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Christmas is always full of memories for everyone at the Trust, not just for the season that’s in it, but it would have been Fraser’s 39th birthday today – 23rd December – so we raise a glass in memory.

At the end of 2018, we announced the release of a limited edition hand bottled Valinch from Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay. There were only 6 individually numbered bottles, emblazoned with Fraser’s crest, generously donated by the distillery to be sold by the Trust. These were sold in March to various collectors, which raised a whooping £900 for the Trust.

In early 2019, The Fraser Shaw Trust launched a funding initiative which welcomed individuals and organisations to apply for grants in order to encourage and enable participation in traditional music. This may take a variety of forms, such as supporting the purchase of instruments, music studies, facilitating involvement in concerts/competitions or the composition of new music. Whilst the funding is open to all, the trust is particularly keen to support people from Islay or people with a connection to the island.

The Trust were able to support three projects via the funding initiative in the first quarter of 2019; a trip to Glasgow’s prestigious Celtic Connections festival for some young Islay musicians, a trip to compete in the Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championship in Livingston for the Islay High School Pipe Group, and the purchase of three sets of electronic pipes for the Falkirk Traditional Music Project.

In June, the Trust held the first Fraser Shaw Feis on Islay with tutors Joy Dunlop, Jeri Foreman and Ross Miller. September saw the annual Shawfest Festival in Glasgow, and in November, the Trust supported festival Islay Sessions took place, with a meet and a dram at Fraser’s bench on the Sunday afternoon, and a growing turnout each year!

Our  end of year donations are £1000 to the MS Centre in Lochilphead, and £1000 to Help Musicians UK.

Plans are currently underway to install a Solar Audio Post beside Fraser’s seat at Bruichladdich Distillery. This external in-ground audio point will play music from the Mac Ile album, when activated by buttons and powered completely by solar energy. It has also our plan to build a cairn at the spring where Fraser’s final resting place is. It is our hope that both will help tell our story to visitors of Islay, and thus raise awareness of the cause.

Grants of £500 will be available in 2020 for individuals and organisations in need of a financial boost to play/compose/participate in anything music related. Please get in touch via frasershawtrust@gmail.com

A big merry Christmas and happy new year, and thanks to all our supporters!

We are delighted to announce the first Fraser Shaw Fèis which will take place in Islay High School, Bowmore June 22nd & 23rd 2019 with tutors Joy Dunlop, Ross Miller and Jeri Foreman. The weekend will be open to all music learners of all ages.

Joy Dunlop, an award winning Gaelic singer and step dancer from Connel, Argyll, will be leading Gaelic song workshops. Jeri Foreman, from Adelaide, Australia, will be teaching fiddle. Jeri plays a wide array of music genres, including Scottish and Irish traditional music, classical, bluegrass and old time music. Ross Miller hails from Linlithgow, West Lothian where he is the official Town Piper. He studied Bagpipes, Scots Song and Whistles at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and was a finalist in the 2019 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition.

Email info@frasershawtrust.com for more details or to book a spot.

The Trust are delighted to have helped fund a trip for some students from the Islay High School Pipe Group. A small group travelled to Livingston in March ’19 to the Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championship to compete in the Quartet Competition. Piping instructor Struan Thorpe says:

“A large field of 10 groups had entered in the competition and we were drawn number 8 to play. Each quartet were to play a 2/4 March, and we had rehearsed the tune ‘Donald MacLean’s Farewell to Oban’. The group performed very well gaining 5th place overall – an excellent result as it was their first time playing in a competitive format. They handled the pressure that goes with performance very well and conducted themselves exceptionally. On the judges feedback form we had comments saying; “excellent tone”, “very good playing” and “keep up the good work”. These comments are a credit to the pupils who practised exceptionally hard at home as well as in school rehearsals. I’ve been very impressed, since taking on the role of piping instructor in August 2018, at the growth in confidence and ability of the pipers on Islay and performing at this competition was a very good reflection of this.”

“Next year, we hope to take a larger group of pupils to perform in the freestyle section of the competition. This will not just involve pipers but the school choir and folk group and I would like to perform some music local to Islay in this. I hope this will integrate pipers with other music groups in the school with the aim of growing this into a larger collaborative project.”

