Phipps Hall, Beauly, 15 & 17 October 2008

Saltfishforty

THE 120 or so pupils and their families have first call on tickets to the concerts which are part of Blazin’ in Beauly, and the people of Beauly seem to snap up most of the rest, so it’s always a thrill to be invited along, even though invited guests usually have to stand at the back of Phipps Hall.

After all, who actually stands still during this music? It’s more of a controlled jig, and there was plenty of jigging and whooping and clapping going on last Wednesday. (And reeling, too, rather later in the evening, but let’s draw a veil over the post-gig party…)

For musicians, performing in Beauly can be a nervewracking experience, faced with an audience which is composed of pupils, fellow performers and cognoscenti. Seeing musicians playing at the very top of their game is one of the reasons this is such a hot ticket.

First up was lovely Lauren MacColl, who was a 16-year-old student at the first Blazin’ in Beauly, and returned this year as a 23-year-old tutor. If anyone were ever to doubt the justification for the existence of this week of tuition, I would point them in Miss MacColl’s direction.

Elegant, composed, with seemingly innate stagecraft, her playing, as MC Andy Thorburn pointed out, is the embodiment of classic grace and style, and she has a maturity of soul that is not always to be found even in players twice her age. She will be touring the Highlands with her trio, recently renamed The MacCollective, next spring, and I suggest anyone who loves great fiddle playing should scramble for tickets as they’ll have to beat the Beauly audience to it.

The equally lovely Catriona Macdonald followed her erstwhile pupil onto the stage. Even though half her band was elsewhere – bassist Conrad Ivitsky in Norway, percussionist James Mackintosh in Cape Breton – so that she and redoubtable pianist David Milligan had to work twice as hard, she was relaxed and assured.

The quality of the tunes, most from her glorious new CD, over the moon, and the playing shone right through, and the rafters rang with cheers when she had finished. Catriona has exquisite timing, a Grappelli-like swing, and that treasurable knack of making your feet dance, no matter what.

MC Andy Thorburn introduced Saltfishforty as “a rock band”. Considering there were just the two of them, and they’re from Orkney, this seemed to be a bit of an overstatement. I should have trusted Mr T’s judgement; Saltfishforty rock.

My increasingly scrawled notes mention hints of The Kinks, Balkan klezmer bands, Arabian music, John Cale, Fairport Convention, the Velvet Underground, Arvo Part, India, and Bela Fleck, before becoming illegible due to the energetic and infectious dancing of percussion tutor Dougie Hudson. It should also be mentioned that, were they not musicians, Saltfishforty would be stars on the stand up circuit. File under ‘fun’ and ‘mindblowing’.

Friday night’s closing concert is a different kettle of fiddles altogether, acting more as a preamble to the closing ceilidh dance. Rick Taylor’s group work traditionally kickstarts the evening, as 120 pupils crowd onto the stage to amaze the audience. This year they delivered a stylish Gordon Duncan tune, followed by a haunting arrangement of John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’ by singing tutor Laura Taylor.

Blazin’ Fiddles followed with their first set of the evening, ‘Smirisary’, before Lauren MacColl played a set including two very appropriately local tunes, ‘Belladrum House’ and ‘Mrs Fraser of Belladrum’, and reminisced about her pupilage as a ‘tune-hungry’ child who would have given up without the encouragement she found here.

The Blazers returned for the Strathspey set, and encored with the glorious ‘Mouseskin’, for which they were joined by Lauren MacColl, who fitted into the lineup perfectly. Saltfishforty’s Douglas Montgomery, also managed to squeeze into the front line for the last triumphant bars before his own group work brought the assembled students back to the stage with a lot of very good humoured audience participation on the ‘whooo hooos’, drawing another week of inimitable musical tuition and outstandingly good craic to a close.

In the bar afterwards, Irish fiddle supremo Gerry O’Connor walked in with his son Donal, both looking slightly bemused, as they’d turned up at Bogbain where they were due to play the following night, but had been hastily redirected to Beauly. It was either Gerry or Jonny Hardie – who had also turned up, it’s that kind of a place – who said that despite a passing resemblance to the Fiddle Camps of the US and Canada, there’s nothing quite like Blazin’ in Beauly. I wouldn’t argue with that – here’s to next year.

© Jennie Macfie, 2008

Links

• Blazin’ in Beauly