At a special Mòd open mic night on Thursday, musicians and poets celebrated their Gaelic identity and there was a surprise performance from popular Gaelic singer Griogair Labhruidh.
‘Let’s Make a Scene’ is a community open mic night held in Oban but for this special Royal National Mòd edition, held at The Rockfield Centre, organisers encouraged performers to focus on language, heritage and place.
Griogair Labhruidh is a Gaelic singer and rapper who features on the soundtrack for the TV show Outlander and he has just released a new song with actor Alan Cumming. He sang two Gaelic songs for the audience: Mar Tha Oni Fon Dhealaich Sinn and Moladh Beinn Dobhran.
Griogair said: “It’s good to represent your roots and we are carrying forth the intergenerational knowledge and wisdom of the language. By singing in Gaelic we are keeping the flame alive.”
Another attendee keen to highlight the importance of Gaelic music was James Gray, an Oban film and television composer.
James’ grandfather was a Gaelic bard from South Uist who wrote several songs in his time and at the open mic night James played a recording of his grandad singing - he digitised an old tape from the 60s or 70s.
The song is part of a project he is working on called ‘Music of my Grandfather’ and James felt that The Royal National Mòd’s return to Oban was the perfect moment to share some of the work.
He said: “Forty years after he died, I wanted to give him the limelight. It’s so important to keep this culture going and this is a voice from years ago but my Grandpa and his voice are still alive tonight.”
Throughout the night there was also poetry, comedy and rapping. Some performers were regulars to the open mic but others were in Oban specifically for the Mòd.
Kirsty Macdonald, one of the Let’s Make a Scene organisers performed two poems - one in Gaelic and one in English. Her second poem ‘Three Sails’ was about “the renewal of Gaelic language that is taking place in Oban at the moment”.
She spoke to the audience about her hope for the language with "the Gaelic census improving" and her seeing Gaelic spoken more amongst her own family. She explained that when she was younger she felt as if speaking Gaelic was frowned upon but now her son goes to a Gaelic medium school.
Kirsty said: “We try to use Gaelic with him as an everyday language and I didn’t get to do that as a kid. It feels as if we’re clawing something back.”
Fifteen-year-old Fionnlagh Moireasdan from Glasgow Gaelic High School also got up on the stage after a busy week competing in the Under-19 Battle of the Bands, winning first place in traditional solo singing 13-15 and being a part of the winning choir in the Choral Puirt-à- Beul 13-18 competition.
Fionnlagh performed his own song Fuiaim Na Fèise (The Sound of the Festival) and joked with the crowd that he might forget his words after having to memorise so many for competitions. Luckily the pressure was off and without any adjudicators watching him with beady eyes he could just have fun.
He said afterwards: “I was itching to sing a song which I had written that we didn’t end up using in my band. They were looking for people to sing original songs in Gaelic and so I thought why not, and I’m glad I did it because I really enjoyed it.”
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