Box & Fiddle - May 2017

Fiddle

40th Year No. 09 May 2017

£2.70

BOX& The magazine for Scottish music enthusiasts

INCHYRA 2017 DAVIE STEWART

A

lasdair Macleod

GUEST OF HONOUR

PLUS

Lifetime Achievement Award

YOUNG GENERATION

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

Welcome

B&F • EDITORIAL

3

...to the May 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

Cover Image © Marie Martin 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

May - and the committee is hard at work preparing for the AGM in June. May is the end of our financial year, so our lovely treasurer and I will be chasing a few people up soon. If you haven’t already settled your accounts, expect that knock on the door! ☺ It is also now time for the clubs to relax and think up what they can do during the new Pia Walker, Editor season to bring in audiences every month and as someone asked me what the NAAFC do with regard to advertising, I am turning it around to ask: What are you doing?

Don’t just do the tried and tested, think out of the box and do something new. Why not make contact with other music groups in your area and tell them about the clubs? Don’t wait for them to find you – go get them!

Diary dates are coming in now thick and fast – thank you for all who are sending in as quickly as possible. Don’t wait until you get a guest artist - we need your dates to advertise that your club is open. Remember, the sooner you get your dates visible, the sooner people can plan ahead and perhaps make time to visit your club, festivals and/or open days. Audiences are extremely important; they are the people who ensure that the music is being used and perpetuated, so it will survive. We not only need new musicians to carry on the tradition, we also need the listeners and dancers in equal measures.

We at the Box & Fiddle Magazine are trying to reach out to others outwith the clubs in order to get more people to visit you, and I have noticed that more and more clubs now often write that they had new and first time visitors. This is very good and we will continue to shout the benefits of clubs from the roof tops. However, we need to add your voices in order to be really heard out there.

We continue to publish the magazine over the summer. Who needs a holiday when they can edit the B&F ☺ In the next issue (June) we will have the last of the Guests of Honour 2017 featured, the short-list for the Baffi awards and much, much more.

Happy playing

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.

Contents

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11 6 8 10

News Davie Stewart Lifetime Achievement Award

The Fiery Session Grant Crawford tells us about the Fiery Session

11

Inchyra 2017

13

Alasdair Macleod

The 43 Annual Championship rd

We speak to one of this year’s Guests of Honour

16

Musings

18

The New Generation

Repeat or Refresh

Rebeka Venters

Deadlines:

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B&F • CONTENTS

8 19

Club News

41

Take the Floor

42

Centre Stage

43

Club Diary

46

Dance Diary

50

Reviews

The latest news from our clubs

Charlie Kirkpatrick SDB

Alasdair Macleod

You are never too old to go clubbing!

Find the nearest dances and ceilidhs

The McCalmans The Park Bar Brandon McPhee

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.

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B&F • WWW.BOXANDFIDDLE.COM

NEWS

News

Send in your story. If you have a photo that tells a story, send it in with an explanation.

Traditional Music School Aberdeen International Youth Festival (AIYF) brings together around 800 talented young people from all over the world over a 9-day festival.

This multi-arts festival is one of the biggest gatherings of young artists in the world each year and provides a platform for collaboration, social interaction and performance across a wide range of creative and cultural styles and genres.

Continuing our 15+ years of commitment to provide opportunities for young people to learn about and play traditional music, we are once again hosting the AIYF Traditional Music Summer School under the leadership of Gadie Music’s Sharon Hassan, leader of the North East Folk Collective (NEFCo). Following the success of last year, experienced traditional music tutors will provide high quality tuition, performance and collaborative opportunities for young people between the ages of 11-18 who have a passion for traditional music and playing experience in their instrument at Grade 2 level and above.

Based at the University of Aberdeen, the weeklong course will run each day from 10am – 5pm with a varied programme of activities. As well as working with the course tutors, participants will have sessions with visiting bands from USA, Norway and Scotland. The course will finish

with a major Friday evening concert shared with other traditional music groups participating in the festival.

