Hebridean Celtic Festival Preview
PETER URPETH brings us the lowdown on the packed programme of the 2003 Hebridean Celtic Festival. Those hoping to see The Waterboys perform a power-packed stadium rock gig at this year’s Hebridean...
View ArticleSoaking up the Heb Celt Experience
PETER URPETH conjures up the unique atmosphere of one of the leading folk and traditional music occasions of the year, the HEBRIDEAN CELTIC FESTIVAL on Lewis. THERE IS MORE to the Heb Celtic Festival...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2003 – Day One
PETER URPETH is uplifted by radiant Gaelic song on the opening day of the Hebridean Celtic Festival, but sounds a note of caution on one of the weekend’s headline acts. Mary Jane Lamond THE HEBRIDEAN...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2003 – Day Two
Stornoway, Thursday 17 July 2003 THE MUSIC started early yesterday for this reviewer. The offices of my day job are above the shops in the centre of Stornoway, and from mid morning the sound of buskers...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2003 – Day Three
Stornoway, Friday 18 July 2003 FROM EARLY MORNING the festival office had the sign in its window: ‘Tonight’s events are sold out’. The Waterboys at Heb Celt 2003 The Waterboys would play to a packed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2003 – Day Four
Stornoway, Saturday 19 July 2003 After the hedonistic heights scaled during the previous three nights, Saturday night had a lot to live up to with expectations and standards raised. This year a...
View ArticleHigh Times at Heb Celt
AN SGADAN ROBACH (real name withheld to protect the not so innocent) gives his own guide to the lure of the Hebridean Celtic Festival. SET IN THE glorious surroundings of Lews Castle and mature...
View ArticleBattlefield are back
JULY in these parts generally means an even bigger than usual outbreak of traditional music, led by the Hebridean Celtic Festival in the grounds of Lews Castle in Stornoway. If the Lewis event takes...
View ArticleHeb Celtic Preview
Banishing the Sunless Summer Blues PETER URPETH looks forward to another mass outbreak of Celtic music in the big tent at Lews Castle as the HEBRIDEAN CELTIC FESTIVAL gets underway. IT IS WITHOUT doubt...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2004 Day 1
Town Hall, Stornoway, Wednesday 14 July 2004 THE HEBRIDEAN CELTIC FESTIVAL opened its doors this year to the sound of Teine, a young quartet of singers and multi-instrumentalists from Lewis whose...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2004 Day 2
Lews Castle, Stornoway, Thursday 15 July 2004 DAY TWO SAW the music switch to the new 5000 capacity tent at Lews Castle. The alignment of the venue has changed this year, too, running with the slope of...
View ArticleHebridean Celtic Festival 2004 Day 3: The Saw Doctors / Peatbog Faeries
Lews Castle, Stornoway, Friday 16 July 2004 LET IT BE SAID, this was the evening on which the Heb Celtic’s plans for big time expansion were fully realised, and the new big top seemed hardly big enough...
View ArticleHebridean Celtic Festival 2004 Day 4: Session A9/Kila
Lews Castle, Stornoway, Saturday 17 July 2004 THE HIGH SPIRITS of the previous night cast a long shadow into the following day, but nothing that a few tunes from the U-18 bodhran champion of Ireland...
View ArticleClik here to view.
VAN MORRISON / XOSE MANUEL BUDINO (Big Top, Stornoway, Thursday 14 July 2005)
PETER URPETH finds Van the Man up to his usual tricks, on and off the stage To the names due for review from this evening’s concert should be added the formation of Blas, a gathering of women...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2005: Runrig/ Peatbog Faeries
Big Top, Stornoway, 15 July 2005 Runrig DAY 3 OF the Hebridean Celtic Festival and the excitement is tangible even as we’re standing in the queue to enter the festival area. Last night’s gig featured...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2005: Shooglenifty/ Mark Saul
Big Top, Stornoway, 16 July 2005 Angus Grant of Shooglenifty THE FINAL DAY of an already-legendary 10th Hebridean Celtic Festival arrives with a sense of relaxed merriness combined with hedonistic...
