**UPDATE 10th Dec 2021** THIS IS EVENT IS CANCELLED due to covid outbreak 😢
Christmas will soon be here already. We can’t wait till our 2021 Christmas Ceilidh. After a two year break due to the pandemic, we are raring to get back to a public ceilidh. I don’t need to say that the pandemic and lockdown have been brutal on most of society. Without any chance of performing, dancing or playing at a ceilidh dance, things were pretty grim for ceilidh lovers those planning wedding ceilidh dances. On the upside, the last month has been busy for Iron Broo with a spate of postponed and rescheduled weddings and each one has been a great night. People are very keen to get up and ceilidh dance from the first note. They have been starved of social interaction and the magic of live ceilidh music. We can feel the anticipation and spirit in the atmosphere before we start. It’s terrific for us to play for such lively ceilidh dancers. So folks, get in quick and book your tickets for our Christmas Ceilidh. It’s on the 18th of December 2021 at the Star Ballroom, Aberdeen.
Christmas Ceilidh Tickets
Tickets are available via Eventbrite and please book in advance as places are limited, and we hope to sell out again. Stovies or Macaroni are included in the ticket price. They are affa fine too!
2021-12-18T20:00:00
days
hours minutes seconds
until
Iron Broo Christmas Ceilidh
Event Info
We can’t wait to see you again!
Join us again this year for another fantastic ceilidh at the Star Ballroom, upstairs at the Beach Ballroom.
Celebrate in true Scottish style with friends, family or colleagues.
Join us on Saturday the 18th of December for a ‘cracker’ of a Christmas Ceilidh. A great way to de-stress and wind down from the pre-Christmas stress and get into the right frame of mind for the holidays.
We have again chosen the iconic Star Ballroom, upstairs at the Beach Ballroom in Aberdeen for our 2021 Christmas ceilidh as we love the venue. It’s intimate and has a lovely view over the North Sea on a winter night, and we know from experience that the Chef makes some of the best Stovies and Macaroni in town. Enough to keep Santa satisfied and left with a warm glow.
We will be calling the dances, so no experience necessary. Works parties and Families welcome.
Doors open 7.30pm Dancing from 8 pm – Stovies or Macaroni included during the half time break – Band finish 11.30pm. The bar will close at midnight.
Music is a significant feature of your big day. When it comes to choosing your music for your wedding, it isn’t just the procession and first dance you need to think about. We’ve put together a handy guide to choosing your wedding music.
Your wedding soundtrack begins as everyone starts to arrive for the wedding. You need to think about your choice of entrance music, but also, you would need to decide about the filler music during the reception and of course, what’s going to be happening on the dancefloor.
The music shouldn’t stop until you and your partner have your last dance.
1. Pre-ceremony
Pre-ceremony music is what is played as guests arrive and take their seats in the ceremony room. At this point, guests will be talking, and there will be some hustle and bustle as people look for seats and greet others.
You want to choose something that isn’t too overpowering. Light classical music, or a simple piano track, would do the trick.
The pre-processional is a slightly more solemn moment, prior to the ceremony. At this point, everyone will have been seated and quietly awaiting the arrival of the bridal party. The groom and ushers will be waiting, while you and the bridesmaids prepare for your entrance.
There is no need to choose a specific pre-processional piece. If you do, you would want to choose something that flows quite nicely into the processional music.
3. Processional
The big moment, your entrance. The choice of music here will depend very much on your own personal musical taste, the venue and how formal the day is. But remember that music will be played as your enter and exit, so you’ll need to explore a few ideas.
You can choose something traditional, modern, or upbeat, but ultimately, you want to choose a piece that reflects you and the love you have for each other.
The Lonach Pipe Band with the Bride play during the buffet break at a Scottish wedding with Iron Broo Ceilidh Band
4. Signing the register
Once you’ve exchanged vows, there is the register signing. This takes around 10 minutes, so you may want to factor this in when you choose your song. A little like the pre-ceremony music, you want to choose something that is going to lead into the recessional music.
