Simon Thoumire’s blog

I've moved this blog to http://footstompin.wordpress.com/ primarily because I want more features and also I wanted to change the name to Foot Stompin' Scotland Music blog. Come and visit. I'll shut it down quite soon after I've managed to transfer all my previous posts.

http://footstompin.wordpress.com/

It's been a while since I've had time to attend this blog. A lot of things have happened in the last few months. One of the main things is that the Scots Trad Music Awards is going to be on the telly! The new Gaelic Channel (BBC) which is launched in September has come on board and will broadcast the show in December. The Awards are on the 6th December in Glasgow's Fruitmarket and the show will go out the following week. We're also filming a 'Winners' concert on the Sunday night (no venue as of yet) and having a ceilidh on the Friday (Fruitmarket).

The guests so far for the Saturday night are Capercaillie, Karine Polwart, Lau, Breabach, Session A9, Jimmy Shand 100th Birthday tribute, St Rochs Ceilidh Band and more to come. Should be great fun. We're still waiting to announce the inductees for the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame.

The Young Trad Award first stage closes this week. I'm looking forward to seeing the many entries this year and getting the process underway.

We've been doing lots of updating on Foot Stompin' (www.footstompin.com) and we've now added audio clips to all of the CDs. It looks amazing and we've fixed it that when you do a search for a band/performer etc you can automatically hear a clip of all the CDs. The site is now audiotastic and there can't be many like it! It was exhausting work though but it is definitely worth it.

I attended the launch of Homecoming Scotland 2009 (http://www.homecomingscotland2009.com/default.aspx) a couple of weeks back. This is a great intiative from the Scottish Goverment that was created to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns birth but has been widened to look at all things Scottish. It lasts from the 25th January to the 30th November and its aim is to bring back as many Scots and their relatives (the diaspora) to Scotland throughout the year. The Scots Trad Music Awards are part of the final weekend where we'll be in Dumfries for the final weekend of the event.

I'm writing this from Tinto Summer School. It is always great to see the kids coming back year on year, a year older. We're very lucky to have a great bunch of kids and tutors. Hopefully the weather will stay good and tonight's rain will be the last!

I having a thought on the 2009 Young Trad Awards. I wondering about upping the entry age to at least 18 (16 at the moment). There have been a few comments on the difference in the experience levels and stage presentation between the performers at the Awards. We had a few performers who had obviously been on stage a lot more than others and were able to present theirselves in a much more able fashion. We intially had the lower entry age at 16 as we wanted to encourage young musicians to consider traditional music as a career. I wonder if we can assume nowadays that the vibe has changed slightly and we can mover our lower age forward. Let see.

Rob Gibson has has lodged a motion in Parliament today to discuss why the Scots Trad Music Awards are not on TV. A very good question. Here is the info below.

S3M-956# Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP) : Congratulations to the Fifth Annual Scots Trad Music Awards— That the Parliament congratulates Hands Up For Trad for organising the fifth annual Scots Trad Music Awards, Comharrachadh Duaisean Dual-cheòl na h-Alba 2007, held in the Nevis Centre, Fort William from 29 November to 1 December 2007; notes the attendance of 900 celebrants and 130 musicians who produced such a spectacular and enjoyable programme drawn from all aspects of our traditional music; congratulates the award winners whose performances have raised the excellence, rude health and growing recognition of Scotland’s contemporary indigenous music bringing it to wider public notice each year, which acts as a barometer of a confident and innovative musical culture in today’s Scotland but regrets that broadcasters have yet to televise this enjoyable event to take the live performance and celebration of our rich musical traditions onto our television screens, and considers that future awards ceremonies should be televised, starting with the sixth awards due to be held in Glasgow in 2008.

Supported by: Bashir Ahmad, Dr Alasdair Allan, Kenneth Gibson, Jamie Hepburn, Bill Kidd, Michael Matheson, Nanette Milne, Sandra White, Karen Whitefield, Bob Doris, Joe FitzPatrick, Robin Harper, Liam McArthur, Stuart McMillan, Alex Neil, Gil Paterson, Cathy Peattie, Shirley-Anne Somerville, Roseanna Cunningham, Christina McKelvie, Dave Thompson, Dr Bill Wilson, Mr Frank McAveety, Jamie McGrigor, Malcolm Chisholm
Lodged on 03 December 2007; current.

