GLASGOW FIlm festival OUT WITH THE OLD
In Where You’re Meant to Be, Aidan Moffat confronted arguably his biggest critic, Sheila Stewart, a folk legend who took offence at the former Arab Strap man’s reworking of traditional music. As the fi lm premieres at the Glasgow Film Festival, Brian Donaldson talks to Moffat about his experiences with a woman who sang for a president and a pope
‘T he one bit I was quite shocked at when I i rst saw it was me wanking off a Nessie toy.’ The mainly unl appable Aidan Moffat is considering a moment in Where You’re Meant to Be (a sort-of tour diary crossed with a culture clash between the old and the new in folk music), when even he might have gone a little too far. ‘I thought, “I don’t know if I want anyone to see that”, but when I watched it again I thought it was quite funny. We showed it at a preview thing at the end of the Commonwealth Games and someone wrote a comment somewhere saying they thought it was me making a statement about the tourist industry. When I read that I thought, “that’s hilarious, let’s keep that bit in”. I did worry about my mum seeing it, but then she’s got all the Arab Strap records.’
There’s an old story that Mrs Moffat could handle the references to drugs and sex within the lyrically frank decade-long Arab Strap oeuvre, but she could happily have done without all the c-words. And here again in Where You’re Meant to Be, Moffat is rousing up the locals (from Kirriemuir to Loch Ness) with his curse-laden interpretations of traditional Scottish songs. Among the offended is Sheila Stewart, a folk music veteran who went from being raised in the travelling community around Perth to receiving an invitation from President Gerald Ford to perform at the White House (she also sang for Pope John Paul II in front of 350,000
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people at Bellahouston Park in 1982). Stewart unwittingly becomes the star of the documentary (directed by Paul Fegan, who previously earned plaudits for Pouters, his short i lm about i erce rivalry among pigeon racers) during which she takes great exception to Moffat’s interpretation of ‘The Parting Song’. He i rst performs it to her as they drive along in her car, a scenario which Moffat admits was utterly terrifying. ‘The trouble with Aidan is that he just doesn’t listen’, is Stewart’s withering response as she delivers her verdict that the old songs aren’t i t for tampering with.
‘That has been a common criticism of me,’ Moffat admits of her comment. ‘School was very much: “he needs to pay more attention, but he’s OK when he asserts himself”. But to be fair, I did a lot of research into those old songs and, as I say in the i lm, Sheila was a bit overly protective of that one song in particular and maybe a bit too quick to judge. As it transpires in the i lm, she wasn’t necessarily being entirely honest about her opinions on reworking songs.’ Where You’re Meant to Be is set to become the i rst i lm ever shown at the Barrowland and will be followed on the night by musical performances from Moffat and other artists seen in the i lm. His original plan for the documentary was to capture his adventures within the traditional ceilidh circuit where he would deliver a few songs and poems before the locals also did a turn. Interspersed