Photos from The Bevvy Sisters appearance at Letham Nights…
bevvy
The Bevvy Sisters Return – By Royale Appointment!
29th April – A very special day! Why? Well, dontcha know? The Bevvy Sisters are coming to Letham Nights by Royale Appointment for a Right Royale Bevvy!
The Bevvy Sisters: Powerhouse harmony trio. Radio-era chic, now retro cool.
Three sassy lassies. Reinventing the genre and covering all the exits.
Mixing classy original songs, vibrant vintage folk and artful contemporary covers into the headiest of musical cocktails, Scottish harmony outfit The Bevvy Sisters unites the richly seasoned voices of Heather Macleod, Lindsey Black and Roberta Pia, with Shooglenifty percussionist James Mackintosh and David Donnelly (ex-Salsa Celtica/Finlay Quaye) on guitar, mandolin and backing vocals. With sell-out shows at Glasgow’s world-famous Celtic Connections festival for the past two years, they have won a string of glowing reviews and extensive UK radio play. Check out songs from their album The St James Sessions.
And take a look at what the experts think:
‘I feel it’s my calling to be an understudy Bevvy Sister’ Eddi Reader
‘Luscious. Lovely. Tuneful. The Bevvy Sisters can mix the dirtiest martini in town, then sing it.’ Eliza Carthy
‘The only thing better than getting to listen to The Bevvy Sisters, is getting to sing with them’ Dick Gaughan
David McGregor, who we first met at a Haiti benefit gig in Dunbog, is a virtuoso jazz
guitarist with a huge talent – and he has agreed to open for the Sisters. His intricate and delicate picking on his own compositions and some classic jazz covers, is captivating. After many years living in Scotland working in bands, recording and tutoring guitar, David is now living in Paris in the heart of the European jazz scene …but he was not going to miss the chance of playing at Letham Nights with the Bevvy Sisters! Have a listen at http://www.myspace.com/davidmacgregorjazz
Letham Night 14 and 15
Letham Nights News
Tickets are already going well for our next two Letham Nights – Saturday Nov 6th with the Coaltown Daisies and the Moonzie Allstars and then our Christmas Bevvy with the Bevvy Sisters on Saturday 18th December. Get your ticket order in – don’t miss out! Email lethamnights@btinternet.com tel 01337 810372
We are also delighted to welcome a new ‘pop-up shop’ to Letham Nights with gifts and artefacts on sale from artist members of Craft Scotland. So if you are thinking of Christmas gifts, this will be an ideal opportunity to buy some high quality hand made craft items for family and friends.
Announcing the next two Letham Nights to wrap up 2010 in style….
On Saturday November 6th we will have a fantastic double bill featuring the outrageously talented Coaltown Daisies and the magnificent Moonzie Allstars.
Then on Saturday 18th December, join us for a spectacular Christmas Bevvy as we once again host the amazing, the wonderful, the delightful and delectable…. Bevvy Sisters supported by the captivating jazz guitar of David McGregor . Can you think of a better Christmas night out?
Click on the links to sample the music and then get your bookins in! Happy to take your reservations for both gigs. Just send email or phone or text.
Letham Nights 13, The Loveliest Night of the Year
Talking late into the night we got onto the subject of recipe’s. The discussion went onto discuss the fact that recipe’s aren’t
always food related. There are recipes for, say, a happy life, a good book or a perfect day, I bet you have many more examples.
With these thoughts bouncing around our heads Claire, Michael and I thought about the recipe for the perfect Letham Nights.
This is what we came up with
1800g of Celebrating Fife
2 fl oz of Midsummer
7 visiting relatives, From the USA
70°F of fantastic weather
13 Locally sourced performers, young and fresh
6-10 seasoned open mic musicians, various ages
1 compere, preferably juicy
2 professional, performing arts-based practitioners.
100 burgers from Pillars of Hercules
25 punnets of free strawberries
4 pints of cream, optional.
1 Clap and Tipple bar, fully stocked and staffed
1 Luva Anna.
To start, early in the morning mix together the two Arts practitioners with the 13 young performers, leave to photosynthesise for the rest of the day, making sure the creative juices flow nicely. Set aside to marinade towards a performance.
