An offshoot of being dragged back into the creative industries after a fallow period of burnout is that I’d found a different kind of confidence. The fire service made me feel useful for the first time in my life so I now felt more at ease putting myself forward as an artist.
In 2021 @CreativeScots created a covid recovery fund to stimulate the grassroots arts sector that had been so debilitated by lockdown. @SEALLEventsSkye administered the fund for Skye/Lochalsh and created six jobs for artists to do community work in various creative disciplines.
I applied for the position that focused on reinvigorating community spaces, citing experience from when I organised events for Manchester label @debtrecords.
Working with @SEALLEventsSkye has integrated the two parts of my life. Until I joined the #culturecollective my music work had all been done remotely over zoom/email with people in faraway cities. Now I was finally getting involved in my local scene. It’s been a real joy.
That year I was asked to play the festival of Small Halls where musicians from all over Scotland/UK/Ireland come together as a brand new group, write new material, rearrange old favourites and tour round the island’s village halls. It’s a great series of events.
This year I’d so successfully wormed my way into the @SEALLEventsSkye inner circle that they put me on the other side of the microphone, helping organise, roadie, announce, call raffles, stack chairs etc. We’ve just finished Small Halls again and it was such a blast.
It’s great having an organisation like @SEALLEventsSkye in Skye & Lochalsh, they do such a variety of things: gigs, sessions, workshops, music in care homes and schools, online events, touring theatre, dance… If you’re in the area you should definitely check them out.
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A little late to the H&I Voices X feed tonight as it's been an utterly beautiful day on the western end of the Ardnamurchan peninsula, have been out with the cameras all day.
First up is Sunset Over The Sound from Kilchoan.
Not a technically perfect photo, but as the intense, low sunlight back lit the reeds at Kilchoan bay this afternoon there was just something so special about the glow and magic moment of light on the reed beds.
#Ardnamurchan
Today’s visual excursion around Ardnamurchan is around the magical Camas man Gaell (Bay of Strangers / Bay of the Promise) and the cleared Croft settlement of Bourblaig.
The images were taken on clearer weather days in October, but heading back again tomorrow too.
The walks around Camas down to the bay with its evidence of human inhabitation since Neolithic times, or up to the peak of the majestic Ben Hiant (528m) which affords spectacular views out of the Sound of Mull where you can enjoy the magical play of light.
The lower tip of Ben Hiant that runs down to the Sound of Mull is known as Macleans Nose. The promentary is a distinctive feature in the West Ardnamurchan landscape.
John Haylet’s blog is worth a read and details a lovely walk. kilchoan.blogspot.com/2013/03/maclea…
There is a body of water on the Hill of Nigg that, on the official maps, is called Bayfield Loch or Bayfield Dam. Conversely, if you ask the locals they will call it Adams Loch, or Loch Adamach. But who was Adam? 1/31
On one side the Hill of Nigg rises gently from the coast but on the other there are sheer cliffs of Old Red Sandstone caused by the Great Glen Fault, where the hill meets the Moray Firth. Once common land, the hill was divided between various estates in the 18th century. 2/31
The estates in Nigg generally have a home farm at the foot of the hill. An exception is Castlecraig, once part of the Cromartie Estate. That farm is based above the hill, where people still live. When the hill was divided, the sections were legally named for the estates: 3/31
The challenge with organising things in village halls is they aren’t dedicated venues with paid staff, they are fuelled by goodwill. Sometimes the business of fixing the roof and keeping the lights on supersedes curating a dedicated programme of events.
Indeed some halls have ended up as the sole responsibility of a single volunteer who becomes the only person who knows how things work and where the fuse box is. It can feel like a thankless task and it isn’t surprising when people get jaded.
The combination of folk taking the hall for granted (or forgetting it’s there entirely) and a growing resentment in the people keeping the damp at bay leads to a vicious circle: if you want to use the hall you have to negotiate with someone who’s lost their passion for the place.
The ongoing mission was/is to keep coming back into the halls throughout the project (and hopefully long into the future) so that the venues themselves run through the work like the words in a stick of rock.
So step two involved me writing songs inspired by the conversations and then coming back into those halls to record them with local singers and musicians. I’m currently ten songs in with notes for three or four more.
Throughout this whole project I’ve been very aware of how important it is not to filter or erase the original voices, that often well-meaning creatives bust in and find great local material, make an album and hoover up all the attention leaving no legacy at all.
Village halls are brilliant places. They’re so versatile and yet can have a real character of their own. My project for #Aiseirigh#CultureCollective aimed to get their usage up after so many had been left empty over lockdown, particularly as culture spaces to share experiences.
I didn’t want to just put on events though. Events are great but they only attract events people. I didn’t want to have lots of two-hours-where-a-big-group-of-people-silently-watch-a-small-group-of-people-do-something.
So I teamed up with @CatherineMacP12 from @HLHArchives. We came up with a plan to hold memory sessions with free refreshments. No agenda, just people getting into their local hall and chatting about the past and present.