Lot’s of good things happened since the new year though, starting with a lot of fun at the Celtic Connections Festival.  I piped at the door for the guys going into the Opening Concert and was invited in to enjoy the show, it was amazing!  Too many highlights to mention, but the New Rope String Band’s performance of Donald MacLeod’s “The Duck” was completely unexpected, and to hear Scottish Power Pipe Band along with the great Capercaille were among the thrills for me.

I did get a chance to do a lot of performing throughout the festival also.  Myself and Ross Kennedy did a duo gig at The Piping Centre alongside Donald Black.  I got sent this review from the Scratchy Noises web site;

Lorne’s set of tunes was interspersed with some songs from his accompanying bouzouki player, which I always prefer to just tunes. Magnificent playing on small pipes and low D whistle. Hearing such quality of playing leaves me caught in the middle between being inspired to get mine out and practice more/some and giving it up and throwing them in the fire.

Later on, I was thrilled to be able to play with Carlos Nunez and the RSNO!  It was as part of a smaller version of a large piping group I am involved with (more on that project soon!).  It was a phenomenal night, and we all really enjoyed it!  Here is a video from the audience;

After Celtic Connections, things quietened down a little bit for gigs to make room for getting into the rehearsal and recording studios with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers for their new album.  Once again I was heavily involved in pulling some of the pieces together and am getting to work with some great musicians to produce what I think is the best music the Chilli Pipers have produced.  You can get hold of the previous albums here.

In the studio with the Chilli Pipers.

I don’t want to say too much about the content of the album, but there’s some really good stuff on it – both in terms of songs you will know and also new sets of tunes all with the recognisable Chilli twist.  It’s a wee while before the CD is released, so check back for more news soon.

End of February saw three gigs with Joy Dunlop touring Argyll to promote her new album “Faileasan” ending up with a home gig in Carradale Village Hall to a great turn out.  Check out reviews and clips from the album and some concert videos on Joy’s own web site or you can get hold of a copy of the album here.

Playing in the session in “Shetland” on BBC 1.

March has once again been spent in the recording studio with the Chilli Pipers with a few breaks to judge the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Juniors Competition (a scary experience!) as well as some teaching.  I also featured for a few seconds on a new BBC Drama Shetland as part of the session band.  Unlikely though it is to hear BorderPipes in the Lerwick Lounge in Shetland, I definitely have had a tune in there in real life on at least one occasion!

March finished off in Partick Folk Club with a wee gig for the Linzi Murphy trio.  I’m looking forward to a few gigs with a bigger version of this band throughout the Summer.  I’m now off to get rehearsing my parts for playing with Mánran at the Europhonic Festival in Nantes on Saturday, there will be clips from that on the next blog I’m sure, so until then I’ll leave you with this video from the Partick Folk Club gig!

I am absolutely thrilled to have been considered for Instrumentalist of the Year alongside three of my friends and musicians I admire greatly.

It’s shaping up to be a great night, so do come along if you are in the area and give me a consideration when you’re doing the voting.

Public voting will close on Wednesday 21st November and all winners will be announced at a glittering ceremony hosted by Mary Ann Kennedy and Tony Kearney on Saturday 8th December at Nevis Centre, Fort William

You can read about the other categories and nominations and VOTE HERE.

August finished off with a three day tour of Argyll with Joy Dunlop which was much fun and great to see some busy venues in Oban, Dunoon and Tobermory.

The finale of the Colonsay Folk Festival 2012.

The middle of September took me to Colonsay for the full Colonsay Music Festival, Ceol Cholasa – I’m not sure how I managed to survive 5 whole days but it was one of the best festivals that I have had the pleasure of playing at for a while, and loved the local beers from the Colonsay Brewery! As well as a solo workshop/concert I also enjoyed playing with Manran and testing out my new Hamish Moore A440 Chanter alongside Calum Stewart on Uillean Pipes, all went well!

Speaking of Uillean Pipes, I finally got an Uillean Chanter from Ray Sloan which I’ve been after for a while. Here’s my progress after one day practicing it and taking lessons from the Online Academy of Irish Music which is fantastic.

9 pipers from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers performing 9 part harmony!

Later on in the month I went down to London with a Chilli Piper supergroup of 9 of us to perform a piece written by Julia Wolfe called “Lad”. It’s a piece that people either seem to love or hate, and I really liked it – though it is VERY experimental making use of unusual techniques on the pipes like chirping bird sounds, trailing drones and strike ins.

