, as Blazin’ Fiddles hadn’t left the stage at the Fruitmarket until midnight. Millish were on, a five piece from Michigan who had played earlier in the evening at the Strathclyde Suite. I arrived in time to hear a Michael Jackson set [yes really!] complete with Billy Jean, Thriller and I Want You Back. Brilliant- really clever arrangement and very funny, in the same way the Ukulele Orchestra can be.

Galant, who we’d seen earlier at the Fruitmarket, came on with a slightly varied set, and a change of costume. They were well received and seemed delighted to be performing again, joking with the audience.

The MacCollective, featuring former BBC Young Folk Award winner Lauren McColl were on while I was at the other end of the club- a long corridor with rooms off to either side. Lauren’s new album was launched at the festival and features Barry Reid [Croft No.5] who was on stage with her tonight, and the festival director himself, Donald Shaw. Good stuff!

I was delighted to see Breabach - unlike most bands playing at the club they hadn’t appeared elsewhere in Glasgow in the preceding couple of nights, so it was a real treat to catch up with them - always good live, with two sets of pipes, fiddle and guitar, they play rousing stirring sets that had the small dance floor up and dancing.

Band of the night award was won by Box Club. I’ve not seen this band before, although I’ve seen many of the musicians in other groups. Four accordions in the front line doesn’t sound like a winning formula, but in the hands of Mairearad Green [Anna Massie Band], John Somerville [Croft No. 5] Gary Innes [Skipinnish] and Angus Lyon it just works. Funky, dance floor filling tunes with the support of the very wonderful Duncan Lyall on bass, Martin O’Neill [Dochas] on drums and Mike Bryan [Treacherous Orchestra] on guitar. A veritable Who’s Who of current Scottish talent.

And so Festival Club drew to an end, happy gig goers leaving as the breakfast staff arrived to set up for the next day at the hotel!

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Saturday 31st January

It was back to the ABC the following night, after a very lovely Italian meal just across the road! 6 Day Riot were first on-a kind of gypsy folk act- difficult to pigeon hole but with the ability to appear as at home at Celtic as they do in small clubs in London, or even mainstream festivals like V. The lead singer, the strikingly beautiful Audrey Hepburn-esque Tamara Schlesinger, has a distinctive girly voice and a relaxed natural air on stage which puts the audience at ease. Supported by drums, double bass, trumpet and fiddle, Tamara plays ukulele and guitar, and sings the kind of light hearted pop songs that have people joining in before they realise that they’re singing along.

Next was the Treacherous Orchestra. This was the band that I’d been waiting to see the most. Apparently formed at an impromptu Celtic Connections session, and generally only appearing on the last night of the festival at the club, this band has a mighty line up. If I could choose who best to put into a celtic Chemical Brothers style group this would be it. With Croft No 5, Peatbog Faeries and Salsa Celtica represented, as well as pipers Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton and Bo Jingham from Babelfish I knew the ABC would be one lively mass of dancing happy people.

I wasn’t wrong. The band came on the darkness, the rhythm section starting in true Croft No 5 fashion, blasting the beat before the frontline picked up the melody and took it away with them. Gangster hats, suits and ties , and grooves to match, Ross and Ali in flamboyantly tasselled military style jackets, this is an orchestra like no other, the strobe lighting and thumping rhythm more at home in a club than a concert hall. Tunes by the late Martyn Bennett, and Ross Ainslie’s Easter Island, a glorious eight minute masterpiece that begins quietly on flute, and allows the tune to be carried down the frontline to banjo, fiddles, accordion and pipes, held together by the two drummers [Paul Jennings and Fraser Stone] Duncan Lyall on bass and Michael Bryan and Spad Reid on guitar. The audience whistling , calling , smiling, cheering, and above all dancing, hands in the air, ending triumphantly in a mass throwing of knickers onto the stage at the end. Yes, really!

A gig like that leaves you desperate for more, so we headed off to Festival Club, this time arriving pretty much at the start, and were able to get right down to the front.

Quebecois band La Bottine Souriante was on first- last seen at the Celtic in 2004. Formed in 1976 they play a mixture of celtic/Canadian trad, overlaid with a jazz funk style supplied by their four piece brass section. Great for dancing and great to watch too, as the only girl in the band step dances away on her own in the space usually reserved for a drum kit!

Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers [great name!] provided a change of style after another Quebecois band [Genticorum?] had followed La Bottine. On the drinks run, I arrived back just in time to hear Findlay singing ‘Friday and Saturday night’ , or ‘George’, as it’s officially known, about a night out in town. Great with words [love the Stalker song] and great with tunes in a Nizlopi kind of way, Findlay and co gave Festival Club an indie/pop feel for a while. Bands like this are the perfect harmony between old and new, traditional influence and modern style.

A bit like 6 Day Riot, who followed them. Tamara and her band played a different set, which went down much better in the small hours on the small dance floor of the Festival Club than the huge stage of the ABC. They finished with ‘Ya Da Da’ a triumphant sing-along tune that had everyone joining in.

Do they save the best til last at the Club?
Tonight they did- Babelfish were next. Another band formed at a previous Festival Club, I’d never seen them before, and knew nothing about them, but when Adam Sutherland and Iain Copeland [Peatbogs] and John Somerville [Croft No 5] started to get ready I knew whoever was up next would be good. Joined on stage by Bo Jingham [Treacherous Orchestra] and Andy Thorburn [Blazin’Fiddles] Babelfish blew the competition away. No computer enhanced wizardry, no technological trickery, just five amazing musicians who led the way through a dance/trance filled dance floor. At one point, when Iain and Andy stopped to exchange drinks the three at the front continued unaccompanied until the rhythm section started back up again. The last set must have lasted for about twenty minutes. Twenty minutes when I couldn’t believe that all this glorious music was coming from just five guys, twenty minutes to dance without stopping, the crowd with their arms in the air, clapping, swaying, throwing glitter over each other and generally having the best time. When the music did finally stop it took a while to readjust, to slowly come back down to earth from whichever place you’d been transported to. Heaven

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Sunday 1st February

Today was the last day of the festival, and it started for me at the Strathclyde Suite in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, to attend the last ‘New Voices’ commission for this year. It was the turn of Mairearad Green, a young accordionist more familiar to me from the Anna Massie Band and Box Club than as an individual performer.

She’d been able to choose musicians to work with her, and delighted in introducing them, as she’d chosen so well- Adam Sutherland and Peter Tickell [fiddle], Adam Bulley [banjo/mandolin] Anna Massie [guitar], Duncan Lyall [double bass] Hamish Napier [piano] and Donald Hay [drums].

Her piece was entitled ‘Passing Places’- a reference both to the signs in the Scottish Highlands to indicate where to pull in on single track roads and to the musical journey Mairearad had been on- and the music was evocative of Achiltibuie, where Mairearad is from; the whole set had the Wester Ross area as a video backdrop to the music.

The video, by Magnus Graham [check out his work!] worked beautifully alongside the music. I’d been expecting maybe ruined barns and deserted farmhouses, but this was an active film, the Highlands at work. Mairearad’s cousin cycling around Achiltibuie, car journeys, village life and sheep. The landscapes too reflected the music; waves rolling across the bay, not breaking, just travelling, the music taking it with you to the shore. Brooding skies, the fiddle’s lament describing the scudding black clouds journey across the heavens; mountains in the distance, dry stone walls and fields, in the browns, greys and greens of the Highlands. The end shot, of a door closing as the music stopped. Journey’s end.

Brilliant really. The composition was by turn slow, traditional and peaceful; and next drums and bass taking over, jazzy overtones with the banjo leading. The pipe set was fast paced, infectious and snappy, with an impressive dead stop finish. The audience were impressed- it’s the first time I’ve seen a standing ovation there- and I think Mairearad was taken aback at how well received her work had been.

The band finished with a reprise of the pipe set, and this time the audience joined in enthusiastically, clapping, and cheering, a contrast to their well mannered silence previously, and delighted to be able to show their appreciation so freely.

This was the last gig for me this weekend and I left with a happy heart for my flight home, convinced this had been one of my best visit’s to Celtic Connections yet. The trick to this festival is to do what you know will make you happy, I think, rather than trying to cram too much in. There are workshops that start at 11am and continue through the day, the Danny Kyle open stage every day at 5pm, gigs in a variety of settings styles and venues that start form 6pm, and Festival Club that starts at 10.30 pm and finishes at 4am, It’s not possible to do everything, but there is something for everyone…it’s a brilliant,well organised efficient festival… a celebration of all things Celtic that seems as much loved by the musicians as by the public- congratulations to Donald Shaw and his team and long may Celtic Connections continue!

Blazin' Fiddles
Breabach
Box Club
Le Vent Du Nord
Mairearad Green
www.millish.com

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For more reviews and clips of this years Celtic Connections visit the BBC Celtic Connections site at www.bbc.co.uk/celticconnections