By STUART MILNE
“A quarter of a century is a long time,” proclaims protagonist Mattie Ross at the end of Charles Portis’s 1968 Western novel True Grit. When the first Celtic Connections festival was held in Glasgow in 1994, Bill Clinton was in his first term in the White House, the world wide web had only been available to the public for three years and Scotland’s absence from the FIFA World Cup was a mere blip after qualifying for five consecutive tournaments, to be rectified once again at France 98.
The festival too is a much-changed beast. In 1994, the 66 events all took place in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall – add some 200 gigs to that number in venues spread across the city and even 2018’s most dedicated music lovers can only hope to scratch the surface.
Saturday afternoon at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall means pipe band concert time at Celtic Connections, and Grade 1 newcomers Johnstone Pipe Band from nearby Renfrewshire were the 2018 headliners in their 75th anniversary year. They put together a most impressive and entertaining line-up of supporting acts for the first half who many fans of piping music would pay to see on their own – Finlay MacDonald and Ross Martin, Angus J. MacColl and the aforementioned Jarlath Henderson.
Johnstone began their portion of the show with Pipe Major Keith James Bowes playing the ground of The Piper’s Warning to His Master, the piobaireachd the band have adapted into a march to open one of their medleys. Anyone who has heard Johnstone play this marching up to the line or in the act of competing will know it as one of the most impactful medley openers for quite some time, and the pipe corps striding on to the stage brimming with confidence made for a spine-tingling start. Strathspeys and reels from the same medley followed, plus a couple of extras – The Amorous Carling, General MacDonald and Howie’s by Fred Morrison – accompanied by folk band Herron Valley. The backing arrangements were tastefully done but a touch overpowered by close to a full line-up of snare drummers. This was followed by a trio of seldom-heard 9/8 marches and a competition MSR, beginning with an equally rare march, Allan Dodd’s Farewell to Scotland.
While venerable Celtic rockers Runrig are set to close out their 40-plus years of live performances this summer, their songs have been going strong in pipe band medleys of late, with Johnstone’s other selection centred on Hearts of Olden Glory. A finely crafted waltz transition to Corkhill followed this, before reverting to its traditional jig form, rounding off with Peter MacLeod Jnr’s The Loch Ness Monster.
A quintet of younger pipers took centre stage for an intriguing set including compositions by two of the performers themselves, and a waltz and jig version of R. S. MacDonald’s Last Tango in Harris. It is good to see Johnstone’s own band members add to the distinctive musical identity being moulded by their pipe major.
The vigorous health of the Johnstone organisation their 75th year is testament to their longstanding teaching programme, with many members of the Grade 1 band having won three World titles in a row moving up the grades. The newly-promoted Grade 3B outfit were already picking up prizes at this level playing up from Grade 4, and the rapid progress of the junior band was on show as they joined the senior band for two jigs from a previous medley: The Unknown Jig and £50 Cashback. At this rate and on the evidence of this performance, Grade 3B could be yet another happy hunting ground for Johnstone in the seasons ahead.
In yet another new spin on existing medley material, Katie MacKenzie came on to sing the Gaelic air Mi Le M’ Uileann air mo Ghlùn, with pipe sergeant Dougie Campbell leading the band in the pipe version and continuing with the last two jigs from that selection: The Mallaig Ferry and Gordon Duncan’s The Fourth Floor. Keith Bowes showed a touch of the humour and showmanship from his years with the National Youth Pipe Band by becoming possibly the first Grade 1 pipe major to (voluntarily) dance on stage.
In a powerful display of the countless hours of teaching required to get a band to this level, the concert ended with the entire Johnstone organisation (Grade 1 band, Grade 3B band, Renfrewshire Schools Novice Juvenile band and learners on practice chanter) marching on to the stage to a set of well-known 4/4 marches: Moonstar, The Battle of Waterloo and Flett from Flotta. So many top-tier bands have faded away into history in the 75 years since Johnstone’s foundation, but organisations with such commitment to nurturing their own talent are surely destined to remain with us for as long as pipe bands exist.
The sole let-down with this concert was the small audience. The stalls area was filled up by the hundreds of family members and supporters of the three bands on stage for the finale, but the upper tier was almost completely deserted and the mid-level terraces were not full either. The icy weather plaguing Glasgow that weekend may have persuaded some ticket-holders to stay put rather than risk the slippery pavements, but it was still a very disappointing turnout. A smattering of familiar faces in the crowd revealed some prominent band leaders had made their way from as far afield as Northern Ireland and Moray, but as a community we surely need to make much more of an effort to support the scene on our doorstep in a hotbed such as Glasgow before we can persuade the non-playing wider public to take our art form seriously.
This was a great pity, because Johnstone put on a highly entertaining show that was a masterclass in economy of repertoire, with only a few minor slips of execution here and there. A great deal of the music was derived from existing competition material, but the creativity lay in fresh presentation thanks to the cast of supporting musicians. In more ways than one, Johnstone’s model for success as a pipe band is one many would do well to learn from.
