Monday 8 March 2021

Evensong: The Chair


  Orkney Monster is The Chair’s third album and this 15-minute video launches it with three tracks from the album. Filmed at Tomison's Academy in South Ronaldsay, Orkney—an incredible building—steeped in history. The Chair have this to say: "Recorded live in the studio, Orkney Monster captures the sizzling energy of a band whose unique brand of stomp music has placed them firmly at the vanguard of where-it’s-at. Collectively the sound bursts with the energy of a heavy rock gig—a rampant ruckus of fiddles, banjos, accordions and drums—yet remains acoustic at heart". There's some nice film of the linked isles, the barriers and some clowning around.

13 comments:

mongoose said...

Well they're alright, mrs i. Although that miserable bugger in the middle could do with a mutton pie and a pint of heavy. Not the first to sing like a choirboy with not quite the energy to strangle his cat. Where are proper rocking folkies when you need them?

I see that they're hanging Swinney today. Brave soldier. More than can be said for Mrs McFish.

Bungalow Bill said...

Bracing, Mrs I, bracing.

No chance of Covid sticking to anyone up there, in them winds.

mrs ishmael said...

Hi, mr bungalow bill,
I hoped it might tick your boxes - an evensong AND glimpses of Orkney. Yup, we have lots of fresh air and it moves around pretty quickly. Tier 3 at the moment, and all set to go down a tier, as long as we stay put. Sort of island arrest.

mrs ishmael said...

mr mongoose, Patrick Harvie has chickened out - without the Greens, Labour and Conservatives haven't got the votes to win the no confidence motion. Swinney will survive. For the moment.
I thought The Chair suffers from the usual Orkney thing - they just go on and on and on. Then stop. Maybe it's a folk thing rather than an Orkney thing. I liked their style, though, and their clear enjoyment of the craic. They reminded me a little bit - only a little bit, of Bonzo Dog, ne plus ultra.

mongoose said...

Perhaps a tactical error from the Fish Lady, mrs i. The media Gods require a blood sacrifice and all that ginger moaning won't blot out the news indefinitely.

mongoose said...

Agreed also, mrs i, about folkies. I think The Sailor's Life, see above, si a consumate example of how to start a folkie song, how to play it and then how to withdraw from playing it. 11 minutes and not a foot wrong along the way. Mind, those kids could play, and her ladyship could sing a bit too.

mrs ishmael said...

Thank you for linking to Fairport Convention, mr mongoose - a lovely version and someone has taken the trouble to put together some haunting images.

inmate said...

Sorry Mrs I, that was truly awful. Shame the Orcadian breeze wasn’t heard while they played. However it does look a beautiful place, despite the weather.

mrs ishmael said...

I didn't think it was that bad, mr inmate, but then, what do I know about folk music? Actually, what an Orcadian told me about this sort of music is that it isn't music for listening to, it's music for dancing to. That's why it goes on and on and on then just stops, because all the dancers have collapsed. The dances they do are the strange things called country dances I was taught at primary school, when, squirming with embarrassment, I had to hold the hand of a boy and skip along and go round and round. The grown ups do these country dance thingies in Orkney - not now, obv. - covid - they all have to get tanked up first because of the full horror of them, there's a couple of fiddles, an accordion and a bully who shouts out the moves - change partners, reverse, etc. And they are called peculiar things - Strip the Willow or the Dashing White Farmer. Honest, Not Invent.
Anyroadup, glad you liked the scenery bits on the video. It is a beautiful place, once you get over the absence of trees thing. I'll do another travelogue, maybe show you some snaps of Kirkwall, which must be the smallest Cathedral city in the whole entire universe.

inmate said...

Ah yes Mrs I, the Orcadian Strip the Willow, my good lady and I danced the Strip the Willow at a Scottish? Wedding, some 10 years ago. I honestly thought I would die of exhaustion and was praying for it to end. Truly surreal; Men and Women in traditional dress hurling one another around at the speed of light, with what would appear to be war cries screaming out. Terrifying but great fun.

mrs ishmael said...

Ghastly, mr inmate. I've never done it. Can you really imagine mr ishmael engaging in such frivolity? For those who have no idea what we're talking about, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah3gLzLKuI4
Just a warning - you won't like it.

inmate said...

Aye that’s the one mrs I, but they are all folks of similar age to me. The one we partook in had young, high energy, new people, fuelled with Buckfast, single malts, and copious amounts ah lagger. And they where serious aboot they dancing at speed.

mrs ishmael said...

The grey hairs were dancing to Jimmy Shand, who is a bit of a legend in these parts. Here's a link to some young people dancing the Dashing White Sergeant - Dashing White Farmer they call it here. Nobody seems to have called them out for racism and white privilege as yet. Here's the young people - they're not doing too badly, considering they haven't consumed the rocket fuel you describe, mr inmate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNdlc9yJBjM