BLAZIN' Fiddles have come a long way since they formed for a one-off tour of the 1998 Highland Festival. In ten years, Bruce MacGregor, Aidan O'Rourke, Iain MacFarlane, Catriona Macdonald and Allan Henderson, backed by pianist Andy Thorburn and guitarist Marc Clement, have developed into one of Scotland's top international folk acts, while diligently upholding the Highland reputation for hedonism.
Here Bruce MacGregor, the man who dreamed up the idea in the first place, looks back on ten favourite memories from the first ten years.
Fiddles of the World, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1999"We got invited to this the year after we
got together, still fresh out of the Highlands. We hadn't even recorded anything yet, and suddenly found ourselves with 5,000 other fiddle players from all around the world, playing every style of fiddle music in the universe. We were blown away, especially given the other names on the bill, people like Mark O'Connor, Natalie MacMaster, Kevin Burke – all these huge heroes of ours, it felt phenomenal."
Cambridge Folk Festival, 2000"This was our first time at Cambridge, which is a really important festival, back when we were all still a bit young and exuberant, and they still used caravans as dressing-rooms. We had a ball all weekend and ended up having probably the biggest party there's ever been in a caravan. By the time we got home, the story had grown legs to the point that we'd blown up a caravan and been barred from the festival, whereas in fact we broke an axle, one of the windows popped out, and we maybe left under a bit of a cloud. I think it was the Strip the Willow that did it."
Canadcraig House, Strathdon, 2003"We did a gig at the local village hall, and it turned out Pamela Stephenson was there: we got this phone call next morning, asking us to come and play at the castle for Billy Connolly and his pals the next week. It was what you might call quite an unusual evening, performing for about 30 people in this big living-room – the first person up to dance was Sean Connery. Salman Rushdie was there, and Anna Friel, Eddie Izzard – plus lots of other actors I didn't recognise. Later on we persuaded Sean Connery to phone Phil Cunningham for a wind-up, and then we were playing tunes with Billy Connolly round the campfire at the bottom of the garden."
Falun Festival, Sweden, 2003"This was the year the organisers booked eight Scottish bands for the same weekend, and it's gone down in folklore. There was us, Capercaillie, Shooglenifty, Fiddlers' Bid, Old Blind Dogs, Deaf Shepherd and I can't remember who else, but I don't think any of us will ever forget the party. We'd all brought loads of duty-free because Sweden's expensive, and the whole weekend's worth got finished on the bus from the airport. I'm afraid I have no idea what the actual gigs were like, but I do remember us all getting the same flight home: you've never seen such carnage. Allan bought a dram for everyone on the whole plane."
With Strings Attached, Celtic Connections, 2005"Putting this show together with three great singers – Eddi Reader, Justin Currie and Colin MacIntyre – felt like a really big jump into the unknown for us, what with using extra strings and brass as well. It's still by far the biggest project we've done. I don't think I've ever been as nervous – it was very well funded, for one thing, so there was a lot riding on that; it was completely packed out, and it was getting filmed, so we had cameras following our every move. But everyone totally rose to the occasion and the audience reaction was fantastic."
Cambridge Folk Festival/ BBC Proms, 2005"We were eventually invited back to Cambridge – the same weekend we were booked to play the Royal Albert Hall, for Fiddle Day at the Proms. The staff gave us a cake in the shape of a caravan. We did the main stage there in the afternoon, then a minibus to the Albert Hall for the evening.
"Even once we were on stage, none of us could quite believe we were actually playing there, let alone getting a standing ovation. We got some interesting reactions too: one reviewer called us 'as wholesome as wholemeal bread, and about as interesting', so that made us laugh, and we had some really positive feedback from the Radio 3 audience."
Sidmouth Festival, Devon, 2005"This was another brilliantly bizarre moment. It was an open-air gig, a few thousand people there, and it started absolutely bucketing down with rain. So Allan shouted out, 'If you're getting wet, just come up on the stage' – and about 300 or 400 people did.
"Those last few numbers were completely mental – none of us could see each other at all, we could barely hear a thing through the monitors, the health and safety people were going ballistic, and the stage was sinking into the ground at the back."
Celtica Festival, Italy, 2005"Apart from arriving to find a full-scale medieval battle reenactment in full swing, complete with a Celtic rock soundtrack, the memory I treasure from this trip is going for a walk 'up the hill' the next day – which turned out to be Mont Blanc. We went up in shorts and trainers, with Regal King Size and a carry-out: I'll never forget the horror on the real climbers' faces when we trooped into the first way-station."
Celtic Colours Festival, Cape Breton, 2005"The main highlight of this trip was seeing another two of my all-time heroes, Sean Maguire and Buddy MacMaster, on stage together trading tunes – I'd thought Sean Maguire was dead! It was also funny because I knew he had this reputation for being horrible to his accompanists, and Andy got up to play the piano with them. He got the key wrong at one point, and Maguire whacked him over the hand with his bow."
Orphir Hall, Orkney Folk Festival, 2007"Not exactly our finest hour, in some ways, but very funny. We'd been playing tunes in the bar all afternoon, then on the bus to the gig Allan got into this big Gaelic bonding session with Len Graham, the Irish singer. The whisky started flowing, and then midway through our set Allan started doing all this bizarre dancing, which none of us had ever seen before: we could hardly keep our eyes off him, or stop laughing to play. It was probably the closest we've come to complete chaos, but then that possibility's often not far away."
• Blazin' Fiddles Aged 10 Years is at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 25 January, as part of Celtic Connections.