5. Recessional
When you choose your track for the recessional music, select something upbeat. You and your husband are happy and are about to start the rest of your lives, so you will want to leave your guests with a smile.
wedding dining
6. Food background music
Now the reception has begun, you may want a little background music. Try and choose something that isn’t too intrusive, allowing people to chat, and ideally something that matches the venue.
7. First dance
When you choose your first dance song, you will want to choose something that truly reflects you as a couple. Think about the lyrics, in particular, as some romantic-sounding songs have lyrics that don’t match the happiness of a wedding.
If your having a ceilidh why not start with the traditional Grand March and get everyone involved.
First dance at a wedding
8. Reception
The moment where all your guests get to share in your happiness. The reception. You want to choose the right wedding band for you. This can be based on your own personal music loves – it could be swing, rock or an iconic Scottish ceilidh band. You just need a band that will get people up and dancing. Reputable wedding bands will come with all the equipment, but you’ll need to advise them if you’ve got any favourite songs.
And finally…
Making the right choices will mean that you and everyone around you will remember this as a fantastic day and a memory to cherish.
Hi folks, back in 2007 Iron Broo recorded a Live ceilidh band album. We did this on our own at the Moray Ceilidh Club on 21st April 2007. We knew we would get a good audience there as the ceilidh club was full of enthusiastic dancers and we had played there many times. The club held quite a lot of ceilidhs over quite a few years, I think it was once every month, and they used live ceilidh bands from all over Scotland. It was always a great night, and we felt it was an excellent gig to pick for a live ceilidh recording on a shoestring budget. Sadly the Moray Ceilidh Club no longer exists, it’s hard to compete against digital entertainment and home cinemas. However, you can still buy this recording on CD or download it here. Maybe have yourself a wild lockdown ceilidh at the weekend.
Here’s a track with a set of waltzes from the ceilidh recording using some film of Edinburgh.
I’ll struggle to understand why more people don’t like getting out to a good old fashioned ceilidh, in a hall, bringing your own bottle and snacks. It’s a great atmosphere and not expensive. It should be much more popular. It gets you fit, you meet good people and enjoy yourself, with or without a drink. After the Lockdown, I hope people still remember what an absolute treasure of our culture a ceilidh is. I hope the negative lethargy that has set in throughout society since the introduction of streaming television shows and social media is addressed with some balance. The ‘almost a year of lockdown’ restrictions has compounded this issue. We are in danger of becoming a nation of couch potatoes! A ceilidh is ace, good for your mind, body, spirit, wellbeing, and your sense of freedom and community.
We will host some public ceilidhs again when the rules allow, and we hope you will support our efforts to revive our ceilidh culture. Leave a comment below, and when we do, I’ll let you know.
11 reasons why Scottish ceilidh dancing is good for you?
1. Ceilidh Dancing is a great work out
Ceilidh dancing is a great workout, gets your body moving and heart pumping. Cardio exercise is good for your heart and helps prevent disease and decay. It’s well established regular Scottish dancing can prevent many diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. See the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society article.
2. Ceilidh Dancing will make you feel happy
The live ceilidh dance will make you feel happy. The brain produces chemicals, an endorphin rush stimulated by the physical exercise of dancing and melodic lines of traditional melodies. The repetitive beats have a hypnotic affect. People can experience extreme euphoria when specific frequencies and tempos combine.
3. Ceilidh brings friendship
The social benefits of attending a ceilidh are obvious. We, humans, are social animals. We need to spend time with others. It makes us feel good and expands our thought processes. Meeting new people develops our outlook and introduces us to new things, places and destinies. Who might you meet at a ceilidh? A new love? A new friend?
4. You won’t forget much or trip up often after a Ceilidh
A ceilidh dance can improve your memory, coordination and concentration. It’s true. All that extra blood and adrenaline pumping through your brain steps things up a gear. Apart from the endorphin boost, remembering the dance patterns and formations gets your memory and coordination working like never before. Akin to martial arts training, you will become aware of your surroundings, the dance patterns, where your partner is, and the spatial distances between you and the other dances. Like a trained martial arts fighter, you will be aware of your surroundings at all times. You will become a ceilidh Ninja after attending enough ceilidhs. You will think and see in a new dimension.
