Gig review: Tales of the City

Published on Tuesday 7 September 2010 17:35

TALES OF THE CITY INVERNESS MUSEUM & ART GALLERY ***

This words-and-music show – part of the Blas festival – took the Highland capital as its theme, adapting the format of a traditional ceilidh, where all those present take turns with a song, a tune or a tale.

Our Fear an Taighe (man of the house, or MC) was Gaelic broadcaster and writer Ruairidh MacIlleathain, drawing on his extensive researches into Inverness's history and folklore to tell a varied series of colourful, magical, comic and tragic stories connected with the city.

These included St Columba's original encounter with the Loch Ness monster, the history of Clachnacuddin, two fiddlers' hundred-year-night playing for the fairies at Tomnahurich, and Inverness's last case of witchcraft. MacIlleathain's fluent, musical narration mainly in English, smoothly interwoven with snippets of Gaelic quickly established the evening's intimate, congenial ambience, though it was perhaps a little fast for some visitors (among whom, as it happened, were Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider and his wife).

Between times, MacIlleathain introduced his accompanying cast – pianist and musical director Brian McAlpine, piper Louise Hay, Gaelic singer Kirsteen MacDonald and fiddler Ruairidh MacMillan – who performed a strong and diverse selection of more or less Inverness-related material, albeit that some of these links were decidedly tenuous. It also seemed a shame that the event, staged in the empty gallery space, didn't make more use of the museum setting, logistically tricky though this would have been: maybe next time?