LEVELLERS AIMING TO MAKE IT A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN STORNOWAY
News release
Hebridean Celtic Festival
Year of Homecoming 2014
- Levellers join 2014 HebCelt headliners
- Band to return to festival after eight years
- Duncan Chisholm, Rachel Sermanni, We Banjo 3, Norrie MacIver, Rura, Blue Rose Code, Hunter & The Bear, Damian Helliwell’s Metta, This Silent Forest and Eleanor Nicolson also join line-up
Award-winning folk rock band Levellers are the latest headliners to be added to this year’s Hebridean Celtic Festival.
Regarded as one of the best live acts around, the band have been playing to sell-out crowds for over 25 years and have a string of gold and platinum albums to their credit.
They will top the HebCelt bill on Saturday, 19 July, in what will be a welcome return to the island festival’s main stage for the first time since a memorable gig in 2006.
The 19th HebCelt, based in Stornoway in theislandofLewis, will be held from 16-19 July 2014. Other headliners Big Country and Donnie Munro have already been confirmed, along with Canadian band Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys and local Lewis outfit Willie Campbell and the Open Day Rotation.
The festival has also announced today that the line-up will include internationally-renowned fiddle player Duncan Chisholm; singer Rachel Sermanni; Galway quartet We Banjo 3; Mànran frontman Norrie Maciver; Edinburgh-born songwriter Ross Wilson (aka Blue Rose Code); top Scottish trad outfit Rura; British group Hunter & The Bear; experimental new five-piece Metta; Glasgow group This Silent Forest and 15-year-old Lewis singer/songwriter Eleanor Nicolson.
Festival director Caroline Maclennan said: “Levellers are a fantastic live band and we are excited that they are returning to Stornoway this year after making such an impression last time.
“We are delighted at the way the line-up is evolving, with a diverse range of artists that I’m sure will capture the imagination of our audience as we seek to build on last year’s record-breaking event.”
Levellers were formed by Mark Chadwick and Jeremy Cunningham inBrightonin 1988 and were later joined by Charlie Heather (drums), Jon Sevink (fiddle) and Alan Miles (harmonica, guitar and mandolin). Simon Friend subsequently replaced Miles and that line-up continues today, with the addition of Matt Savage on keyboards.
Over quarter of a century of performing, the band have seen several albums achieve gold and platinum status and secure chart success with singles like This Garden and What a Beautiful Day. They are regulars on the festival circuit, includingGlastonburyand, since 2003, have run their own successful Beautiful Days Festival each August inDevon.
Mark Chadwick said: “I am really looking forward to going back to Stornoway in July to play at the HebCelt festival. I can’t believe it’s been eight years since we last played there! It’s a lovely little festival.”
Duncan Chisholm, who made his name in bands including Wolfstone, is now internationally acclaimed as a solo artist. He was nominated in two categories in the 2013 Radio 2 Folk Awards (Musician of the Year and Best Traditional Track) and was also shortlisted for Scottish Album of the Year.
He performed at the first HebCelt and has made a number of appearances since, notably with Julie Fowlis in 2010 and 2012. This year he will be accompanied by musicians representing the cream of the Trad Folk scene – Jarlath Henderson (uilleann pipes / whistles, Tony Byrne (guitar), Davie Dunsmuir (electric guitar), Ross Hamilton (bass) and Martin O’Neill (bodhrán / drums).
Duncan said: “The Hebridean Celtic Festival is a jewel in the Scottish music calendar. I was lucky enough to play the first festival and see it grow into the major event is has become. This year I am delighted to be returning with my band and looking forward to sharing my music on the Island of Lewis once more."
Rachel Sermanni, from Carrbridge, who releases her new EP, Everything Changes, next week, spent much of last year touring North America and Canada, including the Dawson City Music Festival and the Calgary, Ottawa and Interstellar Rodeo festivals, where she shared main stages with the likes of Steve Earl, Sharon Van Etten, The Alabama Shakes and Vampire Weekend.
Her music featured in the recent Royal Bank ofScotland‘Here for You’ TV advert campaign.
Rachel, who appeared at the festival in 2011, said: “I've been lucky to go to HebCelt festival once before. I have such fond memories. So much fun was had. The people are wonderful. I cannot wait to return.”
Despite her youth, Eleanor Nicolson, who recently issued an EP, Stop Gravity, is already a well-known artist, having played a number of gigs in Stornoway, as well as Ullapool and Inverness. She has also written with the likes of Colin Macleod (formerly known as The Boy who Trapped the Sun) and Willie Campbell.
The 2013 HebCelt, which was headlined by Van Morrison, Dougie MacLean, Capercailiie, the Battlefield Band and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, was the most successful in its history with ticket sales showing an increase of over 30 per cent on 2012.
Just over half the 16,000 festival-goers came from outside the Hebrides and the huge influx of visitors from across Europe, theUS,AustraliaandNew Zealand, helped generate around £1 million for the local economy.
In November HebCelt was hailed as one of the greenest festivals in the world after winning a prestigious environmental award.
It was the only Scottish festival to receive an Outstanding award from environmental campaign group A Greener Festival. It was also shortlisted in the Greener Festival category in the UK Festival Awards, alongside nine other festivals, includingGlastonbury.
Also in 2013, HebCelt was selected for the third year in succession as one of the top tenUKsummer festivals by music magazine Songlines and was shortlisted in the Best Independent Festival category in the AIM Independent Music Awards.
In 2011 it was ranked Best Large Festival at the industry-sponsored Scottish Event Awards and it won Best Event of the Year award at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards in 2004 and 2009.
For more information contact
John Ross
Lucid PR
01463 724593; 07730 099167
johnross@lucidmessages.com
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