5. Ceilidh keeps you younger
Scottish Country Dancing keeps you younger. A recent university study on ladies aged the 60s and 70s found that age-related decline was non-existent in those who participated in regular ceilidh dancing. Scottish dancing prevented age-related degeneration better than other forms of exercise. See the Scotsman article
6. Ceilidh keeps your body stronger
Ceilidh will help make your body muscles more robust. Regular ceilidh improves the strength of the legs, arms, ankles, hips, neck and core. It’s a great total workout.
7. Ceilidh keeps the calories off.
Ceilidh dancing will help you lose weight. An hour of ceilidh dancing can burn 400 calories and offers all the benefits of going to a gym, but is a lot more fun! See the newspaper article
8. Ceilidh dancing makes your bones stronger
Stronger Bones! Ceilidh dancing exercise improves bone density.
9. Ceilidh improves your mental health
Ceilidh dancing promotes positive mental health benefits. As mentioned earlier, the combination of exercise and social benefits are well documented in improving the overall mental health of any ceilidh dancer.
10. Ceilidh dancing reduces stress
Stress-free life. Ceilidh dances reduce overall stress levels in participants in everyday life, even off the dance floor.
11. Ceilidh can lead you on historical adventures
You can learn about history. Many dances have names that have a historical connection. Researching the names and histories of some dances and tunes could lead you on a whole new adventure. Everything has a story behind it. Start writing yours today by attending the next Iron Broo ceilidh dance.
We can’t wait to get out playing live ceilidh again!!
In the meantime it would be much appreciated if you can lend support by:
Well folks, time is fair marching on, and we have the ceilidh lockdown blues. The lockdown is starting to drag now. We have not played a ceilidh gig since the 14th March. The fingers are itchy, and the band are getting restless. It may be some time before we are allowed loose on the ceilidh dancers and audience. I know many dancers feel the same way we do too. The only way we can get a tune together is online. We did have a small meet up for my birthday but with numbers restricted to five households. Now it’s only two households and a maximum of six people. No use for a session. Even as a ceilidh duo, how can you play the ceilidh lockdown blues without dancers?
A ceilidh warm up pre Lockdown.
What have we been up to?
We in the band have done everything we could to stay safe and help the Lockdown pass quickly. Unfortunately, all our hard effort is in vain due to inadequate government and irresponsible behaviour. Now we face the prospects of an even harder future and no help forthcoming from the broad shoulders of the UK. Musicians appear to be among the last people allowed to work and are getting no adequate help to survive in the meantime. While it seems okay to open bars and large nightclubs, having a Scottish wedding with more than twenty people from 2 families is still a no-no. The mind boggles to understand why. It seems there is no justice or scientific basis for these rules to be so strict on Scottish weddings while people live it up on the streets of our cities, for example. The second wave seems well on the way.
Instead of dancing I find that Karate helps me get rid of my frustrations and clear my mind.
Keep Calm and ceilidh on
On the brighter side, we did experiment with some video and technology to distract from the negativity of the news. I hope it sparks joy in your hearts amid the darkness of what has become of 2020.
The Duke of Fife’s Welcome to Deeside, like you’ve never seen before.
The duke of Fife’s Welcome to Deeside
The Festival Waltz. A beautiful tune with accordion, mandolin and piano.
The Festival Waltz
Check out our other pages for more video and music clips.
Now would be a good time to buy a CD 😇, Subscribe my YouTube or help fund our activities by giving support on Patreon, a new way to crowd fund artistic activity and be a part of the journey.
The “March o’ the Scottish Samurai” is a new tune I have written and dedicated to Ronnie Watt. Who is a famous Aberdonian karate master. He is a living legend in our city. I already wrote a tune for Ronnie in 2015 and that first one I called Ronnie Watt’s 9th Dan. During the last 3 months of Lockdown Ronnie has continued his karate classes for his students using Zoom online video conferencing software. He has offered this to his students for free to replace the regular classes that he has taught for 50 years. Since lockdown, 3 times a week many karate students take part in his 3-hour sessions, at no cost to themselves. Children and adults can train karate and have some communication outside of the confines of their own lockdown environment. Keeping active and engaged without having to worry about the cost. I think it is inspiring to see such a well respected and gifted person share his hard-earned knowledge and experience for free. Ronnie’s 50 years of karate training bring priceless experience to the students.
