Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Had a great January. After a good USA tour with Malinky we had two Celtic gigs at the BBC’s Pacific Quay and the Strathclyde Suite which went very well indeed.
The last week of Celtic brought my album launch and several gigs. The launch was a great success and the album is officially released and soon to be available from the upcoming ‘Shop” section of the website.
Saturday’s Young Trad Tour 2010 concert in the Strathclyde Suite was amazing fun and set the weekend going beautifully. Sunday brought the 2011 Young Trad Final and the highlight of this months gigs. While the judges were making their decision (well done Kristin by the way!) played a 25 minute set and enjoyed every second! Also did a festival club spot later on and managed to do some guerilla CD sales.
The Curiosity Shop is due to be released and a launch had on the 26th January @ The Flying Duck, Renfield Lane, Glasgow. Doors at 9pm with a performance of the album at 10pm. This event is FREE! Please spread the word!!
This (last!) years hogmanay was an altogether different event than the usual. Heuch were playing the Resolution Square stage as part of Edinburghs new year celebrations. With a square full of avid dancers and party goers who seemed to really enjoy bopping away the evening with some Dashing White Sergeants, Gay Gordons and Riverside Jigs!
The 1st of January brought 11 acts to the Resolution Square Stage to start off the New Year in style for Edinburghs ‘One Day” event. Played material from my soon to be released album along with Tia Files and had a thoroughly good start to the year. Long may it continue!!
After finishing the recording in late October, we now have the first mix of the album. Been a fantastic time so far and only a few edits and mastering to do!
Looking to release in late January, so watch this space!!
Was playing at the MG ALba Trad awards on the 4th December. Along with Innes Watson, Blair Macmillan and Lewis Gordon played a couple of numbers from the album and was very enjoyable. Had a great time afterwards also and despite the snow lots of familiar faces made it along to the Perth Concert Hall. Some very desereved winners and some very good acceptance speeches. Was good to see everyone and meet some new folk as well.
The awards are available on BBC iPlayer for a short time and are well worth checking out!
Over the last few months, and up until March, I am playing with the band Malinky. Had two tours so far, a short trip around England in October with some great gigs in Rotherham, York and Bridlington and more recently a 12 day trip to Germany. With a lot of travel, some more great gigs including in Berlin, Backnang near Stuttgart and Bad Oeynshausen the tour was going well until slight problems during the last few days! A lost voice, an inopportune flat tyre, a mad 450km drive and arriving at the airport just in time to see the flight being cancelled due to weather issues in Edinburgh was perhaps not the highlight. Two days and an extra flight later however we were home unscathed and not too grumpy!!
Looking forward to more gigs with them round England in December!
The album plans are fully in motion and the studio is booked!!! La Chunky in Glasgow here comes the trio. With some input from Blair Macmillan on drums and Fraser Fifield on sax starting to get well excited about recording!!!
Will have some updates as things start to take shape…..
Away on the TMSA Young Trad Tour next week. Check out the Gigs section for details of the venues!!
The end of August brought a great 8 days to finish off the summer. I was invited to be an assistant at the ‘Strings Attached’ project as part of Tonder Festival in Denmark. One of the longest running festivals in the calender, Tonder lives up to all the recommendations!! The project brought young musicians from Ireland, Denmark and Scotland together to rehearse a 90 minute programme for Tent 2 at the festival. Lead by Brian Macneill, Liz Doherty, Ditte Fromensier-Mortenson and assisted by Kristian Bugge, Ruairidh MacMillan and myself. The week brought 4 days of intense rehearsal and 3 performances. Bringing tunes and songs together from each of the countries was thoroughly enjoyable and seeing the end product was even better.
The week got lots of press interest in the local area and we were also honoured to be ask to play for Princess Marie of Denmark. Both she and the festival seemed to welcome us and all the feedback about the week was positive. Positive enough to hear the rumblings of a repeat of the project over this side of the North Sea.
This is a wee summary of my activities for the last while and also the start of my rigorous website updating campaign!
In April, Take the Floor went to Inverurie and the trio was asked to play one of the guest spots. The town hall had a great night dancing away as did we and the resulting broadcast was a good reminder of a cracking night.
The start of May brought a beer festival in Dunbar, with a great selection of real ale, fruity cider and music! May calmed down though with a trip to Newcastleton folk club to play with Steven Blake and Jack Smedley, a small but perfectly formed audience gave us a nice concert experience. The following day we did some workshops in the local primary school teaching whistle, fiddle and giving them some more traditional music info.
June was a busy month for teaching with kids concerts in Catrine, Cumnock, Bridgeton and Hillhead Library. The culmination of the terms work, each one went fantastically and brought a big smile to mine (and hopefully the kids) faces!! As part of my Musicworks project in Bridgeton, we also took around 25 of the pupils over to the Isle of Arran, the sun shone and we had a lovely day of sightseeing around Brodick Castle and then a concert in the village hall. I managed to squeeze a few of my own concerts as well doing a gig with the Hamish Napier Quintet and the Aberdeen TMSA branch open day at Garlogie.
July was a month for festivals and recording. Starting with a Tyskie gig supporting Shooglenifty at Stonehaven Folk Festival which was a great gig and night to start the month. Straight from Stonehaven, I went down to Pathhead to start rehearsals for this years TMSA Young Trad Tour. After 4 days we drove along to Castlesound and got everything recorded. Another great week, lots of hard work but we have a lovely sounding shiny album to show for it!! Immediately after we’d finished recording, I rushed up to Aberdeen to play at the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention. A nice Sunday lunchtime Lemon Tree concert followed by a workshop was a nice way to round off a busy week! One of the summer’s highlights came at the end of July with the Muckle Loons trip to Cambridge Folk Festival. Several gigs at the Clubtent and Stage 2, including a few numbers with the Unusual Suspects on Mainstage, good reviews and a whole lot of fun!
The first half of August was a little quieter, a nice trip home for my birthday and a run up to Inverness to play the main stage at Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival with the Muckle Loons. Another hot day and a pretty good birthday all in all!
Now September has started and its back to teaching!