Bring It All Home Festival

Martha Rafferty and Rab Noakes

A new festival being held in Paisley to celebrate the life and songs of world renowned Paisley born singer songwriter Gerry Rafferty.

15th - 19th April 2014

On what would have been Rafferty's 67th birthday the highlight concert is the sold out Bring it All Home, Gerry Rafferty concert -  a celebration of the music of one of Paisley’s most famous sons, Gerry Rafferty and featuring his popular  and lesser-known works and also never-before performed pieces, and also with songs especially arranged for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

This concert will differ from the hugely successful 2012 Bring It All Home concert at Celtic Connections. Instead of the full band there will be the RSNO and different songs are being performed. Rather than the full band version Rab Noakes will sing the song 'Baker Street' stripped back with only his guitar.

The show will be hosted by Martha Rafferty and produced by his friend and collaborator Rab Noakes.  Noakes has released over 20 albums and been described as ‘one of Scotland’s finest songsmiths’;

Martha Rafferty

Other artists performing are: Barbara Dickson, a platinum selling Scottish singer, she was awarded an OBE in 2002 for her services to music and drama. She has recently released her 25th studio album, To Each and Everyone; The Songs of Gerry Rafferty. Eddi Reader – another best selling Scottish singer, she began her career as the singer with Fairground Attraction and their chart-topping single Perfect. She has just released her 10th album, Vagabond. Roddy Hart – Glasgow songwriter, who has released a recent album with the band The Lonesome Fire. He curates the acclaimed Roaming Roots Revue at Celtic Connections and hosts a BBC Radio Scotland show. Siobhan Wilson – Scottish singer who spent several years studying music in Edinburgh and Paris and now based in Glasgow. Emma Pollock – a Scottish singer-songwriter known as part of the The Delgados, The Burns Unit and The Fruit Tree Foundation. 

I attended the Bring It All Home at Celtic 2012 and it was a wonderful night that included The Proclaimers and many other well known Scottish artists.

Here’s what I wrote then - Noakes gave the glue and character to the show with his stories about Gerry, the Humblebums, late night travels and more. He spoke of Rafferty’s intelligence and of his love of harmony; of his spiritual side and of his strong will and self belief. He spoke of the poignancy yet hard core centre of Rafferty’s songs. I'm still singing Rafferty songs two weeks later!

Rafferty’s songs cover the full spectrum of emotions - they express full-on-energy, questioning cynicism and mystical spiritualism. He was from Paisley and his music gave the folk song a new voice. He cared about the craft of the song and not celebrity or its trimmings. He was an artist in the true sense of the word and had a rare clarity of artistic vision. A wonderful celebration of one of Scotland’s greatest ever singer songwriters that did Gerry proud and a highlight of this years Celtic Connections.

The festival also hosts many other events showcasing the breadth and quality of Scottish artists, such as a songwriting night hosted by Hamish Stuart, John Grant and Midge Ure.

Details of events here - http://www.bringitallhome.co.uk/  

BLOGS 
http://www.musicfootnotes.com/2012/01/bring-it-all-home-gerry-rafferty.html
http://www.musicfootnotes.com/2011/10/gerry-rafferty.html

*GERRY RAFFERTY

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He has a hardness in his eyes while his songs are sensitive and true. I first heard his Baker Street album during my folk festival days, with its' soaring sax and hard-hitting lyrics. Then he had a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic with "Stuck in the Middle With You."

He always refused to play the big Label game and refers to this in this hit song with the lyrics  - 'Clowns to the Left of me, Jokers to the right...' . He never toured in the US, even while this song had No 1 Radio airplay. In a sense Rafferty was full of those Scottish contradictions with his strengths and weaknesses. He was from Paisley and sadly died early this year from alcohol related illness. His funeral was held at St Mirin's Cathedral in Paisley and attended by the first minister Alex Salmon.  http://www.gerryrafferty.com/

ArtWorks Scotland - Gerry Rafferty: Right Down the Line - BBC 2 Scotland Documentary aired August 2011