‘Sheear’ is one year old! Gigging in York, where it all started…
It doesn’t seem a moment since I was preparing for my first album launch on the Isle of Man, but in fact a whole year has passed and ‘Sheear’ is one year old today! I’m spending its birthday by travelling to York, where I studied music at University and met fellow musicians David Pearce (guitar) and Vanessa McWilliam (double bass). Though Gaelic song was a pretty niche area in the music department at York, the lecturers couldn’t have been more supportive of me – I owe them and my fellow music students a lot, for believing that I could do this!
Dave, Ness and I have a gig in the beautiful medieval Barley Hall tomorrow as part of the Yorvik Viking Festival (…the Vikings settled on the Isle of Man… I’m sure there’s some Norse blood in me somewhere!). We’re really looking forward to it – the hall will be candlelit and the tickets have sold-out, so here’s hoping there’ll be a lovely atmosphere! The photo below shows the view that I’ll be getting when I’m performing – credit to Barley Hall for the shot. I will also be delivering a talk at the University of York during the day, focussing on some aspects of life as a performing musician and looking particularly at rights and royalties.
…of course, there’ll be also be the obligatory visit to Betty’s Tearoom!!
