Out in Blazer glory
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LEADING traditional band Blazin’ Fiddles will bid farewell to two of its original members at the band’s Celtic Connections show this week.
Allan Henderson of Mallaig and Iain MacFarlane from Glenfinnan, who are brothers-in-law as well as bandmates, will play their final show with the Blazers at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on Friday 31st January, where the Blazers share the bill with Irish traditional music legends Stockton’s Wing.
The departure of Henderson and MacFarlane leaves Inverness fiddler Bruce MacGregor as the sole remaining member from the original line up of the band in 1998, when it came together to showcase the differing fiddle styles of the Highlands and Islands.
Cementing his senior status in the band, one of the new recruits announced for Blazin’ Fiddles is MacGregor’s former pupil Rua McMillan from Nairn. A former BBC Radio Scotland Young Musician of the Year and graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Macmillan was a member of the award-winning Paul McKenna Band before touring internationally with his own trio.
The Blazers’ other newly announced recruit is another past BBC Radio Scotland Young Musician of the Year in Kristan Harvey, who will become the band’s first Orcadian representative.
Macmillan and Harvey will join MacGregor, Anna Massie from the Black Isle and Shetland’s Jenna Reid when Blazin’ Fiddles appear at Eden Court on Friday 14th March.
