Episode 3 Music Night at Brownlow

Fair faa ye from Brownlow House.

This is the final programme in a series that has, at its heart,

the music of the Ulster-Scots

and the wonderful musicians who perform it.

And playing for us tonight are pipers

Alan MacPherson and Ross Hume...

..Ballylone Flute Band...

And the drum corps from the Pride of Ballinran from Kilkeel.

But first up for us tonight, it's the Battlefield Band.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well, it's great to have the Battlefield Band

here in Brownlow House, you're very welcome.

-ALL:

-Thanks very much.

You know, my aunt is really jealous that she's not here today

because she has listened to the Battlefield Band, I think,

since its inception, so I know that there are a lot of fans out there

in Northern Ireland and it's been around since 1969, you say?

-Yeah, the band is as old as I am, so...

-Right.

In Scotland, back in the late '60s, as here and in America,

there was a lot of pop music and people weren't really...

..in touch with their own culture, they were kind of embarrassed

-of recorded music or whatever type of music it was...

-Right.

..it was kind of dying out,

so the Battlefield Band was one of the first bands in Scotland.

It was a big part of a revival of the music and a culture...

Yeah, and in terms of the Battlefield Band, you know,

I suppose its members have come from all over the UK and in Ireland

throughout the years and the current line-up,

we have someone from Londonderry,

someone from Scotland, someone from Donegal.

Do you get to play here often these days?

Um, not as often as we would like.

We've done a few gigs over the past few years,

-but there's a great pipe band tradition here, so...

-Right.

..people kind of, in pipe bands, tend to know us through that,

-but we would certainly like to come over here more.

-Yeah.

-It would save me a lot of time flying.

-ALL LAUGH

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# Stay other side of town Honey, I won't be around

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# It's a long way from here to over yonder

# My feet, they're getting mighty sore

# I'm not coming back You've made my mind to wander

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# Stay other side of town Honey, I won't be around

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# Well, don't come lookin' for me, baby

# And don't come knockin' on my door

# I thought you were worth it once but I was crazy

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# Stay other side of town Honey, I won't be around

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# Stay other side of town Honey, I won't be around

# My walking shoes don't fit me any more

# Stay other side of town Honey, I won't be around. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

We've moved into the ballroom at Brownlow House

because there's absolutely no chance

that these folk will fit on our stage.

This is Ballylone Concert Flute Band and with me is Bobby and Gillian.

Now, just tell me a little bit more about the band.

Ballylone Flute Band was founded in 1908

as a marching band in the townland of Ballylone,

just outside Ballynahinch,

and while we still do our parades,

the band has developed over many years

into one of the finest concert and contest bands in the province.

Some of the original families in our band are still here.

I notice you've got a medal on, tell us a wee bit more about that.

-Well, that's the 50-year medal, so...

-Ah!

-I think I started when I was three!

-LAUGHTER

Did I hear correctly that you're world champions?

That's correct, yes.

-World champions, Nicola, for the fifth time this year.

-Wow!

Yeah. Um, we won it way back in '02 for the first time

and we retained it this year.

You're going to play for us now, you're playing two pieces,

one of which has an Ulster-Scots connection.

Gillian...

Well, the second piece is the hoedown from Aaron Copland's

Rodeo suite and the Ulster-Scots brought the fiddle playing

to the Appalachian Mountains,

and this particular movement of the suite is based on Mrs McLeod's Reel,

which is very synonymous with the Ulster-Scots.