We are simply delighted to hear this, and Fraser certainly would have been proud of these young Ileach’s! The grant was used to provide travel and accommodation for the trip – including vehicle hire, fuel costs, ferry tickets and a B&B for two nights. Speaking about the trip, one of the students, Amy Want says:

“On the 9th of March, Zack Glover, Lily Ann Doyle and I set sail to represent Islay in our first piping competition. We were accompanied by our very excited piping tutor, Struan Thorpe, and a laid-back Linsay MacArthur who kept us entertained with all her war stories of her many years with the Islay Pipe Band. That night we had a great time in Xscape at Braehead, Glasgow, and the next morning drove to Inveralmond Community High School in Livingston, where the Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championships were being held. After a while of waiting, and building up our nerves, we tuned up. We were ushered into competition Room B with a few final good lucks and played our best (‘Donald McLean’s Farewell to Oban’). We didn’t really expect a very good place, but to our surprise and delight we came 5th out of a group of 10. We were also pleased to have found our way out of the enormous school that was packed to the gunnels with young musicians! We are hugely grateful to The Fraser Shaw Trust who part-funded the trip and to Linsay and Struan for all their organising and making it all so enjoyable. Next year, we hope to enter quartets again as well as the freestyle competition, but in the meantime, we need all the practice we can get so if anyone needs some pipers for events, please give us a shout!”

If you are interested in applying for a Fraser Shaw Trust Grant, do get in touch on info@frasershawtrust.com

The Fraser Shaw Trust were delighted to award the first of their grants in January to the traditional music group at Islay High School, to help fund an exciting trip to Glasgow’s prestigious Celtic Connections. Lewis Davey writes:

“Myself and 3 other students from the Islay High School traditional music band, Anna Mitchell, James Kitching and Amy Want, accompanied by Miss MacGregor, took a trip to Glasgow to see some of this year’s Celtic Connections concerts. On Friday, after a hearty breakfast we walked to the Royal Concert Hall to watch the first of three concerts: amazing music from Scottish band Ímar and Galician band Oreka TX, who showcased their native instruments like the txalaparta.

When that concert had finished we went for a bite to eat in Buchanan Galleries and then were taken on a tour of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Traditional Music department, where we were shown round their many recital halls and recordings studios.

After this, we met with Fraser Shaw’s mum and step-dad, Margaret and Angus, back in the concert hall for a chat and a photograph. It was great to meet them as Fraser has been a massive influence to all of us in the trad group, and we are truly grateful to the Fraser Shaw Trust for helping to fund this amazing trip which we all enjoyed.

Before dinner, we went to our second Celtic Connections event of the day at the Danny Kyle stage, which we thoroughly enjoyed, giving us a taste of up-and-coming artists on the Scottish trad music scene. After a lovely meal at Tony Macaroni and a great catch-up with our former art teacher Miss Roberts, we went for the last concert of the night to watch the Tweed Project, a trad music band made up of Scots and English performers, which was a perfect way to round up a busy and jam-packed day.

The experience of Celtic Connections was, for me, amazing! It was a great show of Celtic culture not just from Scotland, but from all around the world, and an experience which I will treasure forever.”

For more information on how to apply for the Fraser Shaw Trust grant, email info@frasershawtrust.com

The Fraser Shaw Trust would like to say a big warm thank you to everybody who supported us in 2018, particularly those who attended our fundraiser Shawfest, Hamish Napier who raised £670 doing 3x10k runs in 3 Irish cities in January, and Duncan Lyall who raised £650 running the Edinburgh marathon in May. Well done! Sales of Mac Ìle – tune book and CD also continue and we hope people are enjoying the music as much as we have!

Donations

The Trust are extremely pleased to be donating £2000 to the Multiple Sclerosis Centre Mid-Argyll in Lochilphead, which will go towards a very large electricity bill this winter, due to all the changes that went on there during the year. Fraser had intended on donating the proceeds of his tune book here, his local MS Centre, a place he received a great deal of support from during his illness, so it means a lot to the Trust to be able to make this donation on his behalf. A donation of £1000 will also be made to MS Society Scotland, a charity which funds research on treatment of the illness as well as working with MS sufferers, helping them manage their symptoms.

