Box & Fiddle January 2017

Fiddle

40th Year No. 05 Jan 2017

£2.70

BOX& The magazine for Scottish music enthusiasts

The Scottish Trad Music Awards 2016 FIDDLEFEST

Highland Showtime ACCORDION REPAIRS WITH JOHN CRAWFORD

STELLA WILKIE IS CENTRE STAGE PLUS

NEWS, REVIEWS, CLUB & DANCE DIARIES AND MUCH MORE...

Welcome

B&F • EDITORIAL

3

...to the January issue of Box & Fiddle The magazine for Scottish music enthusiasts

Editor • Pia Walker 7 Tarvit Gardens Cupar, Fife, KY15 5BT Tel: 01334 657 850 Mob: 07715 115 489 editor@boxandfiddle.com Designer • Marie Martin mamidesigns@hotmail.com Section icons by: FlatIcon

Printer • Meigle Colour Printers www.meigleprint.co.uk

NAAFC Chairman • Nicol McLaren 9 Sheila Road, Blairgowrie Perthshire, PH10 6RP Tel: 01250 874 526 nicol@boxandfiddle.com Vice Chairman • Iain Cathcart Tel: 01555 661 017 iain@boxandfiddle.com Secretary • Lorna Mair 7 Lathro Lane, Kinross KY13 8RX lorna@boxandfiddle.com Treasurer • Willie Johnstone treasurer@boxandfiddle.com Executive Committee: David Cunningham Charlie Kirkpatrick Susan MacFadyen Margo Maclennan Tom Orr Richard Ross

Another year gone by and for all of us it has had its ups and downs. I don’t know about you, but for me music and dance keep me, if not on the straight and narrow, definitely in balance most of the time.

December’s festivities began with the Traditional Music Awards in Dundee, and continued with the usual round of ‘last Pia Walker, Editor evening before Christmas’ mince pies and other goodies. I therefore may have to start exercising a little more this year ☺ If you feel the same, why not join a dance class; it is great fun and good for the body.

What has 2017 in store for us? Well, it is already time to think about the NAAFC Festival in March, get your entries in soon! We hope you will back this fantastic festival with your presence both during the day and at the dance during the evening.

It is also time to begin planning attendance at all the club festivals during the year and of course supporting the various club meetings. Bring a friend, get others involved, and make this a year where even more people come to the clubs.

Someone telephoned me to say that their club never gets a mention – probably because I never get sent anything from them, and as I have said before, I can only publish if you send me something. If your club is one without a mention, and it bugs you, why not approach the committee and ask if you can write the club news? Problem sorted!

I would like to thank you all for your continued promotion and support of the magazine and hope that you will continue to do so in 2017. It is your magazine, a way of receiving information about your music and more every month also during the summer, and your help in making this magazine happen is very much appreciated.

Finally I would like to apologize for the typo made on the cover of the December issue. We were several people who looked at that page and none of us spotted it. I read everything through ca. four times and feel really embarrassed about this error.

Here’s to an even better 2017.

Keep up with the latest news at

www.boxandfiddle.com Box & Fiddle (NAAFC)

Pia

The editorial team reserves the right to refuse or edit all copy. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor. Use of material and advertising from this publication is strictly prohibited without permission in writing from the editor.

While every care has been taken in compiling Box & Fiddle to ensure that it is correct at the time of going to press, Box & Fiddle assume no responsibility for any effects from errors or omissions.

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Contents

B&F • CONTENTS

14 6 7 8 11

News Iain Crichton Memorial Night; Ninewells Hospital Presentation; Letters; Tynemouth Scottish Dance Weekend

Take the Floor Festivals Fiddlefest at Summerhall, Edinburgh

The Scottish Trad Music Awards 2016 Results from ‘The Oscars’ for traditional music

14 16

Highland Showtime A show-stopping night at Eden Court

Awa tae Freuchie We talk to John Crawford

Deadlines:

5

11 19

Club News

36

Centre Stage

37

Club Diary

42

Dance Diary

45

Reviews

48

Music

The latest news from our clubs

Stella Wilkie

You are never too old to go Clubbing!

Find the nearest dances and ceilidhs

The Lomond Ceilidh Band Marian Anderson’s SDB The Glencraig SDB

Joe’s Birthday Polka

By F. Paul

All articles, adverts, club reports and text for the magazine must be e-mailed to the editor by the 5th of every month at the latest. Copy received after this date cannot be guaranteed to feature in the next issue.

8

B&F • WWW.BOXANDFIDDLE.COM

Festivals

Fiddles Galore Photos by Roy Walker

T

he Box & Fiddle Team yet again had a successful weekend at Fiddlefest in Summerhall, Edinburgh.

