MUSIC FOLK & WORLD
HURDY GURDY MEN
Gallic group Le Gop! are currently renewing credibility in that 70s bastard wean, folk rock. Even at its best, with bands like Fairport, the genre lacked the depth of traditional music or the energy of out-and-out rock bands. It is fitting, therefore, that this Parisian quintet are redressing the balance and layering traditional instrumentation on a heavily propulsive, hard driving but inventive rhythm section.
The bass, drums and keyboards underpin fiddles, guitar, occasional accordion and the distinctive, plangent timbres of the hurdy gurdy. Fashionable for a while in the Celtic folk instrumental revival of twenty years ago (Planxty recorded with one) the instrument is really at home across the Channel where it has been known for centuries as the vielle, and in combination with various cornemeuses or bagpipes, creates the sound so redolent of ancient rural France. Essentially a form of keyed fiddle, the hurdy gurdy is easy to get a simple tune out of, but difficult to play well. Instead of a how, a wooden wheel rubbed with rosin is turned by a handle in the manner of a barrel organ. This rubs the drone strings and the melody string. The latter is stopped, not by the fingers, but by wooden keys arranged at the positions of the notes of the scale. An insistent
Mind Le Gop!
: rhythm can be produce by skilled use
; of the turning handle and an ingenious
and unique string, the trompette.
Fiddler Michel Le Cam sums up their
effect on audiences: ‘Wherever we
play - folk festivals, arts festivals, rock clubs - the reaction is much the same. People are surprised by the use of hurdy gurdy and fiddle with a funky, muscled rock group.’
No longer ieunes, the five guys in Le
Gop! (an acronym for Le Grand Orchestra Parisien) have come through
, the cream of an earlier era of French
v bands, including Malicorne and Ti .Iaz,
' and write most of the group’s repertoire. Essentially a band to
. experience live, they bring a mature
. musical skill, a focused energy and a
louche sense of humour to bear in
creating loud and intoxicating dance
music. (llorman Chalmers)
‘ Le Gop! Tron Theatre Wed 28.
Glasgow Royal
Concert Hall
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Glasgow Royal
Concert Hall
MAIN AUDITORIUM
-. 2 .- 7.30pm Ravi Shankar and Party
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Messing About On The River... \
Tron Theatre 7.30pm
Opera on a Shoestring
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~ Glasgow Fiddle Workshop i " "
.28 ‘-
Donsliaya Volnitsa ‘7 v
3 Tony McManus Band
Davey Arthur & Co.
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Tron Theatre ' 10.0093”
Turning of the
Old Blind Dogs
Le Gop
25 Deal Shepherd
Hank Wangford
Allan 8. Barnaby Taylor Fapy Lafertin at le Jazz
school. run by Alasdair Fraser's brother (the talent does run in the family) puts on a quality show of traditional fiddle strathspeys. reels. marches and airs. from Scotland and Cape Breton. with a few original compositions thrown in. Songs and dancing round off a ceilidh. Later. the Star‘s Band features the massive voice of Glasgow socialist Arthur Johnstone in an illustrated song history of the Scottish people. with illumination from fiddler Charlie Soane and singer. mandolinist and guitar player Brian Miller. Glasgow Folk Festival
I Ross Kennedy and Archie McAllister Festival Club. Victorian Bar. Tron Theatre. 63 Trongate. 552 4267. 9pm. Free. Superb fiddling from Kintyre man McAllister, with Gaughanesque song and solid guitar/bouzouki work from Kennedy. Glasgow Folk Festival
WEDNESDAY 28
Glasgow
I Oonskaia \lolnitsa/Tony MacManus Band (7.30pm): Le Gop/Waykis (10pm). Tron Theatre. 63 Trongate. 552 4267. Ticketlink 227 5511. Each concert £7 (£5). Balalaikas. accordion. high boots and gravity-defying dancing . . . it’s those Cossacks. back again from Glasgow‘s twin city of Rostov-on-Don. Tony MacManus is a gifted Scots acoustic guitarist who's in great demand for recording sessions and band work everywhere. In the last few months he‘s been in and out of studios and toured North America and Europe playing for other people. but now he's running his own show. Glasgow Folk Festival
I The Joumeymen Festival Club, Victorian Bar. Tron Theatre. 63 Trongate. 552 4267. 9pm. Free. Glasgow Folk Festival
I The Broads Scotia Bar. Stockwell Street. 552 8681. 9.30pm. Free. Smooth licks and arresting vocals from vintage gentle electro/acoustic folk rockers.