Finally congratulations to Lau and Julie Fowlis who won 'Best Group' and 'Folk singer of the Year' respectably at the Radio 2 Folk Awards. Both are working very hard, producing great music and are reaping the benefits.

I really enjoyed the Awards this weekend. The concert was a great mix of instruments and styles (surprisingly no fiddle for a change) and all the musicians played really well. All the musicians played to a very high standard and presented theirselves on the stage very well. It is great to see the professionalism rising within traditional music and levels of presentation increasing all the time. The Award was won by Ewan Robertson, a singer guitarist who wowed the audience with his technique and stage presence.

Ewan receives the opportunity to make a CD with Greentrax Recordings and Watercolour Music, an international festival appearance with the British Council Scotland, and with the other finalists to take part in the TMSA Young Trad Tour, one year’s membership of the Traditional Music and Song Association and a session on BBC Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk programme.

The concert was opened by Jeff Zycinski, Controller of BBC Radio Scotland who talked about RS's commitment to traditional music and mentioned the extra video and webcasts that will soon be going online in the next few months. Linda Fabiani MSP, Minister for Culture also talked highly of our traditional music and its place in society.

The concert ran very well to time which was great as it was on live radio (!). The staff at the BBC were excellent to work with and made the day go very smoothly.

Issues to look at for next year are rehearsals. Saturday ended up quite stressful due to other commitments by the accompanists and we ended rehearsing very early and very late to fit the finalists in. Sunday is not much good for rehearsals as we are soundchecking all day and the gig starts at 5pm. I'm not blaming anyone for this apart from myself as I should have realised this would happen well in advance and fixed it then. This won't happen again*

Another small issue was Celtic Connections getting rid of the catering for the artists. This year they were giving out tokens for food to be used in restaurants around the city which on the face of it is good fun and high quality but it did make things quite expensive as the £10 voucher especially for evening meals didn't really cover it. Also when we were busy rehearsing there is no time to go out and a provided bowl of soup would have made the starving musicians very happy. Maybe though I'm just a pig...

We are so lucky to have Celtic Connections on board though. They bring a real professionalism to the event as well as being part of a large team of events complete with press office, marketing etc. It looks like the festival has been another hit this year so hats off to Donald, Jade and crew and here's to 2009.

On the Foot Stompin' forum thread (http://www.footstompin.com/public/forum?threadid=106366) the issue was raised by Shona:

"I enjoyed the comp alot, however, I do have one small niggle.... it's a solo comp and fair enough competitors want a bit of backing support but I find that every year its beginning to sound like bands playing rather than soloists. Don't get me wrong the accompanists do a great job but does anyone think that it should be limited to a competitor + 1?"

Shona's point is interesting. I think the use of accompanists has changed over the years and for the first time this final everybody used piano and most of them used guitar. It is usually the other way around unless the musician is playing solo. I'm not sure what the answer is and whether cutting down the accompanists is the way to go. I remember a few years back we applauded the maturity of the musicians who decided to use both accompanists at once as it was new then. Someone else said to me at the weekend that they really liked the musicians using all the backers as it was then they could compare all the performers easier.

Anyway the application closing date for the 2009 event is Friday 4th July. The application forms will be ready in March. 

*unless we have an emergency...

We had good weekend in London last week. Dave Milligan and I were taking part in Radio 3's celebration of Judith Weir called 'Telling the Tale'. Our first concert was on Thursday night at St Lukes and I had enjoyed rehearsing during the day. When we got onto stage I noticed something was wrong in the first number when my 'b' stopped working. This is never good but terrible when you are playing in E minor and E major. I had to finish the set and then get my screwdriver out while Dave chatted to the audience who were thankfully very understanding. This made the rest of the set rather nervy from my part as I was never sure if something else would go wrong!

Our next gig was in the Barbican and we were going out live on Radio 3 in the evening. We were only playing for 10 minutes but it felt distinctly nervy because of the previous evening. In the end it all went well. I felt we both played great and after the concert the manager of the BBC Symphony was interested in discussing a future collaboration between us. We definitely had a skip in our steps and landed in a lovely Italian restaurant for some great pizza.

Next up is Brussells on Thursday. Hands Up for Trad have organised a Burn's concert for the Scottish Government in Europe and we are taking over Fred Freeman and his band to talk and sing about Burns. This will be great fun.

