MUSIC PREVIEW
I
5 I Glasgow band Static are looking for a vocalist and a keyboard player after an internal reshuffle. It
. would help, we're told. if the keyboard player had
: his/her own equipment.
. preferably an Atari ST.
Influences: Primal Scream, Orb, Levitation, My Bloody Valentine. Boo Radleys. Andy
Weatherall, Slam and Leftfield. The numbers to contact are 0236 422047, 041883 9165 or 041 881 649] . Normally, we‘d
g refer the band sharpish to our classified ads, but since some oftheir recordings have been so excellent, we‘ll let them off. Just this once, though.
I Those line chaps Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine will be playing
Dec, and we have three copies of a rare interview CD and three promotional T-shirts for their 1992: The Love Album to present to our lucky, lucky readers. Just tell us the name oftheir previous album, and send it to Listen! at the Edinburgh address.
I Bugsy’s, a new live music venue in King‘s Stables Road in Edinburgh started a talent competition on 15 Nov which is planned to last 16—18 weeks or even longer. The Sunday night heats aren‘t Battle OfThe Bands type challenges as there won't be a winner
booking agents Jayze will be scrutinising all the acts. and promise the three finalists (chosen from the half-dozen or so bands who will appear at the
tour of ‘the most prestigious venues‘ that they represent. The prize of 50 hours recording time, a digital master with 100 cassettes and free PA hire is also up for grabs. Tape, biog and photo if you‘ve got one to: Talent I Showcase. Bugsy‘s, 28
I There was a more conventional Battle Of The Bands at Queen Margaret Union earlier this month, run in conjunction with Coda music agency, and jazz-funkers Elias walked offwith the winners‘ trophy and a full day‘s recording at Pet Sounds, knocking the more established Barky! Barky (£50—worth of musical accessories) and Auntie
third places. Look to your laurels, lads!
L_
28 The List 20 November 7 3 December 19‘):
l V LISTEN!
the Livingston Forum on 6
announced each week, but
grand final) a promotional
King‘s Stables Road, EH1 ZJY.
Rose (£40—worth of record vouchers) into second and
l
v FOLK
Scotch tryst
Norman Chalmers previews some of the events in this year’s Glasgow Tryst.
Started in 1985, the Glasgow Tryst is the last folk music festival on the Scottish calendar, presenting a programme of Scots and related music, from formal concert to anarchic session, and including poetry, ceilidh dances and a full schools and community programme.
Ireland and Brittany are well represented, the former in the opening concert of Sean Nos singing by traditional performers from the west of Ireland. Sung unaccompanied, the decorated melodic line and convoluted vocables ofthe great traditional singing styles are mesmeric and powerful in their ability to carry subtleties of experience, emotion ' and humour. Contemporary singers | will always benefit by hearing the ; meaning teased out of lines in unforced, natural rhythmic and melodic improvisation, free from the tyranny ofthe guitar or drums.
The four Irish singers will also be appearing in Edinburgh, giving audiences the rare chance to hear what remains of Gaelic culture‘s great glories. Only one singer, the great Sean MacDonncha senior, has been here before, when he appeared i at a memorable Riverside concert a few years ago, as part of a campaign to commemorate his friend, the late Joe Heaney.
Adding to the Glasgow concert only, and singing in Hebridean Gaelic, will be the uniquely expressive Ishbel MacAskill, one of Scotland’s greatest vocal talents.
The Breton contribution to the Tryst includes the fifty-strong traditionally-costumed Kevrenn-Alre made up of singers, dancers and musicians playing various bagpipes, drums and the bombarde, the strident signature of Breton music. Another Breton, Dominig Buchaud, is a harper over to perform in Savourna Stevenson‘s suite, Gathering Harps, which has already been recorded and will be released on Eclectic records in the new year.
Savourna explains the piece‘s genesis. ‘l‘ve written it for three harps, bass and percussion, and we will perform it with Scottish, Irish and Breton harpers. It celebrates the bicentenary ofthe famous Belfast harp meeting of 1792. called together when it was felt that the harp was dying out.
‘I’m of the opinion that the last couple of hundred years will be seen as a blip in the harp‘s history, now that it’s back and being played by
Savourna Stevenson
more people than ever. And my music represents all the varieties of playing styles. The first movement has an obvious Scottish feel, based on a jig rhythm, the second starts off with quotes from great harp players of history, Rory Dall and O’ Carolan, but ends with a decidedly Paraguayan/Spanish feel. But it was Irish missionaries who introduced the harp to South America. There’s a sort of Breton dance, an Irish song air, African elements and the whole work ends in a modern blues. You see, these are my influences.
‘I‘ve been playing lately with the Blunder Boys, Toumani Diabate and Davey Spillane, and the music gets absorbed. It’s natural. I think that if O‘Carolan was alive today he‘d be writing and playing and being influenced by the music going on around him. And because of all these influences I feel that Gathering Harps has a great appeal to an audience, it’s more accessible, not at all difficult, at least not to listen to.’ The Sean Nos Concerts take place in Edinburgh on Sat21 and the Glasgow Tryst on Sun 22; Gathering i Harps is at the Glasgow Tryst on Wed I
25.
; % By appointment
When the London-based and
highly-rated period instrument ensemble The King's Consort comes to . Scotland, the obvious place for them to periorm is surely Edinburgh’s Oueen’s Hall. But apart from any neat marrying of royal titles, their three-concert series there has some much more serious planning behind it. Usually a
venue associated with straight hire
arrangements for whoever appears on
its stage, the Hall has decided that ior
this project it will act as promoter too. ‘We felt that there was a lack of early music in the Queen’s Hall programme,’ explains manager Simon Crooltali,
‘and when we spoke to the Scottish Arts
‘ attractive as the group is also giving a series at concerts in Glasgow at the
Council about possible lunding, they .' were keen too to help promote more early music of high quality.’ The opportunity seemed even more
RSAMD, making travel costs more economical. In addition, an otter of help from the Georgian Concert Society
with publicity lessens further any
iinancial rlslt iorthe Hall itseli. Although the Queen’s Hall takes Its name from the monarch, the King of the Consort is Robert King, who, in the iirst concert, plays chamber organ and
. harpsichord.
‘The December programme is with lute, organ, vial and counter-tenor,’ explains CrooItall, ‘and the others will involve a small string orchestra. On each at the three dates, the musicians will hold afternoon workshops lor lairly
The King's Consort l
f well-advancedperlonners, although !
anyone can come and see. The tlrst will 9 be for harpsichordlsts and counter-tenors, directed by Robert King and James Bowman.’ The remaining workshops and concerts take place on 18 February and 13 May and it you buy tickets for all three, you are rewarded with a tree King’s Consort CD. (Carol Main)
The King’s Consort play The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh on Thurs 3 Dec. 4