Battlefield Band
The Music
The Band
Tune Up tour
Inspired by their rich heritage of Celtic Music, Battlefield Band perform a music of rare passion and joy under the banner 'Forward with Scotland's Past.' Refusing to limit themselves musically, they have mixed old songs with new. They perform on a unique fusion of ancient and modern instruments including:
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bagpipes
fiddle
synthesiser
guitar
cittern
flute
bodhran
accordian |
The group are named after the Glasgow suburb of Battlefield, where they were formed by four student friends. Battlefield Band have now been on the world's roads for around 30 years, distilling their own unique form of the Scottish spirit and bottling it in concert and onto disc. The band have toured extensively visiting countries all over the world, from Germany to Uzbekistan, and from Austria to Australia.
Battlefield Band have broken down barriers and pioneered many new directions in which others have followed. Angry, joyful, raucous, contemplative, their music is most importantly - accessible to all.
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Battlefield Band's four members are:
Alan Reid - Keyboards/Guitar/Vocals
A founder member of the band, Alan does much of the band’s singing and songwriting, especially on contemporary Scottish themes. |
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Alasdair White - Fiddle/Whistle/Banjo/Bazouki/Highland and Small Pipes/Bodhran
Alasdair comes from the Island of Lewis, one of the Gaelic speaking Outer Hebrides where music and culture remain strong daily forces.
Mike Katz - Highland Bagpipes/Small Pipes/Whistles/Guitar
The unmistakeable piper who joined the line-up in late 1997 and has contributed massively to the music and accessibility of the band.
Pat Kilbride - Vocals/Guitar/Cittern
Pat came over from Ireland in the mid 1970s and joined the Band for a couple of years making one album with them called “At The Front”.
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The Scottish Arts Council are delighted that Battlefield Band have been selected for a Tune Up tour, taking place in May 2005. For this tour, Battlefield Band will be performing with five traditional musicians from Uzbekestan that they met while on tour in 2003. |
Like their Scottish counterparts they are masters of their traditional instruments but with music that is a mixture of traditional and modern influences. The Uzbekestan musicians are all colleagues, teaching and playing at the Conservatoire in Tashkent. When the two groups first met they naturally began to play each other's music, exploring and exploiting the differences as well as the unexpected similarities.
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This collaboration with Battlefield Band enables the Uzbek musicians to visit and perform in Scotland for the first time and could not have happened without the support of the Tune Up tours, bringing new sounds and musical experimentation and celebration to audiences in Scotland. |
| Have a look at the Battlefield Band website for more information, or the Tune Up website for more on touring. |
Battlefield Band's Tune Up tour was supported by the National Lottery through the Scottish Arts Council. |