Meanwhile, arrange the Hall, the Clap and Tipple bar, the Pillars burgers, the strawberries, cream and the 7 relatives along with the PA, the Celebrating Fife funding and weather. Leave to soak up the atmosphere.
Then, mix all the elements together for the food part of the day, Make ready the audience by serving great veggie burgers/salad and very tasty free strawberries, allow situation to relax until done. Mix in 70°F temperatures and sunshine.
When replete, start the performance.
It started in a “flash mob” style, no introduction, straight into the performance, the young people walking through the hall from the various entrances. It took the audience a few seconds to realise what was happening. The performance included the spoken word, both solo and collectively, singing and musicianship. They conveyed a surprisingly honest take on teenage thoughts, fears, humour and sorrow. Being in the “gang” or not, loneliness, body image were issues also touched. Haggis man being particularly poignant.
They had written a song called the Loveliest Night of the Year and sang it beautifully.
Huge thanks to the young performers, to the tutors Fiona Miller and Mick Slaven for their fantastic efforts. What they managed to achieve in a day was remarkable.
Next, allow the musicians to play and sing their hearts out. First up, and as a wee taster for the music side of the day Roy Campbell and Mick Slaven performed two songs one of which Roy knew and the other Mick knew, neither had been practised beforehand.
Rhythm Is a Dancer and Pills and Booze were well received.
Steven Tom Smith soulfully sang through his beautiful songs, You Burn, Invisible Boy and If This Song Had a Name.
Mick Pritchard – Wow, who would have thought that voice would have come from Mick. He played Soul and Blues classics as well as a new song about his tortoise Herbert.
Kevin and Karen Scott, half of Ladybank Supergroup Skin and Bones played “May you never”, ”Still haven’t found what I’m looking for” and a version of The Black Oil Brothers’ Wednesday Afternoon.
Xander Duffy. Well, this was Xander’s second visit to Letham Nights and his voice soared and soared. He is completely unique and engaging, a tremendous voice and song writing skills. His songs featured a couple of covers – Hit the Road Jack and Halo along with his own I Go Back To and the brilliant Freedom.
Then add the acoustic Anthill Mob to finish. They played through rock and Blues classics from AC/DC to Zeppelin, to get everyone dancing.
What a fabulous mix of people – we do have some brilliant talent locally.
All this was seasoned with “peppered” comments from our comedy compere, the very “fruity” Bruce Devlin as each musician took the stage. Thanks Bruce… no really, thanks!
Finally, place on stage, one of the best live band’s the world has ever seen, Luva Anna.
They played for us in November and were truly fantastic then. This time it was no different.
They kicked off with the chillingly beautiful Sea Shanty, a 4 part vocal harmony that had the audience stunned. They then “battered” through old favourites like Coma Girl, Angry Fat Bouncer, Pigeon Song and The Ballad O’ Boaby Smith as well as newer numbers like Dumba Dumba, Sober, This is F*****g Urgent and Postcards – and of course the wonderfully evocative love song ‘Hold Still’.
Two encores were demanded by the audience which had an insatiable appetite for Luva Anna.
The Loveliest Night of the Year
Just imagine: it’s nearly midsummer. The evenings are balmy and light and spirits are high. Puck has administered his magic potion and you are feeling not just dreamy but a little daring…Put on your best bib and tucker and be a night wanderer to Letham Nights! Burgers, strawberries, a performance from local young people who have been taking part in drama and music workshops, an open-mic session compered by Dundee comedian Bruce Devlin.
And then… the Grand Finale – the return of another great Letham Nights favourite, highly acclaimed Dundee band Luva Anna.
If you want to take part in the performamce workshop / open mic session please contact richard@hoolet.com & see article Letham Nights Performance Workshop: Do it in a day!
There will also be the launch of new Letham Nights T-shirts designed by local artist Claire Heminsley will be on sale on the night. View Claire’s designs here.
Tickets to the evening performance will be £7.50 (£5 concs / under 12’s are free). To buy or for more information get in touch with Mike at lethamnights@btinternet.com, tel.01337 810372, mob 07802 436391. Bar provided by The Clap & Tipple.
The Next Letham Nights …19th June 2010
Following on from the outstanding Black Oil Brothers gig on 22nd May and the success of Letham Nights in reaching the Scottish Green List 2010, I am delighted to attach the full information about our extra-special Letham Nights on Saturday 19th June – The Loveliest Night of the Year, with Letham Nights favourites Luva Anna, an open mic session and drama performance.
