Details of this years event:

Thursday 29th September            7.00 pm

St Margaret’s Church and Hall, Gallowgate, Aberdeen

Gallowgate Doric Celebration 

in Memory of Dean John Skinner (1721-1807)

 

Dorothy Taylor,                Compere

Anna and Karin Frost,     fiddle and flute

St Machar Academy

Matthew Adam,              sangs

Holly Beattie,               bagpipes

Georgia Pithie                 poem

Fearghal McCartan          harp

Grainne Smith                    verse

Sheena Blackhall               sangs and stories

Emsley Nimmo                 Tullochgorm

Charles Beaton               poem

Mattie Douglas                   poem

Ruari and Scott McAllister sangs and drums

Cheryl Watson                      sangs

Elsie Gardiner                       sangs

 

Tickets £ 7 includes tea and biscuits   

for more details on all the whole festival please visit www.thedoricfestival.com

 

Every Year, at St Margaret’s, we take part in the Doric Festival.


Here is a review of last year’s which brought a variety of performers of all ages to our church and hall:


Tullochgorum Evening at St Margaret’s


We held our annual ‘Tullochgorum’ Evening to celebrate the life of Dean John Skinner on 8th October 2010, once again organised by Barbara Grant. It was highly enjoyable with a vast array of talented musicians and performers taking the floor in the church and later on in the hall.


Dorothy Taylor compered the evening and got us in the mood for spikkin’ in the Doric by calling out various Doric expressions to get us in the mood.


Sheena Blackhall, Makar of Aberdeen and North East Scotland  performed  a couple of songs written especially for the occasion –‘St Margaret’s Kirk’ and ‘The Doric Festival’ as well as the traditional ‘He Wadna Wint His Gruel’ , all of which were brilliant. Her witty and humorous poetry really brought laughter to the aisles of the church.


Louise Counsell , suffering from a cold , struggled to be heard vocally, but her fiddle tunes more than compensated for that....Graeme White and Irene Watt brought the unusual combination of clarsach and harmonica to their version of Scott Skinner’s ‘Hector The Hero’ and  also performed a song by Dundee singer/songwriter , Michael Marra .
I particularly enjoyed Ellen Aitken‘s a capella rendition of ‘Ailein Duinn’ ( Dark Alan)  - from the film ‘Rob Roy’ , and the trio of young musicians she played in with Sam Lowit and Kirsty Miller, who played mandolin and guitar along with Ellen’s fiddle.


Charles Beaton read the poetry of Charles Murray whose work I remember from my childhood, and Father Emsley recited ‘Tullochgorum’ and told us a bit about Dean John Skinner, who was contemporaneous with Robert Burns.
We adjourned to the hall for soup and cheese and the second half of the evening.


Sheena Blackhall entertained us with her Doric quiz and more poems, and later gave out poetry booklets as prizes. Feargal McCartan had us spellbound with his reels, jigs and airs played on the clarsach, from the repertoires of Ian Hardie and Alasdair Fraser among others. Fiddler Sandy Tweddle played up a storm with a rousing brace of traditional tunes.


We all joined hands and sang ‘Auld Lang Syne ‘, to round off  what had been an evening full of highlights.
I look forward to next year’s Tullochgorum night, and hope we can build on our past success and encourage more people to come along next year!


Mark Pithie