Upstairs in the Strathclyde Suite that evening, another pillar of Scottish music was celebrating a significant milestone. Founded 50 years ago, the Tannahill Weavers became the first professional folk band to include bagpipes, and the present members were joined on stage by four of their surviving pipers emeritus: Iain MacInnes, Kenny Forsyth, Duncan Nicholson and Colin Melville, with original piper Alan MacLeod making a special appearance by video link. Perhaps inevitably there were some balance issues with the rest of the instruments and vocals at times, but as a one-off experience the spectacle was certainly worth it.
The current line-up of Roy Gullane, Phil Smillie, John Martin and Lorne MacDougall were also joined by a series of special guests, including Mary Ann Kennedy, a bow tie-clad Dougie MacLean who had to immediately run back to the other show he was playing that night, and “wee Gordy” Duncan, whose famous father also served as the band’s piper. The trademark Tannahill Weavers blend of classic folk songs, good tunes old and new, and a healthy dose of jokes, has stood the test of time very well indeed.
Sunday afternoon offered something different for piping enthusiasts in the form of a discussion on the extremely broad topic of the future of piping. Panel chair Gary West was joined by a diverse range of pipers whose opinions are well worth listening to: Michael Grey, Faye Henderson, Andrew Bova, John Mulhearn and Finlay MacDonald. It was a lively debate that thanks to strong audience participation covered a wider range of topics, from defining “tradition” to the pitch of chanters and, perhaps most interestingly, the causes of the perceived lack of creativity in pipe band competition repertoire. It was observed that the desire to win the World Championships, plus the increasing commercialisation of that event, has led to an increasing aversion to risk-taking. Finlay MacDonald made the case that responsibility lay with the Grade 1 band leaders to first shake things up at the top of the pyramid for the rest of the field to follow.
With such a large panel, the discussion would have benefited from another half-hour to give each of the highly influential pipers more of a chance to speak, and the small audience indicated that charging for the event might not have been the best idea.
Finlay MacDonald was back in action on Friday, January 26, in collaboration with Estonian folk group Torupulli Jussi, following the launch of Sròmos, the second solo album by Breabach piper James Duncan Mackenzie. As he joked at the beginning, the definition of “solo” may have changed a bit, and the talents of the six musicians supporting him are a major part of what made the performance and the recording itself such a joy to listen to.
The packed audience clearly enjoyed the Estonians’ lively and sophisticated blend of fiddle and indigenous pipes, with drones hanging horizontally across the thighs, and the most delightful song about moose testicles you’re ever likely to hear. Finlay’s own set was up to his usual high standards of entertainment, but the best part of the evening was his combined performances with Torupulli Jussi, including piper Cätlin Mägi’s rendition of Gordon Duncan’s jig Pitlochry High School Centenary on Jew’s harp. There’s no mistaking the distinctive rhythm of that memorable third part.
Anyone given a new enthusiasm for Iranian instruments after catching Navá earlier in the festival owed it to themselves to come to the concert hall’s New Auditorium on Saturday February 2 to see Mohsen Sharifian with his band Lian perform the double-chantered ney-anbān, a pipe without drones but featuring one of the largest bags in the whole of the bagpipe world. Enhanced by Iranian percussion and occasional vocals, it was remarkable how quickly the local audience, helped by the sizeable Iranian contingent, became absorbed in the hypnotic rhythms and started clapping along to this most unfamiliar music. A special collaboration with David Shedden’s new trio Assynt set the crowd into full-blown party mode ahead of Scottish veterans Old Blind Dogs, whose characteristic blends of songs and lively tunes prompted a mini-ceilidh of their own at the end of their slot. Sharifian and his colleagues will surely be a sleeper hit at any festival in the world with the foresight to book them.
There are few Glasgow venues more popular for a dance than the O2 ABC on Sauchiehall Street, the venue for this year’s closing party. Following an opening slot by rising Irish stars The Young Folk, who impressed with a sound highly reminiscent of Mumford & Sons, Mànran rounded things off in magnificent style. They were accompanied for large stretches by a string quartet, who added a delightful layer of extra subtlety and grace to Mànran’s already sophisticated sound, and the Glasgow Gaelic Choir. From the back of the venue at stage right the choir mostly didn’t come over as particularly audible when singing with the band, but in the rousing strains of the utterly brilliant An Dà Là the impact was stunning. There were two further delights – Capercaillie’s Karen Matheson joining the lads to sing her own band’s haunting Gaelic anthem, and the reassuring observation that every time vocalist and fiddler Ewen Henderson picked up his pipes, he did so to shrieks of delight from young female audience members.
The 25th Celtic Connections was a fabulous showcase for everything that has made the festival so successful throughout its evolution. Perhaps the greatest joy for a fan is discovering new artists from musical cultures you know nothing about that become your festival favourites. Three of this year’s biggest surprises – Maya Youssef, Navá and Lian – are rooted in Middle Eastern traditions notably absent from the festival’s earliest days. Defying all logic, Glasgow in January has become the perfect place for icons of traditional music to celebrate major anniversaries, but it is also clear that the next generation of performers are doing a marvellous job of reaching new audiences.
Guessing which of them will still be performing at the 50th Celtic Connections is going to be a lot of fun.
•Words by Stuart Milne for Piping Today magazine issue 90.