Battlefield Band was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

traditional music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

group. Founded in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in 1969, they have released over 30 albums and undergone many changes of lineup. As of 2010, none of the original founders remain in the band. Their last known live performance occurred in August 2017. The band is noted for their combination of

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, N ...

with non-traditional instruments, such as electronic keyboards, and for its mix of traditional songs and new material. Battlefield Band toured internationally, playing to audiences in Europe, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and North America. They have collaborated with other musicians including the Scottish harp player and glass sculptor Alison Kinnaird.

History

Career

Battlefield Band was formed in 1969 by five student friends from Strathclyde University (Brian McNeill, Jim Thomson, Alan Reid, Eddie Morgan and Sandra Lang, who became crime fiction author Alex Gray) and took its name from the area in the south of Glasgow where McNeill was living at the time. After several line-up changes and an album recorded for a minor Breton label, the band was signed to Topic records and released its official self-titled debut in 1977 with the line-up of McNeill (fiddle, vocals), Reid (keyboards, vocals), Jamie McMenemy (bouzouki, vocals), and John Gahagan (whistle). Gahagan left before the recording of the follow-up, ''At the Front'' (1978), and was replaced by Irish singer-guitarist Pat Kilbride. The departure of both Kilbride and McMenemy shortly afterward brought in Jen Clark (vocals, cittern, dulcimer) and Duncan MacGillivray (Highland pipes) for ''Stand Easy'' (1979), thus beginning Battlefield Band's tradition of using bagpipes on their albums. Clark was replaced by Northumbrian singer-guitarist Ged Foley on ''Home is Where the Van Is'' (1980), which marked a switch from Topic records to producer Robin Morton's label Temple. ''Home is Where the Van Is'' also inaugurated the band's practice of placing original songs alongside traditional material. The line-up changes continued, though the group remained based around the core of McNeill and Reid until 1990, when McNeill left to pursue a solo career. Reid finally left the band at the end of 2010, concentrating on his musical duo with guitarist & singer Rob van Sante, the Battlefield Band's sound engineer.

Final years

On 1 January 2015, Battlefield Band revealed in an e-mail sent to their fanbase that, back from their US tour in October/November 2014, they were working hard in the studio on a new recording project with the working title ''Beg, Borrow & Steal''. The Irish / Scottish album would highlight and explore the cultural cross-fertilisation of the vibrant musical traditions of Scotland & Ireland and the group would collaborate with many other leading traditional musicians and scholars.

Mick Moloney Michael Moloney (15 November 1944 – 27 July 2022) was an Irish-born American musician and scholar. He was the artistic director of several major arts tours and co-founded Green Fields of America. Early life Moloney was born in Limerick, Ir ...

(USA/Ireland),

Nuala Kennedy Nuala Kennedy (born 30 January 1977) is an Irish composer, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Career She grew up in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland, where she played piano and flute in a local ceili band and studied classical piano a ...

(Ireland), Aaron Jones (Ireland), Christine Primrose (Scotland), Alison Kinnaird (Scotland) & Barry Gray (Australia) were due to be all on board, with more to follow. The band has been awarded Creative Scotland assistance for this project. If all would have gone well as initially announced and expected, the recordings would have been available on Temple Records by March 2015 – it might even have turned into a tour if all would have gone well and the musicians would have been available. On 22 June 2015, on their Twitter page, Battlefield Band announced a January 2016 (11-date) tour of Germany, Switzerland and Austria due to begin on 14 January in Offenburg, Germany and end on 31 January 2016 in Hamburg, Germany. This would be Battlefield Band's return to the stage for the first time since November 2014 i.e. after more than a year of inactivity as the band had not toured during the whole year 2015... On 14 August 2015, Battlefield Band's label Temple Records finally announced that the (delayed) new album had been re-titled simply as '' Beg & Borrow'' and would be released as a digital download (and on streaming) on 21 August 2015, on CD in the UK on 18 September 2015 and on CD in the United States on 16 October 2015. Battlefield Band later confirmed that they would embark on 14 January 2016 on a 16-date tour of German-speaking countries (Germany, German-speaking Switzerland, Austria) including a radio show and a TV show in Germany, due to end on 31 January 2016. After having performed an ultimate show on Sunday 13 August 2017 (7.30pm) during the Scotland Piping Live! festival at The National Piping Centre in Glasgow, Scotland (as the festival closing concert), the band went dormant with no explanation whatsoever from the official web site.