Summerhall is the former Royal (Dick) Vet School and as per usual we set up a stand in the dissection room! The event started in 1996 and is steadily growing with concerts, recitals, workshops, talks and much, much more from Friday to Sunday evening. You could, for example, hear Duncan Chisholm in concert, but later on in the weekend you could also hear him in a workshop on slow airs. This year the Saturday night concert with Aonghas Grant, Catriona Macdonald, Aidan O’Rourke, Liz Doherty, Paul Anderson and Chris Stout - along with percussionist Allan MacDonald and pianist Mhairi Hall was to celebrate the 20 years of Fiddlefest.

Workshops included Shetland fiddle, Shetland tunes, Irish tunes, Tips & Tricks, Try Fiddle, Try Gaelic or what about a fiddle clinic with our own Marie Fielding? Marie also showed her talents for art, having the stand across from us. My stand

neighbour Neil got talked into a fiddle making spot, when someone failed to turn up. There’s something on the go all the time. In said dissection room, there was a never-ending session running, with fiddles and other string instruments dropping in and out, I even spotted a couple of accordions there. There were fiddle makers, craft jewellery sellers, bow makers, violin shops and much, much more. Evermore visitors come from all over the UK and from even further a field, and even if you are not a fiddler, you are sure to find the whole even fascinating.

For the B&F team (this year Margo Maclennan, Pia Walker and Roy Walker), it is a chance to meet with advertisers and readers, but also to tell other musicians that yes there’s a Box & Fiddle club near them and encourage them to visit clubs on a regular basis. So if you see a visitor at your club with a case that cannot contain an accordion, it may be a fiddler! Make sure to give them a warm welcome. l

B&F • JANUARY 2017

11

The Scottish Trad Music Awards 2016

By Pia Walker

Photo: © Louis DeCarlo

S

aturday night saw the glad rags being aired, the car left at home and a journey to the Caird Hall in Dundee to participate in the biggest annual event for the Trad industry in Scotland. It is by some called ‘The Oscars’ for traditional music’, and it is certainly a star studded affair. If you are in the industry it is important that you should be there, and the NAAFC was definitely represented.

Furthermore one of our clubs and several musicians known to us were nominated in various categories: ● Mauchline and District Accordion & Fiddle Club in Club of the Year ● Craig Paton in Instrumentalist of the Year ● Freeland Barbour in Composer of the Year

The evening starts

Abercraig

3 bands known to us were nominated in the NAAFC sponsored Scottish Dance Band of the Year: ● Sixties Bairns ● Peter Wood Shetland Dance Band ● Lomond Ceilidh Band The voting was up by 50% this year and hopefully some of our club members were doing their bit! If we don’t vote, we don’t have a say.

The full list of nominees can be seen on: https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/ scotstradmusicawards/mg-alba-scots-tradmusic-awards-2016-shortlist-unveiled/

Deputy Provost admiring Simon’s shoes

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14

! e m i t w o Sh B&F • WWW.BOXANDFIDDLE.COM

By Robert Wares

The annual Highland Showtime, under the auspices of the Highland Accordion and Fiddle Club was held in the splendid Eden Court Theatre in Inverness.

The theatre is set in sumptuous surroundings and a very large crowd had assembled in eager anticipation of what was to unfold.

W

ith splendid lighting and sound from the theatre staff, The Ross and Cromarty Pipes and Drums School, based in Alness, set the show in motion. The school draws from primary and secondary schools in the area and covers the Academies in Alness, Dingwall, Tain, Invergordon and Fortrose. All the members are under 18 and the youngest on stage was 12 years old. Under the control of Pipe Major Niall Matheson and Drum Major Drew Caldwell, the 24 member band was immaculately turned out in their specially designed tartan ‘Ross and Cromarty’ and gave a perfect display of piping and drumming.

Susie Simpson and her trio had the job of following the stirring sight and sound of the Pipes and Drums and she filled the position perfectly. With Gillian Stevenson on fiddle and Jock Fraser on keyboard, Susie displayed why she is one of the busiest bands around just now and had the crowd thrilled with some scintillating playing.

The ever present Elizabeth Fraser Dancers excited the crowd with an impressive display of colour and athleticism and included a crowd-pleasing sword dance. Piper Yvonne Mackenzie ensured the tempo

was just perfect. Elizabeth Fraser has been sending dancers to the Highland Showtime for well over 20 years now and the standard seems to get higher every year. The group tonight included many medal winners from the competitive scene and it was very easy to see exactly why the trophy haul was so impressive.

For our next guest it was a first appearance in Eden Court. Singer Robert Robertson, a gold medal winner at the National Mod in Paisley in 2013, was a former member of the band Skippinish, but is now doing a lot of solo work. What a wonderful voice!

