Border Television News, Scotland, tomorrow night, Thursday, 5-5.30pm: look out for bald bloke playing banjo badly
We had a TV crew in to film a news item about music sessions in local pubs (we just started a two-month funded program of free live music) and I got 24 hours notice to attempt to raise a daytime interview setting, including young traditional Scots musicians. Our local High School in Kelso were aces, and the heid man released three young lasses who regularly drop in to play fiddle and flute on our Friday night sessions. But everyone else was at work, so it was down to me and my friend Pete (half-day closing for his shop) with guitars to add a bit of noise and give the impression of a real session. I took along a five-string banjo on the basis that if a few others turned up, a banjo never does any harm to the overall sound, gives it a lift, a bit like playing the spoons only with a hint of actual notes :-) I do not play banjo normally except for loud songs in G when no-one can hear what I'm playing. I ended up playing very badly accompanying fiddle tunes in A (not the banjo's strongest key) and then, when I tried to swap over for my nice safe guitar, was told to keep playing the banjo for continuity... so we did the entire set again for some more camera angles, including (my friend Dave on the ENG camera told me afterwards) close-ups of what my fingers were doing. Banjo players throughout the Borders region can now have a really good laugh. What they filmed was seriously inexpert banjo accompaniment and I hope it goes the usual way of TV news fillers - cut to five seconds. Life is funny - guitarist and singer, and here's the first time I ever get in front of the TV cameras... playing beginner-level banjo without rehearsing (or even knowing what the girls were going to play until they started). Cheers - David Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