Accolades

Battlefield Band were winners of "Best Live Act" at the inaugural

Scots Trad Music Awards The Scots Trad Music Awards or Na Trads were founded in 2003 by Simon Thoumire to celebrate Scotland's traditional music in all its forms and create a high profile opportunity to bring the music and music industry into the spotlight of media an ...

in 2003. In 2011, they were winners of "Best Band" at the

2011. Battlefield Band's "Compliments to Buddy McMaster" (a track from its album ''Dookin''' released in 2007) was nominated for the 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for World Traditional Song of the year. They also have been nominated for the 11th Independent Music Awards "World Traditional Song" category for its recording of "A' Bhriogais Uallach" ("The Pompous Trousers"), a track from their album ''Line-up'' released in 2011. On 11 November 2016, Battlefield Band were inducted into Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame for "Services to Performance".

Instruments and themes

Every line-up since the ''Stand Easy'' album has had at least one bagpiper. Unusual aspects of the instrumental line-up for a traditional band include the presence of electric keyboards and the absence of

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

. Every album mixes traditional Scottish songs and tunes with modern (often original) compositions. Themes range from drinking, friendship, and hard times to history, geography and politics. The band's 2006 album, '' The Road of Tears'', deals explicitly with the theme of displacement. Many of the songs deal with emigration, both voluntary and forced. Battlefield Band's 2007 album, ''Dookin′'' (the Scots word for what you do at

hallowe'en Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It is at the begi ...

– as in "'dookin' for apples") has a lighter feel, after the eloquently somber tone of ''The Road of Tears''. ''Dookin includes instrumentals and a mix of vocals, with lead being shared by Alan Reid and Sean O'Donnell.

Members

Final line-up

#Sean O'Donnell 005–2017(vocals, guitar) – # Alasdair White 002–2017(fiddle,

whistles A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It is a type of fipple flute, and may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small sl ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

, Highland bagpipes, small pipes,

bodhrán The bodhrán (, ; plural ''bodhráin'') is a frame drum used in Irish music ranging from in diameter, with most drums measuring . The sides of the drum are deep. A Goatskin (material), goatskin head is tacked to one side (synthetic heads or ot ...

, cittern, mandolin) #Mike Katz 998–2017(Highland pipes, small pipes, various whistles,

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, bouzouki)

Past members

# Alan Reid 969–2010(founding member; keyboards,

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usu ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

, writing) – #

Brian McNeill Brian McNeill (born 6 April 1950, Falkirk, Scotland) is a Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and musical director. He was a founding member of Battlefield Band which combined traditional Celtic melodies and new m ...

">969–1990(founding member; fiddle, writing) – Brian has published two detective novels. In 2001, he took up the post of Head of Scottish Music at the

Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama () is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and film in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a member of the Federation of Drama Schools. Founde ...

in Glasgow, which he has since relinquished. #Jim Thomson 969-1973(founding member, guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo, 5-string banjo, harmonica, tin whistle, vocals). #Eddie Morgan 969-1973(founding member, guitar). #

Sandra Lang Sandra Lang ( zh, c=仙杜拉, cy=Sīndouhlā, born zh, labels=no, c=梁玉姬 , cy=Lèuhng Yuhkgēi) is a former Chinese Cantopop singer who was active in the 1970s and actress in Hong Kong. Lang is credited with over 25 films. Early life In 1 ...

