tag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:/blogs/latest-news?p=1Latest News2020-01-04T21:10:00+00:00Snippets from Lorne's BlogLorne MacDougallfalseLorne MacDougalllornemacd@me.comtag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/60602762020-01-04T21:10:00+00:002020-01-05T18:22:01+00:00Hatched, Matched and Dispatched<p>Had to rename that “New Album” folder AGAIN!</p>
<p>So that’s us into a new decade - the 2010s were a crazy decade for me. It’s now been 10 years since I released “Hello World” and another time I’ve renamed a folder on my computer from “New Album 20-whenever” to the next year - an annual occurrence. It’s at “New Album 2020” now, so hopefully I’ll get some movement on it. </p>
<p>But it’s 2019 I’m thinking about just now. A crazy year which began, as usual, with some Celtic Connections gigs. It’s scary to think that it’s now been almost 8 years since I got the first call to work on the Disney Pixar movie “Brave” (well, November 2011) and I began the year by revisiting the score. Two of my favourite’s at the same time - Patrick Doyle at Celtic Connections! It was as scary as it was exciting to play the soundtrack in full along to the live picture in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. It was great to see some family in the audience whom otherwise wouldn’t go to a traditional music gig and also quite cool to see the star of the movie Kelly MacDonald with her family. Patrick Doyle was the composer of the great score and a special event for his 65th Birthday was also part of Celtic Connections. I’ve been thinking for a long time that his music should be part of the festival. He was commissioned to write a new piece - “Scottish Overture” which was premiered in the City Halls. It was for Orchestra and folk band and was a joy to play with the same team that did Brave the week before. Pipes used were Highland Pipes, Border Pipes and modified Highland Pipes with an A chanter taped for a C Major Scale. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/c453ae5daf80f4df01f0b6d67a5351af3a693dbb/original/47827543-10156474190285892-6255680382713200640-n.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/385f81675e46bd2f3fcdb29910d928a8812566a4/original/pd-acele.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Into February and I’m still thinking about animations - this time How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World by John Powell. It was Patrick Doyle who recommended me for working on the Dragon movies. We recorded the third, and last, in the trilogy back in October so it’s finally time to watch it. The pipes were used slightly differently in this one, but still amazing to get to play some of the themes that have been there since the very first movie at the start of the decade. It’s not hard to find some Celtic roots in some of my favourite movie composers and John Powell is no exception with his granny coming from the Outer Hebrides and being no stranger to a Strathspey on the Violin. You can hear the pipes in the video below on a number of occasions including Hiccup and Astrid’s wedding. </p>
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<p>Throughout the early Spring things were busy with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers’ new album. I was back to suggest some ideas and do some bits of piping which was shared between the goup’s pipers. It was a new team full of their own great energy ideas and I was so happy to be part of it. Another highlight was helping out at the recording of the huge pipe band we had on “Highland Cathedral” of “Next Generation Chillis” and it’s great to think that the band was part of what got them into piping. That’s something I hoped the band would do since it began. </p>
<p>The Summer was full of teaching weeks and music festivals. Particular highlights must include the Jim Dowling Piping Festival in County Mayo where I was made to feel most welcome being a pipe playing third wheel in the trio of Ross Couper and Tom Oakes. We had so much fun we’re doing a couple of festivals next year. In July I was back with my old pals the Tannahill Weavers for a festival in Belgium then back to Glasgow for Piping Live where I was busy with the group therapy band that is Tryst - 10 pipers trying out new ideas on the pipes. Our Piping Live gig was to focus on new arrangements of tunes by selected favourite composers. It was a long blow and a lot of focus but it went well and we’re looking forward to doing the piping Concert at Celtic Connections along with Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia Pipe Band. The week ended with Don Bradford’s part in the Park Bar - and guess who’s back with me - it’s Ross and Tom! Don always wants an informal session, so we’ve no idea what’s happening most of the time but it seemed to work very well! That same evening it was a change of scenery and off to the Royal Concert Hall with Tryst to join Dougie MacLean for “Dougie MacLean and Piping Friends”. This was Dougie celebrating his links with piping. There’s some great piping on his albums from Gordon Duncan and Graham Mulholland and it was my privilege to perform a part which Gordon Duncan came up with. You can hear it below, but please do check out <a contents="Dougie’s original version of “Stolen”.&nbsp;" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ouho3c1x5o">Dougie’s original version of “Stolen”.</a></p>
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<p>Of course, Piping Live is the lead up to the World Championship where I got to fulfil a dream of mine and get chatty on BBC Radio Scotland about the competition! It was to be kept light, with the more analytical stuff coming from the judges the week after. Then it was off to my local Mull of Kintyre Music Festival and the usual weekend of great sessions and concerts followed by the inevitable downer that always happens the Monday after. But wait, this year is different, the phone goes and it’s composer Maurizio Malagnini wishing to talk to me about using pipes in the Christmas Special of Call the Midwife - cool! That’s perked me up. The scores come through and work begins on making them work. “Oh look, he’s put the theme tune on the pipe part! Fans are going to either love or hate that!…“ is what I’m thinking. </p>
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<p>Having just done some session work for a programme dealing with birth - the beginning of life, I’m surprised to be asked to do a session for a programme dealing with the other end of life - in the same week! Legendary Scottish comedy "Still Game"!! I was asked to arrange the theme tune and work with the cast to record some pipe music for part of the story. Usually the cast and score are very separate so I rarely get to meet anyone from the shows I work on, this was different and very much was invited in to watch rehearsals, discuss options with Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphil and the main main, MD Tom Urie. Still Game was on my bucket list since 2001 but since the series ended this year, I thought I had missed the boat but nope - here it is! It’s done on border pipes due to the chromatic nature of the tune. </p>
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<p>October saw me off up North - not to my usual North of Plockton, but the edge of the Arctic Circle with Mary Ann Kennedy for the Arctic Celtic Festival. Then in November the Ceremonial piping was strong with 3 days of playing for the Cycling World Championships in Glasgow prize givings followed by a Remembrance Day opening for Sarah Brightman's Royal Albert Hall performance. I must say a big thanks for Colin Brown of <a contents="Ingles Buchan" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.inglesbuchan.com">Ingles Buchan</a> and Mark from <a contents="Hector Russel, Buchanan Street" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.ewm.co.uk/store-finder/index/storedetail/id/344/" target="_blank">Hector Russel, Buchanan Street</a> for the great new kilt I am now showing off with my very own custom tartan! </p>
<p>Then, in November, off on a plane with some pipers to Armagh and Tryst performing at the William Kennedy Piping Festival. Then back with my friends at the Derby Concert Orchestra to perform “An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise” - a favourite piece of mine, even though I got locked out and could get in as I heard my entry approach. I had to bang on the door of the Cathedral with my pipes and in my kilt, much to the amusement of a very helpful man from the street and then Hen Party. An Edinburgh club gig with electronic dance band Sketch and finally, an album launch for button box player Norman MacKay for an album I recorded this beautiful piece on a while back. A final special thing was getting nominated in the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards as Session Musician of the Year.</p>
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<p>And that brings us to now. </p>