Edinburgh
I Edinburgh Folk Club Pleasance Cabaret Bar. 60 The Pleasance. 8pm. £4 (£3). From the famous family of singing siblings. and for three decades an inspiration to Scotland’s singer/guitarists. Archie Fisher pays a rare visit.
THURSDAY 29
Glasgow
I Al Stewart Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. 1 Sauchiehall Street. Ticketlink 227 5511. 7.30pm. A new collaboration with ex-Wings guitarist Laurence Juber has given the 60s bedsit hero his fifteenth album. Released last week. Between the Wars is the songwriting guitarist‘s musical tribute to the 20s and 30s.
I Messing About on the River (7.30pm): Tannas/Deaf Shepherd ( 10pm). Tron Theatre. 63 Trongate. 552 4267. Ticketlink 227 5511. Each concert £7 (£5). Oanny Kyle plays tribute to legendary songwriter and Scots troubador .losh MacRae. one of the great names from the early days of the folk revival. Later. the voice of young Scotland in two bands who cheerfully play their version of traditional music. Tannas is an Edinburgh band with a recent CD, two female vocalists from Gaelic Lewis and a sparky accordion in the five-strong band. Deaf Shepherd combine Scots vocals with the national instruments. including the big pipes. to rousing effect. Glasgow
Folk Festival
I Eurydice Choir Festival Club. Victorian Bar, Tron Theatre. 63 Trongate, 552 4267. 9pm. Free. Choral world music and folk song. Glasgow Folk Festival
I N” Oavm Folk Clllll Glasgow Press Club. 94 West Regent Street. 332 1674. 8pm. Tickets vary £3—£5. Surprise guests for the Folk Festival.
DLASSIDAI. & OPERA mama-
Concerts are listed by date, then by city. Classical & Opera Listings compiled by Jonathan Trew.
FRIDAY 16
Glasgow
I Royal Scottish llational Orchestra Proms Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Sauchiehall Street. 227 5511. 7.30pm. £4—£19. The RSNO kick off the Glasgow set of Proms with the overture to Berlioz‘s Beatrice and Benedict. Mendelssohn‘s Violin Concerto. the Polonaise and Waltz from Tchaikovsky‘s Eugene ()negin. Three Dance Variations front Bernstein‘s Fancy Free. Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Ravel‘s Bolero. Carl Davis conducts and Dong-Suk Kang is the violinist.
Edinburgh
I Cappella llova Greyfriars Kirk. Greyfriars Place. 225 1900. 7.30pm. £7 (£4). Alan Tavener directs the group in an evening entitled ‘Celtic Knotwork‘ featuring the Mass for Three Voices. attributed to Robert Carver. as well as an evocation of mouth music by Edward McGuire.
SATURDAY 17
Glasgow
I Royal Scottish llational Orchestra Proms Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Sauchiehall Street. 227 5511. 7.30pm. £4—£l9. Wayne Marshall directs the RSNO in ()rff's Carmina Burana. Gershwin’s Liza and Ellington's Mood Indigo, Satin Doll and 'Iitke the A Train arranged by Marshall. Maureen Braithwaite is the soprano. Karl Morgan Daymond the bass and Jonathan Peter Kenny sings counter-tenor.
Edinburgh
I Lothian Region Schools Orchestra Queen’s Hall. Clerk Street. 668 2019. credit card hotline 667 7776. 7.30pm. £4 (£2). William Conway conducts the orchestra in a programme which includes Brahms‘s Symphony No 2, Debussy's Premiere Rhapsodies and Four Sea Interludes front Britten's Peter Grimes. I Féte de la Musique institut Francois d'Ecosse. 13 Randolph Crescent. 225 5366. From 6pm. £2. There’ll be something for everyone here including lovers ofclassical music. If you can play an instrument bring it along.
SUNDAY 18
Glasgow
I Sunday Promenade Organ Recitals Art Gallery and Museum. Kelvingrove. 221 9600. 2.30pm. 3.30pm. Free. George W. Bayley from the Church of St Michael and All Angels, Anniston. USA.
Edinburgh
I Edinburgh Ouartet Stockbridge Parish Church. Saxe-Coburg Street. 7.30pm. £7.50 (£6). Guitarist Phillip Thorne joins the quartet for Boccherini‘s Guitar Quintet and the world premiere of Edward McGuire's The Guest Quintet. The programme also includes Arriaga‘s Quartet No 2. Turina's Bulljighter’s Prayer. Puccini's Crisantemi and Wolf’s Italian Serenade.
I Lothian Region Schools Queen's Hall. Clerk Street. 668 2019. credit card hotline 667 7776. 2pm. £4 (£2). The region‘s
48 The List 16-29 Jun 1995