969 Year 969 ( CMLXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 1st millennium, the 69th year of the 10th century, and the 10th ...

(founding member). #Ricky Starrs 973?–1976 (guitar, mandolin, whistles) – #Jamie McMenemy 977–1978(vocals, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, Irish flute) – #John Gahagan 977–1978(fiddle, whistle) – #Pat Kilbride 978; 2002–2005(vocals, guitar, cittern, bouzouki) – #Jen Clark

979 Year 979 (Roman numerals, CMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. It was the 979th year of the Common Era and the Anno Domini designation, the 979th year of the 1st millennium, the 79th year of the 10th century, ...

(vocals, guitar, cittern and dulcimer) – #Duncan MacGillivray 979–1983(bagpipes) – #Sylvia Barnes ">980(vocals, dulcimer, guitar, bodhrán) – Sylvia came to Battlefield Band via Scottish folk group Kentigern (formed in 1978). #Jim Barnes ">980(cittern, guitar, vocals) – Jim came to Battlefield Band via Scottish folk group Kentigern. He died in 2004. #Ged Foley

980–1983 98 may refer to: * 98 (number) * Windows 98, a Microsoft operating system * 98 Ianthe, a main-belt asteroid * Oldsmobile 98, a full-sized luxury car Years * 98 BC * AD 98 * 1998 * 2098 See also * Californium (atomic number), a chemical element * ...

(guitar, vocal, Northumbrian pipes) – #Dougie Pincock 984–1990(bagpipes) – #Alistair Russell 984–1997(guitar, vocal) – #

John McCusker John McCusker (born 15 May 1973) is a Scottish folk musician, record producer, and composer. McCusker was a member of the Battlefield Band in the 1990s and worked as a band member and producer for folk singer Kate Rusby. He has produced and ...

990–2001 99 may refer to: * 99 (number) * one of the years 99 BC, AD 99, 1999, 2099, etc. Art, entertainment, and media Film, television and radio * ''99'' (1918 film), a Hungarian film * ''99'' (2009 film), an Indian Hindi film * ''99'' (2019 film), ...

(fiddle, whistle, accordion, cittern) – #

Iain MacDonald Ian McDonald may refer to: * Ian McDonald (civil servant) (1936−2019), Ministry of Defence spokesman during the Falklands War * Ian McDonald (musician) (1946−2022), member of King Crimson, 1969−70, and Foreigner, 1977−79 * Iain Matthews (bo ...

991–1997(bagpipes) – # Davy Steele (1948–2001) 998-2000(lead vocals, guitar, bouzouki, bodhrán, writing) – #

Karine Polwart Karine Polwart ( ) (born 23 December 1970) is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide. She has been most recognised fo ...

001-2002(lead vocals, guitar) # Ewen Henderson 011–2014(fiddle, Highland pipes, whistles, piano, vocals) –

Guests on album

# Alison Kinnaird 985; 1995–1996; 2001; 2015(cello, Scottish harp) #James MacKintosh

995 Year 995 (Roman numerals, CMXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 17 May - Fujiwara no Michitaka (imperial regent) dies. * 3 June: Fujiwara no Michikane gains power and becomes Rege ...

(percussion) #Quee MacArthur

(bass) #

Kate Rusby Kate Anna Rusby (born 4 December 1973) is an English folk singer-songwriter from Penistone, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Sometimes called the "Barnsley Nightingale", she has headlined various British folk festivals, and is one of the be ...

996 Year 996 ( CMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * February - Chotoku Incident: Fujiwara no Korechika and Takaie shoot an arrow at Retired Emperor Kazan. * 2 March: Emperor ...

(guitar, vocals) # Seamus Tansey

( Irish flute) # Eric Rigler

( Uilleann pipes) #The Radio Sweethearts

#Donald Hay 999; 2001(percussion) #Kris Drever 001(upright bass) #Simon Thoumire 001(concertina) #Mike Whellans 007; 2011; 2013; 2015(harmonica, moothie) #Mitch Greenhill

007 The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

(guitar) #Allan MacDonald

009 009 may refer to: * OO9, gauge model railways * O09, FAA identifier for Round Valley Airport * 0O9, FAA identifier for Ward Field, see List of airports in California * British secret agent 009, see 00 Agent * BA 009, see British Airways Flight ...

