Since the rituals of weddings have not changed (marquees, ceilidhs, cringeworthy speeches, all the awkward hanging about), his script has hardly dated.
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When she went to Irish ceilidhs in Cricklewood in the 1960s, she would always wait for a man to ask her to dance.
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They provide orientation for "first years" (say "freshman" and you'll get guffawed out of the room), dorms and meal plans, trips to whisky distilleries and Gaelic festivals called ceilidhs.
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As occasionally happens with a concentrated diaspora, Scottish Cape Bretoners kept those traditions alive, passing them from generation to generation through ceilidhs (pronounced kay-lees) or "kitchen parties," social gatherings large and small.
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There's the Bukowski-quoting, self-styled literary bad boy; the American Redditor who addresses people as "sir;" and, in Scotland, the kind of fogeyish young patriot who makes a big deal of the fact that they prefer ceilidhs to raves.
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He also did Baritone singing at the Rebels Ceilidhs. On the same page, as well as numerous times throughout the Bo'ness Rebels books, there is an advertisement for the Viewforth hotel. The Viewforth hotel, now shut, was on the Church Wynd. The Bo'ness rebels literary society held ceilidhs there, for example in July 1949, when the Bo'ness Journal states "The Bo'ness Rebels Literary Club held a smokers ceilidh in the Viewforth hotel, in honour of Councillor William Horne, first Bo'ness Councillor to be elected under the banner of Scotland's National Party".
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Originally, a ceilidh was a social gathering of any sort, and did not necessarily involve dancing. In more recent decades, the dancing portion of the event has usurped the older meanings of the term, though the tradition of guests performing music, song, story telling and poetry still persists in some areas. Ceilidhs were originally hosted by a fear-an-tigh, meaning "man of the house". This is still the form in Ireland, though otherwise in modern ceilidhs the host is usually referred to more simply as "Host" or "Master of Ceremonies".
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The McGregor family tried to teach Belle how to read palms (fortune telling), but she didn't take to this. The family frequently went to Northern Ireland to do pearl-fishing. In the evenings they would gather at ceilidhs to exchange folk songs.
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Cynthia MacLeod is a Canadian fiddler from Prince Edward Island. She describes her fiddling style as "Cape Breton". In addition to recording, hosting standing-room-only ceilidhs in Brackley Beach, and touring, she teaches workshops both in Canada and the United States.
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Host communities around the island present workshops in Gaelic language and song, components of tradition, instrument instruction and traditional dance, as well as offering cultural tours, ceilidhs and a lecture series. They also organize an extensive array of community events including meals and dances.
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From the late 1970s the attendance at, and numbers of, folk clubs began to decrease, as new musical and social trends, including punk rock, new wave and electronic music began to dominate. However, in Scotland the circuit of ceilidhs and festivals helped prop up traditional music.
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As well as the main festival in August, FolkEast organises and promotes folk and roots events, ceilidhs and concerts at various venues across East Anglia throughout the year. Past events include The Young'uns at Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh; Peter Knight's 'Gigspanner' at Glemham Hall; and The Willows at Norwich Arts Centre.
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In his poem Tha Mi Duilich, Cianail, Duilich ("I am Sad, Lamenting, and Full of Sorrow") Dòmhnall expresses grief for his friends who have fallen. He recalls their ceilidhs and how they sang Gaelic songs together. He adds that now they are now torn to pieces, lying in no man's land, or buried beneath crosses.
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Banjax was basically a ceilidh-dance band, and ceilidhs require a "caller" to direct the dances and guide people through the movements before and during the performance. Unlike many such bands however Banjax did not need to work with external callers, since both Dave Roberts and Keith Leech were well able to do this themselves.
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Furukawa has performed at Japan Fest, Japanese consulate functions, the Who's Who in Asian Americans Gala, ceilidhs in the Highlands of Scotland, and the National Association of Asian American Professionals national conference. Furukawa has directed multiple charity events and concerts to benefit the Asia Foundation, RAINN (the "Tori Amos Tribute Show"), and the American and Japanese Red Cross.
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St Canice's Hall was used for social events of the club, ceilidhs etc. On 27 May 1937 St Canice's defeated O'Connor's Limavady, at Claudy Green to win the Kerlin Cup. Dungiven 3–3, Limavady 1–8, the winning point was scored by the captain Frank McCloskey from a '50'. The club acquired Farrens field to play matches, i.e.
