Performing Rites

STEVE ROBERTSON accompanied Black Isle favourites The Rites on their recent visit to Belfast.

ONE OF THE Highlands leading unsigned bands, The Rites (formerly Dionyssus), recently enjoyed the opportunity to travel to Belfast in Northern Ireland to take part in the 9th annual Belfest, thanks to goevents, the people behind showcases such as goNORTH in Aberdeen and goHI in Inverness.

The band’s keyboard player, George Campbell, said “We’d like to thank goevents and Shaun Arnold for being very kind to give us such a fantastic opportunity to perform at Belfest”.

Belfest was part of Belfast City Council’s ‘Celebrate Belfast’, and featured a programme of events that included a wide selection of free new music showcase events, a range of skills development events, and fifteen ticketed feature concerts that featured such names as Peter Hook from New Order and The Damned.

The Easyjet service that was set up in July to provide the first direct link between the Highlands and Northern Ireland allowed The Rites flew out from Dalcross Airport, a journey that lasted less than 1 hour.

Upon arrival the band checked in at the Travel Lodge in the centre of Belfast, and headed off for some food and football. They quickly split into two groups, one to see the Rangers game and one to see the Liverpool game.

The Rites hit the stage with Rory screaming the crowd into action whilst Robin launched into the opening riff of ‘Freestyle’

The band would meet up again at one of Belfast most impressive music venues, The Empire Music Hall, where they were joined by Shaun Arnold of goevents. The venue played host to one of the Belfest showcases, and featured some of Northern Ireland’s top unsigned acts such as Indigo Fury, We Are Knives, Red Sirius and more. This gave The Rites a chance to do some flyering around the packed out venue to build some hype for their set they would play the next day.

After a late rise, the band again split up into groups as lead guitarist Robin Johnston and myself skipped on the sightseeing due to the cold weather, whilst drummer Bruce Maclean stayed in bed all day. Singer Rory Hutcheson, bassist Greg Adams and keyboard player George Campbell went out and investigated Belfast, reportedly including its most famous pub, The Crown, which is the only pub that is looked after by the National Trust.

With a soundcheck set for 6 pm they headed down to set up at The Spring & Airbrake, which would play host to one of the three Belfest showcases, along with adjacent venues Katy Daly’s and The Limelight.

There seemed to be no escaping from Scotland as the band discovered the soundman was originally from Thurso, and that one of the bands on the bill, Underbelly, although originally from Belfast, had been living in Edinburgh for over 10 years.

At 10 pm The Rites hit the stage with Rory screaming the crowd into action whilst Robin launched into the opening riff of ‘Freestyle’. Taking full advantage of the chance to play a Belfest showcase, they continued to power into a 30 minute set of driving rock ‘n’ roll, playing songs such as ‘Stomper’ that have gained them their fanbase in Scotland, and their ultra catchy upcoming single, ‘The Sequel’.

Summing the trip up, George gave his thoughts: “Belfast is one of the single-most nicest places we have ever played, apart from the people there being very much into their music and having time for everything, they were so accommodating and we don’t think we’ve had a better response from anywhere like we experienced in Belfast”.

The opportunity to play Belfast is just one of many highlights for the five piece group since changing their name from Dionyssus to The Rites earlier in the year, including a successful UK Tour, coverage in national music magazines such as ‘Is This Music?’ and ‘Music News Scotland’, along with being one of the highlights of Hayseed Dixie’s Loopallu Festival in Ullapool.

You can next see The Rites at Rock, Dingwall on 26 December; Mad Hatters, Inverness, on 28 December; and Village Hall, Ullapool, on 29 December.

© Steve Robertson, 2005