Added on Wednesday 26 Jan 2011

Take four fiddlers add a clarsach and a couple of guitars and you have the magical Fiddlers Bid. We Highlanders were treated to some magical gigs including a very special one in Oban with MacKay and Stout earlier in autumn but as Chris Stout, the lead fiddle says "Fiddlers Bid is a whole different thing again!"

Topping the bill at the Royal Concert Hall on Saturday, 15th January. They were celebrating 20 years of frenetic fiddle music and they were demonstrating that they remain at the very top of the game. Reels marches and waltzes followed in a tour de force of the Shetland tradition. Willie Hunter Junior and Senior were celebrated in music, and thanked for their encouragement and influence in the musical development and growth of Fiddlers Bid over the two decades.

Astrid's Waltz gave us room to draw breath with a tune written for a Swedish friend but then normal service was resumed and a blistering tune celebrating the survival from a Bonxie attack on a Scandinavian friend. The birds did not take kindly to anyone on their headland. The runner, who was visiting the northern shores for the first time, had to run faster to escape.

It further ably demonstrated that the Shetlanders often look east rather than south for inspiration and fellowship. Further east still, a trip to Japan led to a Celtic Connection that none of us expected - Humbert and Humbert. The oriental duo was spirited on stage and made beautiful music with and without the band and with almost a Gaelic air to their songs. Gentle and graceful music from the Orient could have easily come from Oronsay.

Then came the finale and the Shetlanders moved up a notch which should have warned us of something special coming. Not one of the near full Royal Concert Hall expected seventeen Vikings in full battle dress to come down through the audience and join on stage. Up helly aa had come to the city and what a sight it was. "That's the kinda festival Celtic Connections is" mused Stout "when you ask for a bus load o' Vikings and twa flight from Japan - they just do it!"
The next 20 years will be marvellous.

Review by Cambell Cameron
Making it Happen
Media, Business and Music
Rowena,Benderloch,Oban,Argyll.PA37 1QP.
01631 720247 at the?home office.
07786 243484 on the move.
?- sales and marketing support for small business.
BID4Oban project management. Retail Consultancy. Music Management - Creating opportunity - delivering potential.

Iain Thomson?has launched the new Album Fields of Dreams -??at St Andrews in the Square?Glasgow. Great airplay and reviews on the radio! have a wee listen at; ?www.iainthomsonband.co.uk/cd.html