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Topic's catalogue became the mainstay of recorded source material for those aspiring to play English country music. English country music can still be heard at The East Anglian Music Trust's annual Traditional Music Day at Stowmarket's Museum of East Anglian Life every August, at other trust events and at pub sessions and barn dances or ceilidhs across the country.
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Many of Niel Gow's compositions are still played today at ceilidhs and country dances. He himself spelled his name Niel, although others sometimes spell it Neil or even Neal. The National Records of Scotland attest that Gow himself used the name 'Neil'. To add to the confusion he had a musical grandson (by Nathaniel) who did spell his name "Neil".
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The Ghillie shirt existed before the kilt, with there being no documentation for kilts until 1575, Ghillie shirts are traditionally used for dances or ceilidhs as they are light and spacious to allow for air to pass through. They do not need to be worn with any sort of tie. The Irish version of the Ghillie shirt is the Grandfather shirt.
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Barra hosts an annual half-marathon called the Barrathon, which is part of the Western Isles Half Marathon series. This is accompanied by a shorter fun-run for families and younger children. A number of fund-raising events are held around this, including ceilidhs and dances. There is also an annual hill race, in which participants run up Heaval (383 m) before returning to Castlebay Square.
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Until 1954, the Edinburgh Festival Ceilidhs were an annual event. Eventually, however, the affiliation of some board members with the Communist Party of Great Britain caused the events to lose the backing of the city's trade unions. MacNeil also recorded two albums, Craobh nan Ubhal in 1976 (reissued in 1993) and Orain Floraidh in 2000. She died after a short illness on 15 May 2015, aged 86.
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Elphinstone Hall and Linklater Rooms, seen from tree next to King's College chapelIt was initially used as an academic and exam venue, and during the mid-20th century acted as a student dining/lunch hall. Today it is still used for exams, but also for large university events. These include conferences, fairs, ceilidhs, student events, and other functions. It can also be hired for wedding receptions and corporate events.
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Broad Roots was conceived in 2011 by John and Lynne Ward with the aim of celebrating and promoting folk and roots music to the furthest fringe of East Anglia. The Broad Roots Stage at FolkEast offers an array of talent from the local and regional area alongside those from further afield. In 2014 the Broad Roots was floored and now plays host to the ceilidhs as well as concerts.
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The Church of Scotland has a large traditional 19th century church building, with attached hall and manse, at the junction by the Borrodale Hotel. Along the road to the west - strictly in the township of Cille Pheadair is the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Peter, with a public hall opposite used for a wide variety of functions, including public ceilidhs and dances, sales, private parties and so on.
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Wester Ross has one of the lowest population densities in Europe, with just 1.6 people per km2. The area's small communities weave the fabric of life through traditional music, ceilidhs, crofting, and the Gaelic language. The area is renowned for the scenic splendour of its mountains and coastline, and the range of wildlife that can be seen. It is a popular tourist destination, receiving around 70,000 visitors each year.
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Jennifer and Hazel Wrigley are an international folk music duo playing fiddle (Jennifer) and guitar/piano (Hazel). They are twin sisters who grew up in Orkney, Scotland. They started to play when given instruments on their 8th birthday and soon joined the Orkney Strathspey and Reel Society in Kirkwall. In their early teens they were playing, often with their older sister Emma on accordion, at local concerts and ceilidhs around Orkney.
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It is still one of the largest gathering of dance teams and musicians in the South of England, attracting an audience of up to 70,000 people. Several streets near the ancient Wimborne Minster are closed during the Festival. Attractions include concerts, ceilidhs, workshops, dance displays, street markets and family areas. The climactic scenes of the 2009 film Morris: A Life with Bells On, a mockumentary about morris dancing, were filmed at the festival.
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Like many others before her, MacNeil left Barra in 1947 to find work in Edinburgh. She found a public platform in the burgeoning round of ceilidhs and concerts that marked the first stirrings of the British folk revival. These brought her to the attention of Hamish Henderson, who recorded her singing as part of his 1950s collaboration with American musicologist Alan Lomax. Henderson also invited MacNeil to perform at the 1951 Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh.
