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Niteworks: going out with a bang

Andrew Curry writes: Salut! Live has been to a few ‘final tour’ gigs already this year: Show of Hands in May, Oysterband in October. But none of them were anything like Nitework’s final concert in London—part of a modest five gig tour that also takes in venues in Inverness, Edinburgh, with Aberdeen and Glasgow still to come.

In case you have missed them, Niteworks hail from Skye and play a unique brand of electro-folk music. Like other Gaelic-speakers from the Hebrides, they’re part of a line of island musicians who have used music to popularise Gaelic culture. Runrig and Julie Fowlis—who has recorded with them—also come to mind.

The tour is called ‘Solas na Maidne’, Gaelic for ‘day break’, or the end of ‘the night’s work’. You can see what they just did there.

The band is made up of Innes Strachan, on keyboards and vocals; Allan MacDonald, on bagpipes and guitars; Christopher Nicolson, on bass; and Ruairidh Graham, on drums.

They met at Portree High School on Skye, and have never been full-time musicians. They’re calling it a day because in their mid-30s they can no longer give the music the time it needs or deserves. But over their decade and a half together they have produced three fine albums and also done the music for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay display, which for a Scottish musician must be the musical equivalent of winning the Scottish Cup.

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(Niteworks with Sian at The Garage, London. Photo: Andrew Curry. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

The venue for their London farewell was The Garage in Islington, a club venue I’ve not been to in several decades of living in London. It was standing only, and had sold out, so maybe there were 600 people here, including a good proportion of Scots fans, judging from the accents.

The average age was several decades younger than at the typical folk gig. We arrived during the support act, an indie-rock band called Holy Fool, and my son, who goes to these places more than I do, instantly headed off to find some ear protectors for us all.

Although the band has said in interviews that promoters found it difficult to place them—too trad for dance, too dance for trad—this was certainly a club gig.

They played straight through for 80 minutes, with a short pause before coming back for an encore; there was a light and video show; and they barely spoke to the audience, apart from a welcome at the beginning and an emotional speech at the end from the drummer.

There were no long gaps where they retuned their instruments; they didn’t, even once, have to fill time between tracks by explaining the provenance of their songs, although many are from the traditional Gaelic repertoire.

Since one of the dirty secrets of being a reviewer who buys a ticket and doesn’t have access to a press pack is that you come to rely on those explanations to fill gaps in your knowledge, this presented some problems. I know their repertoire quite well, but I lost track quite often as one piece segued into the next.

But here’s what I can tell you about the set.

They played a lot of songs from their last two records, Air F​à​ir an Là and A’ Ghrian, as well as some of the music they wrote for the Edinburgh Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve) celebration in 2020.

Fiona MacAskill, the violin player who is like an unofficial fifth member of the band, was on stage throughout. Members of Sian, a Gaelic three piece vocal group with whom they have been collaborating for the best part of a decade, came on stage from time to time to sing. It was a big sound in a smallish venue.

I think they opened with a Each-Uisge, which is also the opener of A‘ Ghrian. Ellen MacDonald of Sian came on quite soon to sing Air F​à​ir an Là, the title track of their second record, in a white dress that shimmered in the lights. Air F​à​ir an Là is a setting of a 17th century poem by Màiri nighean Alasdair Ruaidh, one of the earliest women poets in Gaelic.

Ellen came back later on to sing Gura Mise, and Beth Malcom appeared to sing the lead on their fabulous version of the traditional song John Riley (as she did on the recording). We included that in an earlier article here on Salut! Live.

In between these numbers, we had some of their music for the Edinburgh Hogmanay celebrations, illustrated with footage of the drone display for the event. There was also a video accompaniment to Somhairle, which incorporates audio of an interview with the Raasay poet Sorley MacLean. (Somhairle means ‘Sorley’ in Gaelic). This combined older and recent footage of Skye, and ended with the words ‘EMIGRATION’— ‘EMIGRATION’—‘EMIGRATION’ on the video and the soundtrack.

I should add that all of the musicians looked to be having a blast and the crowd enjoyed it even more. There were even some Niteworks flags flying in the audience some of the time. 

After they announced that they were quitting, they released as their final single An Toll Dubh, a cover of a Runrig song. This wasn’t coincidence: the title translates as ‘The Dungeon’ and the lyrics are a warning to wake ‘the Gael’ and use the language to keep Gaelic culture alive. The band closed with this, with all three members of Sian onstage. When he took the microphone at the end Ruairidh Graham said that it was great—and a bit of a surprise—to be playing in London and hearing the crowd sing along in Gaelic.

And with that the band left the stage to Sian, and a pulsing synth wash, for a final song, as the sun came up on the video behind them. Passing on a baton, maybe. The end of the night’s work.

Niteworks have two more gigs to go—one in Aberdeen this Thursday (tickets still available), and a final sold out concert in Glasgow. If you can get to Aberdeen, it’s worth the effort. If not, I’d point you to their second and third records, Air Fair an La and A’ Ghrian, one longlisted, the other shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year and both available on Bandcamp, if you want to support the band, or on other streaming services, if not.

And do visit the Salut! Live Facebook Group

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(Source: Niteworks’s Facebook page.)

 

Comments

Seuras Og

I too was there, and it was a blast. Not sure I could see your "second" keyboard man, and I was right at the front. Given Allan and Christopher each take a helping hand to Innes at the various banks of instrumentation, could that have been what you saw, there often being a 3 keys/synths front line? And, however good were SIAN, and they were, it was Beth Malcolm who added her powerful voice to John Riley.

Andrew Curry

Thanks for the correction! So the shoutout was for ‘Fiona and Beth’, not Ben. But I was near the sound desk and the stage was a blur of bright light a lot of the time. I’ll make the changes now.

Andrew

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