Another very tired blog for me now. Have just returned from Italy after a fantastic festival. Rallion were asked to play in A Box of Treasures Folk Festival in Forli, which is about one hour away from Bologna in Italy. I was extremely honoured to be asked to be one of the Artistic Directors for the second year in a row, along with Antonio Mastrioanni, who has been the main organiser of the festival and whose idea it was i the first place. After what seemed like hundreds and hundreds of emails, we had it all planned and were very excited about this year's festival.

The line up this year included Calum Stewart and Heikke Bourgault. Calum coms from Moray in Scotland and plays the wooden flute and Heikke comes from Brittany and plays guitar. More about them later on...

Also in the line up were accordion ace Karen Tweed from England and Lily Neill on the harp. Lily is originaly fromthe USA but now lives in Helsinki! And of course Rallion were also there, including 2 Scots, one Englishman and a Dutch person. So we had a lovely multi-cultural weekend.

Now, because this is the second year in a row we have been to Forli, if you want ALL the details, you are probably better going to my blog I did last year about it which has lots of photos and chat about the minute details. This time, I think I will just post some photos we took and tell you about some of the more memorable moments.

Anyway, as we expected, the weather was beautiful. 36 degrees Celcius and for a sun worshipper like me it was ideal.  For an ice cream worshipper like me, it was better than ideal! Check out this freezer!







We were very pleased to have the company of our good friend Simona, who we met for the first time in Forli last year. She is a very useful person to know because she is Italian but speaks excellent English and French (and probably lots of other languages as well). So she helped with the language barriers, as my Italian has not improved as much as I had hoped since last year (okay! - not at all!). And thanks also to Roberto who was also a huge help, despite having to sleep for a few hours in a service station after the Friday gig because he was so tired he could not make it home. AND he had to get up to be a post man for 7.30am on Saturday morning and then he had the stamina to come back for more on Saturday night and helped us manning the CD stall.



 Lily, Simona and I went out for some girlie shopping and had a great time.











Lily found just the thing to wear on stage that night!







And we were also temped to buy Steve some new shoes, but we ran out of time.






Once again the food was amazing. Calum had the right idea and told everyone he was vegan so he could get all the best salads. Look at the size of that one!






Good company, good food (they had chips! ) and great weather. What more could we want.






Once again we had the pleasure of being driven about by the best driver in the business - Giovanni Maria Matteo! Or Big John, as we cal him. And this year he had a swanky new van too. Thanks Giovanni!!!







As well as a "Big John", there was also a "Little John". Big and Little John are very good friends, as we can see from this picture. : ))))







Now, some other highlights of the weekend were the very professional sound guys who did an excellent job and worked really hard. Er, they were quite good looking as well ; )))







Thanks a lot Marco, Rodrigo, Alberto and Davide.

Karen seemed to like them too, given that she decided to play the accordion with no clothes on! (Look carefully...)







Anyway, enough of that! We had two gigs to do. One of Friday evening and one on Saturday evening. The gigs were at a lovely open air stage and were well attended and we met loads of enthusiastic people. Even some people from South Korea who had come to Forli during a tour they were making especially to see Karen! That is dedication for you. We also got everyone on stage at the end to perform together and we managed to get a great version of "Ye Jacobites" sorted out which went down well. Hopefully more professional photos or videos will appear over the next few days and I will put them up here as well. In the meantime however, you will just have to make do with my amateur efforts.



So with the gigs all over, it was time for some tunes in the pub.



Karen on the box! (with clothes this time since it was a bit cooler)





Heikke and Lily.






We just had to try some Italian wine while we were there....






Karen and Calum...







And now some miscellaneous, dark photos with me trying to be arty, and failing...Spot the empty chocolate wrappers on the table in this first one. Lily has a dark secret - she has a total chocolate addiction, like I have never seen before. But only the best will do for Lily, and this chocolate was THE best!











Calum and Heikke serenading us out of their window...







The place we were staying was great once again. The only drawback was that as I got into bed after the last gig and a great session at the pub (at 6am!), a big crane was erected outside my window and the building work started. Which was not really conducive to sleep. But as any regular readers will know, I am quite an expert at not sleeping all weekend so that was not a problem.

So feeling a bit weary, we made our way home after my third visit to Forli. I hope it won't be my last. The people there now feel more like friends than anything else and I love going back to visit and play music (and eat ice cream, and sunbathe and eat pizza and sunbathe and..... Well, you get the picture). 

Thanks so much to Antonio, Patrizia and the two Giovannis for looking after us so well and making it a weekend to remember. Check out the festival's MySpace page if you can. It would make a fantastic weekend for anyone. Hopefully it will go ahead again next year. Watch this space! I'm off for a sleep.
 

Well, after a very long time in the making, the new Rallion album has arrived. We were almost reaching the stage of thinking it would never happen, but it has and we are very pleased with the outcome. Recording was hindered slightly by pressure of work elsewhere, illness, studio equipment breaking etc. And then Marieke took some time off to have her son, and therefore the whole band took a break for about 6 months to give her the time to deal with that big new life event. But happily, we are back in action again and raring to go.

I have posted some of the new albums tracks on my page in case anyone would like a preview listen. The tracks I have included are;

Fez - This set of tunes includes 3 tracks. The first is written specially for my very good friend Mike Wilson and his little girl Holly, who the track is named after. "Holly Wilson's Arrival" was in honour of the fact that Mike pretty much documented his wife's labour on MySpace and I thought that was so funny that I had to write a tune about it. Hope you like it Mike! The next tune was one I wrote for my twin sister - but sadly she didn't seem to appreciate it much. Maybe that's because it's called "The Evil Twin"!!!! I keep telling her that other people can make their minds up themselves about which one is which, but she didn't seem to buy that...  And the last tune is one written by fellow Rallion member, Stevie Lawrence after a tour of Egypt with an old band, The Iron Horse. The excellent titla of this tune is "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Fez"!!!