<p>Thanks for reading and thanks for all your support in the 2010s, I’m already fired up for 2020! Here’s a time-lapse from Dougall HQ1 - it’s not very good! </p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/55672682018-12-24T07:47:55+00:002018-12-27T14:34:40+00:00Tannies, Touring, Toothless, Tryst, Two Thousand and Eighteen!<p>Here’s me updating again from the train, taking in the glorious views of a frozen Highland landscape - that’s cheesy I know, but it really is special today. I’m on my way to Plockton to the Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music where I’ve been enjoying a more regular teaching place at. </p>
<p>It seems just like a few weeks ago I was making excuses about the last blog being so late - but it was actually this time last year! I guess it’s a good time to get reflective on 2018 though, so here goes! </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/503cf3e2d5fa0526f59357394db8a566d233a594/original/tanahill-weavers-3-20th-jan-2018-by-gordon-hotchkiss-4-300x200.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_" />January’s feature was Glasgow’s annual Celtic Festival, Celtic Connections, once again and this year my main project was with the Tannahill Weavers. A band who I spent a good chunk of the year with touring mostly UK and USA. 2018 is their 50th Anniversary year, so we wanted to make a big deal of it. We had this concert and also released a new album - there’s so much great stuff on the album which features as many of the previous band members as possible to celebrate the anniversary. The Celtic Connections Concert did the same.</p>
<p><em><span style="color:#cac58f;">Besides the group’s pioneering instrumental work, their other main stock-in-trade remains classic old-school chorus songs, both traditional and self-penned (by founding lead singer Roy Gullane), in the proud and honourable tradition of The Corries et al, richly buoyed by Phil Smillie and John Martin’s seasoned harmonies – and here by plenty of audience singing, too, further augmenting the quantity of love in the room. - Sue Wilson, the Scotsman</span></em></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/76d80391ad1d25c0ebb730548c267cb5905dd5ce/original/judging-at-sspbc.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />In March, I was asked to judge the Freestyle competition a the Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championships - a tough job, but an event I’m proud to have been judging at. It’s great to see the pipes and drums working with the other musicians in their schools. That’s something that rarely happened for me so something I’m quite passionate about making sure happens to upcoming pipers. </p>
<p>As well as a busy year for the Tannies I also enjoyed a few gigs with Gaelic Singer Mary Ann Kennedy and her band. Two of the highlights were getting to perform her recent album "An Dàn" with the band live and also her commission for the Mod in Dunoon, "Cluaidh: Ùrachadh na h-Aibhne – “Clyde: A River Recovery” - an audio visual show. Mary Ann writes great tunes and the opening theme to this show is one of my favourites. Here's on of the more psychedelic tracks to listen to.</p>
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<p>#TannieTime continued throughout the year with a few trips to Europe in the Summer. I was also thrilled to have been able to perform at the very first Carradale Music Festival in April. It was an awkward one travel-wise, as I was in France the night before but it worked out and I’m ecstatic to see the festival taking place again in 2019 - on the 19th and 20th April.</p>
<p>The new album from the Tannahill Weavers - Orach (meaning Golden) arrived with us mid tour in May. It was a huge amount of work and, as you'd expect, also features very many of the bands members from over the years. Here's one of my favourite tracks, the opener and title track - "Orach".</p>
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<p>The Summer was made up of mostly Wedding performances at the weekends and Tuition during the weeks including the Oban, Arran and Golspie Feis, which I love. Then I spend 6 weeks of late Summer in the USA again - by the end of that tour that’s been 75 gigs I’ve done with the band this year! That’s an impressive statistic. Just before we headed to the US, we had time to fit in this session for BBC Alba’s coverage of Piping Live. Here’s “Gordon Duncan’s Jigs”.</p>
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<p>Into the Autumn and back into more of a regular teaching rhythm. Towards the end of the Tannahill's tour I got the phone call I had been hoping for - "How to Train Your Dragon - The Hidden World". The third in the trilogy of films scored by John Powell and the second for me to be working on. Since watching the first one back in 2010 I've totally fallen in love with the series so was desperate to play on the new soundtrack. As before, I assembled a team of pipers and awaited the scores to arrive so I could get to work with problem solving in them. There's a lot of great stuff, some new and some revisited. More to follow when the soundtrack is released in early 2019!</p>
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<p>And then I rounded up the year with the first session of recording the Tryst album. You can read more about that album in the posts surrounding this one, but we are crowd funding and would really like it if you pledged to get this album out there. <a contents="You can do so here" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.pledgemusic.com/trystpipers">You can do so here</a>! Here's a wee gallery of our first weekend of recording</p>
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<p> </p>
<p>So that's me signing off for the year - I've a new set of pipes just arrived from McCallums to set up for a very special project in the new year! And for now, a couple of pictures from Christmas Eve morning on Carradale Bay.</p>
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<p> </p>
<p> </p>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/49952672017-12-27T14:50:54+00:002020-10-16T07:24:14+01:00Was that this year?!<p>I've never intended to make these posts an annual thing but that seems to be the way of it! It's a nice way to reflect back on the year though. Having said that it's also quite scary to realise some stuff that I thought happened years ago was actually this year and vice versa! The timeline in a musicians mind is very wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/84caf1ae23cf82461e0ac66f3555557250b1fbd0/original/tardis.png" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>The year began with a busy <a contents="Celtic Connections" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.celticconnections.com">Celtic Connections</a> Festival - no least with the new band Tryst - a collection of 10 of Scotland's like minded composers/pipers/multi-instrumentalists. We held our first show in the Royal Concert Hall's New Auditorium and it was a great success. Each piper composed a piece of music imagining a new Ceol Mor (Big Music) for the pipes. You can hear about the pieces in the video below and look forward to an album next year!</p>
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<p>We got some great reviews including this one from the Herald: <em>The composers’ themes ranged from the plight of refugees to Highland land-rights campaigns; the excesses of consumerism to the importance of home, while the resulting five-minute pieces capitalised fully and thrillingly on contemporary developments in bagpipe technique and repertoire, complemented in several cases by artfully deployed electronic beats and samples... the arrangements were as varied as the compositions themselves, while all sharing in the central, utterly compelling majesty of massed, masterfully deployed Highland pipes, at once viscerally primal and stunningly sophisticated."</em></p>
<p>Celtic Connections finished off, for me, judging the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year. A competition I've attempted 4 times! 3 of which making it to the final, the first being a learning curve disaster! It's a life and career changing opportunity which I'd recommend to anyone - even just the focus of a programme is a great exercise. The winner was Charlie Stewart, on fiddle, who I've since had the pleasure of having a few tunes with at various Ceilidhs. In February I was still in awe of young talent by taking my - now almost annual - trip to the School of Excellence in Traditional Music in Plockton. My main job there is to help the pupils with Sibelius, they seemed interested! Once that was done, I got a chance to listen to their group work sets and was chuffed to have received a CD in the post from them just before Christmas - it's another belter!</p>
