Back in 1997 David Francis and the Edinburgh Folk Festival scheduled the very first Flowers of Edinburgh Concert. We all gathered at Teviot House (the home of the Folk Festival) and had a photo taken of all the performers – well the ones that turned up… Then everyone got together to perform in different groups from their normal groups. I performed with Jim Sutherland (a jig and a reel a I think!) – one of my musical heroes as I grew up listening to folk music. There were lots of fab performances. Two of my favourites were
- Speccy – Iain MacLeod (Shooglenifty), Simon Bradley and Jim Sutherland – they played an amazing set of tunes
- Angus Grant Jnr, Eilidh Shaw, Simon Bradley and Russell Hunter playing an amazing set of fiddle tunes
The concert ran again in 1998 which I think I was involved in but I can’t remember (must have been a good party…)
Anyway Simon Bradley said to us last year that it was 15 years since the first Flowers of Edinburgh and we should do another concert. I spoke to Dave about it and he thought it was a great idea. We started asking around who would like to perform and we ended up with this great lineup (not the running order).
- Karine Polwart
- Corrina Hewat (harp)
- Mairi Campbell
- Clare McLaughlin, Marianne Campbell and John Morran (of Deaf Shepherd)
- Sarah Hoy (fiddle)
- Hamish and Fin Moore with Gary West (pipes)
- Bella Hardy
- Simon Thoumire and Dave Milligan
- Rachel Newton (harp and Gaelic song)
- Brian and Siobhan Miller (Scots song)
- Kathryn Nicol and Tom Oakes (fiddle and guitar)
- Mark Neal and Eilidh Steel (guitar and fiddle).
We also decided after all the terrible losses of last year (and plenty of other years) we decided to give the profits to MacMillan Cancer Relief. So it would be great to see you all there. It’s next Saturday the 27th April, Teviot House, Edinburgh at 7.30pm. I’m looking forward to it!
http://www.scottishcultureonline.com/flowers-of-edinburgh-to-bloom-again/
Have a listen to the original CD