Band Website Travels Back in Time

We had an unfortunate incident with the band’s website. The software provider did an upgrade (of a function we don’t even use) and broke the site. Our web master restored it, but only back to where it was a year ago, and it took a few days before we noticed it had travelled back in time.

This is why we had to take it down for maintenance. It also explains why there’s a bit of a gap between summer 2021 and summer 2022. We’ve tried to rebuild it from memory!

St Patrick’s day

We always do one or two gigs around St Patricks day. These are usually a bit different to our usual set. This year we arrived to set up and were told the other act had pulled out, so could we please play from 7pm to 9pm, which we were booked for, then continue to 10.30pm. We have a lot of tunes in the back catalogue, so we made it through.

The next day we had a lovely gig in Bishop Wilton village hall – a completely different crowd and a great night!

Another video, another era…

We made another of those home videos – this is a set of tunes we first heard at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, played by Vishten, a fantastic trio from Prince Edward Island in French-speaking Canada.

Many thanks to Angela for putting together the video and to Jack for mixing the sound – all recorded on iPhones at home in York.

Not long until we’ll be rehearsing together again – a new era begins!

Tunes, Tunes, Tunes…

One of Bob Mitchell’s photos from our gig in Bishop Wilton in October 2019 – the last before lockdown

We’ve been accumulating a pile of tunes to try out, as soon as we can get together again. And in the meantime, we’ve forgotten how to play half the old tunes. One of the bandwives posted a video of us playing a Peatbogs set in the Snick and I had to sit still and listen because I couldn’t remember any of it. So, two priorities: get all the old tunes back under our fingers and sort out a load of new ones!

Superfly

Here’s a video we made during lockdown#2, just to remind ourselves how one of the big sets go. It’s surprisingly difficult to stay together when you’re playing along on your own with just a pair of earphones!

This is The Superfly Set by The Treacherous Orchestra – one of our all-time favourite bands!

The three tunes are:

  • Sheepskins and Beeswax – a trad tune that’s thought to have made its way from Co. Wexford to Quebec then back again. The title is a reference to a plaster, placed on an injury, that’s almost impossible to get back off.
  • Taybank Shenanigans by the TO’s piper and whistle player Ross Ainslie. According to The Session website, it’s named after the pub in Dunkeld.
  • Superfly by Kevin O’Neill – the flautist of Treacherous Orchestra who is supposed to have played it at the sessions in the Ben Nevis in Glasgow – our favourite Glasgow pub!

Many thanks to Angela for editing the video and Jack for mixing the sound – all recorded on a variety of iPhones in houses around York. A special mention to Billy for the disco lights!

Gradually Getting Back

It’s been six months since our last gig. Angie has been doing a lot of violin practice and Rach has learned a lot of 70’s TV Theme Tunes on the accordion. Jack’s recorded his third solo album and has had tracks from it played on BBC 6 Music – he was recently interviewed on BBC Radio York – he is Pascallion.

Jack Woods – Mandolin

Early on, we wrote a new tune that you can find on YouTube – we posted it back in April.

Meanwhile, we’ve learned a couple of new sets by some of the Celtic greats and we’ve had a couple of socially distanced rehearsals.

We know we have a few fans in the USA and we were delighted to have a track from our CD Six played on a local radio station in West Virginia.

September is usually one of our busiest months but it looks like it will be weeks before we’re able to get back to gigging in person. So, keep safe and see you all – eventually!