<p>I've had a busy year writing and that continued with a chance to create an idea I've had in my head for a while thanks to the help of <a contents="Distil" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/handsupfortrad/distil/">Distil</a>. A piece about the Weird, unexplained, apocolypitic-esque sounds in the sky that have been heard all round the World for centuries. I intended to use pipes for it but, due to a finger injury, had to leave it in the hands of <a contents="McFall's Chamber" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.mcfalls.co.uk">McFalls' Chamber</a> - loved hearing them play my tune.</p>
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<p>Speaking of the thrill of other people interpreting your tune - Chris Gray did an amazing arrangement of my tune "Lament for Small Isles Bay", was really happy to hear it on Soundcloud! Chris is a Piper, Pianist & Whistle Player from Lockerbie, Scotland. Currently studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow and I love his interpretation of this tune which I deliberately left a lot of up to the imagination of the player.</p>
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<p>March saw me back with the hardest working band in trad music for this first time this year - the <a contents="Tannahill Weavers" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.tannahillweavers.com">Tannahill Weavers</a>. A tour of England is the regular routine at this time of year. Then things got quite surreal and I was off to Finland with <a contents="Mary Ann&nbsp;Kennedy" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.maryannkennedy.co.uk/">Mary Ann Kennedy</a> for the Liet International - a songwriting competition for minority languages. Mary Ann's song is particularly poignant, a song for Maggie MacDonald - family member, bandmate and friend. Maggie was a force and I can't describe her without using a cliche like life and soul - but she was... she even got me on the bridge of CalMac ferry during one of our tours. Hear the song for yourself on Mary Anns recently released album - "An Dan". Here's a photos of the performance from the night.</p>
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<p>Into May and we're off the the US with the Tannahill Weavers. Another busy tour. Looking at the Photos app on my phone it shows I've taken photos in every contiguous (word of the day!) State in the US. There were very many highlights on that tour, particularly for me seeing the Seattle area. Here's a few photos!</p>
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<p>That takes us to a couple of recording sessions in the Summer. The first was a long overdue recording with accordion player Norman MacKay for his new album. I can't wait to hear it! We've been talking about doing it for about 10 years so glad to get one track in particular down, then managed a couple more while I was there.</p>
<p>The next week I was in London for a recording in Abbey Road. I've had meetings there over the years but never actually recorded so that was a great experience to be working with composer <a contents="Thomas Newman" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002353/">Thomas Newman</a> and conducted by <a contents="JAC Redford" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002370/">JAC Redford</a>. It wasn't the most difficult session I've ever done, but I think they were pleased with the result. It was for a short scene in the new movie "Victoria and Abdul" starring Judi Dench.</p>
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<p>Closer to home for the next project with the <a contents="Oban Gaelic Choir" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://obangaelicchoir.co.uk/">Oban Gaelic Choir</a>! They are one of the oldest competition choirs in Gaeldom, and with the fantastic arrangements of Sileas Sinclair they also sound one of the freshest. I loved being a part of the house band along with Archie McAllister and Finlay Wells. I discovered loads of new songs from the area too! Here's the Puirt set!</p>
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<p>After that the Summer was a busy one - which was pretty much constant Festivals and weddings and the likes. As it came to the end I was thrilled to be returning to the Colonsay Music Festival - <a contents="Ceòl Cholasa" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.ceolcholasa.co.uk/">Ceòl Cholasa</a> in it's 10th Year. Colonsay is an Island I'm very fond off, another place where I got to do some gigs as I was just starting out and a community vibe that reminds me very much of home. I had put a band together specifically for the event and it wasn't everyone's cup of tea! I enjoyed the weekend, and here's the finale... a "Colonsay version of an Edinburgh Classic"!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SNlZuMdIBhs?start=54" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>After Colonsay it's straight away to the USA for another tour - New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Ohio, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington then off to Canada and back to Washington. A fantastic tour once again. That was followed by the European tour beginning in Germany and finishing off in Holland. Almost 2 months of straight touring, touring but good. Next year is the band's 50th Anniversary - so there is a lot to celebrate. The new album is near complete and the year starts with a special Concert at Celtic Connections. The line up/set list is near confirmed, but I can assure you you don't want to miss it!</p>
<p>And with that, I hope you are having a great holiday and looking forward to 2018 as much as I am. A year of anniversaries and recording for me! Chuffed to be back working on a few things I'm very passionate about too... Can't wait.</p>
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<p>Signing out for the year with a Christmas time-lapse from Dougall HQ1! x</p>
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<p> </p>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/47039902017-05-10T22:58:39+01:002022-03-16T09:13:13+00:00News GALORE!<p>A couple of clips from the new Whisky Galore movie have appeared online. I was really happy to be part of the soundtrack playing Highland Pipes, Border Pipes and also a specially made chanter to get an unusual scale that one of the pieces was in - see if you can spot it in the film!</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kRRQVcaROhc" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eSyWBrBa7so" width="100%"></iframe></p>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/45307772016-12-30T14:41:43+00:002017-12-28T11:57:41+00:002017 is GO!<p>So that's us at the end of the year already - feels like just a few weeks ago myself and the Tannies were having great fun at the "Just for Gordon" concert at Celtic Connections. Of course Celtic Connections is the next thing in the new year and the new project I'm involved with, Tryst, will be putting on a concert with I think is going to be great. More on that later, but first - here's some videos from the Gordon concert which have been released by the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust - it's great to have them as a keepsake.<br> </p>
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<br>You can read a bit more about that concert in the last blog as well as see the first video they released.<br><br>And here's the big project coming up early 2017 - "Tryst" - <em>The latest pioneering project from Calum MacCrimmon and John Mulhearn’s Big Music Society sees ten contemporary piper/composer/producers commissioned to write new music in the spirit of their instrument’s classical, often ceremonial or commemorative, Ceòl Mòr tradition. Compositions from MacCrimmon, Mulhearn, Finlay MacDonald, Rory Campbell, Ross Ainslie, Ali Hutton, Steven Blake, Lorne MacDougall, James Duncan Mackenzie and Mairearad Green will variously enlist the whole ensemble on additional pipes, instruments and voices.</em><br><br>We've been rehearsing hard - there's everything in there - new notes, unusual time signatures, dynamics - I don't want to spoil but I think it's going to be great! Here is the set we did at the 2016 Scots Trad Music Awards in Dundee a few weeks ago.<br> </div>
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<br>In the last few months some of the sessions I did in the Summer came to fruition - including the tracks from Susan Boyle's new alum - "A Wonderful World". I'm so chuffed to be part of another of her albums, the musicianship and love in making it are second to none. The album was produced by <a contents="Steve Anderson" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://steveandersonproductions.com">Steve Anderson</a> and <a contents="Cliff Masterson" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.cliffmasterson.com">Cliff Masterson</a> - two complete legends who were totally keen to get some subtle Celtic flavours throughout the album. Oh, and of course an entire pipe band for "Mull of Kintyre" - a tune I was excited to record growing up in the area and learning through the original band on Paul McCartney's recording! Here's a track that's one of my favourites - "Angels" - I tried to get the Red Hot Chilli Pipers to do this on every album since Bagrock to the Masses, but they were never up for it!<br> </div>
