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Lazy Boy Chair. But wait we're going too! They will be on the main stage for the festival club on friday night. Prepare to get VERY hot!! see sneek preview below! We are also very excited about the other acts who will be joining us for the festival, see names below. Many of the musicians have there own my space sites for you to look at. Happy browsing!
Above pictures from NRFF 2006 by Colin Tulloch of Tulloch Violins. Below is the line up for 2007. We also will be joined by Jessica Burton and the fantastic Ingi, Andy and Owen and Hamely Gadderin from Shetland, who are Eddie Barclay, Maria Miller and Eunice Henderson. sorry can't work out how to do the sparkly writing again!! Sarah McFadyen and Sandy Wright will be joined by Ruth Barrie and Ian Stoddart and will be performing both evenings as 'The Nuggets'.We can't wait to hear them!
Below are pictures from 2005 taken by Jonathan Crabb of Focus North and the not so good ones by Maz Muir. Some by the lovely Gary Peterson also.
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A huge Thank you to our supportersThe Herd Law Practice
Orcadia Chartered Accountants
Orkney Ferries
Lows
Pentarq
Colin Tulloch And Kelvin Scott Violinsand an extra specially big Thank You to the musicians who are fantastic
and to all who help with the festival and attend it. A great big hug to EJ Donaldson for designing our fab new logo, t-shirts featuring the musical sheep will be available at the festival.How cool! Can you guess which musicians they are based on?!
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The Nuggets are pure gold! Consisting of the amazing songwriter and guitarist Sandy Wright, the tasteful fiddling of Sarah McFadyen, the intuitively classy drumming of Ian Stoddart and the gorgeous singing and keyboarding of Ruth Barrie, they play original songs by Sandy about anything from alligator handbags to Scottish hotels to aliens in your granny's garden, alongside tunes of the nice and evil variety.. ha haaargh! They have collaborated in many forms with each other over the last couple of years. Working together in the ITV musical documentary Gold Fever they all struck a chord. Directed by Ruth, presented and soundtracked by Sandy, and starring the acting and musical delights of Ian and Sarah, Gold Fever is a Scottish classic about gold panning. Sarah, Ruth and Ian all played together as the original line-up of the pop-folk band Aberfeldy in which they toured extensively supporting the likes of The Beautiful South and Paulo Nutini; Sandy and Sarah play together in the west coast's favourite ceilidh band The Squashy Bag Dance Band; Sandy and Ian played together in The Stone Flowers; and Ruth and Sarah play together in a new project The Hula Hoops. In their own rights they are all very busy too. Sandy's songs have been on the telly, in a movie and recorded by Gina Rae, Kris Drever, Sophie Bancroft, Tam White to name a few. Getting ready to do a lot of recording later this year which will be released on his own record label Mind Bending Records, you better catch him now as he'll no be oot for a while! Originally from Hoy in the deep south, Sarah puts her own stamp on Orcadian swing fiddle. When not playing with this lot you can find her playing with Scottish band Harem Scarem and with Kris Drever. When not playing music you will find Ruth behind a camera. A very talented and respected film maker, she has made films for STV and channel 4 about anything from chickens to religions. Ian is a drummer in great demand around Scotland. Having played in many different bands such as Win, Captain Shifty and Groove Diggers, he is mostly found these days playing with the up and coming William Douglas and the Wheel.Ruairidh Macmillan - Originally from Nairn, near Inverness, Ruairidh plays fiddle in various trad, folk and ceilidh bands, including 'The Ceilidh Experience' and 'The Paul McKenna Band' as well as fronting 'The Rua Macmillan Band', with Tia Fyles and Adam Brown. Having been taught by Bruce Macgregor, Alpha Munro, Sharon Hassan, and most notably, Aonghas Grant Snr - the great Left-handed fiddler from Lochaber, Rua is currently studying towards a B.A.(Scottish Music) degree at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, and has already toured extensively in the UK and Europe, as well as Canada, South America and the Faeroe Islands!Salfishforty - Douglas Montgomery (fiddle) and Brian Cromarty (guitar/mandola/vocals) combine the traditional music of orkney with original compositions, they released their debut album, goose music, to critical acclaim in May 2003. Their second album, Orkney Twister, was released in december 2005. Building on the success of the albums, their reputation as a fresh and dynamic live act is blossoming. Saltfishforty have toured the Uk and travelled to Europe for gigs. Earlier this year they travelled to Austin Texas and performed a series of showcases. Festival appearances include Celtic Connections, Rootin Aboot, the Hebridean Celtic Festival, the St Magnus Festival and County Down's Celtic Fusion . In 2004 the duo were nominated