The next track is a version of It Was A' Fu' Our Rightfu' King, the Robert Burns classic. We have tried to make it our own and Stevie has written a great guitar riff which you can hear all the way through. This also shows off Marieke's  stunnign vocals.

And the last set of tunes I have posted is a Swedish tune which Andrew (fiddle player) learnt from Soffie Jonnson, and then the tune I wrote for my favourite band, Le Vent du Nord. There is a blog about that on my site as well. The short version is that I loved them so much that I wrote them a tune and was stunned when they recorded it! Anyway, it has now appeared on 2 of their albums and now eventually, we have caught up with them and recorded it on ours as well. I know I shouldn't say this, but I prefer their version! ; ) And that set of tunes ends with a traditional Norwegian polka, which no one in Norway recognises when I play it there! Oh well. I like the tune anywa.

So the album should be available shortly from www.bigskystudios.com. I am sure it will also make an appearance on Amazon and also on www.footstompin.com, but as it only arrived through the post a few days ago, it will take the record company guys a little while before they get all of this organised. If you would like to buy a copy, keep checking our website for information about how to purchase your copy - www.rallion.co.uk. You can sign up for our information sheet there also where we will email you with all the details of where you can buy it.

We are very pleased with how it has turned out and we think it has shown how much we have improved since the first album, and all the different influences we draw aopn in our music. We hope you like it too and would be really happy to hear any comments you have to make about it.

Just back from a great festival in Norway, where I was playing with Stevie Lawrence. It was our first festival abroad as a duo and we had a great time.

Drangedal is a small town in the south of Norway and the scenery is breathtaking. I have never seen so many trees in my life and the grass is a vivid green colour. We wer picked up at the airport by a lovely man called Richard, who is American, but has been living in Norway for a year now with his Norwegian wife. He drove us to our hosts house and just look at the view from the bedroom window!



I would never complain about waking up early if that is what met me each morning. Our hosts were a fantastic couple. Huge thanks for Elsa who looked after us so well and made the most amazing breakfasts.

The traffic on the way back from the airport was not so good, so we didn;t really have any time to eat anything or get beautified for the gig. So we rushed down to the local church for the first gig, which was really a taster session for the audience so they could hear a few numbers from all the artists. The whole church was full and it was great to get to hear everyone play. Sadly, although I try to learn a bit of the language for every gig I do abroad, my Norwegian really was not up to scratch and I had had no time to learn anything. But most of the people there spoke excellent English so there was no problem. It's a lovely language to listen to however - very lilting and musical. Anyway, here are most of the artists on stage for the final finale of the first gig. Sadly, we had dashed down to the town for a quick meal as we were starving by this point, and we missed it!!!! Oops.



After the gig in the church, everyone went to another venue for a kind of "festival club". All the acts jumped on the stage and just went for it. No running order, just totally going with the flow, which was a nice way to end the night and a really varied show that night.

The next day we had workshops to teach in the morning, and I had a very keen bunch of people in my class. One woman, also called Fiona, had driven for 6 hours all the way from Stavanger to get to the workshop! She had left at 5 in the morning! Now that is what I call keen. I also had a trio of young girls from the area in my class who all played hardanger fiddle and were kind enough to let me take photos of them in their traditional outfits and played some tunes for me.





They were really fast learners and because they were used to learnign everything by ear, they had no trouble picking up the scottish jig I taught them. Everyone in the class was playing like an authentic scottish fiddler by the end. And special mention to very brave Sammi, who had come along having never picked up a fiddle in her life. And the good news is that she enjoyed it so much she is going to get her own fiddle back in Scotland and learn properly! Yeah - another new recruit!

There was also a harganger fiddle exhibition in the one of the halls in the town which we spent a lot of time at. These fiddles are truly amaxing and have 4 sympathetic strings underneath the other 4, which make a droning sound throughout. They are also works of art.



Here is hardanger fiddle expert Torgeir Straand, playing to us.



You will never meet a guy with a bigger smile than Torgeir. I only wish I could have understood what he was talking about during his performances, because the audiences seemed to find it hysterical. He is also a manager of a company in Norway and he has scheduled all employees to attend one hour of folk music playing at 3pm every Friday! What a great idea - they all love it. I think I might try that at my work...

After our workshops it was time for the evening performance. The highlight of the festival for me was getting to hear the wonderful Ingebjorg H. Bratland. She is a young Norwegian girl who has the most amazing voice I have ever heard. She sings traditional Norwegian folk music but also writes and performs her onw songs in English, which are beautiful. And the best thing about it is that she uses the Norwegian style of singing in her English songs too. She has a MySpace page which you should check out of you can. Here she is in action.



Other artists who were playing in the festival included Sean Cannon (legend and great fun guy!), Liffey Banks, a great Irish band (below)



, Anna Karin Kassa, Torgeir Straand, our pals Sean and Robyn Gray from Ayrshire (who also have a MySpace and are a fantastic brother/sister duo),



Steve Dowling, Breagle, a great band from Stranraer called Life O' Reilly (thanks for all the good times guys. Sorry I don't seem to have any non-blurry photos of you all), Sokkelesten (an accordion band from Norway) and Jarle Hagane. Also playing were local band, Heimve - a great bunch of guys who play mostly Irish music. We enjoyed sharing tunes with them and making new friends.



