Celtic Connections 2013 (2)

Date: 03 February 2013 17:41:32

We went to two more concerts this week - on Thursday we went to the Old Fruitmarket (way past my bedtime I might add!) and saw Irish band Hothouse Flowers. They were well-known over here in the late 80s/early 90s I'd say, and it has to be said that (with just a couple of exceptions) the audience was pretty much all 'of a certain age' (ie our age and older!). I loved their show, the lead singer Liam O Maonlai has incredible stage presence and the whole band were just brilliant. They played probably their best known song (at least over here) "Don't Go" towards the end of the set, it was actually probably the song I liked least in the set (they did it in a style that reminded me of Paul Simon's "Gracelands" album), but I was just so happy that they did a song from "Songs from the Rain", which is my favourite album of theirs and one of my favourite CDs for driving. It was a cracking concert, well worth the late night, although I am very aware that going to bed at 2am on a work night isn't something I should be doing too often at my age! Yesterday we went to the Concert Hall and saw the wonderful Shetland band Fiddlers' Bid (if you click on the link make sure your volume is turned up and you'll get a taste of their music). We saw them several years ago, I think in 2007, and so I knew we were in for a good night and they did not disappoint. The support act, Emily Smith, was also very good I thought. They also had the brilliant King Creosote playing with them for a couple of tracks, along with a presenter from BBC Radio Shetland who read some poetry in the Shetland dialect which was just beautiful to hear (it's one of those accents you really have to tune into, if you're not paying attention it can sound like a different language!). It was a brilliant night and I really enjoyed it (I want to go back to Shetland now).