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While studying, she participated at the singing competition of the Royal National Mòd of 1936 in Inverness and won the gold medal. MacLeod was a school teacher both in Scotland and England until she retired in 1974. During that time she also pursued a singing career, with early recordings with Parlophone. She avoided the commercial industry, but continued to sing in concerts, such as the People's Festival Ceilidhs, which emerged from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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An important part of English ceilidhs is the "caller" who instructs the dancer in the next dance. An experienced ceilidh caller will have a good understanding of the mechanics of the tunes and a deep knowledge of regional dances from the UK and beyond. They will confer with the band about what type of tune to play for the dance. This aids the selection of the right dance for the right audience.
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Some traditional tunes were used for hymns and carols. Church Feast Days and Sunday School treats were widespread—a whole village processing behind a band of musicians leading them to a picnic site, where "Tea Treat Buns" (made with smuggled saffron) were distributed. This left a legacy of marches and polkas. Records exist of dancing in farmhouse kitchens, and in fish cellars Cornish ceilidhs called troyls were common, they are analogous to the fest-noz of the Bretons.
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Also, since renovation work began at Marischal College, Elphinstone Hall is the venue for all university graduation ceremonies. The hall also provides a focal point for the annual May festival, a highly successful mixed- focus festival drawing famous guests such as the physicist Brian Cox, Pat Nevin and Tony Robinson. It is the location of a number of student-run ceilidhs throughout the year, including those of the International and Celtic Societies, as well as other student events.
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Raymond was an experienced folk dance 'caller' and applied the skills used for his one-man shows to ceilidh dancing to dance, providing lower cost folk dances by accompanying self-created backing tracks on his saxophone, demonstrating and instructing or 'calling' dances by himself. These were known as 'Track Ceilidhs'. Raymond provided the choreography for LWT's television adaptation of The Mayor of Casterbridge, which he was also an extra in along with his wife Julia, and daughter Laura.
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It also places more emphasis on rhythms and longer songs in order to produce the tribal trance-like state associated with the repetitive dances. Exponents include Tredanek, Dalla, Davey&Dyer;, Heb Mar. The plural of Nos Lowen should technically be 'Nosow Lowen' if you're speaking Cornish, but people often simply say 'Nos Lowens' when speaking English In the same way people might pluralise 'Ceilidhs' in English. 'Nos lowen' is sometimes abbreviated by 'Nsl' online or in event listings.
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Celtic rock developed as a variant of British folk rock by Scottish groups including the JSD Band and Spencer's Feat. Five Hand Reel, who combined Irish and Scottish personnel, emerged as the most successful exponents of the style. From the late 1970s the attendance at, and numbers of, folk clubs began to decrease, as new musical and social trends began to dominate. However, in Scotland the circuit of ceilidhs and festivals helped prop up traditional music.
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Gary Coupland MBE (born 26 March 1964) was the musician for the group. He plays at social functions and weddings, and played for Prince Charles. He joined "Cilla & Artie" for a Scottish tour thence starting The Singing Kettle. Coupland has been providing entertainment and music for a host of occasions such as weddings, family parties, schools, corporate events, tea dances, ceilidhs, themed nights and cabaret throughout the central area of Scotland for the past twenty five years.
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As well as regularly playing host to the Royal National Mòd, there are annual local mods. Stornoway Castle Green hosts the annual 3-day Hebridean Celtic Festival in July, attracting over 10,000 visitors. The festival includes events such as ceilidhs, dances and special concerts featuring storytelling, song and music with performers from all round the Isles and beyond. The radio station Isles FM is based in Stornoway and broadcasts on 103FM, featuring a mixture of Scottish Gaelic and English programming.
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Lochcarron contains a variety of local services. These include two petrol stations, a Spar shop (which has a Post Office counter), a Highland Council service point (located at library), a nursing home (attached to which is the local library), medical centre and tartan weaving factory. There are also two hotels (offering entertainment and meals), a restaurant and two cafés. The community hall hosts a number of public events including ceilidhs and sales; and sports such as indoor bowls and short tennis.
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Aberdeen Arts Centre The Music Hall in Union Street The Cowdray Hall Aberdeen's music scene includes a variety of live music venues including pubs, clubs, and church choirs. The bars of Belmont Street are particularly known for featuring live music. Ceilidhs are also common in the city's halls. Popular music venues include the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC), Aberdeen Music Hall, along with smaller venues such as The Tunnels, The Moorings, Drummonds, Downstairs, The Lemon Tree and The Garage.