When I get home on Friday it is straight into the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award finals. This is always an exciting time and again we have a great bunch of guys this year. We're using two new accompanists for the final this year - Kevin MacKenzie on guitar and Mark Maguire on bodhran. They will both work alongside regular Harris Playfair (piano). The concert on Sunday will be opened by Linda Fabiani MSP, Minister for Culture who did a great job of opening the Scots Trad Music Awards in December. To read more about the Young Trad please visit http://www.handsupfortrad.co.uk/press/Young_Traditional_Musician_finalists_2008.htm

Roll on Monday...

My brother John has been living in Venezuela for the last 3 months teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL). All the reports coming back were that he was being very successful and fitting in well to this new culture.

On the 31st December 2007 I heard the exciting news that he was coming home from Caracas, Venezuela for a few weeks. He had had a bad cold and while he was originally planning on coming home later in January Mum changed his flight to bring him home earlier for some home comforts. And then at 8am on the 1st January 2008, I had a frantic phone call from my mother to tell me that they had a cryptic message on myspace saying that John was seriously ill in a hospital near Caracas airport and had not been allowed to fly by Air France (not much more information than that from someone called Caroline).

This set the family into a panic and we spent the first part of the morning trying to locate a hospital near the airport. We managed to find out that there is a hospital called ‘Jose Maria Vargas’ but none of the telephone numbers would work partly I think because it was New Years Day and all the networks were down. Clare, my wife remembered that Gaelic singer Margaret Stewart lived in Caracas for a while and we put up an urgent post on the Foot Stompin’ forum to try and find her as her mobile wasn’t answering (she turned out to be in mid flight from the middle east). It was great to see so many folks texting me her number on New Years Day.

Myself, Clare and the children then headed off for Edinburgh so we could all work in together. When we arrived mum informed me that an amazing man Gonzalo Mazzei (husband of singer Margaret Bennett), a native of Venezuela had agreed to give up his New Years Day and spend it phoning Caracas for us. At first when he arrived we were having no luck with our enquiries. The lines seemed to be down all over Venezuela and we still didn’t really know where John was. We were combing the internet for phone numbers and hospitals. Gonzalo (with local knowledge) knew that the University Hospital was going to be key to the operation as that was the centre of specialisms in the country.

At this point all our family was arriving at the house as 1st January is usually a big celebration where my mum cooks lots of food and we all have a laugh. We had forgotten the baby cot in our haste and everybody was spending their time making sure the baby didn’t pull down the Christmas tree. The young ones weren’t really noticing that much was wrong as they were playing but the adults didn’t really know what to do with themselves.

It was in the middle of the afternoon when I finally received lots more messages from ‘Elizabeth’ a friend of John in Caracas on myspace giving us more information and informed us that John after a very stressful time was settled in the University Hospital, thanks to Elizabeth, Mark from the British Consulate and the Doctor from Air France. From that Gonzalo managed to talk to a doctor and ascertain John’s position. It was then we had to decide what to do. I was always going to fly over to Caracas and Gonzalo had (mercifully) offered his services to come with me. While I was out of the room and Clare was looking at possible flights – which were very expensive – I got the call from Clare to come to the office immediately. Gonzalo had made another call to the Doctors in Caracas and they had said that it wasn’t looking good for John and we needed to get there fast. I immediately made the decision that my Dad had to travel with us as purely I felt that if John wasn’t going to make it back alive my dad should be there.

We then managed to find flights on Expedia that left for Caracas at 6am on the 2nd January – approximately 12 hours after the booking. We would reach there at 3pm, Venezuela time on the 2nd. We then had a miserable bit of turkey and trifle without cream on the top but no-one really had any appetite. I then went home to pack my cases and Gonzalo stayed with mum and dad.

We all met at 3.30am to drive to the airport. The journey was ok. I laughed at the films on the plane as they were American dubbed into French and Spanish with English subtitles which you strained to see on the far away screens. When we arrived at the airport the immigration queues were massive and it took us a while to get through them. As soon as we made it to the forecourt we were approached by lots of people trying to drive, sell, buy things from us. One of the locals bought our dollars at a rate of 4 to 1. Venezuelans are only allowed to take 400 dollars out of the country so these guys buy them off tourists at a very decent rate (twice that of the banks) and sell them on at a higher rate. It was quickly coming apparent that there was no English spoken in this place and definitely no understanding. Gonzalo was doing all the communicating and managed to sort us out with a taxi to the hospital.

