As Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms prepare to reel under the fevered frenzy of fiddling, dancing, tune sessions, and chin-wagging that promises to constitute Fiddle 98, seven of its participants are aware of the need to pace themselves.
The Dalry Road-based Adult Learning Programme's weekend of music and general socialising begins a week tonight, Friday, November 27, and features master classes and recitals from, among a host of others, Alasdair Fraser, the Wrigley Sisters, Wolfstone's Duncan Chisholm, and Shetland septet
Fiddler's Bid.
One of the reasons for the fiddle's resurgence in popularity over the past few years is its sociability, and as they open their second tour of the Scottish mainland in Mintlaw tonight, it's that temptation to play then be sociable until breakfast time that the Shetlanders are having to curb.
The band's first trip over the Pentland Firth, in March this year, won them many admirers - two hundred people crowded into the Cafe Royal's upstairs room to hear their, by all accounts, rollicking Edinburgh debut. It also earned them a recording deal with Scotland's leading traditional music label, Greentrax Records.
Their first Greentrax release, Hamnataing, coincides with the current tour, although it's not their first CD. Mainland Scotland has been slow to pick up on the group which formed during lunch break at Anderson High School in Lerwick, back in the early 1990s when the participants were aged
14 to 16.
''When you live on Shetland, it's just as easy - money-wise, if not time-wise - to go to America as it is Aberdeen,'' says the band's Glasgow-based spokesman, Chris Stout. ''So, we'd been all over, to Norway and France a few times, before we made it here. Besides, nobody ever asked us!'' Originally comprised of four fiddlers - Stout, Maurice Henderson, Andrew Gifford, and Kevin Henderson - and a pianist (the piano being the favoured accompaniment among old school Shetland fiddlers), the youngsters soon found themselves in great demand around the islands for their adherence to the Shetland way.
''We had a big following in the 60 to 90 age bracket,'' says Stout, dryly adding a list of ''hot'' gigs they undertook. ''And we didn't have a clue. We just stood up there and played, but with a whole lot
of enthusiasm.''
The arrival of guitarist Steve Yarrington and bassist Dave Coles, harper and keyboards player Catriona McKay having replaced the original piano player, brought a more modern approach and as the rhythm section began to gel and inspire the fiddlers, the
group was able to find its own, more considered but still vigorous style. This involved going back to the future.
''People talk about the Shetland fiddle style as if there's only one, when there's probably eight or nine,'' says Stout, whose formal studies in electro-acoustic music in his masters year at the RSAMD are probably about as far away stylistically from a Shetland hooley as one could get.
''We found all those old tunes on tapes made about 40 years ago, tunes you never hear in Shetland sessions, and they're in a completely different style. But the amazing thing is, because they're less rigidly structured, they can be made to sound more modern and more dancey than some of the later tunes which were specifically written for dancing. Ultimately, we'd like to play all our own music but right now we can put together a traditional set, followed by a wacky set, and hopefully everybody has a good time.''
n Fiddlers' Bid play Pitfour Arms, Mintlaw, tonight; Sports Centre, Fintry (Stirlingshire), tomorrow; Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, Sunday; Eden Court, Inverness, Tuesday; Town Hall, Inverurie, Wednesday; Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Friday; and Cross Keys Inn, Denholm, next Saturday. For further details on Fiddle 98, call 0131 346 0977.
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