Guitar Greats Descend on Ullapool

ANDREA MUIR reports on a significant step forward for her husband, Dingwall-based guitarist GRAHAM MUIR, and looks ahead to next month’s Ullapool Guitar Festival.

JUST OVER a month ago, 25 year old Dingwall-based guitarist Graham Muir was receiving tuition at a Summer School at the International Guitar Festival in Bath, thanks to funding from the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Award for Professional Development. Since his return home, he has composed three new songs and been invited to play at the Ullapool Guitar Festival next month.

It was at the Ullapool festival last year that Graham met with some of the best guitar players in the world, who encouraged him to focus on developing his own music. This year he has joined them on the bill.

“I knew I was going to benefit from attending the Summer School,” Graham said, “but I didn’t realise how quickly the techniques I learned and the confidence I gained would result in me creating three pieces of music that I’m really happy with.”

The songs are typical of Graham’s atmospheric, romantic style. They are haunting melodies that remain with you long after they are first heard. The latest song, ‘Allyson’s Day’, was written in a weekend as a wedding present for a close relative.

Graham is now rehearsing his set for the Ullapool Guitar Festival, which takes place this year over the weekend of 10-12 October in various venues in the village.

“I feel as if it has gone full circle,” says Graham with an astounded grin. “Last year’s festival was so inspiring, and now I’m going to be part of it!”

This year the line up includes Tony McManus, regarded by many as the best Celtic guitarist in the world, the virtuoso Clive Carroll, and Hugh Burns, who has performed with many stars and has been a session musician on classic albums and movie soundtracks such as Die Another Day and The Full Monty.

David Allison will be bringing his innovative real-time sampling and looping, which has been described as “painting with sound”. Then there is the crushed velvet voice of Duncan Mackenzie and the twinkly-eyed entertainment of Martin Stephenson and Jim Hornsby, as well as The Lush Rollers, Jim Hunter, Tristan Seume and Stuart Ryan (and, of course, Graham Muir), amongst many others.

The festival is now in its fourth year. It was conceived as a way of bringing entertainment to Ullapool and also helping the local economy, which it has certainly done. Some businesses have reported as much as a 40% increase in turnover since the festival weekend began in 2000.

The organiser, Richard Lindsay, is delighted with the continued success of the festival. Originally, the concept had been to have an annual blues festival, but as the idea developed it appeared that all the interest in taking part was coming from guitarists, and so in the first year Ullapool was witnessing performances from legendary guitarists like John Renbourn. Another first year performer was Gordon Haskell, who later went on to have a massive Christmas hit with ‘How Wonderful You Are’ (Robbie Williams pipped him for the number one spot).

Richard Lindsay says that the locals were stunned and delighted at the quality of musicianship and, if there had been any antipathy towards the festival, it quickly faded away.

This year the festival eases in with workshops in Gairloch High School (8 October 2003) and an evening concert at the Old Inn. They repeat the process at Achiltibuie Primary School (9 October 2003), with a performance in the evening at Achiltibuie Village Hall.

The aim of the workshops is to show the students as many different guitar styles as possible – from Celtic to flamenco, blues to renaissance. The guitarists’ brief is to “go in and inspire”, which should not be too difficult as guitar music has been referred to as “the new rock and roll” [wasn’t guitar music the old rock and roll as well? – Ed] and is playing a major part in the backlash against the perceived pap of pop today.

The festival proper kicks off on Friday afternoon (10 October 2003) with workshops at Ullapool High School, followed by the first evening concert at The Ceilidh Place.

On Saturday and Sunday there will be performances in various locations throughout the village. All afternoon gigs are free and will whet the appetite for the evening performances at the Village Hall on Saturday and the Seaforth Inn on Sunday.

When asked what his hopes are for the future of the festival, Richard Lindsay answers immediately:

“There is no doubt that the festival has been a great success and there is no reason to think it can’t continue to be a success. I envisage a truly International Festival of the Guitar. There are so many incredible players out there we haven’t seen yet. Let’s bring them here.”

Richard Lindsay had a dream as an 8 year-old visitor to Ullapool of one day living in the house he now owns. He knows dreams can come true, and now what he needs to realise this big dream is sponsorship.

“We are so grateful to many organisations for their help (The Ullapool Tourist Association, Scottish Arts Council, Ross and Cromarty Enterprise, The Highland Council), but we are not sure how long this will continue. With a sponsor making a long term commitment to the festival we can make a five year plan which will bring in even more artists that’ll make your toes curl!”

Here’s hoping!