Brian McNeill

Newtongrange Folk Club, The Dean Tavern, 2/10/25

 Brian McNeill, fiddle and vocal

Brian MacNeill is one of the few people who can truly be described as a legend of Scottish folk music, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, member of one of our finest folk groups, the Battlefield Band, producer of records and films and sometime head of traditional music at the Conservatoire in Glasgow, incidentally one of the top conservatoires in the world. Brian is now 75 and with a career like his he would be entitled to retire and reflect on his past glories, but he is still performing, still touring and clearly still enjoying it. He got us all to sing last night and halfway through he looked at us in the audience and said, “I just want to tell you what a pleasure it is to sing in a healthy folk club” 

Of course at 75 Brian doesn’t have the voice he had 25 years ago; it’s softer and occasionally he gets a bit out of breath but the feeling and the meaning are still there. Brian is also a songwriter with a story to tell and his most famous songs still resonate. He sang one of his finest songs, ‘No Gods and Precious Few Heroes’, which is just as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. I thought not just of Brian but also of Dick Gaughan’ s snarl as he belted it out with meaning. Sadly, Dick can no longer sing, but they are bringing out a box set of his recordings soon. Brian is also an amazing multi-instrumental musician and his stage was surrounded by instruments most of which he played tonight, but above all he is  a great fiddler. Brian also understands that folk clubs are not just to give a solo concert performance but to engage with the audience and to encourage them to sing. We did sing along with him in songs we knew like Hamish Henderson’s ‘Freedom Come All Ye’. Brian suggested this should be an independent Scotland’s anthem. Hamish of course always said that it was an international anthem.

Brian’s set was bookended by some of the very talented floor singers from the folk club. It’s such a well-organised club that it lists them all on its Facebook page, Nitten Folk Club, including my contribution which was to recite James Connolly’s great poem ‘We Only Want The Earth’. James Connolly was born in the Cowgate in Edinburgh and became one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916 in Dublin which led to Irish independence in 1921.

Nitten Folk Club has a very healthy membership of just under a hundred and there was a very good audience last night. It attracts people from all over the Lothians it has a sing around for 3 weeks and then a guest spot every 4th week and it’s very reasonably priced at only £5 for members. It’s also based in the function room of the Dean Tavern in Newtongrange, a brilliant pub owned by the community which has good food and very cheap drink. It was in the words of the great John McGrath, ‘A Good Night Out’.