Northern Star Country Music

Yee haw! We had an absolutely tremendous day yesterday at the Northern Star Country Music Festival in Inverness with Heather and Ewan, who are visiting us for the weekend. It was the first one ever, and it was extremely well organised, in the Northern Meeting Park. We had upgraded to covered seats in the stand, which worked well because we could go for a seat there between acts or when we ate our food. Being in the stand would also have worked well if it had been raining, because from the stand’s slightly elevated position we could see the stage clearly and not too far away. However luckily it was not raining, in fact it was a fine summer’s day, warm and with only a slight breeze. This meant that when the bands were playing we could stand in front of the stage with the rest of crowd and enjoy the music and the atmosphere. And such great bands! We arrived when Raintown were playing, a talented and lively duo from Glasgow. As is usual with music events the bands were roughly in reverse order of fame, however they really were all very good. Next up was the excellent Chris Andreucci, from Ayr, I particularly enjoyed "To The Moon & Back" which of course reminded me of Jackie, as it was one of the things she used to say to her boys. Catherine McGrath is Irish and very personable as well as being a great singer; and The Wandering Hearts sounded a bit folly as well as country. When Glasville came on the the stage the lead singer said “You have heard some wonderful original music tonight, here are some favourites that we know you love!” This is because they are a covers band, and oh boy they were really really great, the crowd were all dancing - mind you we had been dancing quite a lot already. As well as food stalls and a bar there was a tent where there was line dancing, karaoke and a few less well-known bands; we saw part of First Time Flyers’ set and they were full of energy. They said that they had driven ten hours today to get to the festival and that they were going to drive all the way back to London afterwards. As a Mum this worried me, however hopefully the four of them shared the driving! Back on the Main Stage it was time for The Shires and I think it’s fair to say that they were the best of the lot, certainly in terms of songwriting and vocal harmonies. But then they are probably the most experienced, the other bands were so great too. The Shires were the culmination of a fantastic day. We left sharp and were back in Ullapool by midnight, where we had a wee nightcap before bedtime.