At this Festival, Connections are Key

-->My Review of the Celtic Connections concert featuring Luka Bloom and Bella Hardy was in Wednesday's Morning Star. it can be found here.

Another  concert that the Star hasn't had the space to print, but I felt deserved to be published is one from Friday 23 January at the O2ABC, featuring two bands - Canzionere Grecanico Salentino, and Complete. While their connections to Scotland and Celtic Music are not immediately apparent, they nevertheless became evident!

Celtic Connections is often criticised for including acts who seem to have little connection to ‘Celtic’ music. Friday’s concert from Canzionere Grecanico Salentino (right) – a band from Puglia in Italy making their first appearance in Glasgow - showed that the connections may be more than is immediately obvious. 
Given their origin (and name) you might be expecting influences from Greece and North Africa – and you would be right! You might not expect bagpipes and bodhran’s – but you got ‘em (well, OK the bodhran’s were really large tambourines)! The pipes were shorn of drones and had grown a second chanter, but the sound was unmistakable.

The performance, too, had links to Scotland in its emphasis on dance. Salento in Puglia is after all home to the Tarantella – and dancer Silvia Perrone was a classic exponent of the pizzica tarantata. The music had the rhythm and intricateness of ceilidh bands while Maria Mazzotta’s vocals came from Greece via North Africa and the Iberian peninsula (think flamenco song meets fado). The audience were on their feet early in the set, clearly infused with the infectious rhythms. Many stayed dancing throughout.

A different set of connections were in evidence from support group, Complete (left). A South African a cappella group in the Isicathamiya style they varied South African songs with some lesser known African standards like Paul Macartney’s Yesterday, and even My Yiddische Momma! A great version of (Ladysmith Black Mambazo) Joseph Shabalala’s Homeless namechecked one influence - and their link with Hugh Masekela – took us back to their appearance with the great man at last year’s Nelson Mandela International Day concert.

It is in the nature of music to be repeated round the world, to be adapted and to link peoples. This festival is showing that its Connections are at least as important as its Celtic.

Festival making much of their Connections

 This is by way of  a compilation of my reviews of Celtic Connections concerts so far published in the Morning Star.

The festival is well on course to be a classic year. In particular the theme of Connections seems to be a major part of it. While it has always been a significant festival factor, this year seems to be emphasising connections in almost all of the events.

Probably one of the most significant will be tonight's concert celebrating the centenary of the birth of

MacColl. huge influence

Ewan MacColl. At Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall, Jarvis Cocker (Blur), Paul Buchanan (The Blue Nile), Dick Gaughan, Karine Polwart, and Martin and Eliza Carthy are among the galaxy of talent lined up to pay tribute to MacColl, dramatist, singer, marxist, broadcaster and the man most responsible for Britain’s folk revival. Curated by two of his sons – Calum and Neil - and also featuring four of his grandsons, this concert celebrates the legacy of the songwriter who gave us Dirty Old Town, and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and many others.

Karine Polwart links Horizons and MacColl

Previous concerts have been the Horizons concert in the Old Fruitmarket a week past on Friday. A good idea which needed tighter control of outside interference. It is reviewed here.

Sam Sweeney's Fiddle was a great piece of work that deservedly attracted a standing ovation from the audience in the Tron. Review here.

keep tuned for reviews of Luka Bloom - and the fire alarm! - and Canzionere Grecanico Salentino!

Health & Social Care mergers - Knowledge is Power

My article on the issues and problems that potentially lie ahead for activists and campaigners trying to extract information from the new merged structures providing health and social care in Scotland has just been published by the Scottish Left Review. It is here, and the rest of the issue - which deals with other issues associated with this recent legislation can be found here.

The article is printed as written, so I would advise those who wish to peruse it, to visit the SLR website (links above).

Celtic Connections - bringing the world together.

My preview of this year's Celtic Connections festival is printed in today's Morning Star, here. They have made some (entirely legitimate) editorial changes to my original article - mainly reordering the concerts thematically rather than by date. However, I thought I'd put my original up here - not because I think it is better written (it isn't), but because in the editing the date of Arthur Johnstone's concert has been lost (it is on the 31 Jan), and more importantly, the point that I was making about the significance of the Horizon's project in bringing together music from the nations of the British Isles, has been somewhat obscured. Here is the original.

In 2015's programme, Celtic Connections Donald Shaw suggests that for some parts of the world, 'music is the best hope of bringing people together', and acts from Van Morrison to the Congo's Konono No 1 show the festival's success in that.

While he probably doesn't mean to include the UK, there is at least one event that seeks to do exactly

Kate Rusby

that. Horizons (16 Jan) is an intriguing partnership promoting music from the British Isles' constituent nations. The concert features Karine Polwart (Scotland), Kate Rusby (England), Damien O'Kane (NI), the Republic's Declan O'Rourke, and Welsh balladeer Al Lewis (playing with Alva Leigh).

Sam Sweeney's Fiddle (16 & 17 January) is a multi-media performance about a fiddle bought by Sam Sweeney, whose maker turned out to have died in the First World War. The performance will also feature Sweeney's Bellowhead band mates, Paul Sartin, Rob Habron, and storyteller Hugh Lupton.

One of the Festival's international acts are Canzionere Grecanico Salentino (23 Jan). A band from the 'heel' of Italy, they blend music, song and dance to deliver the unique cultural tradition of the region's mixed history.

Ewan MacColl

A major feature must be the concert of Ewan MacColl's music (Blood and Roses 25 Jan). Curated by his sons Calum and Neil, the concert includes performances by Kate St John, Dick Gaughan, Martin and Eliza Carthy and Karine Polwart.

Craig Armstrong is a local Shettleston boy who now writes music for Baz Luhrman's films, winning many awards. He's worked with U2, Madonna, Texas, Tina Turner et al and he's still based in Glasgow. Here he plays latest album It's Nearly Tomorrow, with the Scottish Opera orchestra and guests (27 Jan).

Arthur Johnstone

Political singer, Arthur Johnstone invites guests from his original band, the Laggan, the Stars Band, Tommy Sands, actor David Hayman and many others, to celebrate his enduring contribution to working people's struggles (31 Jan). Arthur deserves the widest recognition and the concert's sell out testifies to his enduring popularity.

Also sold out is Frances Black and Kieran Goss's return to their 1992 partnership (27 Jan) although a second night has been added (26 Jan). 2015 may be shaping up to be another success story. Listings and tickets - www.celticconnections.com.