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<br>And back in November, the session I did for ITV's "Thunderbirds are Go" also aired. The music for this is written by <a contents="Ben and Nick Foster" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3g0eerK8ys">Ben and Nick Foster</a> - two brothers which is appropriate for this series and two total musical gentlemen. I've loved the themes the whole way through the series and to get the score through and realise I got to do the main melody on the pipes was a huge thrill.</div>
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<div>Another session I had the pleasure of being involved with was providing pipes for a Tamil movie by famed film composer <a contents="D Imman" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1300033/">D Imman</a>. Some custom pipes had to be arranged for it - you can hear them here along with Border Pipes and then onto Highland Pipes towards the end!<br> </div>
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<br>And finally, towards the end of the year I supplied pipes for the great Celtic Rock band Coast - they have a new album out very soon and you can hear my pipes and whistles on it. It's called Windmills in the Sky and it's awesome!<br><br> </div>
<div>So that's me clocking off for the new year - Hogmanay will be spent with the brilliant Ewan Robertson and Ryan Young and then New Years Day in Edinburgh with the Tannahill Weavers, Eddi Reader and James Grant.<br><br><strong>NEWS JUST IN - </strong>and finally, I've just found out that the <a contents="Red Hot Chilli Pipers track I produced" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.lornemacdougall.com/news/blog/red-hot-chilli-pipers-343-the-fallen">Red Hot Chilli Pipers track I produced</a> in August was the years most watched video on BBC Scotland Online - that's a great way to round off the year. See you in 2017!!<br> </div>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/43820272016-09-20T23:43:13+01:002023-12-10T16:31:07+00:00Red Hot Chilli Pipers - 343 The Fallen<p>A few weeks ago I was producing a new single for the Red Hot Chilli Pipers’ - 343 The Fallen. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/8de9298c39bed625cedd72f33d5c3ce6707e8ee9/medium/maxresdefault-2.jpg?1474411052" class="size_m justify_left border_" />15 years since the terrorist atrocities which took place in New York and beyond on September 11th 2001, recently retired Scottish Fireman and Red Hot Chilli Piper, Willie Armstrong has got together with Fire Department of NewYork (FDNY) Pipe Major Jimmy Lee to record a special track composed to remember the 343 Firefighters that lost their lives when the twin towers fell on that fateful day. </p>
<p>I have many friends who are firefighters, I’ve played in bands with them and had sessions in pubs with them - I have no words to show the respect I have for their bravery, dedication and selflessness so I was glad to be able to show it through music. </p>
<p>Willie Armstrong and Jimmy Lee have been firm friends since Jimmy invited The Red Hot Chilli Pipers over to New York in 2007 to do a fundraising concert for the families of the victims from the Fire Department of New York. </p>
<p>When Willie heard the tune ‘The Fallen’ composed by Pipe Major RS MacDonald to honour the FDNY Firefighters lost at 9/11 he was so moved he knew he had to do something special with it. </p>
<p>Willie gathered a few of his fellow Red Hot Chilli Pipers and, along with Jimmy and pipers from New York, they recorded the track. They also designed and filmed an emotional video which accompanies the track and honours the sacrifice that Firefighters make on both sides of the pond. </p>
<p>I was lucky enough to have the full creative control of the single in terms of arrangement, instrumentation and sound. At the start of the project, I blocked out a few days to stay in Carradale and start demoing my ideas for the structure of the track and the sound. I’m a terrible piano player and singer but I had ideas in my head that I wanted to get out and be played by professionals so I recorded them and sent them on to be interpreted and improved on! The whole thing came about, for me, when I was in the airport with Red Hot Chilli Piper director Willie Armstrong - it was just a coincidence we were on the same delayed flight to Toronto (drunk pilots!) - we got chatting about how to make something really special. I began thinking about what sort of sound we’d want. I thought it had to be dramatic. Willie kept using words like “epic” and “hollywood” so I though we would need to find a way of involving a string orchestra. We needed to use a pipe band, an ensemble of pipers who have player or currently do play with the Chilli Pipers. I thought it would be nice to include some samples from the streets of New York so we got them sent over - genuine from NY recorded the day before we recording the single. </p>
<p>As soon as an idea gets into my head, I start writing. I had some lines in my head for the strings, and the vocal part and put it all together roughly. Seonaid Aitken was the string arranger, who I worked with before, she’s invaluable - she makes sense of some real rough ideas I send her and she sends the back fully formed arrangements and fills in some of the massive gaps that I leave. I use two pieces of software - Logic, for the ideas sessions and then onto Sibelius to score them more clearly and get a more solid structure. <br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/ed8ad9357328575da7ba4a78ec638c3c7055b36f/original/screen-shot-2016-09-20-at-13-37-01.png?1474411117" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/2c16ae159c5bdd047c75013fea0e26b2b96ae691/original/screen-shot-2016-09-20-at-13-25-24.png?1474411113" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>The tone of any piece is where I try to start - this couldn’t just be a sad piece, it also had to be strong, proud and uplifting. It’s always tough to keep a piece of music like this interesting for over 5 minutes but with a few wee techniques I think we managed it. It’s a strange thing recording, a few things happened by accident. The pipers’ were supposed to sing the vocal part and it was never supposed to be so angelic but we ran out of time - about 8 hours before the next session I put a post on Facebook to see if anyone wanted to help out and I ended up with two of the best voices in Gaelic music - Rachel Walker and Darren MacLean - as well as Seonaid taking a break from the strings and adding to the beauty! <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/2e87ea4a898c8eb93385387739e7f6bba7714360/original/screen-shot-2016-09-20-at-13-37-41.png?1474411236" class="size_l justify_center border_" />It was also surreal to be conducting the group of pipers - which included two of my all time heroes; the composer, RS MacDonald, and also Robert Mathieson - one of the most successful Pipe Majors of recent times. A bit comic having to tell him to get back into rank when he wandered off to fine tune! </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/3d3bef8282a4d64f035e21719386a90a6a05facf/original/screen-shot-2016-09-20-at-15-42-40.png?1474411378" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><br>Chilli Pipers’ piano player Gary O’Hagan added an extra layer of class to it with his beautiful piano lines and playing and the bands’ snare drummer Grant Cassidy added the military beat of the snare drum. I forgot to send him any reference and what was recorded was slightly different to what I had in mind, but it worked better and gave it more light and shade. </p>
<p>There were times when I thought maybe I got the whole thing wrong - theres always doubt. Even down to things like the tempo of the tune, a couple of beats per minute can make a big difference to the emotional impact so it’s been massively reassuring to see all the comments on the video and I thank every single one of you who player a note, contributed to the arrangement or moved a fader. And of course, to everyone who’s bough the single so far. </p>
<p>Thanks to everyone involved we managed to get up to No 84 in the UK singles chart, and No 2 in the UK Rock chart! The videos been viewed by more than 1.5 million people - thank you all so much! I don’t think this is the last we’ve heard of this either… :)</p>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/43786312016-06-14T14:45:00+01:002017-01-16T17:14:07+00:00Summer Sessions<p>Once again the Summer has totally caught up with me and it seems so surreal to think that Celtic Connections was already half a year ago! That's where I'll start this blog looking back to the "Just for Gordon" Concert that took place at that very festival. It was an enormous thrill to be invited by the Musical Directors Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton to take part in the show with the Tannahill Weavers. They came up with the great idea that we do one set on our own (including Gordon's most well known tune "Andy Renwick's Ferret") and also invite two of the finest Argyllshire pipers ever - Stuart Liddell and Angus McColl - to join us for a set taken straight from Gordon's "Just for Seaumus" album. Add Bouzouki player Ross Kennedy who did the original recording and then the backing band towards the end and it made for a thrilling experience. I also got the chance to take part in another couple of sets later on in the evening too! Here's one of the videos of our set from the concert. </p>
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<p><br>I've been enjoying teaching recently in Oban - I was lucky enough to do part of Feis Lathurna and also weekly tuition at Oban High School's Trad Group - I started doing that in January and just finished the term off with a concert last week - it was amazing! The standard in Oban is very high and on par with anywhere else in the country I think! </p>
<p>The Tannahill Weavers have been really busy too with whom I've been playing with - there have been three tours in the first half of this year; two UK ones and a US tour all of which were great - in fact, here's a wee clip of one of the gigs here! The last one we did was a UK tour and we started it off with a wee bit of promo on STV's "Live at Five" show - here's a clip of one of the tune sets. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lf4WFeZH5wo" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>In March I got to revisit the soundtrack to "Brave" with the RSNO being conducted by the legendary Richard Kaufman. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/b4961fd5066f4cd8561b8427378fe1e23efc7ed9/original/12806073-10153554857410892-7503759616422134937-n-300x225.jpg?1474235598" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="Surprising the audience with the RSNO at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall. " /></p>
<p>I've also been involved in a lot of recording in the Spring. It's hard to believe it's been 4 years since I worked on the soundtrack to "Brave" with Patrick Doyle but it was great to get a call from his people again to record Highland Pipes and Border Pipes on the new remake of the classic film "Whisky Galore". We had a fun session in London recording all the cues and even got a tune named after me! I recorded it along with other trad options for that particular scene so it'll be interesting to see if it makes the final cut! </p>
<p>I also got a message from Ben Foster, who conducted me at the Doctor Who at the Proms Concert in 2013, to record some pipes for the new series of the cult children's TV show "Thunderbirds Are Go" which he and his brother, Nick, compose the music for - another great honour! More recently, last week, I was in the studio recording on 3 tracks for Susan Boyle's new album - there's some fairly experimental stuff on it, so I'm really interested to hear how it turns out. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/baf858da11de3bf50d49a638cb32830e3396af60/original/thumb-img-4477-1024-150x150.jpg?1474235679" class="size_orig justify_left border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/4793c81906a00e0239564adcc38757d3b6ef077a/original/img-5045-150x150.jpg?1474235678" class="size_orig justify_left border_" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/d5b0f192de8070b0ef16797e9def564d4d69a194/original/img-5005-150x150.jpg?1474235678" class="size_orig justify_left border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Anyway - back to practice - I've an upcoming gig at the Gigha Music Festival at the end of June followed by some solo piping stuff and a performance with "Sketch" - until next time, here's a terrible picture of the glorious view from my window right now in Carradale, Argyll! </p>
<p>Looking up the Kilbrannan Sound.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/759dbe26b75aed937bfff9df6783aa3e454b1639/large/img-5083-768x1024.jpg?1474235827" class="size_l justify_center border_medium" alt="" /></p>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/28988812014-03-25T22:44:25+00:002020-11-11T10:49:37+00:00It’s a Small World 50th Anniversary<p>I recently got an email with this as a brief;<br><br><em>"We’ll be celebrating the anniversary on April 10 but we’ve already kicked off the worldwide celebration. People from more than 25 countries, including bagpipers in Scotland, Bollywood movie actors in India, a firefighter in New York City, and members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, came together to create a first worldwide “it’s a small world” video."</em><br><br>Well, that was an interesting project to be involved with! I was asked to perform some pipes for Disney’s celebration of the song “It’s a Small World”. They also asked me to think up a location that would suit the “Highland” brief that they had so I chose the Rest and Be Thankful in Argyll. A part of Scotland which I pass almost weekly on the way home or back to Glasgow.</p>
<p>Originally the pipe part was in C Major! This worried be, but I quickly got looking at options for playing in C. I knew that if I taped my C and F holes on my A Moore Chanter then I could get a C Major scale, but it would start half way up the chanter! Luckily, the tune managed to fit on it like this so the next thing to think about was the drones. My friends at Pipedreams Reeds sorted me out with a shorted tenor drone reed which made it tune lower and the Bass was able to tune low enough anyway and the result you can head in the attached podcast for this blog.</p>
<p>Do remember it wasn’t ideal conditions for playing pipes either on a wet, sleety hillside in February! You can see the finished video here;</p>
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<p> </p>0:40Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/28988822014-01-13T20:12:35+00:002020-11-06T12:24:45+00:00So long 2013, Hello 2014<p>It’s been 6 months since the last new post, and it has been a truly amazing 6 months!</p>
<p>August was, as usual, a crazy month with the World Pipe Band Championships and much more. But, before that, I was off to Derry to take part in the Derry Feis with the Campbells of Greepe. It’s the North West’s largest celebration of Irish musical culture celebrating Irish language, verse and drama, as well as the famous Irish Dancing competition and vocal choirs. We had a couple of events there, including a very wet one out in the street, but both were great fun to take part in. Oh, and their CD should be released this month! The shows were both broadcast online, here’s one of the sets from the main concert with myself on C Smallpipes.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/73334424?color=ffffff" width="500"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/73334424">The Campbells of Greepe ‘Maighdeannan, MacShìthich, Dà Thàbh, Fear a’ Choire’ at Fleadh Live</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user20150591">Fleadh Cheoil</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/58cfeace4ef76e41d32bc1b8e8e859f24b032625/large/1157644-10153171529445691-661440012-n.jpg?1401537020" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /><br><br>Unusually, for me, being in Derry meant that I missed quite a lot of the World Pipe Band Championships week and also Piping Live but I did manage to make it back on the Thursday for a wee play at the Street Cafe. Also that week was the premiere of a show I had been involved with since May called “This is Ceilidh” at the Edinburgh festival which involved me having a pipe off with the all girl pipes and drum group “Skirls Aloud”. Here’s a wee clip from the rest of the Ceilidh.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5UygyPZkTs8" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>On the 6th November, we finally launched Breathe – the new album by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers which I coproduced and performed on then it was off for a 3 week tour of Austria and some of the surrounding countries with Joy Dunlop. I was then back to London to put together and perform music for the unveiling of a new sculpture for the Famous Grouse Whisky company. An unlikely group of musicians signifying classical, rock, jazz and folk got together and performed the Beatles’ song “Come together” as well as pieces from our individual genres, it was surreal – but worked well, I think.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/6c9509797bb83f3161842b30ca2e204321dd55af/original/9d7fbc295657824f11e2d4228d0326d6.jpg?1401537228" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Onto the Winter and I’m off on a tour with a band who I have listened and loved since I got into Traditional Music – the Tannahill Weavers. I was thrilled to join them on this short tour of the Netherlands before hopefully joining them for more music in 2014. As ever, some of the gigs were caught on camera so here are some clips that I have been sent. As usual, including some very unflattering angles!</p>
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<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8CxRRfvG18w" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p>On returning from the Netherlands I was thrilled to be revisiting the score from Brave as part of Patrick Doyle’s 60th Birthday celebration alongside Emma Thompson, Derek Jacobi on stage and countless other celebs in the audience. It was also great to be once again playing with the thrill of an Orchestra, this time the London Symphony Orchestra.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" lang="en">
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/lornemacd">@lornemacd</a> so looking forward to hearing those pipes again! The audience is going to love it.</p>
<p>— London Symphony Orch (@londonsymphony) <a href="https://twitter.com/londonsymphony/statuses/407090629886234624">December 1, 2013</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>A couple of reviews have been sent to me.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being a bit of a Pixar lover as well (who isn’t, really?), I really enjoyed the “Brave: Suite,” which featured a selection of snippits from the film score. Featuring Lorne MacDougall and Callum Stewart (on the bagpipes and uilleann pipes, respectively), the music took me back to the movie itself. It was quite fun to listen to – and to be honest, I’m growing more fond of the bagpipes the more I hear them.</p>
<p><strong>The Sound of London</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Further standout moments came with a lengthy and very colourful suite from Pixar’s <em>Brave</em>, with glorious piping from Lorne MacDougall and Calum Stewart (Bagpipes and Uilleann Pipes respectively).</p>
<p><strong>Michael Beek</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/ed5ab6e8db47eae620bae1a475e5c67c65e14bce/large/babohm8igaeh-vs-large.jpg?1401537161" class="size_l justify_center border_none" alt="Final bow at the end of the night." /><br>Then things calmed down into December, where I have been spending a lot of time on my New Voices commission at Celtic Connections – there’s a lot of work still to be done but I’m really looking forward to it all coming together. It takes place at the Mitchel Theatre in Glasgow at 1pm on 26th January.</p>
<blockquote><p>Today’s première of Collisions sees him playing six different varieties of bagpipe, accompanied by guitars, strings, bass, percussion and vocals, exploring and reconfiguring his instrument’s diverse stylistic guises from Gaelic song to gothic rock, solo competition to contemporary folk.</p></blockquote>
<p>I’ve got some very special guests also!</p>
<p>So, Happy New Year to everyone – hope 2014 is a good one for you all and I hope to be playing for you at some point through out it!</p>
<p> </p>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/28988862013-07-24T11:37:23+01:002020-11-11T09:31:39+00:00“I wish he’d never discovered that place…”<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="font_large"><em><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/6d29b39d3efa94586da1bccf010dca19c1a5bc20/medium/tumblr-mn3ga3iogr1qcc38qo1-500.png?1400592652" class="size_m justify_right border_thick" alt="" /></em></span><em><strong>VASTRA: WHERE’S STRAX GOT TO?<br>JENNY: THE USUAL. IT’S HIS WEEKEND OFF.<br>VASTRA: I WISH HE’D NEVER DISCOVERED THAT PLACE…</strong></em>
</div>
<hr><div style="text-align: justify;">
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/dc9c94577d1697f5e949e43f9a81312c127bb3a0/small/996810-10151569764705892-387705780-n.jpg?1400592247" class="size_s justify_left border_thick" alt="" />Speaking of Victorian Glasgow, I am very glad he did as it gave Doctor Who composer Murray Gold the excuse to take me to London to perform at the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who Prom. I’ve been making Murray aware of my existance as a Doctor Who loving bagpiper for many years now, hoping this unlikely opportunity may arise. To my joy, after a short spell of logistic and admin organizing, it did.<br><br>The piece was short, but essentially a 6/8 battle march version of the 11th Doctor’s theme forming part of a suite of music from the most recent TV episode “The Name of the Doctor”. The scene involved Strax, the Sontaran, having a bar fight in a Glasgow pub in 1893.<br><br>Written in Am, the guys wanted the look of Highland Pipes so I used my A Chanter from Hamish Moore and some new accessories from MG Reeds and McCallum Bagpipes to extend the drones.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/1f828abfe88077acbac1e97647eb047b9998bfce/small/67895-10151570050275892-600736082-n.jpg?1400592321" class="size_s justify_right border_thick" alt="" />After the first run through I had a chat with Ben Foster, conductor and orchestrator, who surprised me when he told me there some Scottish blood in him and loved the pipes – he was also a big fan of “Oor Wullie”! A semi-joke of a comment at the organising stage from orchestrator to composer had been what sparked the whole idea of having live pipes in the show!<br><br>All in all, I only performed the piece four times between rehearsals and gigs but what an experience it was to be hanging about backstage with the Doctor Who cast and crew from all 50 years of the show, I met a lot of great people from the show and it’s house band, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the London Philharmonic Choir. One of the Choir members made the moment even more surreal when he produced his “Sight Readable Ceol Mor” Book from his bag – a book of classic bagpipe scores!<div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/070262e88e8bd81a87b5b4ade4da9d0f2456c0ee/original/1017703-10151583447020892-167235887-n.jpg?1400592386" class="size_orig justify_center border_" alt="The picture above shows Jenna Coleman (Clara), Matt Smith (The Doctor), Carol Anne Ford (Susan), Ben Foster (Conductor, Orchestrator), Peter Davison (The Fifth Doctor), Neeve McIntosh (Vastra), Dan Starkey (Strax), Kerri Ingram (Queen of Years), Elin Manahan Thomas, Allan Clayton, Nick Briggs (Voice of the Daleks, Cybermen, Judoon, etc), me and Murray Gold (Composer)." /><p class="caption"><span class='font_small'>The picture above shows Jenna Coleman (Clara), Matt Smith (The Doctor), Carol Anne Ford (Susan), Ben Foster (Conductor, Orchestrator), Peter Davison (The Fifth Doctor), Neeve McIntosh (Vastra), Dan Starkey (Strax), Kerri Ingram (Queen of Years), Elin Manahan Thomas, Allan Clayton, Nick Briggs (Voice of the Daleks, Cybermen, Judoon, etc), me and Murray Gold (Composer).</span></p></div>
<br>I can’t thank these guys enough for this opportunity – unlikely though it was!<br><br>The show went out live on BBC Radio 3 and will be broadcast on BBC One this Autumn. In the meantime, here’s a video of the piece from the audience. :)</div>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/28988872013-07-04T23:39:11+01:002017-01-16T17:14:06+00:00Christmas in Spring<p>The week after Easter and I’m delighted to be heading over the the Eurofonic Festival in Nantes, France with Mànran for a couple of days to perform on pipes with them. It’s the new A chanter I got from Hamish Moore, and I love it!<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/b3f9a090622656990fba65b696cdeb8ee30f9145/medium/susan-boyle.jpg?1401535041" class="size_m justify_left border_thick" alt="" /></p>
<p>Later on in May and I’m excited by a phone call from a well know London musical director. After a good bit of rummaging around the internet and putting 2 + 2 together, I get a few different numbers before realizing that this guy is representing the one and only Susan Boyle! So, into the studio I go to record the pipes for a festive track from her new album, released later this year. More on that in a future blog as I’m not sure how much I’m actually allowed to talk about just now!</p>
<p>Also in May, we finally finish off the new album from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers which I have been co-producing, arranging and performing on. It’s been given the title “Breathe” which I think is a great name for the album, representing the fresh and energetic vibe that I think the listeners will get. Here’s a wee preview track below.</p>
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<p>Mid May and I’m off to Germany with the Linzi Murphy Band, there’s some great songs in the set list and some good tunes sets also. We’re playing second last on the Friday night but are over for a few days extra on each side, so we make friends with the Hotel owner and have a great time in the hotel.</p>
