Hands up for Trad Awards
Item Posted: Wednesday 28th March , 2007
Hands up for Trad/BBC Awards 2005
To our pleasure, and not a little surprise, the Workshop won the Community Project of the Year Award in a national competition which saw more than 6000 votes cast.
The following articles appeared in Box and Fiddle magazine:
The Scottish Trad Oscars
Shaking off the image of cardigan, jeans and non- designer stubble has been one of the curious side effects of the Scots Trad Music Awards. Traditional musicians, who are not usually noted for sartorial elegance, donned their glad rags for this glitzy award ceremony at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh in early December, and what a night they had!
The ceremony was opened by the Minister for Culture, Patricia Ferguson, who said: "Traditional Scottish music is enjoyed by millions of people all over the world - it is an export Scotland can be truly proud of and its influence stretches far and wide, across cultures and musical genres." Maybe it is a forlorn hope of mine, but let us hope that these fine words, I’m sure genuinely meant, can translate into more funding and support for traditional music at the grass roots level!
The baton was then passed over to Mary Ann Kennedy and Iain Anderson, comperes for the evening. An appropriate duet of English and Gaelic introductions then followed introducing the finalists and the winners of the sixteen categories that had been voted for by the public. Obviously, and rightly, the main focus was on the musicians themselves – Best Instrumentalist, Band, Gaelic and Scots Singer, Pipe Band and so on. But these awards are also the one public event where some of the
‘back-room’ boys and girls can be recognised. Categories such as Best Event, Club, Session Venue and Community Project gave the public, and the audience, an opportunity to show appreciation for people, often volunteers, who commit so much to the industry and to the musicians themselves. Without these bands of enthusiasts there would be far fewer places for the musicians to play.
Throughout the evening top quality performers gave their all – Blazin’Fiddles, Maggie MacInnes, Jim Malcolm, Stuart Cassells had the audience foot tapping away. Add to the pot the TMSA Young Trad Finalists and the Kirkwall City Dance Band and, quite apart from the Awards, it was a concert to remember. Although the hall was full I found it strange that tickets had been available up to the night. Certainly any Edinburgh enthusiast, even if unconnected with the finalists, should have had a ticket- it was an extraordinarily good value concert in itself.
The brain-child of Simon Thoumire of Hands up for Trad and Footstompin’ Records, the Awards are now in their third year, and are well established as an important run up event to Celtic Connections, and as an important focus for recognising the contributions made by individuals and groups to the regeneration and expansion of Scottish Traditional music.
The idea of the Awards grew out of the success of the Young Traditional Musicians of the Year Award, which has already helped to launch a number of careers. Winners Gillian Frame, Emily Smith, Anna Massie, James Graham and the 2005 winner Stuart Cassells would all be the first to recognise that their subsequent success, whilst hugely deserved, was in no small measure helped by the winning of the Young Trad Award.
But Simon and others soon realised that there was an element of ageism involved – no-one over about 25 could get an award. Developing an awards structure where age was no longer a barrier meant that some of the older (or more mature?) members of the traditional music scene could get a look in, although it has to be said that most of the winners were on the right side (from their perspective at least) of 35.
Most of the categories were decided by a straightforward numerical public vote. In some ways this makes the process easier, although it must create a paper mountain for Hands up for Trad. Certainly where judges make the decisions there will always be a small clique which feel that impartiality is hard to maintain, and even if this is usually an unfair criticism, I have a great sympathy with judges in events such as the Young Trad Musicians of the Year. How can a judge possibly say that a top young Gaelic singer is better than a top young fiddler, or vice-versa? It is a bit like comparing apples and oranges!
Most of the votes came through the BBC Celtic Roots web site, and the organisers must have been pleased to see 60,000 votes cast, a 40% increase on the previous year. As more and more musicians and groups have dedicated web sites the marketing of the event will increasingly be done by the finalists themselves, which is a shrewd move by Hands up for Trad. One can reasonably expect an exponential growth in voting in future years, reflecting the growth in interest in Traditional music, and the Awards getting more exposure to the general public.
Exposure is one thing that is a prime aim of the Awards. Simon is happily blatant about that: "We started Hands Up For Trad in 2002 to increase the visibility of traditional music, to get it to the wider public and media. We had this idea to celebrate the whole scene. We were also looking for something to really give traditional music a high profile that would reach the media, and of course a lot more people. Award ceremonies, like the Brits or whatever, they tend to do that. They're big glitzy things that people take notice of. We thought we needed something like that in traditional music too."
The Traditional music scene is a little schizophrenic about competitions and awards. We relish the informality of the genre, the fact that there is there for community and enjoyment, and that it is inclusive. Yet there are well established and popular competitions –Glenfiddich, the Mod and a raft of fiddle, piping, singing and accordion championships which are all mainstays of the scene. The stricken face of barely suppressed disappointment on the face of a young runner up sways me one way. Then I see the enormous boost to careers for the winners, and the so-called ‘main-stream’ press taking notice of an Awards ceremony and I feel it is definitely of great value. Certainly we must all look to other ways of publicising events, and attracting new and young audiences and players – but Awards are here to stay, and this is certainly one of the most effective.