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However, in Scotland the circuit of ceilidhs and festivals helped prop up traditional music. Two of the most successful groups of the 1980s that emerged from this dance band circuit were Runrig and Capercaillie.B. Sweers, Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music (Oxford University Press, 2005), , p. 259. A by-product of the Celtic Diaspora was the existence of large communities across the world that looked for their cultural roots and identity to their origins in the Celtic nations.
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It is estimated that the festival alone adds £12 million to Scotland's tourism revenue and it is the largest bagpipe festival in the world. The festival is always opened with performances in the Royal Concert Hall by musicians including The National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland. The festival itself consists of over 150 individual events including free classes, concerts and ceilidhs throughout the week. The festival also has its own "Canada Day" to celebrate the multitude of Canadian Grade I bands who participate in the Championships.
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They sing mainly about Teesside, North Yorkshire and Durham, telling the story of the development of the region, its industrial heritage and the beautiful countryside that surrounds it. A regular request for the group is to provide Ceilidh evenings at which their resident caller, Ron Marshall joins them. Frontman for the band is Stewart McFarlane MBE who provides lead vocals and percussion (including playing spoons and bones for ceilidhs). He is joined by Alan Helm playing accordion, guitar and electric bass and Stan Gee on banjo, fiddle and guitar.
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St Salvator's Hall Pamphlet Two courses are offered at lunchtime and three courses at dinner. The Hall Committee, headed by Senior Student Iain Paterson, meets weekly in the Common Room. The Hall Committee are responsible for hosting weekly events for residents from themed ceilidhs to pub quizzes and whisky tasting. In addition to this, four members of the Hall Committee for the Executive Committee who work closely with the residence managers and Wardennial Team The current Warden is Ms. Samantha Lister and the Residence Manager is Ms. Deborah Anderson.
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Emily's childhood was spent dancing to music, rather than performing it, in her mother's dance school. She grew up assuming everyone knew how to do a highland fling and weekends were spent dancing at ceilidhs rather than nightclubs. Aged seven she started out on piano; moved onto snare drum in the local pipe band and subsequently found a passion for piano accordion, where at the age of eighteen she was National Mod champion. But it wasn't until a solo with the school choir in her late teens that Emily discovered her singing voice.
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Prince Edward Island is a province of Canada consisting of the island of the same name, and several much smaller islands. Prince Edward Island is one of the three Maritime Provinces and is the smallest province in both land area and population. The musical culture is changing rapidly in Prince Edward Island at this time as traditional Celtic musicians, while in some ways more prominent than ever, are not as common in small rural communities as they once were. Celtic music is still very much around and can be heard at festivals, ceilidhs and pubs throughout the island, especially in the summer.
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Campbell was born on 21 July 1937 at Greepe, near Roag on the Isle of Skye, into a Crofting family known for their singing and pipe playing. As a child she regularly sang at ceilidhs, and once sang for Dame Flora MacLeod, Chieftain of the MacLeod clan, at Dunvegan Castle. She left Skye for Glasgow, to study for a diploma in primary school teaching at Jordanhill College, and later in her career became Head Teacher at the special needs Newhills School in Easterhouse. While pursuing her career and bringing up her family she continued to sing.
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"Brochan Lom" is a Scottish Gaelic nonsense song about porridge. The tune is popular and appears frequently at Scottish country dances and ceilidhs. It falls into the category of "mouth music" (Puirt a beul), used to create music for dancing in the absence of instruments. It is a strathspey song and is commonly sung or played for the Highland Schottische (a popular ceilidh dance), and for the Highland Fling. As an instrumental tune, Brochan Lom is also known as The Orange And Blue, Katy Jones’, Kitty Jones, Kitty Jones’, The Orange & Blue Highland, Orange And Blue, The Orange And Blue Highland Fling.
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Sartin and Hutchinson met in the mid-1990s when they were both members of the folk-rock band Life Of Reilly, which existed to write music to satirise the construction of the Newbury bypass. After a few performances they left the band to form a duo. They began working for ceilidhs and social dances, working with caller Andrew Shaw on a project exploring the work of the 18th century composer Nathaniel Kynaston, which led to two albums, Mr Kynaston’s Famous Dance volume 1 (2000) and volume 2 (2002). Another album drawn from the social dance repertoire, John Playford’s Secret Ball, followed in 2001.