I have attached a poster for the evening event together with a leaflet and registration form for a drama and music workshop called ‘Do it in a Day‘ which is being offered to young people that day. The young people will start off Letham Nights at the earlier time of 7pm with a performance written and rehearsed during the day.
The information is also available online here:
Loveliest Night Link
Do it in a Day Link
Please share this with your neighbours, friends and relatives. Please print and display in your area.
We are looking forward to hearing from you with ticket bookings or registration for the workshop. Don’t dilly dally – the last two gigs have been sold out!
Kingdom FM- Interview with Michael Farrell
Listen to Michael being interviewed on Kingdom FMs Kingdom Action
[audio:https://letham.org.uk/lethamnights/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ka-1st-april-.mp3|titles=ka 1st april]Letham Nights 12- Review ofThe Black Oil Brothers with Skin and Bones.
Cast your minds back to early May 2009. There yet? Good. You will remember we were entertained by three guys’ from Chicago who had searched the internet for venues in Scotland to add to their UK tour itinerary. Luckily the “Green” ethos of Letham Nights was a deciding factor and we were the lucky recipients of a storming show. The “Long Way from the Delta” show was an uplifting, authentic and foot stomping event. There was a connection felt by all who had attended the gig and this was sustained during the rest of their tour and indeed the following year using the usual social networking sites. Tony Manno said to me last week that he thought “life is so amazing when a decision made last year resulted in this friendship and Letham Nights being so close to their hearts”. I couldn’t agree more.
It wasn’t long before we were asked if they could return to Letham in the spring of 2010. They were so keen to play for us again that they told us they would arrange the UK tour dates around when we could fit them in. Last year they started the tour with us and this year they wanted to finish the tour with us then stay on a few days to relax before heading home to Chicago and a gig at the world famous “Buddy Guy’s”. We hadn’t set out our line up as far ahead as that but quickly decided on the 22nd May 2010.
A week later Ladybank band Skin and Bones contacted us asking about the chance of getting to play at Letham Nights. Brian cycled over a demo CD and after a wee listen thought they would be right on the money for the Black Oil Brothers as the support act. Synchronicity at work me thinks. Certainly serendipity.
So onto May, and the show. Before the sound check the band were lying on the grass at the side of the hall, taking in the sunny weather. Hamid and his 10 year old son Samadi turned up at the hall. Samadi had e-mailed the band asking what the chords were for “Saturday Afternoon”, a song on the album. They suggested at that time that he should get up on stage to play the song with the band during the show. Samadi was chuffed to bits, and did the sound check with the band, his guitar proudly sitting next to the bands guitars.
Skin and Bones came on stage to warm applause and played through their set of covers. Comprising Led Zepplin, Biffy Clyro, Neil Young and Foo Fighters songs. Sarah and Karen’s lovely harmonies along with Kev’s guitar and Brian’s percussion were well received by the sell out crowd. (The tickets were sold out two weeks before the gig, a first for Letham Nights, could this be a sign for the future?). All too soon their set was finished, leaving the stage to great cheers. They had only played six or seven gigs since they got together and really impressed the audience.
The Black Oil Brothers came on and continued where they had left off last year, playing through the album and adding a couple of covers along the way. Starting off with “Goggles Paisano”,“Going for Broke”, “Saturday Afternoon” starring Samadi, “Robert from Hibbert”, “Johnny and the Pale Rider”, “One for Suzie” and The Rolling Stones “Dead Flowers” where I was persuaded to make my live debut, Tony Manno very helpfully whispering the chords to me as I strummed along, grinning like a fool [You were great Roy! Ed.]. They finished the set with a fantastic version of The Band’s “The Weight”.
Once again their foot stompin delta blues, great guitar work and gritty vocals went down a storm, these guy’s know their trade and had the audience eating out of their hand.
As the night closed, they promised to come back next year… What do you all think?
Kev from Skin and Bones told me they were so inspired by the night that they were going to work on original material.
What a night!