The drive to the hospital was very interesting – our first taste of Venezuelan driving. I can only say one thing about it – THEY’RE MAD!! Red lights, lanes – I don’t know why they bother with them. The poverty was very apparent as we drove through slums built on top of themselves on top of mountains. It was very scary, the prospect of what we were getting ourselves into and what John had got himself into. I suppose I had resolved we would bring him home alive but there were a lot of negative thoughts going through my brain.

Since the night before I had been in contact with Elizabeth and I had wired (Western Union) money for her to pay for some of the things that John needed. The thing about the University Hospital is that it was free and the quality of medical advice was excellent but they didn’t have the materials. John (or relatives) had to supply his own bed linen, buy some of his medicine, supply blood. I had spoken to John briefly the night before but he wasn’t with it and I hadn’t got much out of him. Elizabeth had been amazing (alongwith Mark from the Consulate) and had been supplying him – with the help of her mother – with bed linen etc and also standing by his bed, making sure he was ok.

Elizabeth had arranged to meet us outside the hospital which just to add to everything was shut due to all the students being on holiday. When we made it to the correct entrance the next issue arose. There were security guards at the door to the hospital and they weren’t going to let us in. There is no reception to speak of and these guys control everything. We finally made it passed them with some strong persuasion from Gonzalo and Elizabeth (there was definitely no English here) and entered the hospital. What a place… Long live the NHS.

We got to the 2nd floor and found John’s shared ward (4 beds). I was prepared for a shock but I don’t I think I expected to see my brother rigid, eyes popping out of his head and so thin. The one positive was that he was alive and recognised us. You could see visible relief on his face when we walked in – he couldn’t believe we were there. We instantly gave him a big kiss and tried to get some answers. Gonzalo immediately sought out the Doctor and found out his status. He was on oxygen and had various fluids going into his arm. The doctors were most worried at that time at the level of creatine in his blood which was increasing the acidity and not allowing oxygen to flow throughout his body. I found out later that they treated him by feeding him sodium bicarbonate (alkaline) which neutralised the acid. They were also worried about John’s kidney which they thought might be rejecting.

A quick note about John: He is a haemophiliac who needed a kidney transplant from my brother Peter as both his failed – a tricky thing for a haemophiliac. In other words he is a complicated case.

At this point we discovered that we had to give blood to the hospital so John could have some for a transfusion. My dad was considered too old to give blood and this was when Gonzalo did his next amazing thing – he just gave blood with me at 6am the next morning no questions asked. We had no option and he just stepped right into the role. Before this though I had called Mark at the consulate and he arrived at the hospital. I had now decided that John couldn’t stay here, it was too dirty, too unlike our own hospitals with no uptodate equipment. To take this further I had to find out about John’s travel insurance. I knew John had purchased insurance for the trip as I had the conversation previously with him but unfortunately it had only been for 3 months and we had just entered the 4th month. The doctors were saying that he would have to stay in hospital a minimum of 12 days but this wasn’t acceptable to me so we had to find out a way home. I called home to Clare and my mum to get costs for an Air Ambulance.

Gonzalo, Mark and I then went to John’s flat and cleared his belongings into his large suitcase. It was clear from looking round that John had been ill for the last few weeks.

We then checked into a hotel and drove back to the hospital where my dad had waited with John. I must mention the beautiful Latin music the taxi driver was playing in the cab, a small diversion from matters at hand. We now had a line from the doctors but it was still difficult to get past the security guards into the hospital. We were only there for a bit and my dad decided to stay overnight with John in the hospital (as he did every night of our stay).

The next morning we rose at 5am to go and give blood. We were there first at 5.30am and there was no movement until 6.30am. We had to fill in long forms which Gonzalo had to translate for me and then stand in more queues. The blood giving process was good and very clean. It was interesting to see the doctors improvise with little things like soft balls which you squeezed to pump the blood into the bag, and bits of plastic tied round your arm for them to find the veins. The completed blood was signed over to ‘John Thoumire’ and would be transferred for his use at another time.

We then went up to the ward where John was looking the tiniest bit better and dad had had a sleepness night on a hard empty hospital bed. Our next job was to get to the British Consulate but we had to talk to the doctors.