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Martin added whistles to his instrumentation and Daniel pursued the accordion only. The brothers played regularly on the island for family and friends, at local ceilidhs and parties, and, from time to time, in the ‘Lean To’, part of the Scarinish Hotel. Fraser and Alec were products of the Music Department of Deans Community High School in Livingston, West Lothian and of the supportive policy towards music education and performance of West Lothian Council. Both played in their school's wind band and in West Lothian School's wind band and big band, and in other local bands.
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In 2008, Swan began working with the Stobo Village Band, which is described as playing "fast hypnotic acoustic dance music with fiddle, pipes, accordion, tapan and darabuka, mashing up Scottish/Irish tune playing with the virtuoso traditions of eastern Europe and the Balkans." The band's line-up is Martin Swan (fiddle), Lewis Powell-Reid (accordion, guitar), Ross Ainslie (whistle, pipes, cittern), James Mackintosh (percussion) and Fraser Watson (percussion), Mackintosh has previously worked with Swan in Mouth Music. The band made their public debut on 16 January 2008 (at the Celtic Connections concert series in Glasgow) and have continued to play ceilidhs around the Scottish Borders region.
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Scottish Ensemble is also committed to a comprehensive programme of education and outreach activities. Its work in this area was developed further in 2012 with the launch of the City Residency programme, where the orchestra spends three or four days in one Scottish city providing a range of events designed to engage diverse communities. Events as part of the City Residencies have included: tea dances, ceilidhs, community feasts, flash-mob style performances, coaching and workshops with amateur music groups, schools workshops, and free public performances. Scottish Ensemble also delivers events combining music and other art forms, which link to the group's collaborations with other art forms.
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Murray Harbour With an area of 4.1 km2 and an extensive waterfront facing a large natural harbour (also named Murray Harbour), the community's primary industry is fishing, most notably lobster and scallops. It also hosts some secondary industry in the form of fish processing and a growing tertiary service economy centred on tourism. The community has a car repair station, a fire station, a grocery, two restaurants, a number of churches, a marina and a number of wharves. The Community Centre hosts many events throughout the year, including plays, music and comedy shows - including Small Halls Festival - ceilidhs, suppers, painting classes, seniors' events and more.
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On her racecourse debut, Sea of Class contested a maiden race over one mile at Newmarket Racecourse on 18 April in which she started the 5/4 favourite in a field of nine fillies. She took the lead approaching the final furlong but was caught in the last strides and beaten a neck by the 14/1 outsider Ceilidhs Dream. Despite her defeat she was then stepped up in class for the Listed Fillies' Trial Stakes over ten furlongs at Newbury Racecourse on 19 May. Starting the 9/4 second choice in the betting, she took the lead a furlong out and won "readily" by two lengths from the Aidan O'Brien-trained Athena, with five lengths back to the favoured Crystal Hope in third.
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In the modern era, Scottish highland dress can be worn casually, or worn as formal wear to white tie and black tie occasions, especially at ceilidhs. Just as the black tie dress code has increased in use in England for formal events which historically may have called for white tie, so too is the black tie version of highland dress increasingly common. The basis of all modern men's and women's highland dress starts with the tartan, either as a kilt, trews, earasaid, sash or tonnag. Tartans in Scotland are registered at the Scottish Register of Tartans in Edinburgh, a non-ministerial department and are usually aligned to a clan or branch of a clan, however tartans can also be registered exclusively for an individual or institution.
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After its impromptu initiation as a piano Sing-along and Smoking concert by the then Honorary Secretary Osborne Henry Mavor on the last day of the 1908 Martinmas Academic term, the highlight of the Union's social calendar is the annual 'Daft Friday' black tie ball which continues to be held at the end of the Martinmas term exam diet. Over the years the event has become increasingly elaborate with the entire union building decorated to a theme and devoted to the festivities. Daft Friday is held as a celebration for the president of the union. Over 2000 students attend the event, which includes revolves around a secret theme and hosts entertainments such as a swing band, string quartet, DJs, ceilidhs and laserquest.