During a small break in the Black Oil Brothers set Neil from the North Howe Transition Toun Movement presented us with a metal Letham Nights sign and extolled our efforts and successes during the last 18 months. The whole team were summonsed and a round of cheers were gratefully received. We had also found out that Michael had been nominated as an inspirational advocate on sustainability and green issues, achieving a top 20 placing from over a hundred nominees for the Scottish Green List, a fantastic accolade
The article in the Scotsman went something like this
Mike Farrell
Sometimes being green can seem slightly dry and worthy, but not when Mike Farrell is involved.
He has set up a local gig night called Letham Nights, which is aiming to fund a “zero carbon” village hall for Letham in Fife at the same time as providing a stage for local talent.
The project supports North Howe Transition Toun, aiming to tackle climate change in Letham, Monimail, Bow of Fife, Collessie, Giffordtown and Charlottetown.
Mr Farrell and his team are in the middle of a busy 2010 programme, which is attracting local and international acts. This list celebrates the incredible work going on by unsung heroes around the country.
Letham Nights #11-Review of The Bevvy Sisters with Kirsty Keatch
Mostly at Letham Nights the acts come to us. They see the website or someone recommends them. It is one of the delightful things about this venture that lots of people out there are great musicians and they just want to be heard. But with the Bevvy Sisters it was different…
How it happened…
Location: Falkland
Occasion: “The Big Tent” Festival Summer 2009
Reason: handing out flyers for Letham Nights
Outcome: The Bevvy Sisters appearing at Letham Nights 11.
Sheltering in a tent to avoid the rain we stumbled across The Bevvy Sisters set. Luck was on our side that day because we were blown away by the performers on the stage. The Bevvy’s and their band played with joy, harmony and humour. Brilliant vocals shone through, I can’t think of three voices that were meant to sing together more than Kaela Rowan, Lindsay Black and Heather MacLeod. David Donnelly, guitar and mandolin and James Mackintosh on drums and percussion provided the perfectly judged backing to the sisters. Their incredible musicianship gave a huge soundscape to balance the beautiful vocals.
Michael and I approached them after the performance, handed them our card and gave them a wee resume of what Letham Nights is all about. They promised to get in touch as they were booked for the rest of the summer. That suited us as we were also sorted for artists.
Subsequent investigation revealed a gathering of fantastic reviews, a CD release, The St James Sessions, recorded (in single takes) at The St James Hall in Innerleithen and then wowing the crowds at this year’s Celtic Connections, pulling huge crowds wherever they played.
The e-mail came through and the date was set. Around this time Michael had been contacted by Colin McLean of the Edenists, recommending a young singer songwriter called Kirsty Keatch. She has just back from Manchester after winning the prestigious MIBI songwriters award. Chris Martin from Coldplay awarded her 25 out of 25 and Radio 2’s Mark Radcliffe commented that her song is a “heartbreaking, gorgeous, ethereal pop track”.
And so to Letham Nights #11
Kirsty gave us a very impressive and confident show of self-penned songs using her electric guitar and a bank of effects to create loops of soaring melody. She sang her way through Silent Voices, Riddles, Moonbeam, Little Butterflies, Teardrop and the beautiful Dragonfly to name a few. The audience were held in a quiet and reflective mood by these lovely songs and by this future star. If there is any justice in this world Kirsty will be around singing for us for a very long time.
The Bevvy Sisters then graced the stage. There are others who have waxed eloquent about the rich, magical, sweet vocals that flow through swing, jazz, folk and Americana. I cannot add much to what has already been written. Songs from their debut St James Sessions CD were fully represented, amongst them The Littlest Bird, 1000 miles, The Way You Know You Do, Draw the Line and Apocalypse. They also covered the classics, Mary Don’t You Weep, Rock My Soul and Leadbelly’s Cow Cow Yikkey. The Letham Nights crowd were keen to get up and dance and were even tricked into descending onto the dancefloor to a 20 second ad jingle in the style of 50’s American TV! If the Cohen brothers are looking for some tunes for their next film, they should have a listen to The Bevvy Sisters. Each song was greeted with enthusiasm by the Letham Nights full house. There was dancing and audience participation and during the song Smoke, lighters blazed as the song was sung. As we had seen from the gig at the Big Tent, where they are booked to appear again this year, this band are certainly going places, and deservedly so. A straw poll taken at the end of the gig and the results were unanimous…Utterly Fantastic!
Letham Nights Instagram