AIYF also provides another course aimed at younger players aged 8 – 10, in partnership with Scottish Culture & Traditions (SC&T), running from 31st July – 4th August from 10 – 3pm each day. Experienced tutor, Dan Thorpe, who will be exploring traditional tunes and performance skills, leads this introduction to traditional music.

There is an option for Traditional School participants to stay in residence during the course at the Aberdeen University Halls of Residence with AIYF chaperones who will be on hand throughout the week providing supervision for the group. This course is an amazing opportunity for young people interested in traditional music to learn from the best in the business.

AIYF try to maintain course fees at affordable levels but in order to encourage as wide a range of participation as possible there are some subsidised places made available for those on low incomes.

To apply for this course or to find more information call 01224 213800 or go to AIYF’s website www.aiyf.org/ workshops-and-summer-courses-page/.

The Annual

FC Golf Day NAA Dunblane New Golf Club

Perth Road, Dunblane FK15 0LJ Stableford competition for the Billy Thom Memorial Trophy.

Bacon rolls at 12 noon with 1st tee time at 1pm.

Followed by great music and camaraderie from 7pm.

Contact: Nicol McLaren, nicol@boxandfiddle.com Charlie Kirkpatrick, cjkirkp@googlemail.com

ay M 14 17 20 th

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B&F • WWW.BOXANDFIDDLE.COM

Inchyra 2017

Findlay Graham, Youngest Boy

Helen presenting Catherine with her trophy

I have said before that the NAAFC Festival is one of the highlights of the year. Even if you are not a musician and can’t play for love nor money, but love the type of music or want to learn more about the music, then this festival is well worth visiting. This year Helen Russell, the chairman of the RSCDS, whose members are major users of our type of music, spent the whole day at the festival. I believe she is the first representative to do so. She sent in the following:

E

ver since the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society started to sponsor an award at the NAAFC championship some years ago, I have wanted to go to the competition. Who would have thought that the first Saturday in March would be such a tricky date to accommodate? In the end it took changing the date of the March RSCDS Management Board meeting to achieve this.

The whole day was a feast of music, which was engaging and impressive in the fluency of technique of the competitors. It was especially wonderful to see and hear the younger musicians performing, all of them with such feeling for the music; I was so moved by the expression many brought to their playing.

In the RSCDS section, which has specific requirements for matching alternatives to the original tune, the winner of the cup, the very talented Catherine Speight, played Mrs MacPherson of Cluny, the original tune for the dance The Wild Geese and the original tune of the same name for the strathspey

The Argyll Ludging. As an alternative to the original, she played one of my favourite strathspeys, Margaret’s Fancy.

The band competition in the afternoon was a series of really great sounds. Some of the bands were assembled at very short notice, but the quality of the musicians was such that I would never have guessed.

Scotland has many accomplished musicians playing from the traditional repertoire and also composing and playing new tunes in the Scottish idiom. I would hope that many more would take up the challenge of competing for the RSCDS cup and playing for dancers. The ‘lift’ it gives to dancers when they dance to live music is a great experience.

I certainly enjoyed the day and would like to thank all the musicians, their families, their teachers and NAAFC for working so hard to maintain and develop the tradition.

Helen Russell, Chairman RSCDS

B&F • MAY 2017

Alasdair Macleod

by Charlie Kirkpatrick

GU E

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S T OF

017 2 R U H ON O

hose of you who attend the Shetland Accordion and Fiddle Festival will find it difficult to believe, but last October, during the festival, I found a spare half-hour when there was a lull in the festivities. This gave me an opportunity to sit down and have a chat with fellow islander and fellow former pupil of Oban High School, bass player Alasdair Macleod.

Alasdair was born in Tobermory on 1st of May 1953, the third of four children to Bobby and Jean Macleod. Bobby was of course the famous dance band-leader and in fact one of our Association’s very first Guests of Honour. Bobby and his wife Jean were mine hosts of the Mishnish Hotel in Tobermory, a Mecca for all lovers of our music.

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Alasdair’s brother Robert also went on to play the accordion and front his own band whilst his other brother Duncan was a talented footballer with Southampton and Dundee United amongst other teams. His younger sister Rhoda established, and still runs, the world renowned Tobermory Chocolate Factory.