(vocals, small pipes) #Christine Primrose

015 015 may refer to: * 015, a telephone numbers in Malaysia, telephone number code in Malaysia * ''Global Underground 015'', DJ mix album by Darren Emerson * ''The Haunting of Tram Car 015'', 2019 novella by P. Djèlí Clark * JWH-015, chemical from t ...

(Gaelic song) #Jim Kilpatrick

(snare, bass drums) #John Martin

(fiddle) #Nuala Kennedy

(Gaelic song, flute) #Leo McCann

(melodeon) #Aaron Jones

(vocals, bouzouki) #Barry Gray

(Highland bagpipe) #Robin Morton

(vocals,

) #Don Meade

(harmonica) #Tony DeMarco

(fiddle)

Guests on stage

# Kieran Munnelly (bodhrán, flute, vocals) – # Skip Healy (flute, piccolo) –

Discography

Studio albums

*'' Farewell to Nova Scotia'' (1976) ) *''Battlefield Band'' (1977) *'' Wae's me for Prince Charlie'' (1978) *''At the Front'' (1978) *''Stand Easy'' (1979) *'' Home Is Where the Van Is'' (1980) *''There's a Buzz'' (1982) *''Anthem for the Common Man'' (1984) *''On the Rise'' (1986) *''Celtic Hotel'' (1987) *''New Spring'' (1991) *'' Quiet Days'' (1992) *'' Threads'' (1995) *''

Rain, Hail or Shine ''Rain, Hail or Shine'', an album by The Battlefield Band, was released in 1998 on the Temple Records label. The total running time is 45:38. Track listing # "Bodachan a Gharaidh/General Macdonal/Craig an Fhithich" – 3:47 # "Heave Ya Ho" � ...

'' (1998) *'' Leaving Friday Harbor'' (1999) *'' Happy Daze'' (2001) *'' Time and Tide'' (2002) *'' Out for the Night'' (2004) *'' The Road of Tears'' (2006) *Dookin'' (2007) *''Zama Zama... Try Your Luck'' (2009) *''Line-up'' (2011) *'' Room Enough For All'' (2013) *'' Beg & Borrow'' (2015)

Live albums

*''Home Ground – Live From Scotland'' (1989) *'' Across the Borders'' (1997) *'' Live Celtic Folk Music'' (1998)

Soundtracks

*''Music in Trust Vol 1'' (1986) *''Music in Trust Vol 2'' (1988)

Compilations

* ''The Story So Far 1977–1980'' (1982) *'' After Hours: Forward to Scotland's Past'' (1987) * ''Opening Moves: Best Of 1977–79'' (1993) * ''Scottish Folk: The Rough Guide to Scottish Folk'' – (2002) *''The Best of Battlefield Band: A 25 Year Legacy 1977-2001 '' (2003) *''

Three Score and Ten ''Three Score and Ten: A Voice to the People'' is a multi-CD box set album issued by Topic Records in 2009 to celebrate 70 years as an independent British record label. The album consists of a hardback book containing the seven CDs and a pa ...

'' (2009) *''The Producer's Choice'' (2016)

Videography

*In Concert (At the

Brunton Theatre The Brunton Theatre is a mid-scale performing arts venue in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland. It is part of a wider complex, incorporating council offices, and called Brunton Memorial Hall. The building is textured concrete and glass, and ...

, Musselburgh) (DVD) (2008)

Notes

References

External links

Temple Records (1978 UK label) Official website

Scottish Culture On-line / Scots Trad Music Awards
* {{Authority control Scottish Celtic music groups Scottish folk music groups Topic Records artists