The Shires Oran Mor

The Shires entertained us with big-hearted memorable songs and warm smiles!

I first noticed The Shires single on radio Scotland a few months ago, for its strong melody and vocals and upbeat vibes.

 After only a few shows things have taken off for the pair and they were signed to Decca Records in 2014 and to Universal Music Nashville, The Shires are singer-songwriters Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes.

The audience were all ages here tonight in the busy hot venue. They started their set tonight with the energetic fun of their debut single 'Nashville Grey Skies'. They followed their upbeat opening tunes - Ben took the tempo down on piano with some touching country ballads  - 'Think I'm Falling in love with you', 'Statements' (their next single), 'Let Me Be The One' and Made in England.’.

After which they took the energy up with several country rock pleasers and their single 'Friday Night' had the packed audience singing along. For their last song 'Tonight' – ‘Your mine I'm Yours’, they divided us into two sections to sing the two parts and they were thrilled on their return on stage for their encore to be greeted with the audience singing the song back for them!    

For the encore they sang 'When It's Real Love' the first song Ben played for Crissie and a popular cover of the Bee Gees love song 'Islands in the Stream'. 

Crissie looked the part with her golden locks and she sang with pure country tones and strong harmonies that added that extra sparkle. Ben is a touching, smooth musician and songwriter who made it all feel effortless. This duo has songs people remember. The Shires are the first ever UK country act to be signed to a major Nashville label. Their debut album Brave in 2015 made the UK top ten.   

The Shires PHOTOS - http://pkimage.co.uk/theshires
http://www.theshiresmusic.com

*This was a two for the price of one event and the show was started by another fun country duo on guitars - two entertaining Americans John and Jacob, who had the crowd cheering and dancing along. They played with pumping guitars, some well chosen covers and their own songs. They are hit-making Nashvillle songwriters and their new singles have attracted Radio 2 airplay. Worth watching out for these guys too!  http://johnandjacob.com

There appears to be a resurgence in interest in country music today. It has shaken off its over-produced days and gone back to basics with more authentic, striped back arrangements. My favourite country musician is Jerry Douglas, who is such an expressive and dynamic player of the resonator guitar and he plays at Celtic Connections here every January. 

Novelist Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman was such a fun character to shoot in Edinburgh!

Neil Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, and films. Including the comic book series The Sandman. Gaiman's writing has many awards, including Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, Newberry meal and 2010 Carnegie Medal in Literature. He gave a talk at the Einburgh Book Festival 2011. Copyrighted.

Neil Gaiman's work has been honoured with many awards internationally, including the Newbery and Carnegie Medals. His books and stories have also been honoured with 4 Hugos, 2 Nebulas, 1 World Fantasy Award, 4 Bram Stoker Awards, 6 Locus Awards, 2 British SF Awards, 1 British Fantasy Award, 3 Geffens, 1 International Horror Guild Award and 2 Mythopoeic Awards. http://www.neilgaiman.com/

**Producer George Martin: Known as 'The Fifth Beatle'

**'Arena: Produced by George Martin'  BBC 2 Monday25th - Awesome. A Legend.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arena

I highly recommend watching this program on BBC iPlayer.

Martin had  36 no 1's with the Beatles in the 60s..

(In my other life I am a record producer!)  He says that The Beatles didn't sound so great at first either... :

A very well made docmentary and such an interesting character!  I especially liked his comment that when the Beatles first arrived in the studio! 'Their music was rubbish - but importantly they made you feel good and they had charisma.' 

Also his reference to Degas' quote about his art  "It's not what you see, it's about what we make others see", in comparing this with what he hoped to achieve in sound. He hoped to 'paint' in the studio rather than to simply make a copy.

The program was followed by The Beatles  'A Hard Days Night', so many memories......!  P Keightley

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/arena

George Martin is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"—a title that he owes to his work as producer of all but one of 'The Beatles' original albums. He is considered one of the greatest record producers of all time, with 23 number one hits, an unmatched achievement.  George Martin, recognised as one of music's most versatile and imaginative talents, entered the music industry in 1950 after studying at the Guildhall School of Music and playing the oboe professionally in London. He began recording classical music specialising in the Baroque period. His later experience with jazz and pop led to his appointment as Head of the Parlophone in the EMI Group in 1955.
As a producer he has been responsible for bringing a host of artists into recording studios particularly in the humorous field with brilliant performers such as Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Flanders and Swann and the 'Beyond the Fringe' team - Jonathan Miller, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett. He has also worked with jazz artists Cleo Laine, John Dankworth, Humphrey Lyttelton and Stan Getz. 

Rod Stewart - Reason to Believe

Feelin' Nostalgic....
Many moons ago in my school days in Edinburgh - Mr Rod Stewart was played constantly - the one song that was great to sing was 'Reason to Believe' written by folk singer Tim Hardin (along with B side 'Maggie May' of course) . Ah lovin' the joys of Youtube...! Even if I've never seen the old crooner live I can watch him live there. He's not one of my favourites to listen to his albums - but he sure did record some singable songs.

Reason To Believe - sung by Rod Stewart :
This was written by Folk singer Tim Hardin, who originally recorded it in 1965. Hardin wrote some popular songs and was a very influential musician, but he had severe drug problems and died in December, 1980 at age 39. His death came shortly after John Lennon's. Stewart released this again in 1993 as a live, acoustic version for MTV Unplugged. Appearing on the album Unplugged... and Seated, this is the version that charted. Stewart's original version was released as a single with "Maggie May" as the B-side. Disc Jockeys liked the flip side better and played "Maggie May" instead, which became the hit. The 1993 Unplugged version was recorded at an MTV special with Ron Wood, who played with Stewart in The Faces. It was the first time they performed it together in 22 years. Stewart commented that his wife at the time, Rachel Hunter, was 1 year-old when it was first released.

T IN PARK- tickets on sale Friday 25th February 2011. Headliners, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Artic Monkeys, (plus Tom Jones, White Lies, Noah and the Whale, Hurts, Bright Eyes, more )