Clive Carroll

AS THE very last chord of the 10th Ullapool Guitar Festival reverberated, a question as to the future of this phenomenal event hung in the air. It’s not the aging audience which worries festival organiser Richard Lindsay – he refers affectionately to his loyal returning crowd as ‘silver backs’. Rather it is financial insecurity which lies at the root of the challenge he faces when booking world class acoustic guitar players without the backing of a major sponsor.

Wizz Jones used to play with, and indeed influenced, Eric Clapton. He also has the dubious privilege of being able to say that another fellow musician, Rod Stewart, stole his first girlfriend. Whizz played on Saturday lunchtime and filled his one hour slot with, acrobatic fret work and fascinating anecdotes. When this man sings he does so with a resonance and melodic accuracy which belies his age (he has just turned 70)

Young people were represented throughout the weekend. 21-year-old Gareth Pearson flirted impishly with the audience throughout his set. He proved that it is possible to execute a series of jumps and writhe around on the floor while maintaining a reputation as a wunderkind. Sheer skill and exuberance are his hallmarks.

Wizz Jones says: “Each generation of players is getting better and better because they are growing up around the music. Some like Gareth are really dedicated. They are unusual amongst their peers because they don’t mind hanging out in folk clubs with older musicians.”

A group of primary school children from Achiltibuie took to the stage on Saturday and demonstrated how the educational strand of the festival has inspired musical initiative. Nine children – out of a school of 27- strummed their way competently through a handful of tunes. This was made possible by a gift of six guitars to the school and the dedication of a parent tutor.

Five concerts, each about 4 hours in length, filled the afternoons and evenings of the three day event. Mornings were taken up with workshops and night fall saw spontaneous jamming amongst the top musicians in the festival club at the Arch Inn in West Shore Street, where front stage and back stage melded together in egalitarian fashion.

Guitarist John Goldie put it this way. He said: “At the festival club musicians get together, jamming and having fun. It’s a great vibe. Ullapool attracts some of the best players in the world. We play all over the world but we tell everybody about Ullapool.”

The Sunday afternoon concert – arguably the main event – kicked off with some classical guitar from Allan Neave. Then two of his students at the RSAMD, 17-year-old Sean Shibe and 28-year-old Sofia Pyrounaki, took to the stage. Sean is in second year, while Sofia is studying for her masters.

This was the classical component of the proceedings. Sean played a Sequenza, which is a piece a tutor writes specially for a student in order to showcase that student’s talents. There may not have been much melody or harmony but the work’s complexity confirmed Sean’s status as a virtuoso.

A major highlight was the appearance on stage of Hugh Burns, John Goldie and Clive Carroll. They all joined forces to play each other’s specially commissioned works, pieces which reflect the atmosphere in Ullapool.

Clive Carroll swept the audience along with a full bodied, rolling melody, underpinned by a strong regular tempo. John Goldie raised a laugh when he spontaneously christened his contribution ‘Ullapool Shorts’ in reference to both backstage imbibing and Richard Lindsay’s signature sartorial style.

The accounts have yet to throw light on whether this year’s event drew even. Given his previous form, it is a fairly sure bet that the big man in shorts will make it happen all over again in 2010. Those who want to support the event can sign up via the website and buy weekend tickets in advance.

© Jenny McBain, 2009

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• Ullapool Guitar Festival

FIVE SQUARE MILES surrounded by reality.  So said one of the performers at last weekend’s Ullapool Guitar Festival – and it certainly summed up the occasion.

Hugh Burns

We arrived on Friday afternoon after driving through the strawberry blonde October landscape complete with compulsory wind-whipped water, gossamer rain veiling white sunshine and square rainbows.  It was no surprise that visitors from as far away as Bolivia, Florida – and Hull found the whole experience memorable.  And that was before the music even began.

The first concert took place on Friday night at The Ceilidh Place. Tristan Seume, a newcomer to the festival, settled the packed house with his set that kicked off the evening and set the tone for the weekend. He was followed by Hugh Burns who, within the first thirty seconds proved that he is, quite simply, a genius, with gorgeous, warm and drifting renditions of new music and a feather light touch on the classics.

The popular Paul Buckley followed Hugh, and then Clive Carroll took to the stage. Clive’s performance was stunning.  His music has always delighted audiences but, on Friday night, he allowed them to be witness to his virtuosity being enhanced by a release of his emotional personality as shown by the taut, yet expression-filled performance of “Aerial Discoveries”.

The evening came to a close in the early hours with a remarkable jam session with Paul, Hugh and Clive blatantly showing off!

On Saturday afternoon, there were free gigs in the Ferry Boat Inn, The Ceilidh Place, The Seaforth and The Argyll Hotel.  These gigs brought more from Tristan Seume, beautiful classical music from Anne Chaurand and Galo Ceròn from Bolivia, and introduced local guitarist Graham Muir who received an extremely positive reaction at each of the gigs he played.

Saturday’s evening concert featured another newcomer to Ullapool, David Allison, who entranced the full house with his barefoot performance using real-time sampling and looping that built up layers of percussion and bass before introducing the beautifully chilled melodies of “Space”, “Azür” and the Celtic-flavoured “Maximo”.

Next, we were treated to Richard Gilewitz who was greeted with cheers when he was introduced as coming from Inverness.  The fact that it was Inverness, Florida, and not our own capital, was soon evidenced by his very funny, unassuming and surreal sense of humour that linked each piece he played with consummate skill and feeling.

Finally, at the end of another packed evening as I was beginning to feel just a little ‘guitar-ed out’, came Tony McManus.  Billed as the ‘best Celtic guitarist in the world”, he proved more than worthy of his title with reels and airs that had his fingers flying over a preposterous amount of notes.

Sunday afternoon was packed with more gigs. The afternoon session with Martin Stephenson and Paul Rose in the Ferry Boat Inn was worthy of top billing at any event.  The weekend came to a close with a final concert at The Seaforth, which was absolutely heaving with people and music long into the night, and was last seen in my rear view mirror as we headed home exhausted and truly indulged in a feast of guitar.

© Andrea Muir, 2003