Having grown up in Tobermory, Alasdair describes it as ‘heaven’. All his spare time was spent on the sea, where rowing and sailing was full time summer pursuits. He completed his secondary school education at Oban High School and while there, he represented the school twice at the National Schools Regatta at Clynder on the Clyde. He would also compete annually every July along with his father in the West Highland Yachting Week, one of the highlights of the Scottish yachting calendar.

Another yachting highlight in 1972 was a race from Inverness to Bergen on a 35-foot yacht with the Clyde Cruising Club, to celebrate the centenary of Bergen Yacht Club.

After he left school, Alasdair’s work involved doing island coach tours of Mull and this included visits to Duart Castle, the seat of the Clan Maclean.

On one of his numerous visits to the castle, he met his wife Marti who had come from South Africa to work for Lord Maclean. In 1987 the couple moved to South Africa where their first two daughters Kirsty and Catriona were born in Port Elizabeth with a third daughter, Annabel, being born on their return to Tobermory in 1992. Like any parent, Alasdair is immensely proud of his family.

Driving has always been an enjoyable pursuit for Alasdair so it was natural that this would become his livelihood. He started driving coaches with a local firm on Mull in 1974 and apart from his sojourn in South Africa, where he was a professional driving instructor, he is still in the same job; only today he is the transport manager for West Coast Motors on Mull. In fact, when Alasdair later played in the Jim Johnstone band, he did all the driving and as a result Jim nicknamed him Andy Gow after the legendary driver with Jimmy Shand’s band. In addition, while in South Africa, he competed in coach driving competitions and represented South Africa twice at world championships.

As a teenager, growing up in a musical environment, Alasdair started to play the six-string guitar along with a local group and with his father

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B&F • CLUB NEWS

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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.

Gathering and they finished with some cracking reels. Scott closed the evening with a vote of thanks to all the musicians by saying it was “a superb night of music and see you all next month”.

Tom Orr Band, Aberdeen

ABERDEEN FEBRUARY Chairman Scott Gordon welcomed everyone and told us that Esma Shepherd had finally had her hip replacement.

He wished her well on her long road to recovery.

Our local musicians were on accordion Keith Duncan and Sandy McAllan, on moothie Denis Shepherd and on fiddle Ernest Mitchell. They were all accompanied by Stanley Flett on piano and Scott Gordon on drums. Each played a couple of lively sets to get the evening off to a great start.

The guest artist was the Graeme Mitchell SCD Band comprising Graeme on lead box, Gordon Duguid on second box, Susan Gordon on fiddle,

Brian Cruickshank on bass guitar and Duncan Christie on drums. They gave us some great sets of marches, reels, waltzes and jigs. We had a fantastic first half of music on a chilly evening.

After tea and the raffle it was back to the local musicians. On accordion were Charlie Abel, Gary Anderson, Charlie Lawie and Lynne Mciver who were all accompanied by Scott Nichol on piano and Scott Gordon on drums with Susan Gordon joining in too. Great tunes from all. We are really lucky to have such talent in the North East.

Back to the guests with a two-step called One for the Kids, some Canadian reels, and a super solo from Susan on fiddle. We had a waltz called The Edinburgh Caithness

MARCH Scott welcomed everyone and sadly told us of the death of long standing committee member Harry Deegan who was well known for selling raffle tickets at the club. Several club members attended Harry’s funeral and our thoughts go to Mary, his wife, who was treasurer of the club for many years.

Scott also read out a thank you card from Esma Shepherd, another committee member, recovering slowly, but surely.

He then told us of a change of guest artist, as Wayne Robertson and Claire Telford couldn’t appear because of illness of their son. At very short notice, he had managed to get Tom Orr, Robert Black, Susan and Scott Gordon to play.

The local musicians were: on accordion Frank Burnett, Keith Duncan, Sandy McAllan, Charlie Lawie and Lynne Mciver; Ernest Mitchell, Florence Lawie and Susan Gordon on fiddle; and on moothie Denis Shepherd. They

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B&F • MAY 2017

41

Take The Floor The Charlie Kirkpatrick band with recently retired drummer Gordon Young.

