Sunday 27 November 2016

Two Different futures


I have a vision of two different futures for Scotland.

One of a Free country. Where we can make our own decisions (!) and offer all a chance in life. Scotland stands for freedom of spirit, creativity, innovations, outward looking and the first place to offer education for all.  

Of the old Celtic ballads that sung of all the peoples Of Burns and Ossian, Allan Ramsay – our heritage runs deep. And Of the great philosophers and thinkers ….

The trouble is there is another Scotland – one of greedy patronage, huge estates, castles – more land here is owned by the TRE (tiny rich elite) than in any other place. Private schools, elitism, snobbery. One that likes to read of Roman Empire or British Empire building and imperialism. That believes in trickle down economics and that some are simply born to manage….. (how about teaching ALL students about business and management skills1?)

We can choose though and look at Nordic models.
This doesn’t mean just tinkering at the edges. It means offering business and management courses to all who study. It means mixed ability groups and with mentoring by the more able.

It means changing the culture from a ‘Them and Us Culture’ to ‘WE are Stronger Working for the Benefit of all. And look at the small nimble countries that are doing we well.
Our country can change and be a beacon of co-operation, integration, equal opportunity - a voice of reconciliation, fairness and a hope for a better future.



Sunday 13 November 2016

Scottish Women Poets & Writers


 Over the centuries it is the women of Scotland who passed down the oral stories and folk ballads. Most histories were told in poem form.  There were Oral Folk Poets; Ballad singing and Song composition.  Here are a few Scottish Women Poets, we never hear of – strangely. I am certain there must be many more! 

When students study literature – it is the literature of men that is studied.  Many wonder – where are the women writers? 18th century Scottish culture was transitional and interactive with regard to both oral and written literature.

**Poet Jenny Little
Little was born in 1759, the same year as Burns. She was also a servant to Mrs Dunlop, Burn’s patron. She was the daughter of a farm worker and as a servant to a local clergyman, she had received a good education. She developed a love of reading and became a local poet.  She wrote in both Scots and English as Burns did too. She even wrote an ‘Epistle to Mr Burns.

Because of their class both Burns and Little struggled to be taken seriously. Burns was the ‘Heaven taught ploughman’ and Little was the ‘Scotch Milkmaid’ poet.  She came out with a Poetry Collection in 1792. She is studied in North American universities as significant in the study of 18th century studies, while she is mostly untaught in Scotland.  She wrote of gender, class and nation.


**Lady Anne Bernard
She was from a noble family of Fife Scotland, born 1750 and wrote the well known ballad ‘Auld Robin Gray’. She lived in Georgian society during the Scottish enlightenment. To reward the nobility of Edinburgh a grand new town was built.

The Scottish aristocracy sold out. Her family were the Lindsay’s of Balcarres and these families carried the Union flag around the globe and helped to shape Britain’s empire. Her father said, “You were born after the Union, Scotland is no more and never likely to revive.”
Was it so great though? Of her 8 brothers, 4 entered the army and 2 went to sea and one joined the East India co. Three died in different corners of the world and a fourth spent years in a Mysore dungeon. Eventually Bernard moved to London, married at 42 and went to live in the Cape of Good Hope.


**Willa Ewina Muir
Willa was a writer and poet, born 1890 – 1970. She and her husband Edwin Muir were part of the Montrose Scottish Renaissance between the great Wars. The Muirs were part of the “restless intellectual group of writers and thinkers” in 1920-30s active during the Renaissance of Montrose along with the poet Hugh MacDiarmid.

Born Wilhemina Anderson in Montrose of Shetlandic parents (unlike her husband Edwin who did not attend secondary or higher education) Willa earned a 1st class degree in Classics from University of St Andrews in 1910. She taught languages before marrying Edwin 1919. For 40 years the couple travelled and worked in Europe before their five years at Newbattle, and went from there to Edwin’s post as Norton Professor of Literature at Harvard University in the United States.

Much of her work explores feminism, gender & the position of women of 1920-30s and is said to contain “perceptive comments of the patriarchal world she existed in”. There has been a recent re-evaluation of her published and unpublished work, including Aileen Christianson’s 2007 Moving in Circles: Willa Muir’s Writings. 1996 Imagined Selves: Willa Muir and many translations with her husband and under the pseudonym ‘Agnes Neill Scott’

Her publications include: Women: An Inquiry, Imagined Corners, Mrs Ritchie, Mrs Grundy in Scotland, Living with Ballads, Belonging

Saturday 12 November 2016

*The Unionist Scotland & Free Scotia!


