Sincere thanks to everyone who supported me this year through attending gigs, buying music and generally engaging. It is much appreciated.

So, have a rejuvenating winterval and I shall see you all in the New Year.

It’s Richard’s Dragonfly J (Small Jumbo) shape with a cutaway in cedar and rosewood, braced specifically for low tunings. Check out Richard’s website at www.osborneguitars.co.uk

Later on in the afternoon we’re soundchecking again, this time for an opening slot in the Concert Hall before Seth Lakeman and Fisherman’s Friends. This gig’s being filmed by Sky Arts and so camera angles and stage positions are checked along with the sound. Before we know it showtime has arrived. The response from the audience – while not quite as exuberant as that of the kids in the morning – is enthusiastic nonetheless, and looking around at the rest of the band it’s clear everyone is relishing the experience.

Thursday 27th brings our main headline show in the Strathclyde Suite within the Royal Concert Hall. This time we’re playing a full 90 minute set, and there’s plenty of last minute rehearsal and tweaking going on during the afternoon. Again the sound crew are helpful and we’re quickly set up and ready to go.

As we come off stage after the show, the consensus is that the gig has been a great success and has exceeded our expectations. There’s been a lot to do in a relatively short space of time, but the end result is a real testament to the amount of hard work that has gone into the show, not only from the musicians but from Celtic Connections and the British Council as well. I can’t help but feel that the Shifting Sands project is getting stronger as time goes on. I’m not going to have to wait long to find out as the next leg of the journey starts on Sunday.  

Next stop, Bahrain!

Musical Director of Shifting Sands, Andy Mellon. Photo by Rigel Klingman

During the last two days of our rehearsal period we’re still working hard on getting new material together. It’s been a long couple of days but things are shaping up nicely. We’ve had a filmaker with us shooting footage of our rehearsals which will be shown in Bahrain during the next leg of the project next week.

After rehearsal yesterday I headed upstairs to the main hall to see Richard Thompson and his band play tunes from his ‘Dream Attic’ album. Great songs and guitar work from the man himself with tight accompaniment from the band.

Tomorrow’s the day of our first show, playing to a Concert Hall full of school children in the morning, and then opening for Seth Lakeman – again in the main Concert Hall – in the evening. Wish us luck.

Thani Salem Thani. Photo by Rigel Klingman

Definitely some tired faces in the rehearsal room today. Our Musical Director Andy Mellon is unwell, but valiantly battles on regardless and we manage to get another few tunes sorted for the gig. Particularly interesting was a Bahraini tune in 6/8 that sounds like a jig displaced by a quaver, which makes perfect sense to our Middle Eastern friends but initially leaves a few of the UK musicians – myself included – looking a bit baffled. After a few run-throughs it sinks in, and we work on integrating the Bahraini melody into ‘Herring’s Heads’, a Scottish song that Corinna teaches us.

In the evening a few of us head to the Blind Boys Of Alabama gig, which is brilliant. Authentic weather-worn gospel voices with a great choice of material including Ben Harper, Tom Waits and Stevie Wonder songs, and a 20 minute encore that sees one Blind Boy romping around the concert hall, seemingly intent on thanking every audience member personally. Wonderful stuff and much needed after a hard day’s rehearsal.

Mohamed Aseeri and Corrina Hewat. Photo by Rigel Klingman

We started today’s rehearsal revisiting some of the material we’d used for the previous two projects, including the Australian song ‘Ballina Whalers’, a very fast Egyptian tune and a Saudi oud tune in 7/8 called ‘Mudather’. We teach the tunes to the new members of the group and start working them into arrangements suitable for the new line-up. After lunch we start work on new material, Mohammed Aseeri (our qanun player) teaches us a Bahraini love song, and Inge Thomson (accordion) gets us singing ‘Mingulay’, a Scottish sea song.

For this evening’s extra-curricular activities Pete Flood and I went to the gig at the Fruit Market, Mama Rosin (rough-and-ready cajun rockers from Switzerland) and Taraf de Haïdouks (lightning fast Romanian gypsy outfit). The place went off, it was a really fun gig. Apologies to the auburn-haired woman dancing in front of me who asked why I looked so serious (I told her I was dancing on the inside).

First day of Shifting Sands rehearsals at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 21st Jan '11. Photo by Rigel Kingman

We arrive at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for our first day of rehearsals for the third incarnation of the British Council’s ‘Shifting Sands’ project (for general information about the project, see news article here and previous diary on the Kuwait project here). Again, there are a few familiar faces here but in the main I’m in a room with a bunch of people who’ve never played music with each other before.This time we’ve got a week to get it together ready for an hour and a half-long show at the Strathclyde Suite in the Royal Concert Hall next Friday.

After getting our festival passes printed up first thing (and having a photo taken which seemed to catch me gurning, suggesting I’d had a far heavier night than I actually did), the first day’s rehearsal focuses on getting everyone up to speed with some of the tunes we’ve used on the previous projects, ‘Simsima’, a traditional sea song from Bahrain, ‘The Shoemaker’, and the shanty ‘Santy Anna’. So far everyone seems to be keen and taking to the material, I for one am glad to have a chance to work on this material again with a different group of musicians. Let’s see what happens when we throw some new tunes into the mix.

Shifting Sands 2011:

Hasan Hujari – Oud

Mohamed Aseeri – Qanun

Ahmed Al Ghanem – Flute

Mohamed Hamada – Percussion

Thani Salem Thani – Percussion

Pete Flood – Drums

Andy Mellon – Trumpet, Piano

Matheu Watson – Violin, Guitar, Whistle

Corrina Hewat – Harp, Vocals

Inge Thomson – Accordion, Vocals

Sam Carter – Guitar, Vocals