<p>The Noufest is a big deal in my home village of Carradale, and I am pleased to have been asked to perform at it both in a ceremonial way and also for a few concert sets on the Saturday night. The Noufest is a celebration festival of Naioma Mithceson who lived in the village from early last century. It’s inspired me to pick up one of her books from eBay and I’m thrilled to see that it’s from the Kent Public Library and the first stamp on it is October 1987. It’s still in great condition, and the story involve faeries, pipers and magic set in a place inspired by Carradale. Maybe my iPad will be given a rest for a few weeks.</p>
<p>I’ve been workshopping for a gig at the Edinburgh Festival called “Ceilidh!”. We had two days of workshopping it in Edinburgh at the end of May to put sets together, and it’s become a very entertaining show with music, comedy and dance. It’s on the 12th August in Edinburgh at the <a href="http://www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk/events/ceilidh">Edinburgh Festival</a>.</p>
<p>I’m back to Arran in June which is one of my most favourite festivals, especially with absolutely stunning weather like the weather we got for this one. It’s back with Linzi Murphy, the whole set was recorded so here’s a video of one of my favorite songs we do – “Erin Go Bragh”.</p>
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<p>Another Island for a festival a few weeks later and it’s back to Gigha, where I regularly go. This time I’m off to perform at the Ceilidh and, as usual, it’s so much craic. But I have to leave early as I have to make it up to Watercolour to begin playing on the second album by the Campbells of Grepe, led by Mary Ann Kennedy. Armed with all my whistles, smallpipes and more, it’s a real thrill to put down some colours around the already great music along with Finlay Wells on Guitar and Ewan Burton on bass. Here’s a wee timelapse video of us in the studio.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/i9Kc0kpRsLM" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>So, that takes us to the end of June – there’s a lot to look forward in July. A John Martyn Celebration concert coming up in Carradale I have to be practicing (piano!) parts for, then there’s something very special on the 11th which is literally a dream come true. I think I’ll probably have to dedicate an entire blog to my experiences performing at the Doctor Who Prom in the Albert Hall on the 13th and 14th of July. So, until then… Sontar-HA!</p>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/29840502013-04-02T12:45:00+01:002017-02-04T05:04:12+00:00Easter EggcitmentWell that's hopefully the Winter over with. We had terrible weather and a five day long power cut at home for the last week in March - luckily though, I wasn't there as intended as the road was also closed due to epic snow drifts and I had to remain in Glasgow. Lot's of good things happened since the new year though, starting with a lot of fun at the Celtic Connections Festival. I piped at the door for the guys going into the Opening Concert and was invited in to enjoy the show, it was amazing! Too many highlights to mention, but the New Rope String Band's performance of Donald MacLeod's "The Duck" was completely unexpected, and to hear Scottish Power Pipe Band along with the great Capercaille were among the thrills for me. I did get a chance to do a lot of performing throughout the festival also. Myself and Ross Kennedy did a duo gig at The Piping Centre alongside Donald Black. I got sent this review from the Scratchy Noises web site;<blockquote><em>Lorne’s set of tunes was interspersed with some songs from his accompanying bouzouki player, which I always prefer to just tunes. Magnificent playing on small pipes and low D whistle. Hearing such quality of playing leaves me caught in the middle between being inspired to get mine out and practice more/some and giving it up and throwing them in the fire.</em></blockquote>Later on, I was thrilled to be able to play with Carlos Nunez and the RSNO! It was as part of a smaller version of a large piping group I am involved with (more on that project soon!). It was a phenomenal night, and we all really enjoyed it! Here is a video from the audience; <br><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g6J6wW95W4I" width="560"></iframe><br>After Celtic Connections, things quietened down a little bit for gigs to make room for getting into the rehearsal and recording studios with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers for their new album. Once again I was heavily involved in pulling some of the pieces together and am getting to work with some great musicians to produce what I think is the best music the Chilli Pipers have produced. You can get <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/b12140100f245af779fab01cde244480abcbd433/medium/screen-shot-2013-04-02-at-12-06-37-300x168.png?1401536584" class="size_m justify_left border_thick" alt="" />hold of the previous albums <a href="http://www.lornemacdougall.com/?wpsc_product_category=red-hot-chilli-pipers">here</a>. I don't want to say too much about the content of the album, but there's some really good stuff on it - both in terms of songs you will know and also new sets of tunes all with the recognisable Chilli twist. It's a wee while before the CD is released, so check back for more news soon.<br><br>End of February saw three gigs with Joy Dunlop touring Argyll to promote her new album "Faileasan" ending up with a home gig in Carradale Village Hall to a great turn out. Check out reviews and clips from the album and some concert videos on <a href="http://www.joydunlop.com">Joy's own web site</a> or you can get hold of a copy of the album <a href="http://www.lornemacdougall.com/?post_type=wpsc-product&p=649%20">here</a>.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/07708e765ae26f3994a1e033b097bfdeaf45579f/large/screen-shot-2013-04-02-at-13-25-11.png?1401536541" class="size_xl justify_center border_" />March has once again been spent in the recording studio with the Chilli Pipers with a few breaks to judge the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Juniors Competition (a scary experience!) as well as some teaching. I also featured for a few seconds on a new BBC Drama Shetland as part of the session band. Unlikely though it is to hear BorderPipes in the Lerwick Lounge in Shetland, I definitely have had a tune in there in real life on at least one occasion! March finished off in Partick Folk Club with a wee gig for the Linzi Murphy trio. I'm looking forward to a few gigs with a bigger version of this band throughout the Summer. I'm now off to get rehearsing my parts for playing with Mánran at the Europhonic Festival in Nantes on Saturday, there will be clips from that on the next blog I'm sure, so until then I'll leave you with this video from the Partick Folk Club gig! :)<br><br><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3CIms0Lv-MQ" width="560"></iframe>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/29840652012-10-26T13:20:00+01:002017-02-04T05:04:13+00:00Colonsay and Strike-InnsWell that's the first snow on the hills of Arran this week, which means that we are well and truly moving into the Winter, but the Autumn has been a lot of fun. August finished off with a three day tour of Argyll with Joy Dunlop which was much fun and great to see some busy venues in Oban, Dunoon and Tobermory.<br> <div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/d3901012e95251abca815dd1bfeb9eef1884d47c/medium/admin-ajax-php-3.jpeg?1401538749" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">The Finale of the 2012 Colonsay Music Festival</p></div><br>The middle of September took me to Colonsay for the full Colonsay Music Festival, Ceol Cholasa - I'm not sure how I managed to survive 5 whole days but it was one of the best festivals that I have had the pleasure of playing at for a while, and loved the local beers from the Colonsay Brewery! As well as a solo workshop/concert I also enjoyed playing with Manran and testing out my new Hamish Moore A440 Chanter alongside Calum Stewart on Uillean Pipes, all went well! Speaking of Uillean Pipes, I finally got an Uillean Chanter from Ray Sloan which I've been after for a while. Here's my progress after one day practicing it and taking lessons from the Online Academy of Irish Music which is fantastic.<br><br><object data="http://abfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/swf/fullsize_player.swf" height="129" id="boo_embed_975504" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"><param name="quality" value="high">
