The Dun Ringles

'Dun Ringles Perform to Celebrity Audience'

Thursday 25 March 2004 An Lanntair

 A Dun Ringle singing in An Lanntair, yesterday.

The world of Avante Gaelica was rocked to its very Damp Proof Course last Thursday as the Dun Ringles performed a very rare acoustic set in An Lanntair as part of the launch of Luna29.

Playing to a nearly full house, which included a cross section of celebrity guests, including Guirean Niall The Hippy (who also organised the evening), top record executive Jori and ‘best drummer in Stornoway (official!)’ Simon from out of Sign Red, the Dun Ringles played a mix of new and old stuff.

 The DR’s had been asked to close an evening of readings poems and songs – (well, song e.g. ‘The Road and the Miles To Dundee’) organised by WIAMH to celebrate the official launch of magazine/art box Luna 29.

 Due to unforeseen circumstances Robin and Jon were unable to make the gig, leaving Jason and Wattie to hold the fort. Robin, as we all know lives far too close to Dounray Power Station and so isn’t allowed back on to Lewis until he’s been certified as uncontaminated for at least 2 years. Jon was unavailable as he was busy on Muckle Flugga making sure that the lighthouse hadn’t been stolen or painted pink.

 With Jason on acoustic guitar and Wattie on vocals, the Dun Ringles kicked off with a version of crowd pleaser ‘I Don’t Like Sheep’ which raised a titter or two. The first live airing of ‘Das Boot’, from new album ‘The Four Chessmen’, followed this. The song appeared to work reasonably well even without Robin’s piano bits. And the words only confused Wattie once during this song.

 ‘Das Boot’ was swiftly followed by ‘A Tale Of Two Tractors’, with the band once again displaying a huge range of vocal characterisations in their vain attempt to try and work out just which part of the world this song referred too. Lewis? The Appalachians? Zomurzet? The audience and the band still don’t know. During rehearsals Jason and Wattie managed to miss out at least one verse every time they tried it, but for the evenings performance all three verses were present and correct.

 Another new song appeared next. ‘Gallows Hill Rooks (On the look Out For Crooks)’, normally an epic 6 minute long Floydian mini epic, was transformed into a three minute long mini epic. Wattie entered into the spirit of the evening by reading the words from a scrap of paper a la poet type folks. Either that or he hadn’t bothered to learn the words.

 The band headed rapidly towards a conclusion by rattling off a rousing version of ‘Beyond The Cattle Grid’, that ode to the joyous pursuit of slagging off the maws. In an unusual turn of events, the Dun Ringles managed to avoid a Midges of Rock type mix up of the spoken middle eight bit, by actually getting the words right.

 Flushed with this success the band rounded off the evening by singing ‘Bee Without A Bumble’ before retiring to the Star Inn with Jori and Simon.