It is also true that commercial sponsors, never easy nuts to crack, are more likely to respond to Awards and competitions, and Simon’s team are to be congratulated on accessing numerous sponsors. McEwan’s Sessions were the main sponsors of this year’s events, but each category had its own sponsor. Hopefully more companies who are not directly involved in Traditional music will come forward and recognize the two way value of sponsorship of festivals, tours and groups in future.
Another perspective is clear – they do not want to be seen as a Central Belt organisation – next year the Awards will be in Fort William on the 2nd December. It is a date worth putting in your diary now!
All in all this was a splendid night for everyone. I doubt if anyone, even the most ardent supporter of a finalist who did not ‘win’, was too dismayed by the time the formal proceedings were wound down around midnight, and the real party began. The Queen’s Hall bar must be reckoned to be amongst the outstanding winners of the night!
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Loch Goil Scoops National Award
Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop took the title of Best Community of the Year Award at the Hands up for Trad Awards.
The Award is an extra-ordinary achievement for the small group of volunteers from Loch Goil who set up the local music charity under three years ago, particularly as their rival nominees were far larger – and probably better known - groups from Glasgow and Inverness.
‘ We knew nothing about the nominations until we found out that we were in the finals,’ Elizabeth Bain of the workshop told us, ‘we were frankly gob-smacked that we had been noticed on the national ‘stage,’ but then the whole community and the schools in which we teach got behind us and voted.’ Yet even with local support the win was a surprise to everyone, the organizers included. More than 60,000 public votes were cast, indicating the growing interest in the Awards, and the revival of Scottish Traditional music throughout the country. Increasingly votes are also being taken from tourists and aficionados from abroad via the internet. Focussing an awards ceremony on the best that Scottish music has to offer clearly is beginning to have an impact on tourism, and LFW is trying to ensure that Cowal, in Argyll, gets its fair share.
The sheer extent of the Workshop’s programme might account for their nomination. Running fifteen classes a week in six venues, and having to ‘import’ two professional tutors from Edinburgh, would, one might think, be enough for a small local group. However this year they have also put on twelve local concerts with visiting professional musicians, run workshops in other instruments, and laid on a free community evening for Loch Goil residents and visitors. To top it all they arranged a twenty four gig tour of Scotland for US Scottish Fiddle Champion, Jamie Laval. It was his concerts with Donald Black and Malcolm Jones put on in association with Cowalfest that brought them rave reviews both from audiences and the national music press.
The Workshop has not however gone for numbers of concerts at the expense of quality. Financial restraints and venue sizes have sometimes held them back from booking the obvious or most expensive groups, but a number of players and finalists at the Awards ceremony in other categories have already visited Cowal through the efforts of the Workshop. Established names such as Chris Stout, Karine Polwart and members of Blazin’ Fiddles have been here, as have up and coming players like James Graham, Emily Smith and the Young Traditional Musician of the Year Finalists.
“ This Award could not have come at a better time for the future of the Workshop” Elizabeth added, “ We have had generous sponsorship from Scottish Power renewables for our 2005 concert series, and hopefully this award will enable us to negotiate continued support into 2006. We have always felt it important to keep ticket prices to a minimum so that everyone in the community and all visitors can attend whatever their financial circumstances. To enable us to cover costs, even though the programme is run by volunteers, sponsorship is essential. Now at least potential sponsors who know traditional music will not react by saying ‘Loch Where’!
And Inside Scotland did an interview:
Bruce Campbell, of Inside Scotland, interviews Linda Morpurgo, who was the driving force behind starting Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop, a musical charity, just three years ago. Loch Goil covers two small villages with less than 300 inhabitants, so how did they manage to win the Hands up for Trad Award for Community Project of the Year 2005 in December?
IS: Now that the euphoria of winning the Award may have died down a little how do you feel about the Award?
LM: We were amazed to be in the running, and certainly had no expectation of winning, and there was a bit of an audience reaction of “Loch Who?” when the result was announced! Apparently we did pull in a big vote.
I don’t know who originally suggested this category, but it’s really important to bring not just the artists themselves to the attention of the national press, but also the organisations who work with them. Without the educational input of organisations like all the nominees, where would the next generation of players be coming from? All of these groups call on heavy, sometimes crippling, volunteer involvement, and operate on a financial shoestring. They are the lifeblood of traditional music. We’re a little unusual in that we have a heavy education commitment (to adults, by the way, as well as children) and a wide concerts and events programme. Not surprisingly we have experienced major volunteer burnout already, and see this as one of the major stumbling blocks to most volunteer groups’ sustainability, and the difficulty of accessing core funding (groan!) is a real and ongoing issue. But, if it weren’t for all the little rural organisations flogging their guts out to provide good quality traditional music in far-flung places, Scotland would be so much poorer culturally.
IS: You were involved with Glasgow Fiddle Workshop before starting the group in Loch Goil – what do you find are the particular difficulties of running a rural group?