Grants

As well as supporting these charities, the Trust aims to promote the arts and culture of Scotland, encouraging and enabling participation in, and the study of all forms of traditional music. We are therefore delighted to launch a new funding initiative for Scottish musicians – several grant awards for a max of £500 each. The fund will support a variety of applicants, such as the purchase of instruments, music studies, enabling participation in concerts/competitions or the composition of new music. Whilst the funding is open to all, the trust is particularly keen to support Ileachs or people with a connection to the island of Islay. Applications are now open to all traditional musicians. Both individuals and groups are welcome to apply, and the trust looks forward to supporting many musicians and projects in the future. To obtain an application form, or for further information about the funding scheme, please email info@frasershawtrust.com

Whisky

In other extremely exciting news, we are absolutely delighted to announce the release of a limited edition hand bottled Valinch from Bruichladdich Distillery! This bottling comes from a refill bourbon cask selected by the world-renowned master distiller Jim McEwan. The cask was distilled on 27/2/08 and hand bottled at cask strength of 58.2% vol on 12/12/18.
There are only 6 individually numbered bottles, emblazoned with Fraser’s crest, which was designed by the amazing Somhairle MacDonald. The bottles will be up for auction next year – details on this coming soon!

Jim has been a massive support to the Trust since Fraser’s passing in 2015 and we would like to express sincere thanks to him and also to Ailsa, Karolyn and everyone at Bruichladdich Distillery.

Keep up with the latest news via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and our website, where you can sign up to our newsletter.

From everyone at The Fraser Shaw Trust, Nollaig chridheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr!

Greetings from the Fraser Shaw Trust! We have had a quiet year so far but we are back with a bang for our September festival Shawfest!

Shawfest is a yearly festival taking place in Partick, Glasgow that helps to raise money for The Fraser Shaw Trust. This year’s festival will take place on the 8th and 9th of September and features a variety of events with a range of artists performing in three different venues; St Peter’s Hall, The Lismore Bar and The Sparkle Horse. A raffle will also be taking place over the weekend, with some fantastic prizes to be won.

Buy tickets here!

Kicking off the weekend will be a workshop in St. Peter’s Hall with MG Alba Scots Trad Awards Tutor of the Year Emma Tomlinson. All ages and instruments welcome – intermediate level only.

The big Saturday night concert, also taking place in St. Peter’s Hall and will see two bright young bands perform – Eabhal and Kim Carnie.

On Sunday 9th Sept in The Sparkle Horse, there will be a traditional music session from 3pm, where festival goers will get a chance to recover from Saturday nights activities, before the fun is moved over to the Lismore Bar, with Nae Plans kicking off a concert at 5pm.

This is sure to be a brilliant weekend of music and craic, and of course for remembering the spirit of our dear friend, Fraser Shaw.

More info at www.shawfest.co.uk

Thanks To Our Valiant Fundraisers!

Big shout out to Hamish Napier and Duncan Lyall who raised a whooping £670 and £425 respectively for the Fraser Shaw Trust. Hamish ran 3x10k runs in 3 Irish cities in January and Duncan ran the Edinburgh Half Marathon in May. Well done lads and a million thanks from the Trust!

Our Contributions

You may recall that the Trust donated £5000 to the Multiple Sclerosis Centre Mid Argyll in Lochilphead at the end of 2017. Fraser had intended on donating the proceeds of his tune book here, his local MS Centre, a place he received a great deal of support from during his illness, so it meant a lot to the Trust to be able to make this donation on his behalf.
This money was subsequently used in the renovation of the centre – a big job that will make a huge difference to the patients coming for treatment. Outreach worker Claire Cameron says, “The renovations have made a huge impact on everyone who comes to the centre and also to the staff. The office has a lovely atmosphere in it now and is just a joy to come into. The new oxygen will save the centre around £9000 per annum so this is amazing for us.”

Keep up with the latest news via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website, where you can sign up to our newsletter.

Do support us too by coming along to some of our Shawfest events next month!

The Fraser Shaw Trust would like to say a big warm thank you to everybody who has supported us in 2017, particularly our event sponsors; The Port Charlotte Hotel, Bruichladdich and Ardbeg, and also Natalie Somerville who raised an amazing £1700 running the London Marathon. We have had an action packed year with the launches of Mac Ìle: The Music of Fraser Shaw – both album and tune book, as well as our annual festival Shawfest.

The Trust are extremely pleased to be making a donation of £5000 to the Multiple Sclerosis Centre Mid Argyll, which will go towards a complete renovation of the centre in Lochgilphead. Fraser had intended on donating the proceeds of his book here, his local MS Centre, a place he received a great deal of support from during his illness, so it means a lot to the Trust to be able to make this donation on his behalf. A donation of £1000 will also be made to MS Society Scotland, a charity which funds research on treatment of the illness as well as working with MS sufferers, helping them manage their symptoms.

