FIVE GO TO PLAY HEBRIDEAN FESTIVAL
Interview Release
Hebridean Celtic Festival
Year of Natural Scotland
- HebCelt date for Dundee five-piece
- On stage return for former festival volunteer
- Band to meet up again with Dougie MacLean
Pic caption: Left to right Robbie Ward, Gavin McGinty, Stevie Anderson, Dave Webster and Billy Fisher
The last time Dave Webster attended the Hebridean Celtic Festival he hitch-hiked to Lewis and blagged a volunteer’s job as part of the stage crew.
Next month he will be back, this time on stage as part of an award-winning group who are one of this year’s must-see acts.
Dave is one fifth of the Dundee band Anderson, McGinty, Webster,Ward & Fisher who earlier this year scooped the Scottish Variety Awards Best New Scottish Band/Solo Act award.
The group will be part of an eclectic HebCelt line-up, which will be headed by Van Morrison, Dougie MacLean, Capercaillie, The Battlefield Band and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, when the festival is held from 17-20 July in Stornoway in the island of Lewis.
In 2004 Dave was very much behind the scenes at the island festival: “I hitch-hiked up from the Isle of Eigg where I stayed for a couple of months. I'm pretty sure I made something up about being a sound engineer and they gave me a job as part of the stage crew.
“Some guy picked me up from the boat at Tarbert and brought me right there, we even stopped for something to eat at his folks’ house on the way.”
Festivals are increasingly a major part of a band’s year and Dave, who is joined in the band by Stevie Anderson, Gavin McGinty, Robbie Ward and Billy Fisher, is a big fan: “Festivals are one of the few opportunities you get as a musician to wander round a field and just listen to other music. Usually when bands are playing in town we're either out of town or playing somewhere else so you don't get a chance to catch everyone you hear about on the circuit.
“We did loads of festivals last year and created loads of great memories, but skinny dipping in the North Atlantic after playing at Tiree Music Festival will be something I laugh about for many years.
“HebCelt is a great festival in a great part in the world. Obviously we are very proud of our Celtic heritage and delighted that many of the Celtic traditions have survived at the event.”
The recent award has helped bring AMWWF and their music to a wider audience: “. It's great to receive recognition for the work we're doing, be it an award, a review or just from someone stopping you in a pub to tell you they like what you do”, said Dave.
“I'm personally a fan of awards, any kind of award from fastest man on the planet to bonniest pig in the pageant. It doesn’t make your product any better but it does create a feelgood factor around what you’re doing. I suppose winning an award may well raise the profile of the band and that can only be a good thing for us.”
It added to an already successful year with the band being asked to record a soundtrack for a new Tennents beer commercial which saw them cover the classic ‘Caledonia’ by Dougie MacLean who is also appearing at this year’s HebCelt.
“It’s a great song and had been covered by so many people so to put our own slant on it was a bit tricky but I think we got there. Working with Dougie was wonderful . He's a great man whom we all have the greatest respect for and I believe we've built up a great friendship with him and his family.”
HebCelt attracts interest from across the world and was recently selected as one of the Top 10 UK summer festivals by influential music publication Songlines for the third successive year.
Tickets have already been snapped up by fans across the UK and Ireland, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America.
The line-up for the 18th festival also includes Karine Polwart, Darrell Scott, Pete Roe, Paddy Callaghan, and local artists Iain Morrison, The Boy who Trapped the Sun and Face the West, as well as Lau, voted ‘Best Group’ at this year’s Radio Two Folk Awards; Orcadian eight-piece The Chair; The Hot Seats, from Virginia; Manchester outfit The Travelling Band; Welsh band Rusty Shackle; Fatherson and The Dirty Beggars and Donald MacDonald & The Islands, from Glasgow, Rose Parade, a four-piece from Ayr and Gria, winners of this year’s One Step Further competition.
For more information contact
John Ross
Lucid PR
01463 724593; 07730 099617
johnross@lucidmessages.com
See HebCelt at www.hebceltfest.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/hebceltfest
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hebridean-Celtic-Festival/70400006768?ref=ts
http://twitter.com/#!/hebcelt/
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