Glasgow, Scotland – The Celtic Connections music fest continues
Thursday, January 19th, with well known Celtic acts, new talents and British
jazz.
Program:
01.00pm Iain Anderson in conversation
The Piping Centre
30-34 McPhater St, G4
£1 – tickets available from the Box Office
Daily talk with BBC Radio Scotland presenter Iain Anderson featuring discussion
with interesting local and national figures and musical interludes from festival
performers. Today’s talk features Scottish-based composer Sally Beamish.02.30pm Celtic Music Radio Live
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Exhibition Hall
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
Free
05.00pm Danny Kyle’s Open Stage with
Gibb
Todd
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Exhibition Hall
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
Free
Hosted by Danny Kyle’s good friends
Gibb
Todd and Liz Clark, the Open Stage is a
chance to see new musical talent as they try to win a coveted support slot at
next year’s festival – and all absolutely free!
06.00pm Festival Folk with
Sheena Wellington
The Piping Centre
30-34 McPhater Street, G4
£1 – tickets available from the Box Office
Festival personalities talk informally about their life and career in music,
followed by the chance to ask any burning questions.
07.30pm Horse with support
Hayley Hutchinson
The Garage
490 Sauchiehall Street, G2
£15 – tickets available from the Box Office
Although Horse McDonald’s singing continues to defy description – “a voice like
the ocean” was one critic’s attempt, while others have likened her to the great
Stax or Motown divas – there’s no disputing its greatness. Back in 1990, her
debut hit “Careful”, from her bestselling first album The Same Sky, went down in
the annals of the top Scottish pop songs ever, later resurfacing on the
dancefloor via a 1998 remix by Brothers in Rhythm. The past few years have been
among the busiest and most fruitful of Horse’s career, as she’s juggled projects
ranging from orchestral collaborations to unplugged tours, meanwhile recording a
diverse succession of consistently rewarding albums. Tonight’s full-band show
celebrates the launch of “Same Old, Same Old”, her first single release in many
a year, taken from her forthcoming album Red Haired Girl. This latest batch of
songs reveals a renewed vigour in Horse’s writing – a fresh chapter to add to an
already classic back catalogue.
07.45pm Songs of Scotland, The Isle of Lewis
hosted by
Ishbel MacAskill
Universal Folk Club
Sauchiehall Lane, G2
£8.50 – tickets available from the Box Office
A new venue for 2006, the intimate Universal Folk Club brings together the great
tradition bearers of Scottish Song, with each evening throughout the Festival
dedicated to the unique musical characteristics of a region of Scotland.
Representing the Isle of Lewis for tonight’s session are Murdigan MacDonald, and
Calum & Shaunie MacMillan.
08.00pm The Solo Piping Concert
Hosted by
John
Wilson with
Chris
Armstrong, Stuart Liddle,
William McCallum,
Angus McColl and Iain Speirs.
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: Strathclyde Suite
2 Sauchiehall Street, G2
£12.50 – tickets available from the Box Office
08.00pm
Peatbog Faeries meet
Gráda
The Arches
253 Argyle Street, G2
£14 – tickets available from the Box Office
on stage: Gráda (08.00-09.50pm) Peatbog Faeries (09.10-10.30pm)
08.00pm
Julie
Fowlis and
Jenna
Reid
The Piping Centre
30-34 McPhater Street, G4
£12 – tickets available from the Box Office
Jointly comprising one-third of the brilliant young band
Dòchas, fiddler Jenna Reid and Gaelic singer/multi-instrumentalist Julie
Fowlis are now forging ahead with parallel solo careers. This double-header show
will feature solo sets from both artists, finishing up, of course, with a few
tunes together.
08.00pm Sophie Bancroft Band and Colin Steele Quintet
Tron Theatre
63 Trongate, G1
£12.50 – tickets available from the Box Office
on stage: Colin Steele Quintet (08.00-08.50pm) Sophie Bancroft Band
(09.10-10.00pm)
Sophie Bancroft grew up in a musical family. Her parents were semi-professional
jazz musicians and brothers Tom and Phil Bancroft have become two of the top
jazz musicians and composers in Scotland. As a young child, Sophie has strong
memories of falling asleep to the jazz bands that would play at her parents’
numerous musical parties, and an innate musical sense was born.
After a musically rebellious teenage era, at the age of 17 Sophie expressed her
desire to be a jazz singer to her father. He promptly sat her down and played
her his favorite albums by Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and
Astrud Gilberto and she started singing regularly with the family band.
Edinburgh was full of an exciting generation of young jazz musicians at this
time and Sophie soon formed her own bands, developing her skills alongside Brian
Kellock, Colin Steele and John Rae to name but a few, and receiving much acclaim
from the press.
Sophie was then invited to collaborate with west coast electronic band Spylab,
signed to Guidance Records in Chicago, to produce the highly acclaimed CD This
Utopia. Their collaborations have subsequently been used on major TV series such
as HBO’s Six Feet Under and VH1’s Bands On The Run.
Sophia has recorded and released three more albums – Miles Away (1999),
Modern Love (2003), and
Hot And Cold (2005).
Colin Steele has been playing professionally since 1987. After three tours with
Hue and Cry and appearances on Top Of The Pops and Wogan (amongst many other TV
shows) he decided that the world of pop was definitely not for him. So he moved
to France for two years, and then on to London to study jazz at the Guildhall
School of Music. He returned sporadically to Scotland to work with the
innovative and groundbreaking modern jazz outfit, The John Rae Collective, which
also included Brian Kellock and Phil Bancroft. After finishing college he spent
four years traveling throughout Europe, returning to Edinburgh in 1996.
Throughout this time he has enjoyed working in many different idioms, from
straight ahead jazz through to funk, Latin and dance music. Because of this
diversity in interests, he set up the extremely successful live music club,
Midnight Blue. He ran the club for two and a half years at the legendary
Edinburgh venue Café Graffiti, until the venue’s enforced closure. He also
developed a show A Tribute to Chet Baker for the Edinburgh festival with singer
Cathie Rae.
Colin’s first album
Twilight Dreams was released in 2002 on Caber Music and
received universal acclaim (Guardian/Observer Album of the Week, Guardian Top 5
Jazz CD’s of 2002 etc).
Twilight Dreams immediately established the
characteristic uplifting and open feel of Colin’s music, that is now very much
his signature. This is fully evident on his follow up release,
The Journey Home which shows a real development in Colin’s individual skills and the bands
overall cohesion in a range of new material that goes further down the folk
tinged contemporary mainstream paths that they set out on in their triumphant
debut.
10.00pm Late Night Session
Universal Folk Club
Sauchiehall Lane, G2
Free
Informal music session.
10.30pm Festival Club with
Gibb
Todd
The Holiday Inn – City West
Bothwell St, G2
£7.50 – tickets available from the Box Office
The best late-night club in the city, this is the place to keep the party going
after all the gigs are over. Rub shoulders with world famous artists as they
make special unbilled appearances alongside the best newcomers. And Doris
Rougvie hosts the House of Song in the Cabin Bar.
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