Scottish Samurai
Ronnie also founded the Scottish Samurai awards more than twenty years ago. The awards started small in Aberdeen and have grown into an international network of people from different walks of life. None of the awardees pays for their awards, Ronnie and his usual karate activities helps fund it, along with some generous donations from like-minded people. I wanted to write another tune for Ronnie to help highlight the good he does in Aberdeen and chose the title of the tune “March o’ the Scottish Samurai” because of his Scottish Samurai awards, and because to me, Ronnie is like a Samurai marching against the wind. Full of the warrior spirit, marching to protect his students and make them better people. Sharing an ancient way of life that the modern world has lost and is sorely missing. Read more about Ronnie at Karate.scot and Samurai.scot
The Road to Wisdom
A new tune for Maria Rosaria, I’ve called it “The Road to Widom“. Maria Rosaria is my Italian mother in law who lives in Rome. It was her 70th Birthday and the tune just came to me while I was helping my wife make her a birthday video. She has many friends from all over the world who wanted to take part in the video. Maria Rosaria was born in Italy, studied in Italy, studied in Berkley California for a few years, moved back to Italy, Moved to Chile, during the dictatorship she moved back to Italy. She has written books on Latin-American history and is regarded as an authority on the subject, making many television appearances on political programmes. Maria Rosaria was also recognised by the Chilean Government with the title “Commendatore”. She is currently a professor in Rome. The Road to Wisdom is a fitting title for a special lady. Though she claims she has not much wisdom at all, I think it’s it is the wise who constantly question themselves.
How you can help me
Please Subscribe to my YouTube Channel. If you want notifications when I upload a new video click the little bell icon next to the subscribe button. Leaving comments and clicking the like button apparently helps me with the YouTube artificial intelligence algorithms to show my videos in search results to more people. I need to get 4000 hours of watch time per year to qualify for a small share of watch revenue from my videos so please watch them from start to finish as much as you can handle. I earn nothing from my videos at this moment. Feel free to leave em on loop overnight or check out the playlists function. 👍
Remember to check out my new Patreon page. Patreon is based on the old Patron of the arts model with a modern slant. You can join my Patreon starting from £3 a month. That’s a coffee a month to support my Scottish music creations. 75p a week. You can upgrade anytime if you want “extras” such as a commission, CD’s, online lessons, tech tips, or online conversations. You’ll be my new Pal, and I’ll be grateful for your support. 🙂
Sarah, is a Scottish Waltz tune written by the famous Scottish accordion player, Max Houliston. Max founded the very first Accordion and Fiddle Club in Scotland. In 1965 he opened one in his own licensed premises, The hole in the wa’, in Dumfries.
I first heard this tune played about twenty years ago in the Dee Motel in Aberdeen. It was where the Aberdeen Accordion and Fiddle Club used to meet. Over the years I have noticed that the tune Sarah is a favourite of many accordion players and listeners. We used to play as a waltz at many ceilidh dances years ago.
Lighthearted lockdown ceilidh frustrations
I hope the Lockdown is being good to you and look forward to getting out to play again. We had 40 weddings booked during this Lockdown period. As a result of Corona, all been postponed and a few, unfortunately, cancelled. To make things worse we can’t even get to the Blue Lamp on a Monday night for good traditional music session to clear our heads. We can’t even go busking in the streets to earn a crust.
Without an audience and with the current social distancing laws in place all we can do is stay in, stay safe, and play with ourselves. 😜
I know many of you may have been spending the time jigging away furiously in your living rooms, with the curtains drawn, desperate for the lockdown to end. Itching for a Dashing White Sargeant or a Gay Gordons. I’ve seen you on the internet, strutting your stuff. 😂
Social distancing is difficult as it is against our human instincts. Unfortunately, for the time being, we must put up with it and try to remain positive that better days lie ahead. I am spending my time with family, mastering the art of sourdough bread, putting an internal window to my dark office space, making music and planning our next album. During the Easter holidays, we camped out in the garden, which meant we could we have a campfire and marshmallows! The campfire is the best part about camping in my opinion. It connects us with our ancestral past. I like to watch things burn. 🔥
How you can help musicians with very little effort.