In the ward with John were two other patients and although we didn’t know at the time one had a pretty fatal looking liver disease and was waiting a transplant and the other boy had Aids. The wife (Flor) of the liver patient and the sister of the other man had looked after John when we weren’t there. It was really humbling to know that these people were willing to put theirselves out for John when they didn’t know who he was. Flor – who stayed in the hospital looking after her husband had bathed John the night he arrived and attended many of his needs even when we were there. This was real poverty as I had never seen before yet they and other family members in the hospital always looked out for John. Really humbling.

There was an incident when we weren’t there when a guy on crutches had offered dad a cup of coffee, took the 50,000 bolivars my dad gave him (dad had not been out the hospital and did not understand the money) and never returned with coffee or change. When the ladies on the ward heard this they were appalled and embarrassed by this man and they immediately set out to find him which they did. They brought back dad a coffee and some of his change and got the rest later. These ladies could have used this cash for themselves but it was never a thought in their heads.

We headed to the British Consulate in the rich part of town, managed to call the air ambulance company (Wings) who Clare had already spoken to and established some facts with them. We had to get back to the hospital (via Subway restaurant to get some food for ourselves and dad) and get a report from the Doctor to fax to Wings. When they received this they would be able to give us a proper quote and a timetable. At the same time Clare and mum had managed to re-mortgage our houses to pay for the ambulance and also an anonymous donor had agreed to give us the funds up front so we could pay by switch to the company (they wouldn’t do anything without the funds up front).

When we got back to the hospital Gonzalo and dad went back to the hotel to fax the report to England and dad got a small rest. I stayed with John. He was definitely becoming a little more lucid and we were able to have a laugh. Elizabeth also arrived later that afternoon and was able to give me more facts about John’s situation.

It turned out that mum changing John’s flights had been the catalyst for his survival. It is apparent to me that if he hadn’t tried to leave his flat that day he would have died in his bed. Anyway what happened was John had called Elizabeth for a loan of some cash to get a taxi to the airport (he had been unable to get to the bank and had no money). When she arrived to give it to him he had collapsed on the pavement and was surrounded by ladies trying to help him. Elizabeth then managed to get him into a taxi and drive him to the airport. Air France said he was too ill to board the flight and it was at that point that Elizabeth called the British Consulate and Mark the emergency officer came out. John was then taken to a military hospital where he had to wait for 4 hours with oxygen. The Air France doctor then managed to get him into the University Hospital – they weren’t going to let him in as there were no beds. Elizabeth and Mark really stuck by him and we have them to thank for him still being alive. I might have this slightly muddled up but they both gave up their New Years Celebrations to look after John and make sure he was safe. We are indebted to these people. The Doctors then performed more miracles to keep him on this earth.

By the time Friday came we knew that the John would probably be leaving Caracas the following day. Jobs that had to be done were washing John’s bed linen, keeping in touch with home and Wings and feeding dad! John was starting to get an appetite and we had brought in yogurts and grapes as simple things that he could eat. We bought ourselves and dad a terrible Chinese takeway but it was eaten anyway! At one point we had to change John’s tee-shirt and I saw how much weight he had actually lost. His physical figure resembled the Africans we see on the news and Live Aid. It was ridiculous and we were going to have to get to the heart of the reason for this.

On our way back into the hospital from the laundry we were called back by the security guards and it turned out that they were wanting to sell us blood. When people give blood in Venezuela they are usually giving it for a relative or friend and fill in the cards correspondingly but some people don’t do this. It turned out that the security guard was in charge of these cards and he was trying to sell 6 pints of blood (for 300,000 bolivars) and threatening us at the same time. Gonzalo was amazing with this and negotiated with them that we buy 2 or 3 pints for 100,000. We had to do this or they wouldn’t have let us in to the hospital. All the blood was safe as he was selling material that was already tested. At the same time Gonzalo was also trying to negotiate with the doctors to get John signed out and also arrange us an ambulance for the next day as it had been decided that John would go for dialysis in another hospital thanks to the permission of Dr Hernandez.

We at this time knew that the air ambulance would be arriving in Caracas at 11pm, would rest the night, meet us in the morning and then transfer John back to Edinburgh after his dialysis. On the way out of the hospital that night we met John’s doctor who informed us that he was not in on Saturday and he would be unable to sign John out of the hospital. We did eventually manage a way around this but it was a headache.

