Trip to Fort William

It has been a week of sun so far in this part of Scotland. We've put up a trampoline in the garden and got the swingball out. All of a sudden there's lots of exercise going on and maybe a few pounds lost!

This week I've been up to Fort William on Scots Trad Music Awards business. I met with the Alexandria Hotel to discuss the late night festival club and visited the Nevis Centre. The venue is looking good after having a paint job and the hall has now got black drapes that fit all the way round. This is good news as it was one of the most expensive bits in preparation for last years event. We're looking at having a 3 day event this year with a concert on the Thursday, a dance on the Friday, and the ceremony on the Saturday night with various sessions, workshops and late night clubs over the Friday and Saturday. That would make the date of the event 29th November to 1st December with maybe the option to have a session on Sunday 2nd.

We're also looking at a different way of letting people view the Hall of Fame exhibition. The idea is to have a treasure trail involving shops and hotels in FW where people can visit the venues and look at the portrait and read about the musicians. I like the idea of taking traditional music into the shops where people are going every day.

On the way down the road I took time in the sun to visit Glencoe and Glen Ettrick. Beautiful places.

Today I finished the new Foot Stompin' sampler 'Proud to be Scottish: The Music of a Nation'. It's sounding good with tracks from Stuart Cassells, Back of the Moon, Anna Massie Band and a new track from mine and Dave Milligan's new CD – Third Flight Home. It runs to 50 mins and will be on sale for £5.99.  This goes in the post to Birnam CD with two other Foot Stompin' new releases from Maeve MacKinnon, and the afore mentioned Third Flight Home CD.

I have a meeting tomorrow to discuss the 2009 Scots Trad Music Awards which will be part of the new Scottish Executive project – The Homecoming which is in place to celebrate Robert Burns' 250 anniversary of his birth. The project will be rolled out nationally to try and encourage -as the name suggests – Scots to come home for around the world.

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