in the "best up and coming act" category at the BBC Scottish Traditional Music Awards.Hamely Gadderin - Eddie Barclay the popular singer songwriter from Shetland makes a return visit to the festival and is joined by daughter Maria and friend Eunice Henderson to bring a selection of songs and tunes, both traditional and folk from their latest CD Hamely Gadderin. Eunice is a fiddle instructor in Shetland schools and was taught fiddle by the late Dr Tom Anderson. Maria works for the education department and is currently teaching Shetland dialect singing in Primary Schools.Jessica Burton -Jessica began playing Clarsach 5 years ago. She then joined Hadhigaan and with them has performed at numerous events, including the Traditional Music Awards in Edinburgh in 2004, Canada in 2005 and Celtic connections in 2006. In Orkney Jessica is in demand as a solo performer, as well as Clarsach, she plays piano and has been Irish dancing for 10 years under the tuition of dance teacher Kelda Dinsdale. Jessica is only 17 years old and we expect to hear a lot more from her in the future.Lazy Boy Chair - Put together for the Orkney Folk Festival in 2004, the Lazy Boys have gone from strength to strength, bringing their high energy "stomp" music to the dance floors of the Northern Isles and Mainland Scotland ever since. Playing high profile support slots, through to their own headline gigs, they have set the floor alight wherever they have appeared. More recently, they have become "Danny" award winners at the 2007 Celtic Connections Festival. This year promises to be a busy one for the boys with festival dates and their debut album in the pipeline. Lazy Boy Chair are Gavin Firth, Douglas Montgomery, Brain Cromarty, Fionn McArthur, Chaz Milne, Robbie Thomson, Erik Laughton and Bob Gibbon.Craig Corse and Colin Nicholson both began playing music at an early age and although still in their teens have a wealth of musical experience behind them. Through their upbringings in the Orkney Traditional Music Project, Hadhirgaan and Shoramere these lads have been playing fiddle and accordion together in various groups for a number of years, in front of audiences as far apart as the Isle of Man, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Stenness and Edinburgh and are proud to be able to list North Ronaldsay as their debut duo performance. Influenced by many musicians and others the boys play a variety of styles and promise to keep toes tapping well into the night!Friðarey are a group spanning two generations of singers from Fair Isle, sister and brothers Anne Sinclair, Stewart Thomson and Neil Thomson, Anne’s daughter Lise Sinclair and Neil’s daughter Eileen. Anne and Stewart have sung together since childhood, Neil joined them in the 1980s and Lise and Eileen more recently. With their roots in Shetland tradition and diverse influences from wider horizons they deliver a live set hailed as ‘More uplifting than a Wonderbra’. Singing accapella and accompanied, they arrange original material, and rare dialect songs from the Northern Isles, beside songs from over the world, for a "rich vocal sound - - - - with harmonies to die forâ€. Stewart will (reluctantly) be missing from the line up in North Ron but quality vocals are assured.Bob and Sarah Jane Gibbon - Sarah Jane was brought up in a singing family in Harray, where she learnt many of her songs singing alongside her mother Barbara and her sister Emma. She loves to perform songs from Orcadian tradition, as well as from further afield and is actively collecting old Orkney songs in order to preserve and revive them. Bob was brought up in Lockerbie and started playing the accordion when he was 10. He moved to Orkney nine years ago, and immediately immersed himself in the music scene. Having played in a number of line-ups, he is currently a member of the fantastic band Lazy Boy Chair. He has composed a number of excellent tunes, which reflect with vibrancy, poignancy and originality his ability to timelessly capture snap shots from life.Ali Clouston and Co - This excellent dance band features Ali Clouston on (upside doon) Accordion, Ronnie Marwick on drums and Pete Davidson on vocals. The band have been playing together to packed dance halls in Orkney for 20 years, this will be their debut performance in North Ronaldsay, we are very excited to finally have the pleasure of dancing the night away to their lively music.Ingi Jolly, Owen Tierney and Andy Cant - Orkney Folk band Hullion has enjoyed entertaining many different kinds of audiences over the last 16 years. Since three band members are attending the festival, we have asked them to give us a few tunes and songs, which we look forward to very much. These fantastic musicians have been coming to North Ronaldsay for many years & we are very priviledged to have them here to perform this year. Thanks go to all 3 - Ingi is a constant source of help with the festival, as is Owen, he has looked after the sound production for the festival since it began, for which we are very grateful and Andy will be our Compere for the weekend. Thank you all for your help & dedication to the festival.