The next morning we had to come early again to give blood but this time they never opened at all and there were lots of people waiting. The blood we bought actually came in handy and we were able to give the cards to the doctor to replace what we were not able to give. Gonzalo then organised the ambulance to the other hospital. When the guys arrived to take John down to the ambulance they could get no-body to stop the lift to take John down the stairs and in the end they had to use a lift that food was normally transported in. As Gonzalo said in this society you have no people in low places as they control everything. Just before John left, Flor (the wife of the man next to John) wrote the most beautiful letter to him telling him how much she had enjoyed looking after him and how he was the son she never had. It was a lovely moment when she said goodbye to John. At this point John was doing really well and was able to eat and talk well – his understanding complete.

We thought the stress was over when we reached the next hospital but of course it wasn’t… The air ambulance crew never turned up at 11am to see John (or called me) and we only heard they were arriving at 2pm secondhand through the hospital. 2pm arrives and no sign of the crew or ambulance. The first ambulance then arrives to take John back to the University Hospital where we didn’t want to go. We had to pay them so there was no hassle. The medics eventually arrived at 3ish without the ambulance thinking it already there. They hadn’t brought anybody who could speak Spanish and never had a copy of the medical report that had been sent to Wings. We gave them a copy but they didn’t read Spanish and one of the medics said that they should be able to ‘guess’ what is going on. This was getting stressful and they were guessing John’s condition! Then there was a phonecall from Wings trying to tell us that they had told the doctor to book an ambulance but of course the doctors English wasn’t good (why should it be?) and they hadn’t booked one. Gonzalo was really angry with them and was going through the Yellow Pages trying to find private ambulances. In the end Gonzalo saved the day again by talking to the Doctor and there was an ambulance there in seconds.

The next problem to arise for the ambulance was that they couldn’t get through security at the airport, couldn’t get more petrol to fly and couldn’t get leave to take off. Palms had to be greased to achieve all of this but it could have been avoided if the company had bothered to research the country and its methods and had bothered to send someone who spoke Spanish. This was incredibly stressful for my father who though he was on the home straight. Anyway the plane finally made it into Edinburgh at 11am Sunday and John went straight to Royal Infirmary. The good news is he got out five days later feeling much better.

Gonzalo and I flew out on Sunday after more stress trying to contact the airport to see if we could fly out at all. It was a fairly quiet flight but it took us 24 hours to get home and it was exhausting.

While I do not want to repeat this ever again it was a life changing trip where I saw and experienced qualities in people that really humbled me. The 3 of us in Caracas and the family at home pulled this out of the bag and we’re all suffering for it. There is a general body weariness that pervades the households at the moment and a level of astonishment at the situation we were in. We’ll never be 100% sure why John arrived at this place but we do know he wasn’t looking after himself properly. We  know that the wages were low and variable and it's obvious now that he was finding it very difficult to make ends meet but was too proud to say so. We still find it hard to believe he didn't phone and as for help.

Subsequently it has been made clear to us by other folks how well John had been doing in Venezuela and this last episode seems to be a blip.

When compiling presentations at 3am for the Scots Trad Music Awards you become very aware of the parallels between media no-how and successful genres within trad music. The likes of Gaelic song and folk bands have in the main a very good web presence and it is easy to get info (pictures, audio files) of artists when you need it. This is a great resource for newspapers, promotors etc and enables these entities to promote and engage with these scenes.

The reason I am writing this blog is more about the genres that are not doing this and the parallels with their lack of publicity/success. The areas that jumped out at me were Scots Song, Scottish Dance Bands and to a lesser extent Strathspey and Reel Societies. In my opinion these 3 genres are struggling to make any headway in encouraging folks to come out and listen, join in, buy CDs etc and while the web is not the be and end all, it is definitely a very good start to raising public profile.

It seems to me that hardly anyone is bothering to sort this side of operations out. It is very important that the scenes survive in Scottish music as they have so much to offer our culture. In my opinion we are now at the emergency stage of saving these genres and it has to come down to individuals wanting it. We need to see band leaders, singers, organisations all creating proper websites for themselves, using the likes of myspace, YouTube to get the word out. It is so easy nowadays to do this with not a lot of knowledge. I suppose though even if it did take a lot of learning we need people to get off their backsides and read a manual on how to upload to the web. There should be a whole network of Scots songs websites which possibly could be coordinated through the Traditional Music and Song Association, a network of Scottish Dance Band coordinated through the National Association of Accordion and Fiddle Clubs/ Royal Scottish Country Dance Society) sites all with photos, audio files, biogs. Lets promote these guys or they're going to disappear.

