On August 6th and 7th Carradale Village Hall is the venue for a unique and unscheduled weekend of contrasting music. Originally, the intention was to have a one-night celebration of Scottish traditional music and particularly the talents of Carradale’s own piping colossus, Lorne MacDougall. However, a chance e-mail from an ex-member of the legendary Incredible String Band, Malcolm Le Maistre, led to a second night being added which tips its hat to the psychedelic, counter-culture days of the 1960’s and ‘70’s. Thus, by chance rather than design, The Carradale String Fest was born.
Friday 6th sees an evening in two parts. Firstly, three former members of The Incredible String Band (Malcolm Le Maistre, Stan Lee and Graham Forbes will give a preview of their new Fringe show, “Not the Incredible String Band” in which they will tell anecdotes from their lives within the music business and perform a number of Malc’s songs and appropriate covers to illustrate their stories.
Since the halcyon days of the String Band, Malcolm has worked as a writer, musician, children’s entertainer, educationalist and pioneer of environmental theatre. Stan is now a renowned photographer in New York although in his day he was also the stage manager for both blues legend Muddy Waters and Janis Joplin, whilst at one stage he even managed superstar Art Garfunkel. Perhaps more controversially, some years back Stan claims to have been abducted from his body by aliens but thankfully now he appears to be reunited with himself. Although still managing a couple of bands, Graham mostly plays music now for fun and is a successful businessman and author of the best-selling “Rock and Roll Mountains” and “Rock and Roll Tourist”. All in all, a night of top notch yarns and music is on the cards. Please note that this event features passages of spoken word and requires a listening audience!
The second part of the night will be the Acoustic Alternative Concert featuring sets from Malcolm Le Maistre and Emily Scott, Chris and Robin Adams from legendary Scottish rockers String Driven Thing, Short Trowsers (a small off-shoot from the Hugh Trowsers Band), Campbeltown singer-songwriter Adam Fortune and the return of The Dooflickers where Gordy Hanning and Les Oman attempt to reprise the glory days of The Cruban!
Saturday 7th is billed as MacDougall’s Return to Trumpton, marking Lorne MacDougall’s first proper gig in his home village since he was 15. In addition to Lorne and Friends, the concert will feature a more traditional sounding Short Trowsers, Ceann an Tuirc (Argyll’s Male-voice Gaelic Choir) with conductor Joy Dunlop, Mod Gold Medallist Norman MacKinnon and Campbeltown’s Wild Sarachs. The evening concludes with a ceilidh dance featuring Canterach (Ross Kennedy, Lorne MacDougall, Rebecca Brown and Jamie Kennedy) so bring your dancing pumps and an oxygen cylinder!
Doors open 7.00pm both nights and the programmes start at 7.30pm. The hall is licensed until late and tickets are £10 for each night. To reserve your tickets contact either Shelagh (01583 431345) or Les (0779 3441 430)
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