Heart of Hawick, Hawick, 2 April 2010, and touring

Fiddlers Bid (Photo - Heidi Pearson)

EVEN THOUGH they’re an instrumental band at heart, the members of Fiddlers’ Bid aren’t exactly shy when it comes to speaking in front of a microphone. Take Bid’s chief yarn-spinner, Maurice Henderson, here for example, man who could easily carve out a second career for himself as a stand-up comedian should he ever give up music.

Such is the Shetlander’s wont for a blether, fellow fiddler Andrew Gifford had to forcibly remove the mic-stand to the side of the stage for fear that Henderson’s long-winded stories about eccentric Norwegian sprinters, curious straw-hatted ‘Skelkers’, and 80-year-old weightlifters would scare people away.

Thankfully, it didn’t. Indeed, Henderson’s plausible tales ­ just like Chris Stout and Kevin Henderson’s between-tune chattering – merely warmed the folk of Hawick to the band even more.

This was the septet’s second gig of a ten-day tour, and despite Stout’s fears that one of them might end up in The Priory as a result, there didn’t appear to be any signs of ring-rustiness when they kicked off with boozy combo, ‘Da Boys O’ Da Lounge’, and a tribute to Stout’s favourite Glaswegian watering hole, ‘The Bon Accord Ale House’.

However, within the opening ten minutes, Stout had shown signs of struggling with a technical gremlin, guitarist Fionan de Barra had fluffed a few notes during his one-and-only solo, while Catriona McKay seemed to be playing the piano with her right hand and the harp with her left. Arguably Scotland’s most gifted clarsach player, a waltz she co-wrote with a member of Swedish folk trio, Vasen, brought the sell-out audience to such a deafening hush, any sudden noise, you felt, would have been punishable by decapitation.

Thankfully, though, the only heads being stretched from their necks were those belonging to Bid’s four-fiddle front-line as they stomped, stamped and generally strutted their merry way through two hours of the most wholesome instrumental music you’ll hear this side of the North Sea.

With many gems to pick through, then, notable highlights included: ‘Midnight’ – a syncopated charmer book-ended with such nifty pizzicato even the first violinist of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra would have tipped their hat in admiration; ‘LK243′ – an ode (waltz) to a hundred-year-old fishing boat now restored to its former glory; ‘Tangerine Dream’ – a surprisingly uplifting ditty based upon Stout’s hopes for a Dundee United win in the Scottish Cup Final; and a rousing Faroese ring-dance tune, that, thankfully didn’t merit the 950 verses, Stout said, it’s been known for having.

The most charming point of the evening, however, came just before the end, as some members of the band attempted to sing a wee lament prior to the band’s opus and piece de resistance, ‘All Dressed In Yellow’. It may or may not be the first time this all-instrumental outfit have attempted to sing rather than riff during a concert, but it’s something, perhaps, they might wish to do a little more of in the future.

For now, though, we should just be thankful that the leaders of our fiddle-led tradition proceed to evoke their God-given talent through their fingers, and not their voice-boxes. That said, just don’t be too surprised if you see Maurice Henderson fronting a new series of Jackanory anytime soon. You have been warned.

(See Fiddlers Bid website below for tour dates).

© Barry Gordon, 2010

Links

• Fiddlers Bid
• Barry Gordon