After the last night of gigs was over, it was back to someone's house for a good old session. Lots of lovely food and tunes and songs.







By this time it was about 4.30am and after not much sleep the night before, we were beginning to struggle a bit. Plus our taxi was arriving to take us to the airport at 6am! So we headed back to our house to pack and our brilliant host, Elsa, even got up at 5 in the morning to make us breakfast! What a lovely lady. Then it wasa white knuckle ride back to the airport - I am so glad that I slept most of the way cos at one point I opened my eyes to see the driver going round a hair pin bend whilst pouring himself a cup of coffee out of a flask!!!! Yikes!!!! Best not to see things like that. But we are home safe now, a bit confused about the time and what to eat when etc, but nothing a good night's sleep can't cure. Looking back at all this, I feel so lucky to be able to travel to all these lovely countries and immediately just be able to make friends with so many great people from other countries, find out about their music and their culture and swap tunes and good times. It really is a pleasure. The Drangedal Festival was just great. Big thanks to Margareth for organising us and inviting us to play and we really hope we will be back there some day.

Well, Stevie Lawrence and I have had a very busy few weeks. We were lucky enough to be asked to do the support on 5 of the shows for the Red Hot Chilli Pipers Scotland Tour, and of course, we were delighted. Stevie is playing bass and bouzouki with them at the moment, but we both play as a duo as well. Most of our stuff is written by ourselves, but because we were playing in a show with pipes, we threw in a wee pipe jig as well. And I should probably mention at this point that we are very happy to be represented by Northbeat Agency from now on. You can find them in my top friends if you fancy checking out their other bands as well.

The first weekend of gigs were all in Pitlochry in the beautiful Festival Theatre, which was great to see. Two evening shows and one matinee, with possibly the best audiences I have ever played to. The shows all kicked off with the local pipe band, who I must say, were one of the best I have heard and lovely people as well. Then it was Stevie and I, then the Chillis took to the stage.

That weekend had been particularly busy for us as we had played at the Niel Gow Festival in Dunkeld in the afternoon, and then had to dash up the road to soundcheck and do the other gig in the evening, but we got through it fine. Stevie actually may have won the prize for the most gigs any one person does in two days - EIGHT!!!!

The following weekend we were playing with the Chillis in Oban and Dunoon, with two more local pipe bands taking to the stage as well. Most of the gigs were totally sold out which was a great opportunity for Steve and I to play in front of loads of people and prove to ourselves that we could do it and entertain folks at the same time. So thank you if you were in the audiences and gave us a cheer.

Here's a few photos of the weekends to give you an idea of what went on. If you have not seen the Chillis play live yet, I would highly recommend that you do. Even if you think it is not really your kind of thing, I BET you would like it if you went along. These guys really know how to put on a show and despite certain people (not me!) feeling that they have "sold out" and commercialised a bit too much, they are all top class traditional players and their success speaks for itself. Every show is paced really well with lots of variety - traditional piping, a great bunch of dancers who are also very talented at what they do, funky bass lines and full drumkit, a horn section, snare drumming display, a huge amount of showmanship and good humour, excellent lighting show and very high quality music. All in all it is a brilliant show and they should not be judged unless you have actually been along to one of their gigs and seen them live.
 








And here are the dancers. (They might attract a few of the male readers!)





And the boys from the horn section - Leon, Douglas and Ross.



And a little marker of the band's success - their very own tour bus! Which drew lots of attention in all the venues.




So that was that and a lot of fun it was too.


Now just to update on some other happenings that I have not had time to mention in the past. I recently received a CD from Billy McIssac (who used to be a member of the band, Slick with Midge Ure). Billy has done a huge amount of work for charity and has recently released his latest CD, entitled "Songs for Lochaber". I played on one of the tracks called "By the Lochy" and the CD is being used to raise funds for the Lochaber hydrotherapy pool, which is absolutely crucial in providing high quality physiotherapy treatment for individuals in that area of Scotland. The CD is a lovely compilation of tracks and songs and involves many of the top traditional players in Scotland today. It's well worth a listen and you would be helping to raise money for a good cause as well.


The other CD I have recently played on is a wee gem. It is the first solo CD ever by a guy called Drew Scott, who is a legend in his home town of Melrose in the Scottish Borders and he decided in his 70's that he wanted to make a CD. So he did. It's a bit different to most of the other things I have played on in the past, as it's not totally traditional and includes lots of Drew's favourite songs in other genres. But I had a lot of fun playing on the album and wish him every success with it. It's not every day you decide to make your first album in your 70's.


One other little bit of exciting news I got last week was that one of the tracks I had played on on Craig Jeffrey's debut CD, "Don't Blow Away", had been played on infamous British soap, Coronation Street! Now, I am never at home to watch the TV and I am definately not a fan of soap operas, so I had to try and find it online and check out this episode. Oh my goodness, it was a real chore trying to sit through that rubbish, with one ear listening out for a fiddle. But I heard it in the end - very faintly but it was there right enough and that made me giggle. Well done to Craig who has made a big impression on the music business already with this CD and who also won a Danny Award at this year's Celtic Connections. You'll be hearing much more from him in the future.


Rallion also made it's "comeback" after Marieke returned from maternity leave and we played Edinburgh Folk Club last week. It's great to have her back. I've put a video of one of the songs we played that night on my page. We are pleased to say that we now have the second album completely recorded and are just trying to arrange dates to get it mixed. Hopefully it will be all ready by the summer. We are already very pleased by how it sounds and we feel we have really gelled together much more in the last few years. We hope people will like the album when it is released, and I'll make sure to let you know when that will be as soon as we know. We are also booking up lots of gigs for the coming year and have trips planned to Italy and the Netherlands already, while Stevie and I are off to Norway as a duo also.