Singing mostly in Gaelic the man originally from Fort William and now staying in Glasgow, took the theatre by storm and had the crowd humming and singing along. Robert played some up-beat music on his guitar and the crowd gave him a rapturous round of applause as he completed his turn The show was compered by the effervescent Nicol McLaren, erstwhile leader of the Glencraig Scottish Dance Band. Nicol displayed a talent, which only a few people are blessed with. He was very smartly turned out in tartan trews and dress jacket and maintained the fluidity of the show very well indeed. A

B&F • CLUB NEWS

19

Club News Just remember to seek permission to publish the photos and tell us the name of the photographers.

To ensure a more readable section, please only send in max 250-300 words. A photo tells a better story, so add one or two of those too. Why not of your audience?Information in Club News helps attract visitors to your club, so make sure your club sounds like the place we want to go to.

ALNWICK We had another great night of entertainment and good company. Local players were Ann Brown, Robin Cowens, Leonard Brown, Neil Riddell and me on accordion. Jimmy Little on mouth organ, Ian Woods on fiddle and Ian Riddell on drums, all providing some great sets and sounds, very well done all of them.

Robert Whitehead and The Danelaw Band were our guest artists. Robert on lead accordion, Graeme Whitehead on second accordion, David Ashbridge on drums and Allan Brown on piano provided a great selection of sets and a good strong delivery and sound, as always with a good inclusion of Northumbrian tunes, great stuff. The Great North Run, The Lemonville Jig, Billy Thom`s Reel, Lily Dale, Liberton Pipe Band and many more tunes were played.

A big thank you to all for a most enjoyable night Mungo ANNAN ST ANDREW The guest band for November was the Scott Leslie Ceilidh Band comprising Scott Leslie from West Lothian on lead accordion, his father John

Leslie on second accordion and Alan Irvine on drums. They began by playing for various popular dances.

The local players, accompanied by Ian Wilson and Fiona Paul on keyboard, Billy Porter on drums and occasionally by Robin Waitt on second accordion were: Kenny White from Rigg playing Agnes Waltz, Liberton Pipe Band and The Northern Lights on piano accordion; Richard Brown from Aspatria played A Bunch of Thyme, The Island of Tiree and Fields of Athenry on piano accordion. Richard has been absent from the accordion scene in recent months due to illness and it was a pleasure to have him play; Jim Fraser from Dumfries played for an Edinburgh Mixture on piano accordion; Fiona Paul from Carnwath played for a Britannia Two Step on piano accordion, giving the music tremendous ‘lift’; Newby Park from Carlisle played several popular tunes on piano accordion; Les Hurst also from Carlisle played the Jacqueline Waltz, Dearest my Own One and Morag of Dunvegan on piano accordion; Willie Little from Dumfries played a number of tunes on whistle; Robin Waitt from Claygate, near Canonbie,

played for a White Heather Foxtrot on a Shand Morino three-row button-key accordion; David Bell from Carlisle played for a Mayfair Quickstep on piano accordion.

The guest band then completed the evening playing for further dances.

ARBROATH Avril Abbott, the club’s Vice Chairman opened our December meeting welcoming all. Our local players were on accordions respectively, Tony Simpson, Gibby Cheetam, John Hart, Alan Petrie, Eric Davidson with Gavin Piper helping out on 2nd box and we also welcomed Alan Small. Avril was on drums, with John White and Tony Simpson on keyboard and Liz Arthur on fiddle.

A toe-tapping evening was enjoyed by a large audience.

Our guest band was the Dave Husband Trio who certainly kept the music flowing with a very good variety of music and a very full programme. Dave played lead accordion, with Gavin Piper on second box and Alan Crawford on drums. Dave invited his grand-daughter, 14 year old Kayleigh to share a spot with the band and she delighted the crowd with a

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B&F • CLUB DIARY

37

Club Diary January 2017 DATE

CLUB

GUEST ARTIST

VENUE

TIME

CONTACT

3

Campsie

The Jim Johnstone Tribute Band

Glazert Country House Hotel, Lennoxtown G66 7DJ

7.30 pm

Billy Hutton 07889 021 972

3

Fort William

Innes MacIntosh

Railway Club, Inverlochy, Fort William PH33 6LY

7.30 pm

Alisdair MacDonald 01397 701 505

4

Glenfarg

Club Night (Visitors welcome)

Glenfarg Village Hall, Glenfarg PH2 9NU

7.30 pm

Russell Robertson 01577 830 642

4

Montrose

Wayne Robertson Duo

Park Hotel, Montrose DD10 8RJ

7.30 pm

Ron Ramsay 01241 879 487

5

Isle of Skye

Addie Harper SDB

The Royal Hotel, Portree IV51 9BU

7.30 pm

Linda Shaw 01478 611 122

5

Lewis and Harris

Club night (Visitors welcome)

Caladh Inn, Stornoway HS1 2QN

8.00 pm

Janette MacIver 01851 704 870

6

Oban

Iain Anderson (Dance)