LM: I was convenor of GFW for some years before moving full time to Loch Goil. Indeed they, and particularly Sara Melville, were instrumental in helping our new workshop get off the ground in the first place. Actually we were gutted to be ‘up against’ Glasgow Fiddle Workshop in the awards, because our ties have been close.
The main difficulty for a rural group is the crippling cost of delivering the programmes. For instance, we have such minimal public transport that we cannot ask tutors to visit unless they have a car-that rules out most potential young tutors. With our tiny local population we just can’t hope to find enough students to pay the huge costs, so we are always fundraising, and that’s unlikely to stop until we have home-grown our own musicians. We’re particularly deprived around here in that there has been no strings tuition in the schools for decades, with the result that, with the exception of some magnificent pipe bands, musicians in general are thin on the ground.
However, we believe that rural workshops have huge advantages. For a start everyone in the community is proud of you and wants the project to succeed, and that is regardless of whether they play themselves or not. And our members seem to be more committed. A cynic would say that it’s because there are fewer distractions, but my experience is that in a rural area great friendships are made out of this kind of shared experience. I mentioned that we offer classes and concerts. Our supporters don’t just turn up to events and wait to be entertained. They set up the staging, put out the chairs, run the bar, and as one foreign lady marvelled, the audience gets to clear up afterwards! However, I’ve got to mention that a key element in our success has been the fact that we have attracted fantastic tutors. Their names read like a roll-call of honour-Amy Geddes, Anna-Wendy Stevenson, Sarah-Jane Fifield, Adam Sutherland, Gregor Borland, Fiona Dalgetty… And our concert musicians have been totally inspirational.
Indeed our rural location may, despite our expectations, have had something to do with our win. Many foreign tourists are envious of our culture and community life (although we sometimes feel marginalized by organizations in the central belt). Tourists, and visiting musicians, from Scotland and around the world, have been impressed with our community spirit and the welcome they received in our homes. When they heard about the award they reacted very positively – we know of votes as far flung as Alaska, New Zealand, and even Essex!
IS: It is unusual for a Workshop to go beyond the teaching side – tell us more about your concerts.
LM: It became clear that we needed to involve those who were interested, but did not want to play, and a concert programme was devised with this in mind. We have even organised two interactive Arts, Crafts and Music weekends to widen the appeal still further. I would encourage any group looking to involve more than just its membership to try putting on concerts with visiting professionals. They will find, I think, and I say this ruefully, that sponsorship is easier to access for events than for an educational programme.
We have always focused on quality bands – Fine Friday, Young Traditional Musicians of the Year Finalists, Malinky, Donald Black and Malcolm Jones, Emily Smith Band , Chris Stout, Amy Geddes and Sandy Wright are just some of the visiting musicians who have been here. We have also had big names from abroad –Bruce Molsky and Jamie Laval played locally in 2005.
IS: Do you organise anything outside your own village?
LM: We have built a strong audience base in the immediate locality. Our concerts are usually a sellout. We live in an area that had little in the way of traditional music going on, with the exception of piping, and we wanted to reach out and access new audiences, not just aficionados. So we link with other arts groups to put on concerts and to arrange mini-tours around Cowal and Argyll. On the teaching front we are now running fifteen fiddle classes a week in six venues over 26 weeks a year. So we have an impact way beyond our immediate locality.
IS: What do you think the Award will mean to the future of Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop?
LM: It is difficult to assess the effect at this stage. We were fortunate to have our 2005 concert series sponsored by ScottishPower renewables. At least when we approach new sponsors or funders in the future, their initial reaction might not be
‘ Loch Where!’ And the local feel-good factor for everyone involved is major.
IS: How have local people reacted to the Award?
Maybe it is another positive of being a rural group. You can reasonably expect members of any group up for an award to vote, but in our case children in the schools where we teach persuaded their families to vote, local shops offered to hand out forms, many who had come to the concerts from home and abroad emailed their friends, and everyone got involved. This, even without a ‘win’ would have had a positive impact on the sense of community in Cowal. And, you know, with the impact of international tourism and the Web, we’re also part of the traditional music world community
Coincidentally we had already arranged a special event for the weekend after the awards to celebrate our third anniversary, and to thank two exceptional tutors for their sterling work. Amy Geddes and Anna-Wendy Stevenson have done more than anyone in the first three years to build the Workshop and engender the enthusiasm for fiddle playing both in our young – and not so young – players. The formal announcement of the win added great zest to a great day.
IS: How do you see 2006 shaping up?
LM: We’ll keep developing our 100 so adult and child players; we hope to continue and expand our work with the Youth Music Initiative Scheme in partnership with Argyll and Bute Council, we have arranged our first Fčis event, and raised initial funding, thanks to AIE, for a full time project manager. We are planning a number of local concerts and wider tours, and would like to hear from community groups elsewhere who might be interested in working in partnership with us to bring more music to their area. In October we will be organising the traditional music for Cowalfest, which has become the largest Walking and Arts festival in Scotland, and hope to arrange local school Gaelic centred events in the run up to the Mod in Dunoon. So if you are ever going to visit Cowal, October 2006 is the time to do it!