Next thing in the diary for me is a tour of Germany with Real Time at the end of April. I have been helping the band out for the past wee while with fiddle parts until they were able to recruit a permanent fiddle player and I have had a great time with the band. These will unfortunately be the last gigs I play with Real Time however, as I am simply run off my feet and finding it hard to get time to sleep or eat these days. There is a limit to how much work I can physically do and I reached that limit a while ago, so have had to try and reduce my workload a little. Hopefully the German tour will be a great way to say Auf Wiedersehen!


I'm also still learning the accordion. This is a real challenge for me but one that I am really enjoying. I do wonder though, how good I would be if I got more than a few hours to practice every week. It's slow prgoress but helps that I already know most of the tunes in my head. I just need to transfer them to my fingers now. But it's a good way to relax and very satisfying indeed, however it will be many years before I play anything in public on that thing.


Stevie and I also did our first headlining gig as a duo at the Wee Folk Club in Edinburgh in March. That was nervewracking, but once again proved to us that we can do it and we managed to get enough material together to do 2 x 45 minutes. Steve even sang some songs as well, just to break up the instrumental stuff, which I realise can be a bit much for some people. So we were very pleased that was over and we are looking forward to playing there again during the Edinburgh Festival. Details will be posted here as soon as we have a confirmed date. This club is fantastic and won the Best Folk Club of the year in last year's Trad Music Awards. It holds a mere 30 people and is just like playing in someone's front room. Great stuff. Steve and I are also planning to record our own duo CD and we are trying to keep some time aside to get started on that. Hopefully at the end of this year we will have something in that respect, which might be a wee bit different if it works out the way we want it to.


In the next few months there are a few new things on the cards for me as well. I have agreed to join up with some great musicians and go back into the world of wedding bands - for one night only! So that should be an experience. I hope the bride and groom know what they are letting themselves in for. Then some work with a great singer/songwriter caled Stuart "Mick" MacFarlane, who also plays in legendary prog rock band, Abel Ganz. Looking forward to that. And speaking of Abel Ganz, Steve and I will be joining the band once more in the near future for a very exciting gig indeed. I won't spill the beans yet, but it will be happening in Glasgow in May and I'll let you know nearer the time.


Another thing I am looking forward to is a gig in Wiltshire on May 9th with Rallion, and that is due to the fact that my good friend from MySpace, Phil is coming. Will be lovely to see him. Phil lives WAY down south and gigs are normally very far away for him to get to, so this time WE will be driving 7 hours to get to him. Anyone else who lives near Corsham, it would be great to see you there.


Stevie and I are also involved in another kind of strange project which is in the initial stages right now, but will be completely different from anything we have done before and involves some really fantastic musicians. More details about that nearer the time also, but in summary (phew!) things are going great. Loads of work and loads of exciting things happening in the future. No wonder I never get to sleep!!!!

Well I just got back home last night from some gigs in Italy with piper/singer Judy Barker. Check out her MySpace. Judy plays Scottish smallpipes AND sings at the same time, which is quite a talent. Our good friend Antonio from The Box of Treasures Folk Club in Forli, Italy, had arranged these gigs for us and we are so thankful to him for all the work he put in.
The first gig was in a great place in Vignola, Modena, called Stones Cafe. This place is something else! It seems to be a sports centre/swimming pool complex which is the most accessible sports centre I have ever seen (take note in the UK with Disability Equality Duty!) and it has a cafe attached to it, as well as gardens and several outdoor pools as well, but it was a bit cold for that! Now the guy who runs this place is called Franco Longangnani and he has put a lot of thought into exactly what he wants out of the venue. He has thought of everything!!! From the 8 foot high banner when you enter the cafe with all the acts who will be playing there in coming months, to the place mats on the table, again advertising the acts, to the images projected on the stage curtain of us all and the fantastic opening music and light show. It was just amazing.




In addition, the whole show was recorded and there was a professional photographer there as well who took loads of great photos and we were each given a CD of the show and the photos the next day which was very very kind. Franco is also making up glossy books of all the acts who havfe played there which look beautiful. He really has thought of it all. Stones Cafe also has a MySpace, so check it out as well. Lots of great photos on there too. Here are a few examples of the photos which were taken by a man called Neganti Simon.













The other lovely thing about this gig was that we looked out into the audience to see our friend we met at Forli last year sitting there smiling back at us! Thank you so much for coming along Simona - it was great to see you. Here is Stevie and I with Simona and Roberto.




The next day Franco very kindly drove us 2 hours away to our next gig in Forli, where we met up with Antonio again and his friends. Here is Grande Giovanni "Big John", Franco and Antonio.




We then HAD to go for a big ice cream!!!! Which was lovely. Then it was back to the hotel to get ready and out for dinner to the best Italian restaurant I have ever been to. It was sooooo good I even had to take a photo of the meal.


Antipasti



Two different kinds of pasta - both fantastico!



Tartufo Bianco!!!



And here is Big John and Wee John in the restaurant. Brilliant guys. Even though Big Joh speaks as much English as I speak Italian, we get on great and he is a right good laugh!





And here is Steve and I with Antonio and Patrizia.



Lucky that Antonio is a doctor - Judy woke up that morning to find one side of her face was double the size of the other one! But luckily it went away.



Then it was off to the next gig which I think must have been in the best venue ever! Just look at this amazing church.



