Fun Times at Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, Scotland

So imagine this.

You are a member of a Scottish folk band playing music totally in
keeping with the tradition, and one day somebody jokes with you that
your band might have to fill in at a Shane MacGowan gig. (You know
what Shane is like for showing up.) Always more punk than folk, any
audience assembled to see the big man himself wouldn't take kindly to
more folk than punk. It would never happen, but if it did, it could
be a bit like a scene from a Blues Brothers movie. Stay well behind
the chicken wire for best protection!

Well it happened to Calasaig on Thursday night in Glasgow. Mr.
MacGowan was slotted to perform at the Celtic Connections venue, The
Fruit Market, starting at 8.30pm. For whatever reason, the well
respected 5 member Calasaig was asked (at 11.50am) if they would play
the Shane gig. The vote was unanimous and by 7pm the whole group,
including their own sound man, did a sound check.

The doors opened at 8pm. Shane was in the area but no sign of him
showing up meant that Calasaig was on. What could they expect? This
crowd had been kept waiting now for an hour and there had been no
previous mention of an opening act.

"Actually, it was a bit scary" said Kirsten Easdale, the lead female
singer. "I thought we would be eaten alive."

"This was a punk rock audience looking very much like a soccer match
crowd that took a wrong turning," was multi-instrumentalist Keith
Easdale's take on things. "We all thought it was worth the risk. A
great opportunity to see what it would be like with Shane's huge PA.
And besides we had been asked to help out. It could have turned ugly
if nothing happened."

What a great event it turned out to be. Keith went on to tell
me, "They had a monitor engineer and a couple of other guys on the
board with our John Weatherby. After an hour of silence, this crowd
was ready to party and they got right into the music. We played our
normal set and we didn't drive it up any. There was no time to think
anyway. We started with a Gaelic waulking song, straight into
Humours of Whisky and then, The Banks of The Lee. Because John was
on the board for us we didn't miss a beat. They loved it! It was a
real high to experience. This was as far away from our normal
audience as you could get. It says something for traditional music,
and for the music of Shane MacGowan, whose roots are in traditional
Irish music, I suppose."

The band played for one hour by which time Shane was ready to
perform. By all accounts, the faithful had a wonderful evening of
it. While there was significant gratitude expressed by Shane's
management team, it is only a rumour that Calasaig will soon be
hitting the punk rock clubs.

Patrick Smyth, REL & R2 Records, Toronto
email: patrick@scotsmarket.com




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