Right: May broadcast drummer Ian Graham.

CHARLIE KIRKPATRICK SDB

T

he 29th of May 1982 saw the dulcet tones of Robbie Shepherd introduce the debut broadcast of Charlie Kirkpatrick and his Scottish Dance Band with the first set being two 6/8 marches, namely The McNeals of Ugadale and Mrs Lily Christie.

The band consisted of Charlie on lead button-box with John Carmichael on second accordion, Derek Hamilton on piano, Eoin Miller on double bass and Billy Grant on drums.

Some 35 years later the three

stalwarts Charlie, John and Derek are still there although with considerably less hair. Neil McMillan now occupies the double bass position while, for this latest broadcast, Ian Graham plays drums following in the footsteps of an illustrious line of drummers, namely John McCroskie, Bill Buchan and Gordon Young.

Alister Heron played fiddle in the band for many years until his untimely death in 2010. Alasdair White, Kenny Maclean and now Andrew Gifford from Shetland

followed him. Andrew is perhaps better known as a member of that brilliant young Shetland band Fiddlers Bid. The broadcast play list is a typical accordion club or old time dance programme with the Britannia Two Step, Dashing White Sergeant, Virginia Reel, Pride of Erin Waltz and many more. No Charlie Kirkpatrick broadcast would be complete without a Gaelic waltz, and for this set the band has chosen tunes which all have a connection with the Island of Lewis. One of his own compositions, which Charlie is particularly proud of, as it has been broadcast and recorded by other bands, is a polka for the White Heather Foxtrot entitled Still Going Strong.

So sit back and enjoy the swinging sound of Charlie Kirkpatrick and as Charlie would say: “Anyone not up dancing will be flung out”. l

6th May – Leonard Brown

13th May – Colin Dewar

20th May – Alan Crookston

27th May – Charlie Kirkpatrick

B&F • CLUB DIARY

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Club Diary May 2017 DATE

CLUB

GUEST ARTIST

VENUE

TIME

CONTACT

1

Thurso

John Morgan

Pentland Hotel, Thurso KW14 7AA

7.30 pm

Ian Wright 01847 892 050

2

Campsie

Alan Crookston Ceilidh Band

Glazert Country House Hotel, Lennoxtown G66 7DJ

7.30 pm

Billy Hutton 07889 021 972

2

Fort William

Club Night (Visitors welcome)

Railway Club, Inverlochy, Fort William PH33 6LY

7.30 pm

Alisdair MacDonald 01397 701 505

3

Dingwall

Adin Graham Trio

National Hotel, Dingwall IV15 9HA

7.30 pm

Elspeth Weir 01349 877 675

3

Glenfarg

Craigowl SDB

Glenfarg Village Hall, Glenfarg PH2 9NU

7.30 pm

Russell Robertson 01577 830 642

3

Montrose

John Stewart Band

Park Hotel, Montrose DD10 8RJ

7.30 pm

Ron Ramsay 01241 879 487

3

Orkney

Club Night (Visitors welcome)

The Reel, Kirkwall KW15 1KD

7.30 pm

Jim Marwick 01856 874 474

4

Crieff

James Coutts

The British Legion, Crieff PH7 3EB

7.30 pm

Irene Anderson 01764 654 298

4

Isle of Skye

Elizabeth MacKenzie & Ian MacDonald

The Royal Hotel, Portree IV51 9BU

7.30 pm

Linda Shaw 01478 611 122

4

Lewis & Harris

Club Night (Visitors welcome)

Caladh Inn, Stornoway HS1 2QN

8.00 pm

Janette MacIver 01851 704 870

4

North East

Gavin Piper

Royal British Legion, Keith AB55 5EN

7.30 pm

Rory Smith 07769 801 996

4

Rothbury

Ray Carse

Queens Head Hotel, Rothbury NE65 7SR

7.30 pm

Mary Davidson 01668 281 307

4

Turriff

Brandon McPhee Trio

Commercial Hotel, Cuminestown AB53 5WJ

7.30 pm

Pat Steele 01888 562 486

5

Castle Douglas

Willie McRobert Band (Dance)