On the Tuesday we played at the Street Cafe and really enjoyed a set from Zephyrus who were also on.  It was time for me to take a bit of time out until the next thing I had to worry about which was rehearsals on Friday with a full band.  In between times I met with the band individually to go over some stuff.

Friday’s rehearsal went good, so things were looking good for sharing the stage with the Vatersay Boys at the Old Fruitmarket on the Saturday.  The sound check went well, and then so did the gig.  It was the first time since Celtic Connections the year before that I got the chance to put the full 6 piece band together, and I loved it!

(c) Stuart Curnow

And, here’s a wee video from the crowd…

Don’s Party in the Park

On Sunday we had even more fun playing at Don Bradford’s party in the Park Bar – this is about the 8th time we’ve done it and pulled some of the guys from the band together for it.  So a huge thank you to Piping Live again and also to Don for having his party again – such a brilliant week of piping all round, sadly though I didn’t actually make it to the World Pipe Band Championships on the Saturday!

I got a phone call in November to see if I would be available to arrange and record some pipe parts for Disney Pixar’s latest potential blockbuster.  The composer, Patrick Doyle, had tried to get in touch with my friend and Chilli colleague Stuart Cassells, but he was unavailable and passed the opportunity onto me.  At the time, it could have simply been a few bars of pipe music for all I knew but I was still very excited!  Stuart let me know he had passed them onto me, so I anxiously stared at the phone for days after.  ”A watched phone never rings” so they say as I discovered when I left it in my room while having dinner to discover a couple of missed calls from  a London number.  Doh!  However, after trying not to seem to desperate in phoning back I managed to get through to the composer’s people who explained the part.

The tunes were composed and I had to arrange them onto the pipes, do a little bit of trouble shooting with keys and notes and then perform them.  Some of the tracks represented four onscreen pipers, so I was asked to sort out another three pipers to join me.  Friends from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers were the obvious choice.

Some of the Scores we were working from

So, Sibelius files trickled through and I got to work on them – perfect examples of Scottish music in an orchestral context; jigs, strathspeys, laments, marches – they were all there!  And so, a few weeks later we were off to London by train with the sheet music and electric pipes out doing some last minute perfecting.

It didn’t take long for us to get off the train and along to the studio.  Air Lyndhurst Studios to be precise – where some of the greatest albums and soundtracks of all time were recorded.  And where, as I found out from Doctor Who composer Murray Gold, the soundtrack to the Christmas special was being recorded the next day.  As if things weren’t exciting enough.

This session was making use of all 4 pipers, so we quickly got to work tuning up.  We did some takes and, understandably, Patrick wanted a more rawer and wilder sound.  Realistically, I don’t think pipers in medieval Scotland would be fixed with moisture control systems and HBT2 Tuners!  So we roughened the sound, and loosened the playing a little bit to sound a bit more like a classic older pipe recording.  I think we did that well now I listen back.  We played some tracks just as pipers and some with the London Symphony Orchestra – Amazing!  We also spent some time fooling about to get some comic noises for incidents in the film that I won’t spoil for you.

Me and Patrick, probably laughing at an injured piper!

Director Mark Andrews and Producer Katherin Sarafain were also in the session and Mark was particularly hands on when it came to getting the comedy sounds he was after.

The session was finished early and we had some time before the sleeper train home, so we spent a little while chatting with the team.  Such amazing passion for their work and love and appreciation of Scotland.  A day that I was terrified off turned into one of the most enjoyable days ever!

A few months pass and it’s now getting into 2012 and the email comes through from Patrick’s people again for another session.  Of course, I am once again excited!  The same process begins with files being swapped, arrangements made and tunes learned and we’re off to London again!  Again, the sets were done early, and I even had time to do a little bit of improvisation in “Song of Mor ‘du” led by Billy Connolly which I’m ecstatic to hear made it to the final soundtrack!

So that was it, a few months wait until the film is released while catching small glimpses of the movie and clips from the soundtrack from various promotional sites.

Performing on the red carpet at the Euro Premiere of Brave

Last weekend in June now and, after performing the longest Orcadian Strip the Willow ever (unofficially, at 67 mins) at the Gigha Music Festival and I’m now off to the Premiere in Edinburgh with an unnerving amount of ferry/bus/taxi connections!  I made it OK and in good time, get changed and enjoy watching the celebs roll in.  Kelly MacDonald, Robbie Coltraine (who gave me a wink and a dance), Kevin McKidd, Craig Fergusson and Patrick Doyle.  Patrick even clocked me and introduced me to the autograph hunting crowd, what a gem!