If you would like to help me out during this time please consider becoming a Patron so I can continue to make music. Check out my page and let me know what you think in the comments below. It’s a new avenue for me so creative feedback is helpful. As is hard cash 😎
If you don’t want to become a Patron for now don’t worry. I will survive. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channelfor free and please do so now if you haven’t already. Watch as many videos as you can from start to finish so I can qualify for a share of the ad revenue and my own performance royalties after I reach the 4000 hours annual watch time. I’m about 3400 hours at the moment and I have 1.1K subscribers. A wee push here and there with some extra viewings will make a difference.
Aye, we are still in lockdown, and the summer holidays are likely to be cancelled for all of us. But that doesn’t mean we canna dream.
Sit yourself down and get comfortable. Pour yer favourite tipple, close your eyes and pretend that you’re in Paris, or in the sunny south of France vineyard under a parasol, soaking in a golden evening. Enjoying your holidays. Not a care in the world.
Music for the afternoon drinks reception at a wedding
This is not strictly ceilidh music. But it’s great music on an accordion. Would be nice at an afternoon wedding reception. Gives things a bit of class does French accordion music. Goes well with fine food, coffee and vintage wines. It’s sophisticated and classy. It’s sexy but not in your face. It’s refined elegance from a humble country background. Organic and pure like the best Bordeaux wine. It’s red velvet on white lace. Ideal for your wedding drinks reception.
The tune is called Réveil Musette and was written by André Lavignac and André Cior. I have it in a book published in 1952 but it may be much older.
I think the translation of the tune title means Awakening Musette, or if you see Google translate it might be Alarm Clock Musette.
Musette or Bal-Musette is thought of as sub-genre of Gyspsy Jazz music. It was common in different forms in France from the 1880’s. Originally it was played on a type of bagpipe ( a Cabrette) known locally as a Musette. Italians began to travel to France and brought with them the newly invented accordions Italy was so famous for. The music was almost always instrumentals for dancing and typically waltzes, tango and jazz. In the 1930’s Swing music or Gypsy Jazz came from the mixture of the Musette background with musicians like Django Rhineheart, Gus Viseur and Emile Vacher and many more.
This music was famous throughout France until the 1950s. It was usually played by downtrodden musicians and was celebrated by the upper-classes. Bohemian things were very trendy among the elites when they were looking for excitement. The whore houses of Paris, like the ones of Buenos Aires did a lot for tango, musette, jazz music, and accordions. The best music sometimes comes out of the darkest places. A bit like ceilidh.
You can find the music for this tune on page 182 of this book. You can find the book online or in some specialist music stores. Great to have if you like to play the accordion.
Panic buying Bog Roll? Difficult times at the moment folks. We are doing our best to get through the uncertainty and chaos. I hope you are safe and pull through this as well, whoever you are and where ever you are.
Aside from the panic buying of bog roll phenomenon Iron Broo Ceilidh Band have had 10 weddings put on hold due to the Corona Virus, so far. What a mess. I really feel for the couples involved and understand their predicament. We are all working through this time in a way that helps us all move through it.
Stay safe and don’t panic.
There’s no shortage of negative news at the moment and today i thought i might try and lighten the mood a bit with a video. It’s a bit of a dig at all those selfish panic buyers out there, buying up toilet roll. WTF!
People must be planning on shi**ing themselves thin. Maybe they just looked at their stocks and shares balance.
A wee bit of a laugh during the epidemic of Bogroll (toilet paper) panic buying which appears to be sweeping the western world driving lots of people crazy. I don’t understand it and don’t want to. I came across this tune called “The Smell of the Bog” and liked the title so I learned it for this moment in time to commemorate the occasion. This tune is an Irish traditional one I understand. It would be a hornpipe though I like it a wee bit faster. And the Bog might refer to the toilet or the peat bog. The lovely accordion is a Saltarelle Clifden.
Please Subscribe to my YouTube channel if you like my videos. I like comments especially good ones :-). It only encourages me.