Back in the 18th century there were TWO SCOTLAND’S then too
After Scotland lost its political government in 1707, there was TWO Scotland’s too – the one that was wealthy and supported the new Union – the other of the ordinary folk who protested on the streets then as now and who remembered when Scotland was free. 

(1) The first was the Scotland of the people which was expressed by poets such as Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson and of course Robert or Robbie Burns.  At Ellisland, in 1794 when he was 35, an after he had travelled across Scotland, Burns wrote a song,  “which was based on “an old song and tune which has often thrilled thro’ my soul. I may have felt Revolution-mad – instead I turned to an old song ‘Auld Lang Syne.  ‘Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired Poet who composed this glorious Fragment! There is more of the fire of nature genius in it, than in half a dozen of modern English Bacchanalians.”

He took his own writings and wove them into the old ballads and felt it was very important task to collect and re-work all these traditional old songs.  On his travels over Scotland when he first heard an old man sing this song and was moved to tears by it. 
This song spoke to Burns -  “of the old days – before the Union of Parliament – celebrating an older, politically independent Stuart Scotland. It also spoke of the of old friendships I had lost.  The ancient Scottish nation was ‘bold, independent, unconquered and free, Caledonia is ‘immortal”  

  
(2) The second was the Scottish Wealthy Elite, who were given a New Town of Georgian homes. 
There was a female poet Lady Anne Bernard.  She was from a noble family of Fife Scotland, born 1750 and wrote the well known ballad ‘Auld Robin Gray’. She lived in Georgian society during the Scottish enlightenment. To reward the nobility of Edinburgh a grand new town was built.

The Scottish aristocracy sold out. Her family were the Lindsay’s of Balcarres and these families carried the Union flag around the globe and helped to shape Britain’s empire. Her father said, “You were born after the Union, Scotland is no more and never likely to revive.”   Was it so great though? Of her eight brothers, four entered the army and two went to sea and one joined the East India co. Three died in different corners of the world and a fourth spent years in a Mysore dungeon. Eventually Lady Anne moved to London, married at 42 and went to live in the Cape of Good Hope.


Unionists and Royalists have tried to take over the legacy of Burns.

Professor Robert Crawford in his Robert Burns biography entitled The Bard sought to rescue ‘Burns and radicalism from the many monarchists, imperialists and staunch British unionist supporters and others over the centuries have controlled – and sometimes still seek to control - his posthumous reputation.” Crawford based his eminently readable biography of our national poet on ‘The Poems and Songs of Robert Buns’’ by James Kinsley (1968 Clarendon Press Oxford). There is great deal of lore, legend and misinformation around Burns’ legacy.  He writes that when he thought to start his biography in 2006, he found none in Scottish book shops strangely.

Later Burns would also write a song about how Scotland was bought and sold for English gold, in the song 

Parcel of Rogues to the Nation.’
Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory;
Fareweel ev'n to the Scottish name,
Sae fam'd in martial story.
Now Sark rins over Solway sands,
An' Tweed rins to the ocean,
To mark where England's province stands-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

Thursday 27 October 2016

Celtic Connections announces its 2017 program today!


CELTIC CONNECTIONS 2017, from 19th January - 5th February 2017
The programme for Celtic Connections 2017 was announced Thursday 27th October by its Artistic Director, Donald Shaw.

This year Celtic Connection will celebrate women musicians with many one off concerts.  The Opening Concert will star award winning folk singer songwriter Laura Marling performing the world premiere of orchestrations of her songs by Kate St. John with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Other women performing are - Roberta Sá, Olivia Newton John, Beth Neilson Chapman, Karine Polwart, and legendary singer Shirley Collins are among other highlights.

The festival also focuses this year on artists who have lived through personal hardships and found success and strength in music - such as world music star Aziza Brahim who grew up in an Algerian refugee camp. Stars of Americana & Bluegrass will also be at the festival - Margo Price, St Paul & the Broken Bones, Darlingside, Hurray for the Riff Raff, the Mark O’ Connor Band and Calexico.  And travelling further down the path to explore connections between Scotland and the deep south of America, Jon Cleary and Dirk Powell will celebrate the Louisiana sound, inspired by Booker Prize winning author James Kelman’s Dirt Road.