Cross Michael Hall, Castle Douglas DG7 3JG

8:00 pm

Ian Riddet 01387 255 919

5

Gretna

Iain Anderson Trio (Fundraising Dance)

The Greenhow Centre, Gretna

7.30 pm

Robin Waitt 01387 371 423

7

Arbroath

Jack Delaney SDB

Arbroath Artisan Golf Club, Elliot,

By Arbroath DD11 2PE

7.30pm

Tony Simpson 01241 875 326

7

Clydesdale

Tom Orr SDB

St Mary’s Club Rooms, Lanark ML11 7JS

2.00 pm

Shirley Cathcart 01555 661 017

9

Blairgowrie

The Occasionals

Red House Hotel, Coupar Angus PH13 9AL

7.45 pm

Helen Aitchison 01821 670 302

9

Dunfermline

AGM

Sportsman Bar, Rosyth KY11 2NX

7.30 pm

Bob Adam 01383 306 142

9

Seghill

Alan Small & Gemma Donald

Seghill Comrades Club, Cramlington NE23 7TQ

7.00 pm

James Youngson 01670 356 410

10

Alnwick

Alan Small & Gemma Donald Quartet

The Farriers Arms, Alnwick NE66 2XX

7.30 pm

Leonard Brown 07758 723 355

10

Forres

Brandon McPhee Trio

Victoria Hotel, Tytler Street, Forres IV36 1EL

7.30 pm

Ann Sharp 01309 672 672

10

Orkney

Club Night (Visitors welcome)

The Reel, Kirkwall KW15 1KD

7.30 pm

Jim Marwick 01856 874 474

11

Button-Key (Windygates)

Fife Strathspey & Reel Society

The Greig Institute, Windygates KY8 5DG

7.00 pm

Mary Cook 01592 713 687

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Reviews The McCalmans Lost Tracks CDTRAX393 The McCalmans, who retired in 2010, released 26 albums and recorded over 400 songs in their 46 years as professional musicians (no mean achievement by today’s standards). Twelve of those albums were on the Greentrax record label. The ‘Macs’, as they became known to their many fans, remained loyal to the Edinburgh-based recording company who have done so much to develop and grow our cherished musical heritage and culture. Finding new songs was a group passion and because of the constant influx of material, many songs never made it on to a ‘Macs’ album.

This recently released album, which will be warmly welcomed by their many fans, features studio recordings, rehearsal recordings, live concert songs and songs from the Final Concert DVD. Lost Tracks contains nineteen tracks of the first, the second and the final line-up of the group and it is quite remarkable

”

[The ‘Macs’] have done so much to develop and grow our cherished musical heritage and culture

”

that there were only two line-up changes in 46 years, especially when you consider that one of the changes was due to the untimely death of Derek Moffat. In addition to the tracks from the three lineups, the album includes a guest appearance by Barbara Dickson who often sang with the ‘Macs’ in their early days. Additionally, there is a mixture of traditional

songs and contemporary material, including of course contributions from the pen of Ian McCalman and the late and much missed Nick Keir. Ian and Nick were two prolific songwriters but pride of place goes to Nick who wrote the stunning opening track Cold Night in this Old Town. Ian McCalman made the search through hundreds of tapes, minidiscs, LPs, CDs, videos and PC files etc. for lost tracks.

He also edited and mastered the album at his Kevock Digital Studio in Lasswade. This new release will be a rare treat for the legions of McCalmans fans who were saddened by the demise of the group in 2010, fearing there would never be another ‘Macs’ album.

I know Ian Green at Greentrax was delighted with the finished product from Ian McCalman, not only because of the great quality of the finished article, even from those non-professional sources, but also because here we have a recording from The McCalmans that features their three line-ups.

This is vintage stuff that will be welcomed and cherished by the group’s loyal fan base.

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