Reviews / Rising North – ‘the whole place is buzzing’
Davie Gardner celebrates the first night of Shetland’s latest music festival and hopes for more
MUCH HAS been made of the possible ‘legacy’ resulting from now three visits of the Tall Ships Races to Lerwick – 1999, 2011 and 2023 – namely economic and community related benefits, PR and promotional elements and overall tourism related impact.
All true and all well and good, but for me at least, and I’m sure for many, the abiding memories of these – and an important element of that legacy – will remain their positive social impact, primarily revolving around the music and wider entertainment programmes and the dynamic and inclusive feelgood factors this brought.
For instance, witnessing so many folk of all ages quite simply revelling in a unique musical environment was an abiding and emotive personal memory of the Tall Ships event.
Young folk – some of them very young indeed – openly enjoying all kinds of music, traditional or traditional influenced, country, pop, rock, punk, metal and so forth, with them noticeably singing along to the songs of Queen or going slightly bananas to the mainly 70’s and 80’s cover versions delivered by our own mighty First Foot Soldiers – classic songs from era’s well before many of them were born.
The universal, inter-generational, age-old and ageless language of music in action, inclusively breaking down barriers for all to see.
Following that event, up went the widespread cry of “Can we not have something like this every year?”
Not perhaps a realistic option in that particular format but surely in a musically and culturally rich community such as ours something musical and perhaps even feelgood related could form part of that much-debated legacy. No?
The signs in this respect, via more ‘formal’ sources at least, were not all that positive it must be said.
But now, more or less as a direct result of this and the associated demand, a small, committed group of local individuals have, largely off their own backs, risen to the challenge and taken up the cudgel in no uncertain terms.
Prepare yourselves then for the Rising North Festival, an ambitious musical undertaking born from the loins of the Tall Ships music programme with perhaps a smattering of influence related genes from now defunct events such as the Heavy Metal Buffet.
Three days of homegrown contemporary (for want of a better, all-encompassing word) music, spread across eight local venues – including two in Clickimin and two in Mareel – featuring no less than around 40 local bands, and threatening to bring a sprinkling of madness and mayhem with it for good measure.
The initial signs are very positive indeed. The promoters have been taking this seriously. Professional production is on hand in the form of top-quality sound and lighting; stage backdrops, pop-up banners and other visual dressings have been prepared; bespoke festival merchandise including t-shirts and plastic drinking cups will be on sale over the weekend, while a glossy official programme of events is available packed full of information together with band biogs and photos. They’ve even got their own festival beer entitled ‘Steekit,’ – a cloudy LPA apparently – courtesy of Lerwick Brewery. It’s all very impressive indeed.
The only problem – on Friday night at least – is one of choice. Five venues – Mareel, the British Legion, the Marlex, the Thule and the Lounge are hosting no less than 18 bands in just over six hours and amazingly it’s all for free.
Blimey, it’s simply not possible to take it all in. But here again the promoters have thought it through with start times staggered to ensure the maximum attendance in each establishment via a certain amount venue hopping.
Accepted most of the venues are over 18s only, but apparently the Legion can welcome families while Mareel ensures inclusion by hosting an alcohol-free youth gig, promoted by the Shetland Arts inspired and managed Shetland Young Promoters Group, featuring a whole host of young, aspiring bands, while that aim of overall inclusion continues during the weekend with family friendly events during the days too.
My Friday night starts early in the British Legion where Oot o Tune –”conceived in Cullivoe” the programme tells us – have the honour of kicking everything off ahead of their so called “parent band” Rack & Ruin – more of whom later. Surprisingly for the relatively early hour (6pm) virtually every seat in the place is already taken when I get there – a positive sign for sure. It seems half of Yell has turned out for this one as well.
The band themselves don’t live up to their name, they are very much in tune, both as a band – spearheaded primarily by the excellent, hugely confident vocals of Ben Lawson and the nifty guitar work and backing vocals of Jacob Henderson – with their audience already threatening to dance to a diverse range of covers of songs from the likes of the Saw Doctors, AC/DC, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Johnny Cash.
“They’re great but they’ve stolen half wir set,” laughs their fellow Yell man and Rack & Ruin stalwart David Spence while the young bands’ version of the Chuck Berry classic Johnny B. Goode tempts the first tentative folk onto the dance floor.
The Donald Anderson Band – keeping alive the writing of proper, original songs, and here almost the elder statesmen of this particular festival – give us virtually the whole of their excellent new, yet to be released album No Time for Turning Back opening with the faintly Dylanesque track Survivor.
It’s a set of truly strong songs – punctuated by the jaw-dropping guitar work of Alan McKay and the seasoned troubadour rhythm section of Rick Nickerson (bass) and Ian Barrie (drums) – with the track I Could Dream a Highway a particular stand out here.
