Scottish cult-pop raconteur Aidan Moffat and award-winning film-maker Paul Fegan embark on their tour of Scotland later this month, on a road trip whose footage will provide the cornerstone of a feature documentary. Entitled Where You’re Meant To Be, the project is an exploration and celebration of Scotland’s musical and storytelling traditions. It will see the acclaimed Glasgow-based artists traverse the length and breadth of the country, encountering locals, gathering tales and collaborating along their way.
Where You’re Meant To Be is part of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Cultural Programme, and the ensuing film is set to premiere after the close of the Games, in late August.
Their spring tour (details below) will see Moffat debut a new body of work (some original songs; some traditional re-workings) as inspired by our oral tradition – from folk sagas to drinking songs; from bawdy ballads to bruised laments – and as defined by contemporary Scotland. Moffat will perform these stories and songs at free concerts (replete with free drams) in villages, cities and towns, backed by an all-star band comprising The Twilight Sad’s James Graham (vocals), Bdy_Prts’ Jenny Reeve (violin, vocals) and Stevie Jones (double-bass, guitar).
The upcoming live shows shows will be loosely based around traditional ceilidh gatherings, with poems recited, tales recounted, songs sung and carousal had. Along with local musicians and storytellers, the tour will welcome the likes of championship bothy balladeers Geordie Murison and Joe Aitken, folk-punk dissident Wounded Knee, and national folk treasure Sheila Stewart, who has been enticed out of retirement to duet with Moffat.
Exploring themes of community, travel, culture and sense of place, Where You’re Meant To Be promises an entertaining, life-affirming, intimate and irreverent tribute to Scotland, its stories, its songs and its people – and it offers a modern, vital take on an oral tradition that has endured for centuries, and which continues to influence our national identity. Moffat and Fegan’s folkloric pop voyage also pays homage to some of the country’s most resonant spaces – from Glasgow Barrowland to Faslane Peace Camp; from Edinburgh catacombs to Loch Ness.
Aidan Moffat is one of Scotland’s most distinctive musical and literary voices. A compelling performer, lyricist and storyteller, the former Arab Strap singer won 2012’s Scottish Album of the Year Award for his collaboration with Bill Wells, Everything’s Getting Older.
Paul Fegan’s debut short documentary, Pouters (2012), won countless awards including Best Documentary (Jury Award) at London Short Film Festival, Best Film (Audience Award) at Hamburg International Short Film Festival and Best Scottish Short Film (Jury Award) at the Glasgow Short Film Festival. He also directed Moffat and Wells’ promo video for The Copper Top.
2014 Tour Dates (NB: all are sold out)
19 April Port of Ness (Lewis) Ness Social Club 9pm
23 April Faslane Peace Camp 7pm
25 April Aberdeen Blue Lamp 8pm
26 April Cullerlie Farm Park 7.30pm
27 April Edinburgh Caves 7.30pm
9 May Drumnadrochit Village Hall 7.30pm
10 May Lerags Kilbride Church Yard 7.30pm
17 May Glasgow Barrowland 7pm
Rave Child 