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Maeve Mackinnon grew up in the west end of Glasgow to a family of both Skye and Swedish heritage. Her father, Chairman of Scottish CND for over 30 years, took the family on regular demonstrations against Apartheid, nuclear weapons and in support of the miners strikes, and she credits these formative experiences as when she learned to both walk and sing. It was also as a toddler at political rallies that she first heard the Scots singer Dick Gaughan, who would become a major musical influence. Mackinnon developed a deep interest in Gaelic language during regular childhood holidays to the Isle of Jura, where she met native speakers of Gaelic and took part in local ceilidhs where she was encouraged to sing.
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That being said traditional Scottish ceilidhs are rarely frequented by young people and the younger generation has been diverging along an urban rural divide, in that young people in rural parts of the island now tend to follow Country and Western music, almost assuming it is an extension of local tradition, due to the similarities, when it is in fact an American import. Before the introduction of radio to the island, Country and Western music was unheard of and in most places traditional Celtic or Acadian music dominated. Due to the rural farming traditions of the Island and the similarities between Country Music and Celtic Music, Country Music quickly became popular in the 1930s. It was an easy adoption, considering that the Bluegrass/Mountain Music which spawned Country and Western Music, is closely related to the Celtic and Maritime musical tradition.
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Other festivities, events and locations promoting local traditional music culture include: Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival which was created to preserve Prince Edward Island's tradition of music, Close to the Ground concert series hosted by Fiddler's Sons, The International PEI Shellfish Festival hosted by Liam Dolan, The Festival of Small Halls, the College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts concert series (Highland Storm), The Benevolent Irish Society Ceilis, The Orwell Corner ceilidhs, the Summerside Highland Gathering, the Belfast (PEI) Highland Games, the Indian River Festival and more. The summer time is the best time of the year to experience PEI traditional music and despite the concerns noted above, if you were to tour the island in the Summer, you would leave with the impression that the traditional Celtic and Acadian cultures brought the island over 300 years ago were remarkably intact.
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While in Scotland the circuit of ceilidhs and festivals helped prop up traditional music, from the late 1970s the attendance at, and numbers of, folk clubs began to decrease, probably as new musical and social trends, including punk rock, new wave and electronic music, began to dominate. Although many acts such as Martin Carthy and the Watersons continued to perform successfully, there were very few significant new acts pursuing traditional forms in the 1980s. This all began to change with a new generation in the 1990s, often children of major figures in the second revival. The arrival and sometimes mainstream success of acts such as Kate Rusby, Nancy Kerr, Kathryn Tickell, Spiers and Boden, Seth Lakeman, Eliza Carthy, Runrig and Capercaillie, all largely concerned with acoustic performance of traditional material, marked a radical turnaround in the fortunes of the tradition.
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In April 1990 they were booked by Rod Stradling to play for the prestigious monthly "Dance House" ceilidh at Cricklade, in Wiltshire. Then in August they performed at the massive Sidmouth Folk Week festival, followed shortly afterwards by a trip abroad to play in Dordrecht, which was Hastings "twin town" in the Netherlands. Back home, in September they played for one of the high-profile Newick ceilidhs organised by local musician and impresario Mel Stevens. A further booking followed for the Chippenham folk festival in May 1991, and in May 1992 they played for a ceilidh on the pier at the Jack-in-the-Green festival on their home turf at Hastings, one of the biggest events in the Hastings annual calendar, with Gordon Potts from The Committee Band doing a superb job as guest caller for the evening.
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Musicians that played the venue include AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Brix, Caravan, The Clash, Colosseum, Dexys Midnight Runners, Dr. Feelgood, The Damned, Edgar Broughton Band, Egg, Family, Free, Genesis, The Hamsters, Hawkwind, The Heartbreakers, Elton John, Judas Priest, Suzi Quattro, Queen, Roxy Music with Brian Ferry, the Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, Taste, Thin Lizzy, and Wishbone Ash, some of these up-and-coming during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Annual folk festivals were hosted for many years, featuring concerts, ceilidhs, craft stalls, and workshops and performances by local dance teams. One of the most popular events was presented by the Colin Chamley Band along with local singer Sandra Browne. Northern soul events also took place at the winter gardens and established it as one of the major venues for Northern Soul in the UK and up there with Wigan Casino and The Twisted Wheel.
