Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or...

Subject: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Peter Woodruff
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 09:18 PM

I am listening to Battlefield Band as I launch this missel on the internet. Home Ground: Live from Scotland is playing now...Band of a Thousand Chances...or changes. I go hear them every year at the Chocolate Church in Bath, Maine. They never dissapoint but they are never the same...except for Alan Reid. This consortium is a legend.

Peter

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 09:26 PM

I have a friend who managed to fall asleep while they were playing amplified bagpipes...

Robin

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Peter Woodruff
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 09:32 PM

AMPLIFIED BAGPIPES!!? No!!? Your friend must have been brain dead.

Peter

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Cuilionn
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 10:51 PM

Ah wis there at the Chocolate Church for their latest concert, as weel... Whate'er possessit the CC staff tae print a twa-year-auld bio in the program, featurin the noo-dearly-depairtit Davy Steele?!?

Ah think the band's aye brilliant, but the latest lineup leaves me a wee bit cauld. They were sae vibrant an awe-inspirin last time aroond, wi Karine Polwart an the splendit young fiddler frae the Isle o Lewis... Mike Katz & those twa almaist tuik the taste o Alan Reid's treacle oot o ma mouth, nae an easy feat ava! (Dinnae get me wrang, Reid's a decent sangwriter, but he disnae stir ma soul like the ithers, an that blastit wee keyboard soonds like a toy.)

Tho Ah still love the pipin an fiddlin, the ither twa lads are, weel, less than inspirin. Ah haed tae cam hame frae the concert & put on some auld recordins frae past years tae "get ma fix" o the Band at its best. That said, Ah luik for'ard tae their next stateside tour, an hope springs eternal that Ah'll be maist pleasantly surprisit!

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 11:21 PM

No Peter,
she was 7 months pregnant - oh - maybe you're right!

Robin

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: GUEST,Anne
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 11:26 PM

My little brother and I grew up going to see them every time they came to Southern California. I remember the time he danced in the aisle at McCabe's. My friend and I soon got up to join him, and before long, half the audience was dancing with us, and the other half was cheering us on. The band thought it was great. At a later concert one night, though, my brother did manage to fall asleep in the midst of one of the last songs-- with a very hot bagpipe solo. Of course, he was four at the time, and could crash during just about anything.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: DonMeixner
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 11:45 PM

I'll be seeing them in March in a little place in New York State that may 125 people. Last year my son and I drove 160 miles in a blizzard to hear them in the same place. We weren't disappointed.

Don

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: GUEST,BOAB
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 03:36 AM

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: GUEST,BOAB
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 03:38 AM

HICCUP!
Never could get used to the gap left by Brian McNeil...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: JedMarum
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 04:04 PM

Brian is a fine solo performer - a magnificent fiddler, a story teller and songwriter beyond compare. He played some lovely fiddle on my last album - I expect to see him again in '04 and look forward to it very much.

Have you heard his Scots Women CD?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: The Unicorn Man
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 04:31 PM

Never forget Sidmouth about ten years ago, watching them in the pouring rain, with out any shelter for two hours.When they had finished it stopped. I wrote a song called "Lovely England" which mentions the experience.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 08:31 PM

Home Ground is competing with Stand Easy for 'favourite album' in my mind. And I have to agree with Boab - a lot of their musical interest went out of the window when Brian left, though they tried to market it as 'sounding more traditional again'. Brian just has a unique musical imagination that makes him almost impossible to replace.
Anyway, I'm going to listen to the latest line-up in ten days' time, not having heard them for a few years, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Celtaddict
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 08:44 PM

I know Brian added much, but I still enjoy hearing him independently. In my opinion though, Davy Steele was a lovely interlude but they never really recovered from the loss of the Celtic Jerry Garcia, Alastair Russell. You have to hand it to a band that is older than some of its members.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: JedMarum
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 09:39 PM

I am sure I'm not the only who does this, but every now and then, when the mood strikes and I'm rolling off to somewhere or other - I might be stoked on coffee, maybe just had fine meal, and I'm looking forward to the long drive ahead - anyway, I'll pop something kick-ass, rockin' in the CD player of the car and fly out onto the highway. Usually that would be some sort of good rock that I rarely, but sometimes find appealing.

Well one night I went steaming out of Monroe Louisiana, headed west to Dallas Texas - and found myself rockin' to Brian's Back of the Northwind. Not ZZ Top, or Jackson Browne, not Boston or Steely Dan (is my age showing). Brian McNeill! That first track is just marvelous! The whole damn record is great - but that first song and the tune it ends with are supberb - and kicks ass as well as any fine rock and roll track ever did.

... And I always find it rather funny that this gruff looking, macho sort of character gets the prettiest sound imaginable out of that fiddle.

Go figure.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Big Mick
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 10:32 PM

Jed gave me Back of the Northwind and it has become one of my very favorite CD's. I love the piping style, the lyrics, Brian's inspired playing on a number of instruments. I currently am working out my own arrangement of Best of The Barley.