Strathspey and Reel Societies don't even have a national association which shares news between them. They have a few websites but no real unity.

In the end it has to come to down to the community - can they be bothered or are they happy for it to die out. I hope that there are folks out there that don't feel out and will embrace the opportunities that are in front of them.

I've started a discussion about this on Foot Stompin'

A few reflections on my Scots fiddle concerto. The series of 3 solos, 1 duo and concerto were performed on 16th November at the Scots Fiddle Festival in the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh.

Through the rehearsals of the Fiddle concerto I was very happy and amazed at soloist Gordon Gunn's lyricism and dexterity throughout the time. I was trying to write music that was hard and testing to the soloist while exciting to the listener. I felt I succeeded.

On the performance night it was very interesting to listen to the flow of the works from the very first "A fonn gunbhitrom (I am disposed to mirth)" performed by Mairi Campbell to the duo "A' cheud luan do'n raidh (The First Monday of the Season)" performed by Aidan O'Rourke and Patsy Reid. To my ears it showed a development of ideas as learned from one next piece to the next.

When it was time for the concerto it went very well and all the players played great. I did at the time have a feeling that it was different to the rest but in a positive way. (I'll be uploading a video in the next few weeks). It was a long night of a gig with Lau going on first (they were brilliant) to be followed by an hourish of new music but the audience seemed to like it (and the place was packed).

Anyway when the reviews came out they were mixed. Rob Adams' in the Herald generally thought it went ok but felt the concerto lacked something when compared to the preceeding duo. The Scotsman (Hi-Arts) reviewer disliked it completely. Anyone who has read my previous blogs will know that I don't mind this - everyone is entitled to their opinion and I recognise if I'm going to write on a public stage then I have to be able to accept flak as well as positive thoughts. I suppose the one thing that really bugged me about the latter review is that the journalist kept going on about a concerto is only for orchestra and any other ensemble is completely wrong. Unfortunately in this case the journalist is wrong as there are many examples - Judith Weir, Michael Finnesy, Sally Beamish, Hindemith who have all written concertos for 'non' orchestras.

What I've taken from the experience is that I now need to work on my ensemble writing skills. I don't feel that I'm getting the 'traditional' ensemble writing right. My parts are all very 'classical' and I need to work out how I am going to feature the trad musicians in the ensemble and make them sound like themselves. I think I am generally on the right track for the soloists (although I could maybe write more in the home keys). I'm going to take lessons next year with a composer to advance my skills and to move forward and will use the fiddle concerto as a piece to look at in the lessons.

I'm about to try writing a trad piece for glockenspiel and I am currently just thinking whether or not I need any ensemble between it. It will only be 5 minute piece. It will be good to keep going and learning more.

I've finally made it through the madness that was November - Scots Fiddle Concerto, Scots Trad Music Awards, St Andrew's Celebrations, SAC Flexible Funding Application, PRS Foundation Distil application, Foot Stompin' complete new website with still ongoing corrections and top of the list - my wife had her gallbladder out...

I've had a few thoughts I want to talk about in the next few days including marketing of the different genres within traditional music and how I think it is affecting there audience perception. So I'll depart just now and come back in the next few days.

Well Scots Trad Music Awards 2007 are up and away and votes are appearing in large numbers. Many people worry about folks canvassing for votes but I actively encourage it. I want as many people to vote as possible and I take the view that when a person has been canvassed they come to the site and they see everyone else who is up for nomination. This will immediately widen their horizons to the vast amount of talent we have playing traditional music in Scotland. After all the Scots Trad Music Awards is first and foremost a marketing event aimed at bringing publicity to traditional music. A development this year I have enjoyed is the advent of Facebook sites setup to garner votes. This will get us to another audience.

I am always amazed looking at the body of nominations how fabulous and varied our scene is. I mean looking through we can all name 10 times as many musicians who are not nominated. What a strength for a small country. In terms of music and genres we really punch above our weight.

We're not getting TV coverage this year but there is a possibilty of web coverage on the BBC Scotland 07 site. We'll be taking video at the awards and putting together a package to bid for TV coverage on Glasgow in Novemember 29th, 2008.