PHIL CUNNINGHAM & ALY BAIN CONCERT

28th July 2014

Two of Scotland's foremost traditional musicians, Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain will be taking their Scotland 2014 tour to Wick's Assembly Rooms on Thursday 7th August. The concert starts at 7.30pm and tickets costing £18 and £16 for age concessions will be available at the door or in advance on 01955 603080.

Aly Bain is Scotland's supreme traditional style fiddler. His playing is unique - driving, impassioned and pure - with vibrant, unmistakable tone that has earned him a following of ardent fans throughout the world. Born in Lerwick, Shetland in 1946 Aly began playing the fiddle at the age of eleven. In his early twenties, Aly headed to mainland Scotland. His dramatic playing, with great tone and technical ability brought early recognition as an outstanding musician of the folk music revival, and almost overnight, raised the level of expectation for music lovers throughout the country.

To quote Billy Connolly of these early days, 'I had never heard the clarity of tone or the beauty. ...I had never heard the passion.'

Aly embarked on a life of intensive playing, recording and travel that continues to this day. He helped establish the folk band Boys of the Lough with whom he toured extensively and recorded for many years. Simultaneously, Aly pursued a solo career in collaborative and television projects.

In addition to his solo albums he has appeared on albums by 'Hue and Cry', Eddie Reader, Richard Thomson and 'Fish'.

Although Aly's musical base is in Scotland his extensive travels have led to an appreciation and mastery of many kinds of music. He has applied this knowledge to the production of several networked television series bringing traditional music to a constantly widening audience, including the renowned series 'Down Home', which has now reached almost cult status across America, the internationally famous 'Shetland Sessions' and 'Transatlantic Sessions 1 & 2.' The Transatlantic format was revived, with great success, at this year's Celtic Connections Festival, Aly co-producing with Jerry Douglas.

Aly's collaboration with Norwegian composer Henning Sommero and the Scottish Ensemble saw the release of the widely acclaimed album 'Follow the Moonstone'. His most recent collaboration with Swedish multi-instrumentalist Ale Moller, created the album 'Fully Rigged'- a celebration of shared Nordic heritage.

Aly has received many honours for his services to music, including four Doctorates and an M.B.E., and numerous Honorary Citizenships in the USA. He continues to be an ambassador for Scotland abroad and a powerful advocate for traditional music.

His teaming up, star collision, with brilliant accordionist/composer Phil Cunningham has added yet another dimension of appreciation for audiences everywhere. They have toured and recorded together since 1988 and to date they have recorded four albums, released on Aly's own record label Whirlie Records.

Phil Cunningham - superb, innovative instrumentalist, with not simply the fastest fingers in the West but some of the most sensitive ones, too! The man who, in Scotland at least, made the accordion respectable again and also plays fine keyboard and whistle; composer, whose range extends from heart-tugging slow airs to vibrant tunes for a string of successful theatrical productions and to full-scale concert suites, where bagpipes, bodhrans and bouzoukis meet up with sometimes bemused classical orchestras in a whirlpool of rampant, exuberant sound; powerhouse behind two innovative and hugely influential bands, Silly Wizard and Relativity; television and radio presenter, producer and director, involved in some of the seminal programmes that have enabled Scottish music to walk tall; record producer, responsible for many must-have albums; unfailingly affable, world-travelling ambassador for traditional music; humorist, whose breezy banter can have a 2000-seat hall falling about in the aisles; unfailingly patient, inspiring and witty musical partner of the great Shetland fiddler, Aly Bain; winner of countless music awards, including a writer's Grammy and, with Bonnie Raitt, multiple gold, silver and platinum albums; teacher, who not only helps young people but was on one occasion called in to give David Essex a singing lesson; Doctor of the University of Stirling, Member of the Order of the British Empire.

He went to school at Portobello High, in Edinburgh. It was there that the gauntlet was thrown down. Although he had been the star violinist in the class of 1974, and had been studying classical music on the accordion, his departure at the age of 16 delighted the music teacher, who told him: "You're a waster, just like your brother. You'll do nothing, and go nowhere."

Phil never forgot that. And, as his musical career increasingly took him to faraway places, never forgot to send the teacher a postcard. " Dear Sir. Here I am in Bermuda. Where are you?"

It all really started with Silly Wizard. Phil had harboured dreams of becoming a zoologist and he remains besotted with wildlife, from the tiny birds that come to feed in his country garden near South Queensferry to the elephants of Africa and the giants of the oceans. But instead of wildlife it was more a case of wild life when, after leaving school, he teamed up in Silly Wizard with elder brother John (now, sadly, no longer with us). The band were already taking Scotland by storm with their energetic, no-holds-barred approach to traditional music, and Phil's well-honed technical ability enabled him to cope with the kind of breakneck tempos for jigs and reels that they revelled in. But Phil, like fiddler John, was much more than a speed merchant, and in 1980 they demonstrated their more thoughtful side in a joint album, Against the Storm. Then came Phil's first solo album, Airs and Graces. Later in the mid-1980s, while still with Silly Wizard, Phil made his mark on America when he joined John in two albums by Relativity, a Scots-Irish quartet that also included Triona Ni Dhomhnaill and Michael O Dhomhnaill.

But yet another door was about to open - television. In 1986, Aly Bain asked Phil to join him in a new series, Aly Bain and Friends. It was the start not only of Phil's television career but also a partnership that has endured until this day. Aly and Phil went on to record an album, The Pearl, featuring some of Phil's compositions, and have recorded and toured together tirelessly since then, mainly in Scotland, but also throughout Europe and the US. They have become the mainstay of BBC TV's annual Hogmanay show in Edinburgh, which reaches a worldwide audience, and are at the top of every list when a special occasion in Scotland demands special music - for example, they performed at the opening of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999