Just one more thing I owe Jed for. The Beef Brothers - Long may they wave.....LOL.

Mick

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 05 Feb 04 - 07:25 PM

Celtaddict, I never said Brian McNeill had lost interest for me without the Battlefield Band :-). Quite the other way round, and 'Back o' the North Wind is, in my opinion, the best album he's made and is likely to make for a long time, though the later ones aren't that far behind. That man is a life force!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: magician
Date: 05 Feb 04 - 10:30 PM

30ish years ago I was their Roadie. I have most of the albums that they made inthe early days. Still see Alan occasionally. He has done wonderfull things for the folk world by bringing folks into his band and then leting them go on to do their own thing. Still preffer the old stuff.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: michaelr
Date: 06 Feb 04 - 12:33 AM

Celtaddict --   "the Celtic Jerry Garcia, Alastair Russell"? Now I'm intrigued! Please tell me which records he's on.

I saw the BB when John McCusker was with them at the tender age of 17. He was smoking! Can't remember whether Davy Steele was in that lineup, but I just rediscovered his splendid song "Jimmy Waddell" on the first Malinky CD.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 07:20 PM

Michael, Alistair Russell was with them for a long time, from 1978 (Stand Easy) at least to the late 1990s, I think. Can't quite remember when he left but could ask him in three weeks time when he'll be playing a night south of Hamburg with his partner Chris Parkinson (ex-House Band). They're 'opening' for the Tannahill Weavers ...

The BB line-ups, especially after 1991, would merit a small book, I think! Any takers?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: ranger1
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 08:45 PM

If anyone is interested, Threads was the last album Alistair Russell was on. It was my first introduction to the band and I was hooked immediately. The tape was a gift from a woman who visited the park I was working at at the time. I was intrigued by the sounds emanating from her (air-conditioned!) car and asked her what she was listening to. A conversation about traditional music followed and I pointed her to the Chocolate Church. I never saw her again, don't know her name, but when she left the park, she dropped the tape off at the fee collction booth with instructions to "give it to the ranger who was there earlier." Whoever she was, I thank her every time I listen to The Battlefield Band. However, my favorite member will always be Davy Steele.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: JedMarum
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 08:46 PM

a funny story about Brian , if I may ... when we recorded THE SOUL OF A WANDERER, we had arranged the song, created the bed tracks a reference vocal track and delivered those along with charts to Brian so he could record his parts. When we got it back, we kinda scratched our heads a little, because he'd ignored our arrangement and developed an intro to the song that trashed our intro, but it was simply stunning! After a moment or two, we realized what we had, and rerecored the bed tracks around his arrangement! I am so glad we did, it one of the nicest pieces of the album.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 09:35 PM

Jed, try Wolfstone. (No Batties)
I also have Back o' the Northwind and love it.

Brian was also in Clan Alba, a short-lived but mighty Celtorock supergroup who recorded one double CD (1994 or 5). I managed to buy it, but I believe it's all but impossible to find now. (Published by Celtic Music) Two former Battlefield Band members were in Clan Alba - Brian and Davy Steele.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Feb 04 - 02:12 PM

Battlefield came to Wash DC area 18-20 years ago..(maybe more) and were a smashing hit! Record sales were so brisk, we had to help them carry in boxes and man the sales tables...I bought everything they had!

Then...they came back a few years later in one of their incarnations and...*sad sigh"...it was all different. Louder, brasher, faster....*grump*...just not for an old fogie like me. They were 'talented', but playing for the younger, less TRAD oriented set. Ah, well...I got one batch of fine records before morph-madness took over.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Bill the Collie
Date: 22 Oct 04 - 11:20 AM

Brian McNeill has just too much talent for one person.
Has anyone else ever wondered if he has another, wee, musician and songwtiter hiding inside that impressive beer-belly?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 22 Oct 04 - 03:24 PM

If so, it must be a very much Brian-McNeill-shaped guy! No, I think he's just a workaholic, but an extremely focused one. You can see him sitting around during a gig interval, fiddling with his laptop designing a CD label for his next project. Or, a little story from Iain MacKintosh when they were touring together in Brian's Transit van. Iain offered to do some driving, and Brian refused, saying, 'Then I'll have nothing to do.'

Subject: RE: Folklore: Battlefield Band: Myth, Legend, or
From: GUEST,celtaddict at work, using the term loosely
Date: 22 Oct 04 - 10:46 PM

Brian is indeed a force of nature. Besides composing, playing (and not just the fiddle) and singing, he organizes incredible programs for teaching and sharing traditional music, and writes wickedly witty mysteries in his spare time. (Jerry Garcia of course not only painted but was an avid scuba diver too.)
He met us (with Ed Miller) at a pub once somewhere near the Scots border and spent two days (round the clock, really) fascinating and exhausting us.