Following this I’m tempted away to the youth gig in Mareel to see a young band called The Zumba Crises, lured by their programme biog which proclaims they are “staunch haters of the band Arctic Monkeys” while supposedly delivering a fusion of ska, punk, psychedelia and the occasional mad maraca outburst. Intriguing to say the least!!
They take the stage led by a dreadlocked bandmember called Triple T wielding not only the usual instrumental paraphernalia of rock bands but also flutes and trombones no less. Performance wise they are utterly and wonderfully shambolic, with a rough, devil-may-care onstage attitude harking back to the early, chaotic days of punk rock.
Musically they are looser than the loosest of cannons but nevertheless are clearly having an absolute ball. This is what being in a band is largely all about; young folk simply having fun together. “This is the track that got us thrown out of the Walls Hall,” they announce at one stage. This intriguing and amusing statement ultimately proves to be all the funnier still when I subsequently find out they were actually playing the Walls Brownie’s Up-Helly-Aa ‘hop’ day at the time. Punk truly isn’t dead!!
Already ping-ponging back and forth between festival venues I return to the relative, if by now extremely busy, sanity of the Legion, where Yell’s musical legends Rack & Ruin are both raising the rafters and overseeing an already heaving dance floor. Heavens above it’s only 8pm!
The band – great in themselves – are further augmented tonight by the genuinely awesome supporting vocals of Alice Jamieson, currently tearing through a version of Jackson that does the original version by Johnny Cash and June Carter more than justice. I’m further impressed when during the band’s rendition of Steve Earle’s Johnny Come Lately I witness two young girls – aged no more than 15 I reckon – enthusiastically singing along to this. Again, maybe it’s a Yell thing or they simply know their proper country music. Either way it’s great to see.
Across town the whole place is literally buzzing. Anyone planning to slink off to the Thule for a quiet Friday night pint is likely to be disappointed as tonight the place has been transformed into a home for metal mayhem and riff-related rage featuring a line-up of some of Shetland’s more decibel-driven bands including Quantana and Shipyard Riot.
The place is literally ‘oot the door’ by 9pm and clearly not a place for the faint hearted, so I retreat to the Lounge primarily to catch Whalsay’s The Nev’s and the excellent pop / punk quartet 3310. Here too it’s squeezing-in room only and primarily due to the average age range in attendance my somewhat elderly intrusion is perhaps viewed with, at best, interest or indeed an air of suspicion.
The somewhat awkward, twist and turn layout of the upper Lounge is perhaps not the ideal venue for a gig of this nature but nevertheless the Nev’s are great, fronted by the powerhouse vocals and visual impact of Kari Williamson.
I don’t actually see all that much of them though, being stuck, as I am, behind potentially the tallest man in Shetland, only allowing for a close-up view of the back of his lumberjack shirt. The band deliver terrific versions of the Cranberries Zombie and Alive by Pearl Jam before I once again have to beat a hasty retreat for fear of asphyxiation. Shame as I really wanted to see the band 3310. Another time perhaps.
Back once again to the more spacious floor space of Mareel then and the youth gig there, where the young audience by now (10pm) seems to have thinned out a bit and perhaps lost a bit of gig-focus in favour of congregating and chatting outside the venue and attending to clearly urgent mobile phone business.
That is until the surprise of the night take the stage in the form of 8 Ball Jacuzzi, perhaps the most impressive, finest and tightest young band I have ever seen.
Suddenly the young audience are back on side, packed in front of the stage and ready to rock. It almost a musical case of ‘back to the future’ as the band deliver a terrific and diverse set featuring classic stuff from the likes of Guns n Roses, Thin Lizzie, Status Quo, Nirvana and Oasis.
It’s fantastic to see young folk still enjoying a great live band and both them and the band themselves getting into the classic music of yore. An excellent ending to an excellent night in Mareel.
A final visit to the Douglas Arm (Marlex) confirms that that bar is every bit as busy as everywhere else, with Project 22 currently on stage ahead of festival promoter Arthur Nicolson making the first of his multi-various band appearances over the weekend, here fronting the three-piece punk-pop band The Munchies. ‘Like father, like son’ as they say.
Good on you Arthur and well done on being part of bringing together an event which, on the evidence of tonight, should be set for great things, and one which, again on the evidence of tonight alone, has provided a hugely welcome economic boost to more than a few establishments around the town.
So, if Rising North does go on to become an annual event – and I for one very much hope it will – then it could very well form a fantastic part of that legacy we spoke of earlier. And this was only the start of the weekend for heaves sake! Onward to the Clickimin later on Saturday.
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