The acoustics in here were out of this world. I have never heard my fiddle sound so loud and full and it was a joy to play. And we had yet another nice surprise when Yuri, another friend we met last year turned up! He had driven 4 hours to get there for a one hour gig and then drove 4 hours back again and had to get up to go to work at 8 am! CRAZY GUY!!!! Here he is.




And then all too soon it was time to go home. It had been a brilliant few days in Italy with such lovely people and we want to say a huge thank you to Antonio, Franco, Patrizia, and Big and Wee John for all their help. They could not do too much for us. They drove us everywhere, fed us, organised all the gigs, even came into the airport with us and carried our cases and waited in the check in queue with us to make sure everything was ok. You could not meet nicer people. Check out The Box of Treasures Folk Club site here - they are on my top friends - and if you are ever in Forli make sure you check it out. They have had a greta bunch of people play for them in the past and hopefully this will continue for many years to come. Thank you everyone for looking after us so well and we hope we will be back soon - this time, with me being able to speak Italian a bit better!

Well I can safely say that this January has been the most sleep depreived month I have had in a long time. But it's all been good. There are a few reasons for that - Celtic Connections of course, and then a theatre show I was involved in with the Ideoms Theatre Company called Haughty Hizzies and Haughmagandy. If you are not Scottish (or even if you are) you may struggle to know what on earth that is about. Google the words on a Scottish dictionary and you'll be fine.
Ideoms is a small theatre company based in the Borders, involving many great people including the mega-talented John Nichol, Gordon Webster and Hilary Bell, and Judy Dinning from Real Time. For 3 weekends in January, the show ran on the Saturday and Sunday. It was a 45 minute performance from us and then off for a Burns Supper with entertainment throughout the night as well. 5 times I have eaten haggis in a month and I never want to see another one!
If there is anyone reading this who is not sure what I am on about, Burns Suppers are a celebration of the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns (he who wrote Auld Lang Syne). This year is the 250th anniversary of his birth.
My role in the show was pretty much to play the fiddle. I was quite happy with that. What I didn't know was that I would have to wear my hair in pigtails and be a wench/servant! Quite liked my costume though. Thanks to Hilary Bell for making all the costumes!


Here are a few pictures of the show. This is John and Judy at the supper afterwards.
 


Tae A Moose




Tam O'Shanter



Holy Willie's Prayer




Here is the whole cast at the last performance.





All the gigs were in little theatres in the Borders, which was one reason why it was so tiring - driving approx 2 hours there and back every weekend for 3 weeks. But the other reason was that my favourite band in the world were over in Glasgow playing Celtic Connections.




I found in the end that trying to split my time between the festival club till 6am and then driving to the Borders to do a show was actually quite tiring. Especially when I drove up after the show to go to the club again. But the excitement of it all kept me going and I really enjoyed the experience of being in a play. Mind you, I now know that acting is not my strong point. I reckon I will stick to playing the fiddle from now on. Maybe I should have told them that the only other part I had played before then was Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and my only line was "Doh!". I was really impressed by the talents of John Nichol however. A totally natural actor who had the audience in stitches every night with his renditions of Burns poetry complete with props borrowed from his kids. The Tam O' Shanter horse was my favourite - a hobby horse which played the William Tell Overture...

So I had a great time but am looking forward to getting a bit more sleep this week compared to the last 3 weeks. Rehearsals now start for gigs in Italy with piper, Judy Barker and Stevie Lawrence and I have our first headlining gig in the Wee Folk Club as soon as we come back, so we need to get ready for that as well. Phew.

Well, if you have read any of my previous blogs, you may know that I am a bit of a fan of trucks. Yes - trucks!!! You know, those big long things that carry stuff around the country? Hhhmmm I hear you say. Well, today I got the chance to do something I have always wanted to do. I got to drive a truck!!!! Here's the evidence!

 

This was my own wee truck for the afternoon... Cute, eh?

And this is us checking the oil before we set out.



Apparently all truck drivers have to do this every single day. The cabin is a very complicated place indeed. Once you have actually managed to get up there that is... Check out all those buttons!





And another thing I have always wondered - where is the bed? Here it is!



This one is folded up, but it is just behind the drivers seats and pulls down out of the wall. There is another one underneath it as well. Looked quite comfy but I controlled myself and didn't try it out.

Here's Allan driving and showing me what to do.



Do you know that trucks have 18 gears!!! And brakes with compressed air in them that you need to pump up before you start? And a seat which sits on compressed air and bounces up and down when you go over bumps? Well you do now. And HERE is me in the driving seat!!!! Yee ha!!!!



Do you like my lovely fluorescent jacket?



Think I might try a career change...



The good news was that I didn't crash! And I got up to 15 mph at one point! It was such a cool feeling. Best bit was actually turning on the ignition and hearing this big roar. Plenty of trucks to choose from...



Now the very scary bit. See this little metal thing hanging down?



Well, that is on the bottom of each big trailer. Every trailer weights about 7 tonnes and can weigh 30 tonnes fully loaded. And this little metal pin is the ONLY thing that holds the trailer onto the truck!!!! Yikes! And then the drivers have to reverse the truck into this loading bay and get it exactly straight. I tell you, I have a new found respect for all truck drivers now.



Seriously, it is so difficult and there are so many things to be aware of while you are driving. I have NO idea how they can get i right and reverse into a tiny space like that. I will never slag truck drivers off again after this afternoon. A huge, huge thanks to Allan for making one of my dreams come true after years of thinking about it. I reckon I'll be calling you Jim'll Fix It from now on. I can feel a tune title coming on...

