Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 15 January 2011

TAKE four fiddlers, add a clarsach and a couple of guitars and you have the magical Fiddlers Bid. We in the Highlands were treated to some magical gigs, including a very special one in Oban with Catriona MacKay and Chris Stout earlier in the autumn, but as Stout says, “Fiddlers Bid is a whole different thing again!”.

They were celebrating 20 years of frenetic fiddle music here, and demonstrating that they remain at the very top of the game. Reels, marches and waltzes followed in a tour de force of the Shetland tradition. Willie Hunter Junior and Senior were celebrated in music, and thanked for their encouragement and influence in the musical development and growth of Fiddlers Bid over the two decades.

Shetland band Fiddlers Bid

Astrid’s Waltz gave us room to draw breath with a tune written for a Swedish friend, but normal service was resumed with a blistering tune celebrating the survival from a Bonxie attack on a Scandinavian friend. The birds did not take kindly to anyone on their headland. The runner, who was visiting the northern shores for the first time, had to run faster to escape. It further demonstrated that the Shetlanders often look east rather than south for inspiration and fellowship.

Further east still, a trip to Japan led to a Celtic Connection that none of us expected, Japanese duo Humbert and Humbert. The oriental duo was spirited on stage and made beautiful music with and without the band, and with almost a Gaelic air to their songs. Gentle and graceful music from the Orient that could have easily come from Oronsay.

Then came the finale, and the Shetlanders moved up a notch which should have warned us of something special coming. Not one of the near full Royal concert Hall expected seventeen Vikings in full battle dress to come down through the audience and join on stage. Up helly aa had come to the city, and what a sight it was. “That’s the kinda festival Celtic Connections is,” mused Stout; “when you ask for a bus load o’ Vikings and twa flights from Japan – they just do it!” The next 20 years will be marvellous.

Elsewhere in the festival, the The Henry Girls and Foxhunt made a strong impression in the Strathclyde Suite the previous evening. Take three girls from Donegal and add four boys from West Virginia and mix them all together on a Glasgow stage and the blend is Celtic.

Well, more Americana, actually but foot stomping none the less! All of a sudden we realise what Celtic Connections is all about – collaboration. They met at a festival last year and the magic began. Original and cleverly mastered round just one big old-style microphone, the bands take turns to lead throughout the songs in a musical merry-go-round that delights the Royal Concert hall regulars and first timers alike.

It’s like being back in the Fifties (I imagine) and listening to American radio on the short wave. We meet the girls and boys later back at the hotel – a dram or two were had (networking, I call it), and I think we will see them in the Highlands before long – watch this space.

The Highlands were well represented that opening weekend, with Skerryvore and Manran at the O2 ABC on Sunday, and also Iain Thomson in a supportign slot at the City Halls’s Recital Room with Marc Duff on the Friday. Skerryvore, the Tiree Celtic rockers, always get the ABC dancing. They upped their game again, and they had to ­ Manran will have helped their cause .

The gig was opened by the infamous Calum Iain Ceilidh Band featuring Malcolm Jones of Runrig on the box, and Calum Iain rotating between accordion and fiddle. What a star the man is: humour style and dancing – all the while bowing as he goes.

Gary Innes and Norrie MacIver make a fine front for Manran, and Ewen Henderson adds to their sparkle. Calum Stewart came all the way from France with his pipes and Ross Saunders on bass says its “the best band I have ever played in! – there is something new in every gig.” With the audience ready for it ,the wee festival super group turned big in Glasgow!

This was only there sixth gig, and they wowed the audience with MacIver’s distinctive vocals and the superb playing of Scotland shinty captain, Innes, on the golden box. The new single ‘Latha Math’ made the audience sing, and became the first Gaelic song to make the UK charts in the new millennium. The boys also made number 6 in the Scottish Top 40, number one in the UK singer songwriter chart, and number 6 in the Radio 1 Indie chart, a great result for Gaelic music.

The band were delighted at the support they had received from throughout the Gaeltacht. Their set gives them several more tracks with the top 40 written all over them and one biggie, the vocal athletics of a great peurt a beul finale from MacIver, is my favourite.

The band also opened for Kepa Junkera at the Royal Concert Hall (13 January), with a more subdued audience than the Ceilidh hooligans that populate a Skerryvore gig. This was going to be a tough one … or so we thought. As a fully paid up hooligan, it falls to me to advance the case. Age has nothing to do with it – its attitude that counts!

Calum Iain (the dancing fiddler) and his ceilidh band had proved that at the ABC O2, having got the audience all warmed up by the time Manran came on stage. Not so at the Concert Hall. All that was warm were the scarves to ward out the winter chill that had befallen Glasgow as the fog descended.

However, a few wisecracks from Gary and Norrie softened the “cultured audience” that had re- assembled. This is the type of audience that threw not one pair of knickers toward Tom Jones earlier in the week. “it is a cultured audience” says Donald Shaw – the festival director.

Cultured or not – after half a dozen tracks and an explanation of John Smeaton’s “terrorist downing” tactics by way of an intro to the set of tunes bearing his name in honour, and Manran had convinced the audience to part with 79p and download the track Lath Math. A good day indeed – in fact a result, boys – a reel result!

Iain Thomson, Mull’s singing shepherd, and Marc Duff the Capercailie founding flautist, had a busy time with three concert spots in six hours, playing tunes from the new album Fields of Dreams to the appreciative audiences. Then Iain was back on Tuesday to record some songs for later showing on BBC Alba.

He was delighted to be able to play the title track of the album, supported by Donald Shaw on accordion. Donald wrote the tune ‘Calum’s Road’ which features at the end of the title track.

Ten million pounds were generated in 2010 by Celtic Connections for the City of Glasgow, and nearly twelve million if you include the rest of Scotland in the sums. This year numbers are holding up – bucking the trend elsewhere. As Europe’s greatest winter festival – it’s not just the music that warms the cockles of your heart.

© Campbell Cameron, 2011

Links

• Celtic Connections