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<iframe allowtransparency="allowtransparency" cellspacing="0" frameborder="0" hspace="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://audioboo.fm/boos/975504-an-sean-duine/embed" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; display: block; width: 400px; height: 145px;" title="Audioboo player" vspace="0"></iframe></object><br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/42141557a6ad5580839060278b948b774bf335a9/medium/admin-ajax-php-4.jpeg?1401538693" class="size_m justify_left border_thick" alt="" />9 pipers from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers performing 9 part harmony!<br><br>Later on in the month I went down to London with a Chilli Piper supergroup of 9 of us to perform a piece written by Julia Wolfe called "Lad". It's a piece that people either seem to love or hate, and I really liked it - though it is VERY experimental making use of unusual techniques on the pipes like chirping bird sounds, trailing drones and strike ins.<br><br><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F64878954&show_artwork=true" width="100%"></iframe>Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/29840692012-08-24T13:30:00+01:002017-02-04T05:04:13+00:00Piping Live! 2012A massive thanks to the organisers of this years' Glasgow International Piping Festival for inviting me along for a few bits and pieces. The week started off with a short set in their Street Cafe with Ross Kennedy on bozouki, then onto rehearsals with Duncan Lyall who was off down south for a couple of gigs after. Rehearsals went great, so then pints happened but just a few as we were on the Street Cafe again the next day. On the Tuesday we played at the Street Cafe and really enjoyed a set from <strong>Zephyrus</strong> who were also on. It was time for me to take a bit of time out until the next thing I had to worry about which was rehearsals on Friday with a full band. In between times I met with the band individually to go over some stuff. Friday's rehearsal went good, so things were looking good for sharing the stage with the Vatersay Boys at the Old Fruitmarket on the Saturday. The sound check went well, and then so did the gig. It was the first time since Celtic Connections the year before that I got the chance to put the full 6 piece band together, and I loved it!<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/a24770e7a101df22aeba7ffb7dab72b99815c489/large/admin-ajax-php-5.jpeg?1401539390" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /><br>And, here's a wee video from the crowd...<br><br><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HjHME53h1d8" width="620"></iframe> <br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/0842a4504b3165766b82a2f9b734cc5fc6df63ad/medium/admin-ajax-php-6.jpeg?1401539394" class="size_m justify_right border_thick" alt="" />On Sunday we had even more fun playing at Don Bradford's party in the Park Bar - this is about the 8th time we've done it and pulled some of the guys from the band together for it. So a huge thank you to Piping Live again and also to Don for having his party again - such a brilliant week of piping all round, sadly though I didn't actually make it to the World Pipe Band Championships on the Saturday! :(Lorne MacDougalltag:lornemacdougall.com,2005:Post/29840642012-07-03T13:15:00+01:002021-10-26T08:51:30+01:00Hello Merida!Well, that's Brave finally out and into the world and I am able to speak a wee bit more freely about my involvement in the film. Not that there was any great secrecy with it to start with, but you can't be too careful when it comes to spoilers! I got a phone call in November to see if I would be available to arrange and record some pipe parts for Disney Pixar's latest potential blockbuster. The composer, Patrick Doyle, had tried to get in touch with my friend and Chilli colleague Stuart Cassells, but he was unavailable and passed the opportunity onto me. At the time, it could have simply been a few bars of pipe music for all I knew but I was still very excited! Stuart let me know he had passed them onto me, so I anxiously stared at the phone for days after. "A watched phone never rings" so they say as I discovered when I left it in my room while having dinner to discover a couple of missed calls from a London number. Doh! However, after trying not to seem to desperate in phoning back I managed to get through to the composer's people who explained the part. The tunes were composed and I had to arrange them onto the pipes, do a little bit of trouble shooting with keys and notes and then perform them. Some of the tracks represented four onscreen pipers, so I was asked to sort out another three pipers to join me. Friends from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers were the obvious choice.<br> <div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/69f559dd32a91c2dc700150da638cdafe1413397/medium/admin-ajax-php.jpeg?1401538257" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">Some of the scores we were working from.</p></div><br>So, Sibelius files trickled through and I got to work on them - perfect examples of Scottish music in an orchestral context; jigs, strathspeys, laments, marches - they were all there! And so, a few weeks later we were off to London by train with the sheet music and electric pipes out doing some last minute perfecting. It didn't take long for us to get off the train and along to the studio. Air Lyndhurst Studios to be precise - where some of the greatest albums and soundtracks of all time were recorded. And where, as I found out from Doctor Who composer Murray Gold, the soundtrack to the Christmas special was being recorded the next day. As if things weren't exciting enough. This session was making use of all 4 pipers, so we quickly got to work tuning up. We did some takes and, understandably, Patrick wanted a more rawer and wilder sound. Realistically, I don't think pipers in medieval Scotland would be fixed with moisture control systems and HBT2 Tuners! So we roughened the sound, and loosened the playing a little bit to sound a bit more like a classic older pipe recording. I think we did that well now I listen back. We played some tracks just as pipers and some with the London Symphony Orchestra - Amazing! We also spent some time fooling about to get some comic noises for incidents in the film that I won't spoil for you. Director Mark Andrews and Producer Katherin Sarafain were also in the session and Mark was particularly hands on when it came to getting the comedy sounds he was after. The session was finished early and we had some time before the sleeper train home, so we spent a little while chatting with the team. Such amazing passion for their work and love and appreciation of Scotland. A day that I was terrified off turned into one of the most enjoyable days ever! A few months pass and it's now getting into 2012 and the email comes through from Patrick's people again for another session. Of course, I am once again excited! The same process begins with files being swapped, arrangements made and tunes learned and we're off to London again! Again, the sets were done early, and I even had time to do a little bit of improvisation in "Song of Mor 'du" led by Billy Connolly which I'm ecstatic to hear made it to the final soundtrack! So that was it, a few months wait until the film is released while catching small glimpses of the movie and clips from the soundtrack from various promotional sites.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/137826/dfdc1a91e2f4cb3c1340faac3b1cac8d549b7ec6/medium/admin-ajax-php-2.jpeg?1401538261" class="size_m justify_left border_thick" alt="" />Last weekend in June now and, after performing the longest Orcadian Strip the Willow ever (unofficially, at 67 mins) at the Gigha Music Festival and I'm now off to the Premiere in Edinburgh with an unnerving amount of ferry/bus/taxi connections! I made it OK and in good time, get changed and enjoy watching the celebs roll in. Kelly MacDonald, Robbie Coltraine (who gave me a wink and a dance), Kevin McKidd, Craig Fergusson and Patrick Doyle. Patrick even clocked me and introduced me to the autograph hunting crowd, what a gem! An odd day turns even more surreal when I'm requested to go visit the First Minister, Alex Salmond! Of course I did, and had a lovely evening with him and his family.<br><br>Next Day, it's the Inverness Highland premiere and I finally get to see the complete movie. 3D glasses at the ready, with a stunning warm up from Julie Fowlis who sings the two main songs in the film. As expected, Julie has done a great job with the songs and is a fantastic ambassador for Gaelic music. So the film, wow - amazing, great story, warm characters, funny, witty, sad, moving, it's all there and it's very much set in Scotland. I'm sure people may even recognise the inspiration in certain parts of the film. The opening sequence took my breath away, and even a few days after the screening I'm still not sure if I've got it back enough to play my pipes again! Go see it!<br><br><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="ejnv452-h44" data-video-thumb-url="http://img.youtube.com/vi/ejnv452-h44/0.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ejnv452-h44?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="400" width="640" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe>Lorne MacDougall