On a serious note
I hope this virus passes quickly and we all survive. My thoughts are with those in the more vulnerable groups who will need help during this epidemic. Which is why all this panic buying is actually a bad thing and if people weren’t so selfish we’d all get along much better. If someone bought all the hand sanitiser in the supermarket and cleared the shelves of the soap and wipes, ask yourself this? What use is it to them if they are surrounded by people who have caught the virus because they were unable to clean their hands properly? To get through this we have to think as a collective and not individuals. All our actions have consequences that may be unseen and unrealised.
We are all vulnerable.
There’s mair than a roch wind blawin’ through the Great Glen of the World the day.
Once this state of affairs has passed we all hope that many countries will have used the time to reflect on how things have been done in the past. I think things won’t go back to the way things were. I hope there is a rebalancing of justice and equality and an end to the corrupt hierarchy that has been destroying our planet and all our chances of a peaceful and comfortable way of life for us all. I live in hope.
We all deserve to be able to wipe our own arses with bog roll 🙂
‘Up the Noran Water’, it’s a song I heard first from the late Jim Reid. He had put the melody to the words of a poem written many years earlier by Helen Cruickshank (1886-1975). The poem was called ‘Shy Geordie’ and features a young Angus mother who is pregnant out of wedlock. It was first published in her collection of poems called “Up the Noran Water” in 1934.
Helen Cruickshank was a Scottish poet though not a very well-known one. She was a suffragette and was best known for her Scottish resistance and political activism. She was also a Scottish Nationalist. Born at Hillside, near Montrose she grew up in Angus and later moved to London for work, 1903-1912 and then she returned to Edinburgh where she spent the remainder of her days until she passed in 1975.
Jim Reid (1934-2009) was one of my favourite Scottish singers and I was glad to have had the privilege of his company on a few occasions. Even sharing the bill on stage with him at a concert on a few of the occasions. He was a well-kent face in Scottish traditional music. As well as being well known for his ceilidh work with the Foundry Bar Band he was eventually awarded Scottish Singer of the year in 2005 in recognition of his talents and contribution to Scottish traditional music.
I came across this fantastic video on Youtube by Jim Clark.
All rights reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2012
There’s a lot of details on Helen Cruickshank in the following YouTube video’s description if you want to learn more about Helen.
Up the Noran Water In by Inglismaddy, Annie’s got a bairnie That hisna got a daddy. Some say it’s Tammas’s An ithers say it’s Chay’s An naebody expectit it, Wi Annie’s quiet ways
Up the Noran Water The bonnie little mannie Is dandlit an cuddled close By Inglismaddy’s Annie. Wha the bairnie’s faither is The lassie never says But some think it’s Tammas’s An ithers think it’s Chay’s
Up the Noran Water The country folk are kind An wha the bairnie’s faither is They dinna muckle mind. But oh! The bairn at Annie’s breist, The love in Annie’s ee – Wid mak me wish wi a’ my micht The lucky lad was me!
But oh! The bairn at Annie’s breist, The love in Annie’s ee – Wid mak me wish wi a’ my micht The lucky lad was me!
I had a special request to play this tune on my YouTube Channel by Kevin Dempsey. He is a regular at the Edinburgh Ceilidh Club and they have been dancing Rosa’s Waltz to this tune. He also suggests it is a great tune for the first dance at a wedding. I would have to say I agree with him. It’s a melody that suits a wedding as it’s neither happy nor sad, it’s just beautiful and deeply familiar. A lovely tune.
Margaret’s waltz, a wee history.
Margaret’s Waltz is a popular tune in Scotland among traditional musicians made famous here by Aly Bain. For a time it was known to be the most requested tune on Radio Scotland. I often get asked to play it at ceilidhs. The tune was composed in 1959 by Pat Shuldham Shaw (1917-1977). I believe Pat was at a party at Aly Bain’s house in Edinburgh, and Aly wanted to let him hear a new tune he had picked up because Pat came from New England and Aly thought the tune sounded like a “New England” tune. When Aly asked if Pat liked the tune he was taken aback by the reply from Pat, “Of course I do…I wrote it!” More history here