View ArticleJulie Fowlis
Eye on the Prize JULIE FOWLIS has had a bit of a roller-coaster year since we last spoke to her early in 2005. Northings catches up with the Dingwall-based Gaelic singer as she prepares for this...
View ArticleHebridean Celtic Festival 2006: Bodega And Crooked Jades/ Saltfishforty And...
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 12-15 July 2006 SUSAN SZYMBORSKI: This summer I was extremely privileged to win a competition to be a reviewer at the Hebridean Celtic Festival. But setting out for Lewis, I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2006
Isle of Lewis, 12-15 July 2006 Dòchas. AFTER THE RAIN-DRENCHED but nonetheless heady triumph of last year’s tenth birthday celebrations, topped by the heavyweight pulling-power of Van Morrison and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2007
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 11-14 July 2007 Irish legends, Moving Hearts. NOT SO very long ago, the concept of Stornoway en fête would have seemed a peculiarly Scottish oxymoron. Being the hub of Free...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2007
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 11-14 July 2007 Sail Hebrides event (photo - Norman Chalmers). WELL COVES an blones, I’m looking across SY hoil the now and you’re seeing it [if you are lost already, see...
View ArticleAlasdair White
Learning from Masters PETER URPETH chatted with the Lewis-born fiddle maestro back on home ground for the Hebridean Celtic Festival I CAUGHT UP with Alasdair in a quiet corner of Stornoway’s An...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2008
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 16-19 July 2008 Shooglenifty (photo - Jan Schouten, courtesy www.hebceltfest.com) ANY ADVANCE superstitious anxieties among the organisers of the 13th Heb Celt festival were...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2008
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 16-19 July 2008 Julie Fowlis and Mary Smith (photo - Peter Urpeth) IT IS NOW almost a contractual necessity for reviewers of British summer music festivals to dwell on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Celtic Connections 2009: Dhachaigh: A Celebration of Murdo Macfarlane
Strathclyde Suite, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 26 January 2009 Christine Primrose and Brian Ó hEadhra LOVE, EH? Does the light of your life’s singing make even the lark keep schtum? Are you besotted...
View ArticleRecession? What Recession?
I HAVEN’T done a strict comparative count, but June felt like the busiest month we have ever had on Northings, with a seemingly endless stream of reviews added to several features, and all reflecting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2009 / Sail Hebrides Festival
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 15-18 July 2009 North Lewis-style dipping lugsails (photo - James Morrison). THIS YEAR I’ve the benefit of a wee bit of additional consultancy with regard to the local slant...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2009
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 15-18 July 2009 La Bottine Souriante (photo - Leila Angus) IN ITS 14th year, the Hebridean Celtic Festival weathered something approaching a perfect storm of adversity. The...
View ArticleHebridean Celtic Festival: 17 – 20 July 2013
The Hebridean Celtic Festival is an international musical and cultural celebration based in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides. From small beginnings, attracting around 1500 people in 1996, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Year of Scotland’s Islands
KATIE LAING reports on the aims and aspirations of the Scottish Government’s latest focus event, The Year of Scotland’s Islands IT’S to be a celebration of all that’s special about our culture, people...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival
THE HEBRIDEAN CELTIC FESTIVAL continues to go from strength to strength, with 2011′s line-up headed by the all-conquering KT Tunstall. HAVING just been nominated as Best Large Festival in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2011
Hebridean Celtic Festival, Isle of Lewis, 13-16 July 2011 WITHOUT implying any slight on previous Hebridean Celtic Festivals, this year’s 16th gathering – customarily a milestone birthday – really felt...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Celtic Festival set for an Appointment with Mr Scott
THEY may be new to the HebCelt audience, but some of the songs that will feature in The Waterboys gig have been playing in Mike Scott’s head for the last 20 years. AS well as classics from their back...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Admiral Fallow Set Sail for Stornoway
SIZE is not an issue for acclaimed Indie folk group Admiral Fallow who are quite happy to play it small on the road to the big time. THE Glasgow-based six-piece are earning a growing reputation and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hebridean Celtic Festival 2012
Lews Castle, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, and other venues, 11-14 July 2012 WITH ticket sales up by 7% on last year, and merchandise by a whacking 38%, the 17th Hebridean Celtic Festival was rated by many...
View Article