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Kilts are also used for parades by groups such as the Boys' Brigade and Scouts, and in many places kilts are seen in force at Highland games and pipe band championships as well as being worn at Scottish country dances and ceilidhs. Certain regiments/units of the British Army and armies of other Commonwealth nations (including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) with a Scottish lineage or heritage still continue to wear kilts as part of dress or duty uniform, though they have not been used in combat since 1940 Uniforms in which kilts are worn include Ceremonial Dress, Service Dress, and Barracks Dress. Kilts are considered appropriate for ceremonial parades, office duties, less formal parades, walking out, mess dinners, and classroom instruction or band practice. Ceremonial kilts have also been developed for the US Marine Corps, and the pipe and drum bands of the US Military Academy, US Naval Academy and Norwich University – The Military College of Vermont.
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Both Glasgow and Greenock had sizeable Gaelic-speaking communities at the time. It is thought that she probably sang at many of these ceilidhs as there is evidence of her frequently doing so after she retired to Skye in 1882. By this time she had acquired a reputation for her songs and her championing of the crofters in the increasingly heated debate over land rights. She sang at the first ever National Mòd in Oban in 1892 but did not win a medal.Dòmhnall Eachainn Meek,“Màiri Mhòr nan Òran : Taghadh de a h-Òrain” (Dùn Eideann : Comann Litreachas Gàidhlig na h-Alba, 1998)pp27-28 &30Somhairle Mac Gill-eain, "Ris a' Bhruaithaich The Criticism and Prose Writing of Sorley MacLean" (Stornoway : Acair, 1985)251Photograph of Mairi Mhor with her spinning whorl On returning to Skye she lived with a friend, Mrs MacRae of Os, until Lachlann MacDonald, laird of Sgèabost provided her with a rent free cottage.
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MacNeil was born in 1928 on the island of Barra, one of Gaelic song's most important strongholds. There were singers on either side of her family, but this was a time when the menfolk were often away at sea for long periods, leaving the women to raise the children and tend the croft – singing all the while, to assuage their labours – and most of MacNeil's repertoire was passed on from her mother, Ann Gillies. In these pre-television days (Flora's family did not even have a radio until the 1950s), ceilidhs with the neighbours were a regular occurrence in the MacNeil household, and from earliest childhood she remembers "soaking up" literally hundreds of songs, as if by osmosis. Clearly, the music was in her blood: by age four, famously, she was already tackling the sophisticated poetry of Mo rùn geal òg ("My Fair Young Love"), one of the greatest of the Orain Mor, or "Big Songs".
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Simon Mckerrel of Newcastle University argues that Bo'ness is one of the key sites in the history of the folk revival in Scotland. He makes the point that this growth in the 1950s and 1960s may have been instrumental in the upsurge of Scottish nationalism during this time which ultimately led to the 1979 referendum. The Bo'ness Rebels are often cited in books looking at the Scottish folk revival. On 17 February 2011, the ‘Lets Get Lyrical’ festival in Edinburgh, featured a show called ‘Rebel Shenanigans’, which was an event which would “re-create the sounds of the Bo’ness Rebels Ceilidhs of the 1950s, a movement in favour of a Scottish Republic.” In 2016, a show called “From Thurso to Berwick” celebrating the songs and poetry of Morris Blythman (aka Thurso Berwick) who wrote many of the songs in the Ceilidh Songbooks was put on at the Scottish Storytelling centre in . He also wrote the ‘Sangs O the Stane’ songbook which as mentioned earlier was available in Bo’ness.
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William Horn, then 'Branch Chairman' of the Bo'ness Branch was elected for Bo'ness South Ward. The SNP did not stand candidates in any other wards, and Horn's election agent, Charles Auld is the same person who wrote the letter to the journal mentioned above. This suggests the 'Bo'ness Branch SNP' would have been a small organisation, which is of significance when considering the history of the 'branch founding' which follows. This is comparatively early for electoral success in the history of Scottish Nationalism, but when considering that at this time the Bo'ness Rebels ceilidhs would have been occurring regularly, and there had been a debate on Scottish Independence in Bo'ness Town Hall on 29 March of the same year, this adds a distinctly local dimension to the general post war discontent of British government amongst some Scots reflected in various events around this time, namely the election of the first SNP MP Dr. Robert Macintyre in 1945, the home rule protests against British PM Clement Attlee during his visit to the Cowal Highland Gathering in Dunoon in 1950, and the returning of the stone of scone.
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