Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham at The APEX

Tonight we were at The APEX for a concert, given by the Scottish Folk Duo, Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham.

We have admired their music since coming across them in Transatlantic Sessions and they have been playing together for 37 years. As the advertisement for the concert said..

"Having toured together since 1986 to packed concert halls all over the world, Aly and Phil continue to charm audiences with their stunning music, and on-stage charisma that defies description.

Witty and humorous banter sits alongside tunes that tug the heartstrings, and joyous reels and melodies that have feet tapping along at their ever-popular concerts. The pair have recorded many highly acclaimed albums in their thirty years together including two 'Best of' collections. 

Aly and Phil have won numerous awards including the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 'Best Duo' award and have been nominated in the Scottish Traditional Music Awards for ’Live Act of the Year.’"

We were sat in row K in the stalls, a little over halfway back from the stage and had a good view of them in action...

Their banter was indeed humorous and entertaining. My favourite was their story about playing for the Queen at Balmoral. When she asked Phil "Is it hard to maintain the coordination while playing?", he said he replied, "Why? Are you planning on taking it up?". And commenting that she had said learning the accordian must be harder than learning the fiddle, Aly said, "And I've never spoken to her since".

I recognised a few of the tunes they played from the Transatlantic sessions. My favourite was Aly playing "The retreat of Bonaparte", where his bowing was brilliant, and Dawn's favourite was "The gentle light that wakes me", written by Phil in a hotel in Spain where the curtains didn't close properly.

A lovely evening of great music. And, furthermore, at the interval, we bumped in to Willaim's girlfriend Nina's father, Rory, and brother Jack who were there as Aly and Phil were their favourite folk duo. Jack had come back from York especially for the concert!

Here are links to their recordings of some of the pieces they played.

·         Bonaparte's Retreat - Aly Bain

·         The gentle light that wakes me - Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham

·         Aly Bain with Jenna Reid - Sophie's Dancing Feet / Andy Brown's Reel

·         Hector The Hero - Jenna Reid with Aly Bain 

·         Loch Katrine's Lady

And here is the list of gigs on the rest of their tour.

It's hard to believe Aly will be 78 in May and is still touring and playing brilliantly. We'll be watching out for them coming back next year.