Bernie's Blog

Live music – can’t beat it – remembering gigs I’ve been to ….Emerson Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, Mott The Hoople, The Kinks, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Ian Dury & The Blockheads (twice) …to name but a few.

Never managed to see Zeppelin – sigh.

Then there are the less well-known bands – just as much a good night out…..

On the folky side of life...I previoulsy wrote of hearing The Unthanks in St. Ninian's..

"At the end of Sandside Bay,  Deerness, stands St. Ninian’s Church,  which also has good acoustics, in fact, very good acoustics, and is also used as a music venue, sometimes as part of the Orkney Folk Festival,  http://www.orkneyfolkfestival.com/   playing host to visiting musicians. The music presented here is usually acoustic, and sometimes even unaccompanied singing. The effect of this kind of music, in this building, in this setting, on the Bay, is….indescribable.  Here’s what I wrote to ‘The Orcadian’, in praise of The Unthanks in St. Ninians………..

“The core of the band is two sisters. I don’t know what it is about family harmonies, but they always produce something extra-ordinary – though the addition of the voice of Niopha Keegan blends so well, that it could easily have been three sisters singing.  The word ‘magical’ can be used a bit too easily and too often, but The Unthanks deserve it – it’s about the only word which can truly describe the experience of listening to them, especially in St. Ninian’s.  How they sing, and their arrangements, go deep, deep, deep into the human soul and psyche.   What happened  there was good, strong, human stuff, all too rare in today’s world.

Thanks, to The Unthanks, for that experience, and to the Folk Festival organizers for choosing to bring them to Orkney, and place them in St. Ninians.”

This place has some kind of magic to it, and, thankfully,  is being taken care of by the Friends of St. Ninian’s Trust."

PS

Remembering way back - when I was 16/17?  I'd just about worn out the 'Love Chronicles' album when Al Stewart appeared at Bradford Univeristy.  Just a man, with a guitar - I was mesmerised.

**************************************************************