Thursday, April 5th .....

The Battlefield Band concert was held in the Community Complex just across from where we are camped. I kept an eye out during the afternoon for a big truck with the PA but all I saw was a dirty Landrover and a tatty beige van. There’s always people coming and going so I paid them no attention, until mid-afternoon when I heard the sound of the bagpipes. There was a young fellow in bare feet wandering up and down behind the complex running through his pieces. Clearly they didn’t have a big PA and had slipped in unnoticed.

There was certainly a crowd and I was interested to see that there was to be a basketball game in the adjoining court. I wondered which activity would impact on the other. In fact, we could have been in separate towns. The basketball was just as loud as ever and the band certainly lifted the tin on the roof but nobody noticed that the other group was there.

We arrived in plenty of time (not far to go!) but we struggled to find a good seat but it all turned out well in the end. What a band! They are the headliners at the Canberra Folk Festival and certainly deserve that honour. The players are only young but extraordinarily talented and professional. Their music is complex, rousing and engaging; I thought I knew a bit about Scottish folk music but didn’t recognise a single piece. Apart from the guitarist who stuck to what he knew best, the other band-members played at least two instruments each.

The band was started in 1969 in the Glasgow area of Battlefield, named for the Battle of Langside (1568) when James VI defeated Mary, Queen of Scots. The last of the original members retired in 2010. The current line-up has no Glaswegians: Sean O’Donnell was born in Ireland, Alasdair White was born in the village of Tong on the Island of Lewis, Ewan Henderson is from Fort William in the West Highlands and Mike Katz was born in Los Angeles but moved to Scotland when he was 18. A couple of them are Gaelic speakers and there were a few songs in that language. Ewan encouraged the audience to sing along – cheeky! The photograph I posted yesterday isn’t the current line-up so I’ve found another one. In comparison with the others, Alasdair White is, as my mother would have said, ‘awfie wee’, but his fiddle-playing was exquisite.

The audience were great. The usual odd-balls wore Scottish hats and, in one case, a kilt and many got up to dance the reels and strathspeys so it was a great night. I’m delighted we were able to get tickets in the end.