MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2008

9 Dec 2008 in Argyll & the Islands, Highland, Moray, Music, Orkney, Outer Hebrides, Shetland

Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, 6 December 2008

Duncan Chisholm

WHILE A lively debate continues as to the pros and cons of the Scots Trad Music Awards – supporters applauding the organisers’ aim of media-friendly profile-raising; opponents deploring the very concept of competitive prizes for musical endeavour – there’s no disputing that the event provides the Scottish folk community with their prime annual opportunity to dress up.

At this year’s sixth ceremony, the first to be staged in Glasgow after two successful outings in Fort William, stereotypes of scruffiness seemed comprehensively outmoded amidst a panoply of designer frocks, killer heels, sharp suits and full-dress kilt attire, all captured – again for the first time – by the TV cameras, for broadcast on BBC Alba.

Bilingual presentation, in English and Gaelic, was thus the order of the night, courtesy of joint comperes Mary Ann Kennedy and Tony Kearney. The Gaelic world was also prominently represented among the list of winners – all decided, in the main categories, by an online public vote. Blair Douglas was named Composer of the Year, Arthur Cormack of Fèisean nan Gàidheal and Macmeanmna took the Services to Industry Award, Skipinnish won Dance Band of the Year and the South Uist summer school Ceolas topped the poll for Community Project of the Year.

By common consent, Margaret Stewart was a worthy winner in the Gaelic Artist of the Year category, following the praise heaped on her latest album Togaidh mi mo Sheolta (although her reported aside, in Gaelic, as she arrived onstage to receive the trophy – “About time” – seemed somewhat less than gracious).

[Editor’s Note: Margaret Stewart has been in touch to say that the aside she uttered was “Oh mo chreach!” (oh my goodness), an expression of surprise. She insists that there was no intent to be ungracious over an award she is delighted and honoured to have won]

Capercaillie, having earlier kicked off the night’s musical proceedings in fine style, were presented with a new, Bòrd na Gàidhlig-sponsored award for Services to Gaelic Music – by none other than the iconic figure of Norman MacLean, Donald Shaw and Karen Matheson’s former Gaelic teacher at Oban High School. The band themselves may not have thanked whoever compiled the mini-retrospective of video clips recapping their 25-year career, complete with dodgy hairstyles and mean’n’moody expressions from their early-1990s excursion into the pop charts, but everyone else enjoyed it hugely.

Other eminently deserving Highland winners included the Peatbog Faeries, voted Live Act of the Year, and fiddler Duncan Chisholm, whose gorgeous recent release Farrar emerged as Album of the Year. And from further north still, Orkney eight-piece The Chair crowned a truly triumphant 2008 by scooping the Folk Band of the Year title.

Besides the impressive prevailing sartorial standards, the show overall proceeded with a slickness similarly at odds with folk music’s popular image – and with no less than 16 main prizes to hand out, in addition to sundry special awards, memorial tributes and seven inductions into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame (ranging from the Alexander Brothers to Runrig), this was no small achievement.

The man behind it all, Simon Thoumire, director of the organising agency Hands Up For Trad, rose to the occasion in arguably the night’s most resplendent outfit, a three-piece silver striped suit whose style was variously compared to a Regency sofa and Showaddywaddy, plus matching winkle-picker shoes.

The award announcements and acceptance speeches were interspersed with plenty of live performances reflecting the breadth and depth of Scotland’s current music scene, among them a memorable pair of songs from Karine Polwart, some typically fiery pipes-led tunes from Breabach, and a beautifully harmonised Gaelic song medley led by Kenna Campbell, also featuring five of the now-rising stars, including James Graham and Catriona Watt, that she has tutored at the RSAMD.

Lau, featuring Instrumentalist of the Year Kris Drever, pulled off the notable feat of playing ‘The Lang Set’, which normally runs to around 14 minutes, in well under half that time, while dance-band leader and Hall of Fame inductee John Carmichael led an all-star accordion line-up in ‘The Bluebell Polka’, by way of a hundredth birthday tribute to the late Jimmy Shand.

Prior to all the individual accolades, though, perhaps the night’s most important news came during the welcome address by Culture Minister Linda Fabiani, when she announced the formation of a new parliamentary steering group on traditional arts, whose aim will be to boost the sector’s status and support in the run-up to the launch of Creative Scotland in 2010.

The Scots Trad Music Awards Winners’ Concert will be held at The Arches, Glasgow, on 16 December 2008.

© Sue Wilson, 2008

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