Last weekend was the first ever Colonsay Festival. For those of you who might not know where this is, Colonsay is a tiny island in the Inner Hebrides, with 120 inhabitants and 8 miles of single track road. There is one pub, one hotel, one shop and a village hall. Oh, and lots of sheep and cows! I have a good friend called Jen McNeil who was brought up on the island, and her parents still live there now. Jen plays the fiddle as well and I met her a few years ago on another island - Jura. Since then we have been good pals and enjoyed lots of tunes in many different locations. The idea of a Colonsay Festival was thrown about a bit by various people and Jen mentioned it to her dad. Now, her dad is a great guy. Donald (or Pedie) McNeil. Lots of enthusiasm for everything, especially music. And when he heard the idea he jumped on it right away and decided to try and organise it. He got together with a friend of his, keith, and between the two of them (with lots of help from other locals), they just did it!!! And we are so glad they did. Here's a wee taster of how the weekend went and what Colonsay is like, so you can all come along to this brilliant festival next year!

The ferry left Oban about tea time and instantly everyone rushed to the canteen to try te famed macaroni cheese. But what a disappointment. It was mingin'!!! Not quite sure what Calmac have done with their chef lately. Never mind, still exciting and nice to try and get to know people on the boat before we got there. This rather interesting crew member was found on the top deck...

 

And here is Marieke and her hubbie Ewan,



And Andrew with his binoculars! We thought we had seen awhale but it was just a big rock!




Pretty much we had time to rush off the ferry (after managing to get 5 people plus all our luggage and loads of instruments in the one car) and drive straight to the village hall and get on stage to soundcheck. We were first on on Friday and didn't even have time to change clothes. Just jumped onto the stage and went for it. Here's the hall.



I have never heard an audience like these guys in my life! Every single tune or song was met with whoops and cheers and thunderous applause and they all were a great laugh. The atmosphere in that hall was fantastic and we had a great gig. The sound guys, Keir and Pete were also brilliant and had a lot to deal with. Long hours and lots of change overs. Then it was the turn of the Anna Massie Band who did a great high energy gig. Later on that night, there was a gig from Kathleen McInnes (who by the way was the highlight of the festival for me and a really great singer), who was playing with Iain MacFarlane on fiddle, Iain MacDonald on pipes and flute and Ross Martin on guitar. Afraid I was just too knackered that night so I called it a day about 2am and went home. Home was Scalasaig Farmhouse, which was a 15 minute walk away and we were sharing with Anne Massie and her band. It was a great place with huge rooms and everything we could need. We even got a wee food parcel left out for us and some Colonsay Ale! These organisers had thought of everything. Here's the house we stayed in.



The next day I had to get up early and go and teach a fiddle workshop for people who have not played for very long. However, there appeared to be a bit of confusion over what this actually meant, and I ended up with a huge variety of abilities in the class, ranging from someone who played classical viola and had done for years but had not done much trad Scottish playing, to someone who had had 3 fiddle lessons in her entire life! Quite a challenge. But it was great fun. Everyone worked so hard and left that room being able to play an entire tune from start to finish. Job done. After that we went up to the hotel for lunch and listened to Pedie playing a few songs, then I decided to go and explore the island. So jumped into the car and drove. I had been told there was one road on the island that just went round in a circle and if I followed it I would find a great beach. Hhhhmmmm. I think I may be the only person to get lost on Colonsay. After driving round 3 times without finding the beach, I gave up. However, here's what I DID find.



The photo above is of The Strand. This is a pice of land which joins Colonsay to the tiny island of Oronsay in the south. When the tide is out you can walk over to Oronsay, but I decided not to go cos knowing my luck, I would get stuck there! Beautiful though.


That night we had another gig and were first on again. Slightly smaller crowd this time but just as rowdy as they had been the night before. Great stuff. Here's us on stage doing our stuff.



Then it was time for my first ever experience of Karine Polwart live. What a gig. It was something I shoudl have done long ago and am glad I am getting the chance to see them again in a few weeks at Wetherby Festival. Ceilidh time next and predictably Andrew and I ended up on stage busking along. That was great too. Donald MacAllister was the accordian player and a great job he did too. Then the night continued with chatting and mingling and a few wee drams! And I wandered up the road about 3.30am and managed not to fall into the ditches in the dark.

Up early again the next morning unfortunately. Too early to be honest. I managed to misread the time on my watch and ended up totally ready 2 hours before I had to be. So that was a good start to the day. Another workshop to take - this time for more advanced players. My two hardy pupils were Pedie and his daughter Jen, my pal. That was a laugh. Jen had not even been to bed yet from the night before but still managed to learn one of my wierd 4 part reels from memory. Then lunch and another try to find the beach, this time with help from the entire band, who were not actually much help! But we got there in the end and are glad we did. Lovely place.





Then it was back to the hall for the last afternoon of gigs of the festival. It was Karine again and the Anna Massie and then the hi9ghtlight of the festival for some - a song written by Karine all about Colonsay to the tune of the Bare Neccessities! That girl can write songs!!!! Then we all piled on stage for a quick finale before we bid our goodbyes and headed for the ferry again. A huge thank you to Keith and Pedie who saw their plans come to fruition and more. Here they are celebrating after everything was over.



It was simply fantastic festival. Organised really well with such an enthusiastic audience and lovely people everywhere. An ideal place to go to see exactly what island life is like. I felt like I knew the whole population by the time I left. This is Pat and Jim Byrne from the West End of Glasgow. Pat runs a website all about the West End which you shoudl have a look at if you are interested. Just google "West End Glasgow". They were great company. Jim was singing and playing in the open stage.



Here's a few more photos for you so you can see more of the island.





The petrol pump!!!



The shop.



