Cultural Interactions atthe Edinburgh Festivals, c1947-1971 (original) (raw)

'Clan Balls, Luvvers and Incredible Strings: Popular Music in 1960s’ Glasgow’ in Eleanor Bell and Linda Gunn (eds.) The Scottish Sixties: Reading, Rebellion, Revolution? (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013), pp. 193 - 208.

This chapter examines the conditions surrounding Glasgow's emergent popular music scene in the 1960s. It compares the commercial pressures on the production of rock and pop with the less commercially developed folk scene. In spite of the outward looking nature of the city's popular music makers, who looked towards trends elsewhere, there was a gradual move towards composition rather than reproduction or arrangement. This development occurred through changes in entertainment patterns, the types of venues where live music was performed, and a growing political awareness, particularly among folk performers.

Three Books on the Scottish Sixties

Studies in Scottish Literature 40.1, 2014

Review of: Angela Bartie and Eleanor Bell, eds. The International Writers’ Conference Revisited: Edinburgh 1962. [Glasgow]: Cargo, 2012. Pp. x + 244. £22. ISBN: 97819088851599. Eleanor Bell and Linda Gunn, eds. The Scottish Sixties: Reading, Rebellion, Revolution? Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature Volume 20. Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2013. Pp. x + 315. €67/$94 (ebook €60/$84). ISBN: 9789042037267. Angela Bartie, The Edinburgh Festivals: Culture and Society in Post-war Britain. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013. Pp. x +, 272. £70 (paperback £20). ISBN: 9780748670307.

'Unsafe things like youth and jazz': Beaulieu Jazz Festivals (1956-61), and the origins of pop festival culture in Britain

Andy Bennett, ed. Remembering Woodstock (Ashgate), 2004

This chapter looks at the origins of pop festival culture in Britain, the relatively under-researched phenomenon of the early jazz festivals in the New Forest during the 1950s. It explores subcultural contestation and negotiation, with particular attention to the 1960 festival, at which traditional (‘trad’) jazz fans and modernists confronted each other during the (mediated) so-called Battle of Beaulieu. It introduces issues relevant to the later festival movement, and to Woodstock: the significance of the deep green pastoral location, links (strong or weak) with the burgeoning peace movement of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the suggestion from a London beatnik of a free festival in the forest, the question of atavism and the revival of the past. It considers the problematic issue of Americanisation in the imitation of the recently founded Newport Jazz Festival as well as some of the innovations of Beaulieu.

Beyond ‘Derry’s Walls’ and ‘The Boys of Wexford’: A history of the BBC’s collaboration with competitive musical festivals in Northern Ireland, 1925‐39.

The first competitive musical festival to be broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland was a prize‐winners’ concert from the Belfast Musical Festival in May 1925. Between 1927 and 1939, BBC NI annually relayed concerts of selected prize‐winners from festivals in Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland, including Ballymena, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Derry, Dungannon, Larne, Newry, and Portadown. However, not all Northern Irish musical festivals (feiseanna) were used as a source of programme material by the BBC. Examples of those excluded from broadcast were Feis Ardmhacha (Armagh), Feis Bhéal Feirste (Belfast), Feis an Dúin (Down), Feis na nGleann (Glens), and Feis Tír‐Eoghain (Tyrone). The following paper examines the background to the competitive musical festival movement in Northern Ireland and outlines the extent of the BBC’s collaboration with festivals which were affiliated to the British Federation of Musical Competition Festivals (BFMCF). The paper also addresses those feiseanna which were neither affiliated to the BFMCF nor selected for broadcast by BBC NI. Evidence suggests that it may have been the BBC’s wariness of the Gaelic League that negatively influenced its attitude towards the latter feiseanna. Nonetheless, competitive musical festivals which were broadcast assumed an important position in the musical life of Catholic and Protestant communities alike, prompting a reporter in the Irish News to declare that ‘The youths who have been educated to win at [these festivals] will not believe that musical education begins with “Dolly’s Brae” and ends with “Derry’s Walls”, or that “The Boys of Wexford” is the only song worth singing’. The paper concludes that while relaying competitive musical festivals was unquestionably in line with the BBC’s policy to broadcast music from the community, there was the further advantage of promoting a form of music‐making in Northern Ireland that was both socially and religiously inclusive.

‘Messing About in Boats’: The Heritage Livescape of Glasgow’s Canal and Clydebuilt Festivals

Festivals and the City: The Contested Geographies of Urban Events

This chapter draws on a study which assesses festivals staged on two waterways: the Forth and Clyde Canal and the River Clyde in Glasgow. Glasgow Canal Festival aims to celebrate the canal’s rich heritage and its importance to local communities by encouraging use of regenerated areas in North Glasgow. Clydebuilt Festival celebrates the river, the importance of being on the water and the accessibility of boats and crafts for public use. The participants in this research were members of transient local communities who participated in boat building and boat handling workshops prior to the events. Ethnographic observations of the participants showcasing their workshop outcomes at these festivals generated the research data. The study recognises that transient local communities struggle to establish identity, belonging and agency and that festivals based in post- industrial waterscapes are part of the effort to ‘claim distinction’ and establish ‘a sense of place’. The paper introduces th...

"Lords of State" and "Lusty Banquetting": Images of Scotland from 1999-2003

Culture, Nation and the New Scottish Parliament., pp. 199-214., 2006

This paper considers the images of Scotland presented at the opening of the Scottish Parliament, on 1st July 1999, and Scotland at the Smithsonian, in 2003. It combines participant-observations with quotation from tape-recorded interviews with participants in, and organisers of these events. These include Members of the Scottish Parliament, musicians and, in particular, Sheena Wellington, whose performances of songs by Robert Burns played key and iconic roles in both key events.

Hans Gál and the Edinburgh Festival

Brio, 2013

Tracing the early history of the Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama, this article presents a consideration of the role of Hans Gál (1890-1987) in the Festival’s foundation and opening decade, from 1947-1957. An émigré from Vienna, Gál’s considerable international reputation in the pre-war years made him a powerful and knowledgeable advocate for the enterprise. Detailed information is provided of Gál’s involvement as a scholar, composer and performer, as well as his role as a member of the Festival Council. The copyright for this article is co-owned by Katy Hamilton and Brio (see http://www.iaml.info/iaml-uk-irl/publications.html)