The Royal Hotel, Oban PA34 4BE

7.30 pm

Anne McFadyen 01631 562 077

8

Arbroath

Gavin Piper

Arbroath Artisan Golf Club, Elliot, By Arbroath DD11 2PE

7.30 pm

Tony Simpson 01241 875 326

8

Biggar

John Somerville & Hamish Napier

Biggar Bowling Club, Biggar ML12 6AX

2.00 pm

Charlie Todd 01899 308 327

8

Gretna

Roger Dobson Band

The Solway Lodge Hotel, Gretna DG16 5DN

7.00 pm

Robin Waitt 01387 371 423

9

Thurso

Addie Harper

Pentland Hotel, Thurso KW14 7AA

7.30 pm

Ian Wright 01847 892 050

10

Blairgowrie

Tommy Newcomen

Red House Hotel, Coupar Angus PH13 9AL

7.45 pm

Helen Aitchison 01821 670 302

10

Dunfermline

Club night (Visitors welcome)

Sportsman Bar, Rosyth KY11 2NX

7.30 pm

Bob Adam 01383 306 142

10

Islesteps

Alan Smith Qrt. (NB. This is the second Tuesday of the month.)

Locharbriggs Social Club, Locharbriggs DG1 1XS

7.30 pm

Ian Gray 01387 760 276

10

Renfrew

Brian Lawrie Accordion Showband

Moorpark Masonic Halls, Renfrew PA4 0SA

7.30 pm

Ian Murchison 0141 889 4711

11

Alnwick

Nicky McMichan & The Full Scottish

St Michaels Church Hall, Alnwick (Burns Supper)

7.30 pm

Leonard Brown 07758 723 355

11

Dingwall

Full Tilt Ceilidh Band

National Hotel, Dingwall IV15 9HA

7.30 pm

Elspeth Weir 01349 877 675

11

Forres

Jim McKay SDB

Victoria Hotel, Forres IV36 1EL

7.30 pm

Ann Sharp 01309 672 672

11

Inveraray

Archie MacAllister Trio

Inveraray Inn, Inveraray PA32 8XB

8.00 pm

Margaret Mather 01499 302 458

11

Langholm

Club Night (Visitors welcome)

British Legion, Langholm DG13 0DN

7.30 pm

Adam Grant 01387 371 423 01387 381 305

11

Orkney

Club Night (Visitors welcome)

The Reel, Kirkwall KW15 1KD

7.30 pm

Jim Marwick 01856 874 474

12

Button-Key (Windygates)

Mrs Cooks Boys

The Greig Institute, Windygates KY8 5DG

7.00 pm

Mary Cook 01592 713 687

12

Shetland

Club Night (Visitors welcome)

Shetland Hotel, Lerwick ZE1 0PW

7.00 pm

Peter Leask 01595 693 162

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45

B&F • REVIEWS

Reviews The Lomond Ceilidh Band Back on Track SBR002

The Lomond Ceilidh Band are back with a stunning new record which is sure to delight their many fans.

There have been a few changes in the band lineup since their last recording, but their sound is as exciting and as innovative as ever.

Supporting the wonderful Alan Small (lead accordion and midi bass) are Gemma Donald (fiddle, vocals and piano), Kyle Innes (drums), Stuart Cameron (second accordion), Leonard Brown (piano), John Sinton (double bass) and Duncan Findlay (guitar). The album was recorded at Steven Carcary’s studio in Bridge of Earn under the watchful eye of Alan Small and Gemma Donald, who in addition to their superb musicianship, also provided their production talents to the project.

Writing in the CD liner notes the equally talented Simon Howie notes that the band “have produced an album packed with musical content, with something for everyone” and I would most certainly agree with that assessment.

The choice of material is inspired and as always the arrangements are creative and different providing the listener with many unpredictable twists and turns. Simon also rightly observes in his notes “that the choice of music is always aimed at the listener”. I would go further and say that the arrangements are also very much aimed at the listener. This is not a boring or dull recording by any stretch of the imagination, but one full and brimming over with unadulterated musical creativity. Combine that with a talented bunch of musicians and you have a winning formula! The Lomond Ceilidh Band

“

Have produced an album packed with musical content, with something for everyone Simon Howie

”

has completely nailed it with this stunning recording.

The album contains eighteen outstanding tracks which feature many evergreen perennial favourites such as The Irish Washerwoman, Donald Iain Rankine, The Mason’s Apron, The Craic at Clashmore Hall, Robbie Shepherd MBE, Iain MacPhail’s Compliments to Chrissie Leatham, Jean’s Reel and Petronella. This CD is like a box of many musical delights that you can’t afford to miss. You will not be disappointed. Check out the bands website at www.lomondceilidh.band.

If you wish your CDs, DVDs or books to be reviewed, please send them to: Bill Brown, 3 Galahad Close, Cippenham, Slough, SL1 9DT

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