FESTIVAL —
music/ FOLK
mrusr I
I CAULD BLAST
ORCHESTRA Eight-strong
band creates original music with strong lolk influences withlntheiazzierelements. . Edinburgh Festival Critics I Prizewlnners. 1 World Music at St John’s. l West End 01 Princes Street Fringe venue 127) 27 Aug, 6.30pm.1 Sept,1pm,£4
£3
I FESTIVAL PIPE BAND CONTEST Colourlul and enioyable least ol piping. with some good bands among the exotic visitors lrom North America and the Antipodes.
Princes Street Gardens (Fringe venue 132) 26 Aug, 1.30-6.30pm. £1 (50p). i I RUPERT PARKER HARP l MUSIC Instrumentals and 3 songs mixing pop. country. (an and classical Irom this . new perionner on the , electric harp. with guitar I and bass. Not lolk music. i but interesting ' nonetheless. George Square Theatre ; (Fringe venue 37) 30 Aug—1 ‘ Sept, 1pm. 3 I THE FISHER FAMILY ‘
Cilla. Archie. Ray and Artie with Gary Coupland. The Iirst lamin ol the lolk revival. Fun too. Acoustic Music Centre. Chambers Street (Fringe venue 25) 220 2462. 28 and 29 Aug, 7.30pm. £4 (£3). I SEANNACHIE Award-winning concertina player Simon Thoumire in popular Scots song and I instrumental band. Acoustic Music Centre. Chambers Street (Fringe
venue 25) 220 2462. 24 and 25Aug. 8.30pm, £3.50. ‘ I EDGE OF DAY: ATRIDUTE 3 TO LAURIE LEE Lee’s poetry : with music by Jonny Coppln. Phil Deer. Paul Burgess and actor David ; Goodland. § Acoustic Music Centre. Chambers Street (Fringe venue 25) 220 2462. 29 and 30 Aug. 2.30pm, £4.
I CARLOS ARREDONDO AND GALO CERON Songs at love and exile lrom two 01 Edinburgh's community at Chilean musicians. Top quality contemporary classical guitar. instrumental and vocal music.
Diverse Attractions. Lawnmarket (Fringe venue 11)25 Aug. 9pm; Netherbow Arts Centre. High Street, 26 Aug. 8pm.
' W
Ancestral voice
Australia’s remote Arnhem Land— where, up until the 19205, Europeans were rarely sighted — is the place oforigin of Yothu Yindi, musical emissaries ofan Aboriginal
. culture that is ancient, contemporary :' and still mysterious. That civilisation
is variously understood to have its
origins between 40,000 and 120,000
years ago. making it the oldest surviving culture on the planet.
On the world music stage at St John‘s. Yothu Yindi stage the song cycles, movement, and didgeridoo- and percussion-accompanied imitations of animal calls, in the traditional part oftheir performance. On the Meadows. at Circus Burlesque, the band metamorphoses, adding drums, bass, guitars and keyboards to the didgeridoo and clapsticks, and they play their own contemporary material in English. These songs are about the major issues like land, mining rights. erosion ofcustoms, drink and discrimination, and the small change of Aboriginal, or their
own word Yolngu, life. The band has
two Balanda (white European) musicians on lead and bass guitar. The didgeridoo, which sounds throughout their rock numbers, is played by the continent‘s leading player.
Singer and guitarist Mandawuy Yunupingu leads the group. He is a powerful figure among the Gumatj clan ofArnhem Land, being the first to have been awarded a degree. His work as a teacher is bound up in the
a”,
group’s philosophy.
As readers of Bruce Chatwin‘s excellent Song Lines will remember, there was trouble a few years back when young Aboriginal rock musicians were deemed to have desecrated certain ritual promises and revealed too much during their stage shows. Mandawuy insists, "I‘ll never betray them. not ever. Because of my training in initiation ceremonies, there are certain things I can do. But not everything.’
But he carries a strong sense of
MI ,
purpose. "If you draw on your history, on your way of doing things, as an Aboriginal and as a person of Australia — but equally respecting Balanda customs, in order to cope — then you‘ve got something to stand on. I’m trying to change attitudes; music is just one tool.’ (Norman Chalmers)
I Yothu Yindi World Music at St John’s, West End of Princes Street. 27 Aug—1 Sept, 3.30pm, £4 (£3); Circus Burlesque, The Meadows, 28 Aug—1 Sept, 10pm, £4.50 (£3.50).
ACOUSTIC MUSIC CENTRE
At any time during the day lor the duration at the Festival, and until the bars close around 2am, you will lind some sort oI lolk music in the Acoustic Music Centre; concerts, ceilidhs, plays
and sessions all take place within the
Student Union building. Food is served all day. There is a separate admission charge in the evening. but that is included in the cost at a ticket tor any show within the building.
Highlights over the coming week include Fairport Convention’s blistering electric showbiz Iiddler, Ric Sanders; the doyen at English dance outtits in The Albion Band; and Scots songwriters and guitarists Davey Steele and Dougie Maclean. (Norman Chalmers)
Acoustic Music Centre, Chambers Street, 220 2462. No children in Main Bar, but plenty at room elsewhere.
Ric Sanders and Friends, 25 Aug, 7.30pm, £5 (£3.50); Davey Steele, 26 Aug, 6.30pm, £3.50; Dougie MacLean, Aug 26, 2.30pm, £4.
E03113!- OLD eov NETWORK
guitar, was ID a little naII In uristo Street. Edinburgh. Now they pack out the Queen's Hall tor three consecutive nights. One oi the handiul oi groups
e
who redetined loIk music dur ng
70s, with a line-up at line musicians, Boys ol the Lough harbour two virtuosi in singer and llautlst Cathal McConnell, lrom Fermanagh, and
liddler Aly Rain. It you accept AIy's Shetland as a place apart, there are no Scots in the band. although there is quite a selection oi Scottish music- strathspeys. marches, reels, jigs, hompipes and airs- in the Irish, Northumbrian, Breton and American repertoire. But the Boys are Scots by adoption; they’ve made their home in Edinburgh overthe last twenty years. AIy's television programmes have brought great viewing iigures, and a new series, lilmed at the last Glasgow Maylest, is on the way. in October, the whole group hosts a series oi lour shows tor the 00C in Glasgow and. that same month. they are to make a llying visit to the Texas/Mexico border where the town ol El Paso will welcome back its lavourite Freeman. The area is rich with Texas swing Iiddle, and the Boys were made honorary citizens years ago. alterthelrlirst, rapturoust received, concert. Now every return visit is as londly. il hazily, remembered as the llrst. Be warned, their concerts will end up having standing room only. (Norman Chalmers) Boys oi the Lough, Oueen’s Hall, South Clerk Street. 668 2019. 24—26 Aug, 7.30pm. £6.50 (£5.50).
48'l'hc List 24 — 30 August 1990