# A sailor and his true love lay doon tae mak their moan

# When in came ain o their countrymen

# Sayin', rise up, my bonny lassie

# Mak haste and come awa'

# There's a vessel lying bound for Caledonia

# Oh, said the sailor

# Are ye willing for tae pay

# 500 guineas afore on board ye gay?

# I'll pay them plack and farthing afore on board I go

# If ye tak me tae my bonny Caledonia

# Oh, said the sailor

# Her money we will tak

# And when we're on the sea we'll throw her over deck

# Or sell her for a slave lang or ere she win awa'

# She'll never see her bonny Caledonia

# Well, said the captain

# Well, that'll never do!

# For there are nae slaves sold intae oor country noo

# They'd hang us ane and a' They would hang us, every man

# If we sold her for a slave to Caledonia

# Well, said the sailor

# She's lying doon below

# She's bound hand and foot Ready overboard to throw

# She's bound hand and foot Ready overboard to throw

# She'll never see her bonny Caledonia

# Now the captain away tae the fair maid he has gane

# Says, what is the reason ye're lying here sae lang?

# An' what is the reason that ye're lying here at all?

# For you've paid your passage dear tae Caledonia

# Oh, said the lassie

# Oh, woe is me

# That ever I was born sic hardships for tae see

# For the sailor's got a lassie he likes better far than me

# And it causes me to weep for Caledonia

# So the captain away to the sailor he has gane

# He's ta'en him by the neck and him overboard has thrown

# Sayin', tak this cup o water though the liquor be but sma'

# And drink your lassie's health tae Caledonia

# They've sailed east and they've sailed west

# Until they reached the land that they a' loved the best

# For the winds they did roar and the seas they did beat

# And they've all arrived safe to Caledonia

# They hadna been there but three quarters o' a year

# When in silks and satins he's made her for tae wear

# When in fine silks and satins he's made her for tae go

# Noo she's the captain's wife in Caledonia

# Noo she's the captain's wife in Caledonia. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So, Alan and Ross, welcome to Brownlow House.

You're both local lads -

Alan, you're from Cullybackey and, Ross, you're from Antrim.

You've been playing the bagpipes a long time.

I've been playing the pipes since I was nine years old.

My great-grandfather actually piped and members of my family

have played in accordion bands,

but somewhere along the line the piping's come out again in myself.

What about you, Ross?

Yeah, I started when I was about ten years old as well and,

unlike Alan, I don't have any family connections in piping, I just kind

of heard them one day and thought that I wanted to learn them, so...

So, what bands do you play in? Alan?

I've just been playing for the past two years

in a band from Dublin called St Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band.

And what about you, Ross?

I've played for the last four years in Field Marshal Montgomery from Lisburn.

So you'll be playing for us tonight,

but it's not with the Highland pipes, it's actually with the Lowland pipes.

What's the difference in the two?

Well, it's the Scottish Lowland pipes and they're a softer,

they've a more mellow tone to them.

You can fit them in with guitars and fiddles to good effect.

The fingerwork and, like, the technique on the chanter is exactly the same,

but instead of blowing into them, you're going to be...

pumping the air with the bellows with your other arm, so it kind of

just takes you a while to get used to kind of re-coordinating yourself again.

So once you get used to that, you're flying.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Up next here at Brownlow,

we have a Burns song and the singer is sitting right beside me.

So, you're going to interview me now?

Well, I don't think they'd ask me to sing now!

-EILIDH LAUGHS

-I'm not very good.

Well, this song that I'm singing tonight

is a song called Ye Banks And Braes O' Bonnie Doon

and it's a song by Robbie Burns and my grandmother used to sing it,

although, to be honest, I never heard her sing it myself,

but my dad assures me that that was the case,

and it's a gorgeous melody and a really lovely lyric

all about love and heartbreak.

# Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon

# How can ye bloom

# Sae fresh and fair

# How can ye chant

# Ye little birds

# And I sae weary, fu' o' care!

# Ye'll break my heart

# Ye warbling birds

# That wantons thro'

# The flowering thorn

# Ye mind me o'

# Departed joys

# Departed never

# To return

# Oft have I rov'd

# By bonnie Doon

# To see the rose

# And woodbine twine

# And ilka bird

# Sang o' its love

# And fondly sae did I o' mine

# Wi' lightsome heart

# I pu'd a rose

# Fu' sweet upon

# Its thorny tree

# But my false lover

# Stole my rose

# But ah! He left the thorn wi' me

# Wi' lightsome heart

# I pu'd a rose

# Fu' sweet upon

# Its thorny tree

# But my false lover

# Stole my rose

# But ah! He left the thorn wi' me. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Now, that's almost it for this series of Music Night At Brownlow.

To play us out, the Scott Wood Band.

All the best.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE