The bidding is over. The prizes have gone. And the final total raised is a brilliant £330.02!

Thank you to everyone that bidded, and congratulations to those of you who got hold of our wonderful prizes.

It was of course all for charity, and I'm sure the money will be greatly received by those at CHAS.

So thank you again, from all of us at Put A Kilt On It.

Sharon Armstrong:

In a follow-up to her piece on a recent Shooglenifty gig, Sharon Armstrong catches up with the alt. Scottish band's self-confessed "things with strings" player.

Put A Kilt On It: When did you join Shooglenifty?

Luke Plumb: I am from Tasmania and I met them at the Cygnet Folk Festival, the second week of January about six years ago. I did a tour with them and at the end of the tour they kind of hummed and haahed, and shuffled their feet and said. “You know, it would be pretty handy if you were living in the UK, and things kind of went from there.

"People tend to congregate together irrespective of what kind of traditional music they are playing, simply because it is roots music."

Is there a big folk music scene in Australia?

It’s probably not quite as specific and integrated with mainstream culture as it might be in Scotland. Everybody in Scotland has a vague idea of the country-dances and all that kind of stuff, and they know people within one or two degrees of separation that play a traditional instrument. That is not quite the same in Australia. But the flip side is that people who are involved in traditional music are involved in traditional music from all over the world. I think that is partly to do with the multicultural society that Australia has. It has huge numbers of immigrants wanting to preserve their own cultures. People tend to congregate together irrespective of what kind of traditional music they are playing, simply because it is roots music.

You are self-taught. What instruments do you play?

Things with strings. Mandolin. Guitar. Tenor banjo. I’ve got an Irish and a Greek bouzouki at the moment. I am getting a lot into Greek music, so I have a baglama, which is a tiny little instrument, kind of like a baby bouzouki, and a loweter, which is like a big bouzouki. The first day I took my mandolin outside to go busking the then President of the Irish Association was walking by and invited me out to a session, so as an underage seventeen year old I went to a pub and started learning from the source, as it where.

How would you describe your journey from Tasmania to Edinburgh?

It has been, I don’t know, about coincidences, or however you describe things if you don’t believe in coincidences. I don’t believe in fate either but there are a lot of extreme chance meetings. I reckon I am in the right place. The great advantage is the proximity to the rest of Europe, and as result of that proximity to cultures that are very different. You kind of have to go a long way to get out of Australia if you live in Australia. It’s a continent surrounded by a lot of water. I heard the other day that if you rotate the globe to a certain angle then all you can see is the Pacific Ocean. That is one of our neighbours.

What other bands have you been in?

Shooglenifty is my first professionally functioning band. I was in quite a few bands playing acoustic music back home, but there were all kind of take gigs as they come. Certainly not any band that you would claim fame from.

What do you think makes Shooglenifty so popular?

I think it comes down to the personnel in the band. It’s a really tight bunch of fellas. I think that musically there’s something that happens when you have a group of people who are that tight. There are really not artistic boundaries for any individual member of the band. If Malcolm (Malcolm Crosbie, guitar) wants to bring a straight our Led Zeppelin rift to a tune that Garry (Garry Finlayson) banjo and banjax) is playing straight African whatever on and James (James Mackintosh, drums) is doing unashamed Clash drumming to, then that is fine. The sound is a product of six individual people’ musical tastes. Describing it in music terms really kind of pigeonholes it, and that is against the whole thing.

You guys are just back from playing at the Kremlin. How was that?

I was totally blown away by Moscow, constantly impressed by it. It was a kind of trail cultural exchange thing.  A well-known band in Russia invited a bunch of their friends to come and play at a type or gala cabaret event.  It had sold out around 6000 people; some very wealthy members of Moscow and most of the Government were there. Kind of odd but I think it went well.

Will Russia be part of your next tour then?

Yeah, absolutely. It would be brilliant. St Petersberg. Bring it on!

You look a bit tired.

It catches up. There is a great Indiana Jones line that is in my head because the new movie is coming out. You know when he said ‘It’s no the years: it’s the mileage.’

What a cracker.

"Here we all are, we don’t have any language in common, but the music was our common language."

Do you think that politics and music mix well?

I think it’s in the nature of every musician to be extremely optimistic. You know, it’ll be all right. I’ll make a living. I’ll pay the bills. It’s going to happen. Someone is going to come to the gig tonight. We are out in Sarawak playing at a festival in the rain forest. All the rest of the band is back at the hotel. I got a tune together with some American old time musicians, real hillbillies. We had this tune and there were Bolivian and Chilean refugees, Afghani refugees, guys from Madagascar and these American hillbillies and Brits and Australians all of whom had troops out there and what have you. There was this real feeling of if only it was this easy.  Here we all are, we don’t have any language in common, but the music was our common language. We played the night away. It makes you sad but it also makes you hopeful.

What is next?

Most of this summer is going to be taken up in tours of England and Scotland. We have a couple of trips to Canada this year, and a couple to Spain and Portugal.

Neal Parsons:

Amplifico have just released their first album, See Heart See Muscle, and have been touring the country wildly in an effort to promote it. With classical influences to their musical soundscapes coupled with bittersweet vocals and lyrics they're already making a big splash in an over crowded musical pond. Lead singer Donna Maciocia caught up with us on a momentary break form the crazed touring to tell us how it's been...
 
Put A Kilt On It: First off, how's things?
Donna Maciocia: Apart from recovering from a nasty flu bug, very well thank you! Pretty busy. Currently on a train to Scotland, we're playing a few gigs over the weekend.

Tell us a little about the life that has led you to this point.
Born and grew up in Kirkcaldy, Fife. Started piano lessons aged 8 and hated them! (my 1st piano teacher used to smoke fags and fall asleep in my lessons!) but persisted teaching myself by ear. Met Dave and Ross at high school and joined their band on keyboards when I was 15. Went to Art School at 17 to study animation for 4 years.... Left art school, decided I didn't have patience for the whole animation process... so got a 'proper' job, then packed it all in to move to Edinburgh and start Amplifico! Spent 4 years developing Amplifico, playing hundreds of gigs, meeting lots of amazing people. We've eventually just released our first album. 
 
What things inspire you musically?
Well my tastes and inspirations are so varied I could not list them all here. I like to take a little something from everything. right now I am listening loads to the new MGMT album (isn't everyone!), the new Black Keys album, an Edith Piaf greatest hits and a friend just introduced me to The Shins who I cannot believe I didn't know about till now. They are amazing. I am also enjoying listening to the birds that wake me up in the tree outside my window every morning in my new London home - I haven't had that experience since I was a kid. It's so beautiful.

"I was a pretty die hard Michael Jackson fan. I once camped out on the steps of Wembley for 27 hours to get into the pit right in front of the stage on his History tour."

In my early years, my musical diet for a long, long time consisted of nothing more than the soundtracks to my favourite movies, Disney classics, Motown & Michael Jackson. I was a pretty die hard Michael Jackson fan. I once camped out on the steps of Wembley for 27 hours to get into the pit right in front of the stage on his History tour. Don't know if I should really be admitting that though...


How big a part did your classical interests play in the writing of the music?
My classical interests so far are pretty naive and unexplored, I am no classical music expert - I enjoy what I stumble across and catches my attention. For me, one of the amazing things about classical music as a source of inspiration, is how many rich melodies, hooks and chord progressions can be fitted into one composition. Modern music has a tendency to focus on the repetitiveness of 2 or 3 riffs/hooks. Classical music is such a rich resource for hundreds of these little melodies and hooks that can be homed in on, highlighted and essentially turned into pop tunes! I find that if I can write a 'classical sounding' song entirely on piano that is engaging enough without vocals - there is a confidence that when you add words and a voice it will be even more powerful. 
 
With yourselves, KT Tunstall, and Aberfeldy amongst others, is there a renaissance in Scottish music at the moment? Less derivative, and more personable?
It certainly doesn't feel like there has been a mass emergence of successful acts from Scotland that all sound like each other or the Arctic Monkeys, Babyshambles or Fall Out Boy or the like which is a great thing. Franz Ferdinand, Biffy Clyro, KT Tunstall, The Fratellis, Paolo Nutini etc. all have their own distinct sounds going on. I don't know if I'd call it a renaissance, but certainly Scotland's profile has been elevated in the eyes of the industry over recent years because of the likes of Franz Ferdinand and KT Tunstall breaking through to the mainstream. Since I moved down to London a few months ago, there is a definite feeling down here that music industry eyes are still firmly on Scotland.


What inspired the artwork on the album, I understand you did all of the artwork yourself? Is it specifically related to the music, or is it a separate entity?
The artwork and the music are absolutely intertwined! It was important to me that every single pencil mark in the booklet and on the sleeve actually meant something in relation to the music and the journey we had been on writing, recording & releasing the songs. I like a degree of mystery to artwork too, i felt there was no need to spell a message out and so I went with a very instinctive approach. It's good to leave some things to the imagination. I designed and arranged all the artwork, but due to time constraints, enlisted the help of another illustrator to draw up some of the little drawings on the booklet; his name is Adam Smith. His drawing style was lovely, very cohesive with my own and I admired his sensitive artistic spirit. It fitted in well with the sentiment of the whole project.


Alot of your lyrics would appear to be very personal to you, have you ever written a song that you felt you couldn't let other people see? Or any songs that you have released which you felt said too much, was too confessional?
There is often a degree of vulnerability when first singing certain songs. There are some songs in particular I have found myself performing for the first time, and I am actually shaking on stage singing them, or even in the practice room when singing the words for the first time in front of the rest of the band. It's a strange kind of naked exposure, baring your soul like that. But after a few times playing a song you break a boundary, it's a bit like therapy I guess!

Amplifico's website

The band's Myspace