As well as supporting these charities, the Trust aims to promote the arts and culture of Scotland (particularly on the Isle of Islay), along with helping with the advancement of education of young Ileach residents by encouraging and enabling participation in, and the study of all forms of traditional music. For this, the Trust have set £4000 aside for 2018 – more details on these activities to follow.

In other news, Mac Ile: The Music of Fraser Shaw has been listed among Folk Radio UK’s Top 10 Albums of 2017, being described as “… a charming, moving and, above all, uplifting album.” Read about it and all the other chosen albums here!

Keep up with the latest news via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website, where you can sign up to our newsletter.

From everyone at The Fraser Shaw Trust, Nollaig chridheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr!

The 2017 Islay Sessions is done and dusted and what a weekend it was! Music, drams and craic for three days, and most exciting of all – the release of Fraser Shaw’s much anticipated tune book.
The weekend started strongly with an intense gig with Scots Trad Award Composer of the Year nominee Adam Sutherland, and Mark Clement in a guitar/vocals and fiddle duo, blending perfectly a range of musical styles into the traditional, revealing highly honed musical skills.
Saturday opened with a workshop opportunity for both the very young and those less so, under the guidance of Scots Trad Award Tutor of the Year nominee Emma Tomlinson, ably assisted by Adam Sutherland. Appropriately, Emma and Adam chose to use Fraser Shaw’s musical tribute to fellow Port Charlotte Hotel colleague Graham Allison. A slow session afterwards gave more opportunity for those of us practising new skills.
A tour of a few distilleries took place that afternoon, with visits to Bruichladdich, Caol Ila and Bunnahabhain by two bus loads of eager festival attendees. A wee stop at Fraser’s seat, overlooking Lochindaal, for a toast to the man himself was a necessity, with the launch of his tune book taking place that very night.

Saturday night at the Islay Sessions was the big one – a packed Bruichladdich Hall was treated first to a rousing performance of the music learned in the morning workshop. Next up was some beautiful and ethereal Gaelic songs from Joy Dunlop, joined by Mhairi Marwick and Ron Jappy on fiddle and guitar, followed by the guitar and mandolin playing, and lyrical vocals of Jen Butterworth and Laura-Beth Salter.
Finally, the moment arrived for Fraser’s tune book to be introduced: his brother Greig gave a beautiful speech about him and his dream to release a book, after which it’s first few copies were presented to a few people who were key to getting this immense project off the ground. Then, the book was available for sale for everyone!
After a token raffle, fiery young band Tannara took to the stage, finishing off the concert with a pulsing set of contemporary and traditional tunes and songs. At the end of the concert, all musicians in the room got up to finish the night off with a favourite composition of Fraser’s: The C-Side.
A necessarily quiet Sunday ended perfectly with the guitar and vocals of Innes Watson, who seamlessly shared love, laughter and wine whilst creating a potential new tour band from the exuberant and vocal audience!
As as the case for each night at the festival, a late night session in the Port Charlotte Hotel bar rounded off the festival.

Don’t forget that you can still vote for for Mac Ìle: The Music of Fraser Shaw as Album of the Year in the Scots Trad Awards – voting closes this coming Friday 24th November, and winners will be announced on December 2nd at the Awards Ceremony in Paisley which will be broadcasted live on BBC Alba.

‘…there’s a real sense of joy and celebration of life within the album. Not just a celebration of Shaw’s life, but a celebration of life itself.’ – Bright Young Folk

We are absolutely thrilled that Mac Ìle: The Music of Fraser Shaw is up for album of the year in the Scots Trad Awards! The album consists of a plethora of Scotland’s top musicians playing Fraser’s fantastic tunes. If you haven’t heard it yet, you can purchase a copy here.

Heralded as the most prestigious award ceremony in the traditional music calendar, the winners will be revealed during a glitzy award ceremony on Saturday 2nd December, at Paisley’s Lagoon Centre as Paisley bids for UK City of Culture 2021. It would be brilliant if you could take the time to vote for Mac Ìle, and please spread the word – there are also a number of other talented acts up for awards, including some members of the Islay Sessioners! Voting closes on Friday 24th November.

‘…there’s a real sense of joy and celebration of life within the album. Not just a celebration of Shaw’s life, but a celebration of life itself.’ – Bright Young Folk

Click here to vote for Mac Ìle