Colonsay Brewery. What a location!





Cows and cars.








So there you go. Hopefully that has given you a bit of a taste for the festival and the island. I reckon if you watch this space, it might happen again next year and become one of the most fun and important wee festivals in the annual calendar. It deserves to be...

Hi everyone. Just got back from Canada about 5 hours ago and am trying to make myself stay awake till tonight now, so I thought I would share with you some of the great memories we had from the festival. It was Rallion's first ever time in Canada. As some of you may know from reading my other blogs, I like Canadian folks as a rule and alwasy end up hanging out with them in this country when they come to stay, so it was a refreshing change to be able to hang out with them in Canada for once!

We arrived at about 5pm their time (midnight our time) and were picked up at the airport by one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet, Dave Angus, from Angus Audio (check out their MySpace!). Dave owns an audio company in Cambridge and his job was to supply all of the stages with PA and engineers and run the whole show pretty much. He already have 2 other jobs on that day as well as trying to build the stages, so we really, really appreciated him taking the time out to come and pick us up and being a great tour guide on the way back. Plus another great thing was that Stevie and I could spend hours chatting about 80's hair metal bands with him!!! Plus he had a wonderful car. : ) Thanks Dave!

This is a picture of where we were staying.

And I was very happy to find a truck stop just across the road. Yes, another one of my strange likes is bis, massive, trucks, and you canny get much bigger than these babies!



Where we were staying was out of town by quite a way, so we had to rely once more on the never ending kindness of various committee members to drive us into town for our gigs. Here is the wonderful Brian with our chariot for the weekend.



On the first day we were not playing till about 10pm and had the whole day to look around, so lovely Dave came and got us again and took us into Cambridge. We spent the day wandering around trying to get our bearings. And the highlight of my day was that I saw a chipmunk!!!! How cute is this little guy!!! Look at how he holds his paws together!





And this is the Mill Race which the festival is named after.



One of the stages we played on was right next to the river in an outdoor ampitheatre. Have you ever seen such a beautiful venue for a concert?



And to make things even better, just next to the ampitheatre, there was the BEST ice cream shop I have ever been to in my life - LA Frank's. We got meal vouchers for the weekend and I have to admit using them to buy ice cream instead of proper food. But hey! It was so nice I couldn't help it.



Steve and Andrew liked it too.

Our first gig was brilliant fun. We played on another open air stage in the Civic Square to a full house and were bowled over by the reaction of the audience to our music. Thanks all of you who came and made that night really special. Hopefully some photos will follow. The next day Steve was first up to do a guitar workshop. Here he is along with Gavin from a great English band called Crucible who we made friends with during the festival. Great player.



And these two guys are Keith Ford and Mark Fletcher from Ontario based band, Rant Maggie Rant. They are a fantastic band also and are in my top friends if you want to check them out. They are also great people and typical of the friendly folk we met in Canada.



Nice kilt Keith!!! And nice hat too! I really enjoyed your company. MySpace is a great place for getting in touch with people before festivals and things and when we arrived it was a lovely feeling to know that there were a bunch of people there who we kind of already "knew". You were even better in real life!



And on the way home, this is what we found... Nothing against bodhran players but would you seriously want that on your car!!!! Marieke likes it though...



Just beside the Civic Stage was a Fire Department Museum with lots of cool things there, including this fab fire engine.



And lucky Dave got to go up the big ladder.



Here's Steve chatting to the main fire guy there. He was a great person and we'd like to thank him for all the gifts he gave us. He was also in a pipe band and had links to Glasgow as well, Small world.



Next up was Andrew and I doing a fiddle workshop. How To Work a Fiddle, it was entitled. Not entirely sure what we were meant to do, we pretty much went over some of the things in scottish fiddlig which makes it what is it and played a few tunes - some strathspeys and reels and a slow air. It was great hearing all the other styles of playing also.



In Canada, workshops are not teaching workshops like they are here. They are more like informal performances, so it was nice to see that for the first time.



Then we got to go and see our pals Rant Maggie Rant do their stuff. I'm sure someone else has much better photos than this, but this was the best I could come up with. A really great gig.



Then that night we ended up in the Golden Kiwi pub watching these guys do a session. And predictably we ended up joining in!



Steve had a mandolin workshop to do the next day, and before you say anything, yes we KNOW that is not a mandolin he was playing, but there was a limit to the amount of luggage we could take, so he comprimised and used his bouzouki instead. A really interesting workshop with loads of different styles of playing to compare.



Then a great fun workshop for us all, entitled O'er The Border. This was fantastic. We had to do it with Crucible, a great band from England and we had a real laugh on stage, playing songs and tunes from each side of the border and jamming together. I think that went down well with the crowd... Here we are with the Crucible guys after that performance.



I did have a photo of us with all of Rant Maggie Rant, but it didn't work really, so I'll have to wait and get a copy from someone else.

And this smiling chappie on the right is Steve Solinger, the most expert electrician I have ever met and a guy who just spreads cheer whereever he goes. Thanks to you for making us smile and helping everything run smoothly.



I got a surprise visit for 2 hours from my pal Troy MacGillivray from Nova Scotia, who just happened to be passing through. That was a real treat, even though it was a short visit. But we still had time to drink some run together like every time we meet! Shame he had to leave to go to Goderich Festival before our gig, but nice to see him all the same.

That night we had the honour of closing the festival on the Mill Race Stage and had another great gig with a very appreciative audience, great sound guys, lovely weather and beautiful scenery. Just perfect. We had sold out of CDs the day before unfortunately which was a big surprise to us, so we will arrange something for those who wanted to buy one but didn't get the chance. And if we get to go back next time, we'll bring double the amount!

