Orkney Blues

Now that I’ve almost recovered from Orkney’s Blues Festival I thought I’d share some of the highlights of the weekend.

Stromness, with its picturesque harbour and twisty streets was the base for the festival and buzzed with activity from locals and tourists all seeking out the music and squeezing into the venues.

I was also lucky enough to get a chance to play in the Gable End Theatre on the Island of Hoy. This converted former School in Lyness had been lovingly transformed into a community theatre.

As the day went on the wind picked up and at Rackwick, near The Old Man of Hoy, it was hard to stand up straight. When mentioning this to a local this was merely described as a breath of fresh air and that the wind speed was recently recorded at 120mph during a slightly breezy day before the device used for measuring it blew away.

Needless to say I performed When The Wind Blows that night.

Back in Stromness, there were some great performances over the weekend and I witnessed some fine acoustic work and stomp box action from Naomi Mather, some local stars Fastliners, a blast of blues from Perth’s Wang Dang Delta, & The Roy Mette Band who’s high voltage blues was surely enough to power up those northern lights.

A trip to Orkney is not complete without seeing those famous Neolithic Archaeological sites. So it was great to finally get the opportunity to see places like Maeshowe & Skara Brae (in glorious sunshine!) which I had studied at University but never got the chance to see.

Unfortunately my weekend ended with a visit to Kirkwall police to report a car park hit and run on my hire car which has (hopefully) prompted an inter-island search for the culprit. Still, this did not dent my enjoyment too much, there can’t be many places to hide...

Thanks to Walter & all at the Orkney Blues Festival, Catherine & Michael for their tour guiding, Max & Jill for their hospitality & homebrew and everyone else who helped make the weekend an extremely enjoyable & memorable one.

I thoroughly recommend a trip to experience these northerly islands.