Wow! Today we are on page three of Scotland on Sunday in an article by Alastair Dalton. Have to admit to doing a wee reel to celebrate: and because the Christmas music is still ringing in my ears, and I’m going to have to wait a whole year for it to come round again, it was to ‘I wish it would be Christmas every day’.

Here’s the link to the website article:

And we’ve even made it to the
editorial!

‘POP CEILIDHS’ BID TO ATTRACT YOUNG PEOPLE’

by Alastair Dalton

CEILIDH has just gone chic. Traditional Scottish dances are being put to modern music in an attempt to attract more young people.

Ceilidh fan Kat Jones has taken classic reels such as Strip the Willow and the Dashing White Sergeant and set them to contemporary tunes.

She has shunted aside accordions and fiddles in favour of pre-recorded funky rhythms, such as Rose Royce’s 1976 classic Car Wash for the Virginia Reel.

In an eclectic mix, Strip the Willow has been paired with Underworld’s Born Slippy, which was featured in the film Trainspotting. And the Dashing White Sergeant may never be the same again after being accompanied by LMFAO’s I’m Sexy and I Know It.

Read rest on Scotsman Website

Editorial: Take your partners

WHAT would Jimmy Shand make of it? Our story today about “disco ceilidhs” in Glasgow, using ­contemporary rock, pop and electronic music in place of traditional country dance tunes, is a ­perfect demonstration of how a culture endures by evolving. This ­imaginative initiative is a development of a trend discernible in Scottish music for decades, of appropriating other musical genres to traditional forms. Runrig did it almost 40 years ago with rock music. The late, great Martyn Bennett did it with electronic dance music in the late 1990s. Elsewhere, bands playing traditional Scottish music have accented their dance tunes with reggae, Latin, ska and African inflections, each of the influences bringing out some subtle new shade in the original. It is a small step from that to traditional dances set to contemporary pop hits. In dance, after all, what matters most is the rhythm and the beat.

Read rest on Scotsman website