We're immersed in the barrage of Celtic music here at Celtic Connections. Aside from the official concerts, every night there is "The Club". You never know who will be turning up there to play and sometimes get some amazing pairings of musicians who don't normally play together. First time we went there, Bela Fleck, the banjo maestro, was on stage and later in the evening, our friends from Slide got up and gave a rousing performance.
Moira arrived on Friday and we had a quick rehearsal with her and then went up the Royal Concert Hall for sound check. The sound engineers there were great, very professional and efficient and had us all hooked up and ready to go in short time. The nerve wracking part was that they wouldn't tell us what time we would be playing that evening! We finally found out that we would be the last performers a few minutes before the show started.
We sat backstage waiting for our turn listening to some really great performers. Finally our turn came.
We started the set with The Northern Shore and the audience loved it. Next, Moira joined us for Weave a Garland which was also enthusiastically received. Then came the evening's pipe set, 3's A Crowd. That was a major hit with the audience clapping along and great cheers at the end of it. The judges asked us to do one more number, so Moira joined us again for her great rendition of Lorelei, another huge favourite with the audience.
We have video of the whole performance and will find a way to get it available to everyone when we get home.
Now we just have to wait and see if we make it to the final 6. We're quietly confident since many people involved with the stage have been asking us when we're going home and will we be there for the finals.
There's a chance we may be on the radio again on Monday, still waiting to hear more about that.
Pete