An odd day turns even more surreal when I’m requested to go visit the First Minister, Alex Salmond!  Of course I did, and had a lovely evening with him and his family.

Next Day, it’s the Inverness Highland premiere and I finally get to see the complete movie.  3D glasses at the ready, with a stunning warm up from Julie Fowlis who sings the two main songs in the film.  As expected, Julie has done a great job with the songs and is a fantastic ambassador for Gaelic music.

So the film, wow – amazing, great story, warm characters, funny, witty, sad, moving, it’s all there and it’s very much set in Scotland.  I’m sure people may even recognise the inspiration in certain parts of the film.  The opening sequence took my breath away, and even a few days after the screening I’m still not sure if I’ve got it back enough to play my pipes again!  Go see it!

Robbie Shepherd

Well, after lots of mucking about and patience, a few new tunes have came out of me over the last few weeks and I got a chance to road test some of them for BBC Radio Scotland’s “Take the Floor” with Robbie Shepherd.  We had planned to perform them as a guest spot at a live gig in Ingliston at the Royal Highland Show but, unfortunately, we got the call about a mile from the event to say that it had to be rained off!  Aaah!.. On the plus side though, this meant that we got a wee session in Studio 1 at Pacific Quay in Glasgow to produce a short package for the show.

Here’s one of the sets that we recorded as well as some scores for the first and third tunes, which are two of my own new compositions.  Feel free to pass around as you please!

On Friday evening at Stirling’s Tollbooth Theatre, there was a rare opportunity to enjoy a live performance showcasing some of the best talent in Scottish traditional music. Distil is an initiative managed by Hands up For Trad, the organisation behind events such as the MG Alba Scots Trad Music awards, to encourage collaboration between traditional musicians and professionals from other genres. With a remit to embrace the worlds of chamber music and electronics, this year’s showcase concert was the result of a residential workshop in February, attended by twelve of Scotland’s best composers of traditional music, and led by innovative string ensemble Mr McFall’s Chamber.

My idea was to use Highland pipe technique (grace notes, doublings, birls etc) and feed them through the sounds that come out of an old games console.

I wasn’t sure how it would go down – but it seemed to work OK.  Review from FolkRadioUK says…

“Lorne MacDougall’s proxy appearance (by video) was fitting. He fully embraced the electronic remit with his 8-bit Bagpipes; an experiment involving highland bagpipe techniques presented through Nintendo technology… you really had to be there.”

The end of 2011 was amazing and I was lucky enough to be invited to play with and for some amazing people.  Here’s a video of myself and hroat singer Albert Kuvezin improvising live in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 22nd November 2011. There are wee hints of Mike Grey’s “Fleshmarket Close” in the reels.

Not long before that I was also in London leading the pipes for the soundtrack of the new Disney Pixar film “Brave” under the leadership of Patrick Doyle.  Here’s a clip from the film below!

The summer started with a fantastic Arran Music Festival back in June where I brought over some friends to do a set in Brodick Town Hall.  There’s a wee video of the “Trip to Aviles” set attached.  It was a great concert on the Friday night along with old friends The Average Folk Band and Robyn and Amie.

Moving on from Arran I went with Dan Thorpe and Tia Files to play for the ceilidh at the Gigha Music Festival, this was the 9th festival and I’ve only missed one.  I left the Saturday morning for a Wedding, then returned for an amazing session in the Boathouse Bar on the Sunday.

In July, the Muckle Loons came out of hibernation to perform at the Stonehaven Folk Festival.  This is the band that formed the Young Trad Tour of 2009 and we still enjoy playing together so try to keep it going with a few gigs every year.

Throughout the  year, I’ve also been having fun with these guys; the Fabulous Shire Boys with a guest piper.  It’s a great, entertaining and varied set and so much fun to be involved  with!

During July we started working on this years’ TMSA Young Trad Tour album, planning on recording it in August and releasing it early October.  You can find it in the shop on this site.

At the end of July I got the amazing chance to play pipes in the finale of the Tall Ships Race’s visit to Stavanger in Norway in front of 75 000 people.

August saw a couple of trio gigs at Piping Live and a guest appearance with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers at their Old Fruitmarket show, and then the Mull of Kintyre Festival was once again great fun!

There’s an extremely busy Autumn coming up with two tours, one in Europe with Bodega and one in Scotland with the Young Traddies.  :)