Billy Bragg and Joe Henry will perform classic railroad songs featured on their album Shine A Light which was recorded on a four day journey by train across America. 

The core of Celtic Connections is always Traditional and Folk music and this year is delighted to include the popular fiddle super bands – such as La Banda Europa led by Jim Sutherland, Unusual Suspects, Session A9, Dallahan, top piping project Tryst, Ireland’s Sharon Shannon and Four Men & A Dog, Gaelic rockers  Manran and Phil Cunningham’s Highlands & Islands suite. Also Shooglenifty and guests come together for A Night for Angus, paying tribute to their inspirational fiddle player Angus R.Grant who so sadly passed away this month.

(This will be my 10th year shooting at Celtic Connections Glasgow, I am pleased to say! Over the years I have attended some of the best concerts and taken some of my top portfolio images at Celtic Connections. I enjoy the buzz, the unique collaborations, the friendly banter, the top quality instruments and musicianship, the late sessions and the exciting young artists, the moving Gaelic songs and perfect singers, the fun and foot-tapping ceilidh bands at the Fruitmarket, the musians that come from many other countries. I meet so many interesting music fans, photographers and folk musicians there. so Big Thanks to the Celtic Connections team for all their hard work each January!) 
My extensive CELTIC CONNECTIONS PHOTO GALLERIES - http://pkimage.co.uk/celticconnections


The festival will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada with leading Canadian artists Martha Wainwright, Le Vent Du Nord, De Temps Antan and Russell deCarle. The 70th anniversary of the Partition of India will be marked with a premiere of leading world percussionists Trilok Gurtu & Evelyn Glennie and classical violin star Jayanthi Kumaresh.

Other artists appearing this year include - C Duncan, Pictish Trail, Fairport Convention, Liz Lochhead, Aidan Moffat, Seth Lakeman, Tom Paxton, King Creosote, Siobhan Miller, Orchestra Baobab, Robyn Stapleton, and Anna Meredith.

The festival will also host the important Showcase Scotland when musical directors and music promoters from around the world will attend performances by Scottish musicians. The concerts along with a trade fair provide invaluable opportunities for Scottish musicians to gain new worldwide opportunities thanks to this leading industry delegate event.  Plus Celtic Connections Education Programme when more than 11, 000 children across Scotland will take part in five concerts and workshops led by leading Celtic musicians. 

The Education Programme has reached more than 200,000 children across the country since it began in 1999.  Its work is supported by membership fees from the festival’s Celtic Rovers scheme – which gives discounts and exclusive experiences during Celtic Connections 2017.  The always popular programme of public workshops will give people of all ages and opportunities the chance during the festival to learn new musical skills and have fun too.
This year the festival includes The National Whisky Festival which will offer a wide range of whisky tastings and music hosted at the SWG3 venue, on Saturday 28 January 2017.

And to banish the winter chills the sunshine of Brazilian sounds the festival is pleased to celebrate Brazil as the partner country for 2017, with performances by some of the country’s leading artists including Hamilton De Holanda, Yamandu Costa and Renata Rosa – and Roberta Sá.

Donald Shaw, Artistic Director of Celtic Connections, said: “A breath-taking range of styles and traditions radiates throughout Celtic Connections 2017. Artists who have shaped the present day and artists who are re-defining music for the future will take to the stage. Artists whose lives and cultures could not be more different will come together to share their stories, passion and skill. “At the heart of it all is the simple life-affirming experience of being at a live music performance during a world leading festival. We can’t wait for Celtic Connections 2017 to begin.”

One hundred musicians from across the world will  take part in 300 events at venues in Glasgow, for one of the leading annual folk, world and roots festivals.  18 days of concerts, ceilidhs, talks, art exhibitions, workshops, free events, late night sessions and a host of special one-off musical collaborations will brighten up the winter evenings.   

TICKETS ON SALE NOW - http://www.celticconnections.com/


Supported by Glasgow City Council and Creative Scotland, and  promoted by Glasgow Life.