I am trying to find out what's up at the festival at Kirriemuir,
all the information I have found just talks very generally (concerts,
ceilidhs, sesions...) Does anybody know if there's any actual
programme or list of events? Thanks, Manuel Waldesco
I posted a list before and I'm just back from it. I don't think you
were there? you missed yourself.
It was rather unlike any other festival I've been to in having lots
of small sessions scattered all over the town rather than two or
three huge ones; I prefer the smaller ones as you end up with more
varied repertoire and can hear what you're doing better.
I don't think I've ever played so many tunes in F before. Many were
meant to be that way, but partly it was due to a guy with a C/F melodeon
who turned up to the session in Rennie's cycle shop. He could play it
very well, but had no conception that what he was doing was in any way
odd, or that some people might find The Mason's Apron in F or The
79th's Farewell to Gibraltar in C a tad problematic. Some people get
the hint about excessive use of weird keys after I pull out my c.1900
continental-pitch Austrian ocarina and do a retreat march in E flat minor,
but he wasn't one of them. Kudos to the very good whistle player sitting
beside me who managed to mostly fake this F stuff using just a D whistle;
I couldn't have pulled that off.
Tunes and songs I resolved to learn after that weekend:
- Willie Forrest (? I think) by Freeland Barbour (in E and A).
- MacArthur's Reel by I don't know who (a recent tune that goes
into fiddle third position; heard it before as a party trick but
Karen Hannah made a real piece of music out of it).
- Whatever You Say, Say Nothing (very funny Irish political song
but the guy who attempted it got lost half-way through).
(For anyone who was there and didn't introduce themselves, that was
me in the green tweed kilt and the shirt that would do as military
camo on one of the more garish moons of Saturn).
The major disappointment was finding that there is no such thing as
Kirriemuir gingerbread any more. The nearest bakery is in Forfar,
and the only version of the stuff on sale was the made-in-Shotts one
you get everywhere. And they're going to have to look further than
Inverness if the virgin quota is to match previous years.
-
Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ * homepage for my CD-ROMs of Scottish
traditional music; free stuff on food intolerance, music and Mac logic fonts.
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