I'd like at this point to mention a few other people who were just lovely to us. The lady who went out and bought each one of us a 5 pack of pens which will write on any surface, so we can sign autographs better!!!!! And Mary, a lovely woman who did a lot of work to try to help us get more gigs in Canada next year. To be honest, we were totally bowled over by the reaction to our music and the kindness of the people we met, who were so keen to help us come back again next year - but hopefully for longer this time! We'll keep our fingers crossed and see what happens. And thanks also to Glenn Dias from Rant Maggie Rant, who was really generous and offered to help distribute our CDs from his music store, ALL EARS, to those who missed out on buying one. And of course another big thank youto Brad McEwan, the festival director for inviting us in the first place. Brad saw us play in a tiny pub in Dunbar when he was over in Scotland and just happened to stumble in the door. Just shows you that opportunities can arise anywhere. We're so glad Brad took the chance and liked what he heard because we had such a wonderful time at the Festival. The whole thing was well organised and full of variety. Check out their website for all the details if you like.
And then it was all over. And we had a day to kill at our residence before heading off to the airport. And to be honest, it was a great place to stay, but not much to do there unless you are addicted to donuts and MacDonalds. So yet again, Dave Angus came to the rescue and picked us up and took us back to his home where we sat on the balcony with his family and passed the time in a much nicer fashion.



Then they took us to the local mall to pick up some presents and sample some Tim Horton donuts!! Again!



And then it was time to head off to the airport and say goodbye to Canada for the time being. Maybe people will think we were off our heads to go to Canada for the weekend, but we don't think so. We had a wonderful time, met so many generous, kind people, and dipped our toe in the folk scene there for the first time. Yeah, we're all knackered now but who cares. All the great friends we made and the music we shared made it totally worthwhile.

Last week, I was having home made pizza made for me by a great piper from Argentina, and while we were chatting after dinner, the subject came up about what happiness really is, and can it be defined. That set me thinking about a lecture I had last year where a psychological formula for happiness was described. So I have looked out the notes I took from that and here it is for anyone who is interested. Good timing as well, because I believe this has been in the news today, however, the formula they publicised was slightly different (and in my opinion, much more complicated). Here's the one I became familiar with.

Happiness = P + (5xE) + (3xH)

Now, P stands for personal characteristics such as how adaptable and resilient you are, and your general outlook on life. Is the glass generally half full or half empty? E stands for existence and is all about the realities of your life such as how financially stable you are, how your health is and how your relationships are with your friends and family. H indicates higher order needs - things which can be fulfilled once lower order ones (warmth, food, sleep etc) are already satisfied. These include things like your ambitions, sense of humour, and expectations in life.

If you are curious to find out how happy YOU are, here's how you do it.

There are 4 questions to answer. For each question, give yourself a mark out of 10. The higher the mark, the more you agree with the statement in the question.

1. Are you outgoing, energetic, flexible and open to change?

2. Do you have a positive outlook, bounce back quickly from setbacks and feel that you are in control of your life?

3. Are your basic life needs met, in relation to personal health, finance, safety, freedom of choice and sense of community?

4. Can you call on the support of people close to you, immerse yourself in what you are doing, meet your expectations and engage in activities which give you a sense of purpose?

Add your scores for question 1 and 2 together - this is your P value.

The score for question 3 gives you the value for E, and question 4 gives you H.

Then you just have to do the maths... The higher your score (out of 100), the happier you are.

Gave me something to think about... If your mood is low to begin with, I would have thought that you would rate yourself lower than what actually is the reality in your life. And what about if you get someone else to rate your life on your behalf according to what they know about you? And how well does this formula measure the influence of discrete events on your life? I mean, if I did this on Tuesday last week, the results would probably have been very different to what I would have got had I done it last night. Also interesting is the fact that we don't actually need lots of money - just enough to get by and not cause us any stress re paying the bills. So winning the lottery will not actually make us happy. And then I thought about the people I work with - those who have a learning disability and may have had very disadvantaged lives, with little or no social acceptance and support, and little opportunity to make decisions for themselves. Does that mean that they are all unhappy? But then that is me assuming that from my perspective.

In my opinion, questions 1 and 2 are about your trait personality characteristics which might prove difficult to alter significantly, question 3 refers to the impact your environment may have on you and again, in some situations, this may be difficult to change significantly, but question 4 is where we should all be concentrating if we want to be as happy as we can. Everything mentioned in there is something that we have the power to change.

The main message I took from this is that your trait personality characteristics and your general life situation can be important in determining how happy you can be, but much more important than that is what you make of your life. Trying to surround yourself with as many good friends and supports as you can, making sure you do things that make you feel good and give your self-esteem a boost, not trying to achieve too much in your life and setting unrealistic goals for yourself.

And then I thought, "That's what music does for me." Setting myself goals to achieve in my music, but being realistic about them, meeting loads of new, fantastic people all over the world, and really feeling great if a gig goes well and people enjoy what I play, and just the buzz I get when I hold a fiddle in my hand and hear it do what I want it to do. Nothing can beat that! And I know that sometimes I write blogs here after gigs, festivals and workshops which may seem to others that I am a bit over-excited or over-enthusiastic about stuff, but really, it does have that effect on me. And provided I always get my regular fix of music, I know I will always be happy - even if only temporarily.

So now you know what you have to do, maybe some of you might go off and try to find things in your life to maximise your happiness! Hope so! Maybe you have similar stories to mine and you already have discovered the thing that makes you smile. Whatever the case, I wish you all as much happiness in your life as you can get.