Master concertina player and Northumbrian piper Alistair Anderson has been at the forefront of traditional music for over 30 years. He continues to deliver a packed programme of solo gigs, band playing, and teaching and will be appearing down at the Dartington International Summer School this August. Will Kemp spoke to Alistair to uncover some gems from his past as well as what the future has in store.
Will Kemp: I diligently did my research before speaking to you, Alistair, and discovered a startling video of you performing on stage in very close proximity with Kate Bush of all people. How did that come about?
AA: Yes indeed, it was a few years ago now but she came up with that idea of me first standing on stage and she’d be cradled in my arms, between me and the concertina, on some of the videos still around so – people often find that and make humorous remarks… No, it was great. Kate Bush was great to work with. She was very clear what she wanted and an amazing performer and of course she had a long interest in traditional music she was very interested in people like Bert Lloyd, then became quite interested in Eastern European music, in fact after we did that track we got invited to one of her birthday parties and she had one of trio Bulgarka – great trio from Bulgaria – so she was interested in all this. Obviously, her main focus is on her own music, but she had a significant interest in folk music too.
You yourself did have that focus on folk music, especially as a performer of folk music from Northumberland and that area. What was it that drew you to that?
Ok so I grew up in the north east of England and I was very fortunate to meet some of the older generation who are sadly no longer with us. And learned from them, people like Billy Pigg – great Northumbrian piper, Will Atkinson who was a fantastic melodeon player and harmonica; Willy Taylor the fiddle player, Joe Hutton another piper. Sadly Billy Pigg died back in 1968 and I had met him in ‘64 so I only spent a few years with him but the others there I spent 20 years more playing with and then I took them round so other people would hear just how good they were. We took them to go all over the country and they influenced the general approach to traditional music. I try and keep that up. I’ve always loved traditional music from all over these islands but Northumbrian stuff’s just the stuff I know best. I know plenty of music from your part of the world [i.e. Devon]. I remember taking Will Atkinson down to one of the festivals in Cornwall and Bob Cann, the melodeon player from Dartmoor, was there and the two of them got on really well – they had a remarkable amount of repertoire in common and certainly, their approach to playing music for dancing was along similar lines. So there is plenty of cross-over despite the fact that each area of these islands has a fairly distinct tradition it is linked to the dancing and the way the dancing is done in various places is one of the bedrocks of how this stuff works.
So the music comes out of those dances – and in Devon, for instance, we have different traditions to what you would find up north?
Yes, you have got some different dances to what we have, but the Dorset four hand reel uses a rant step, which is step we use an awful lot in Northumberland, and a few other dances down there too. You know, the pace of the dancing is quite different but still the dynamic between the music and the dance, that importance remains. So if you’re then playing the music it is best when it is informed by the way it has evolved hand in hand – the dance and the music – so that even in a listening situation the vitality comes through more if the musicians have that experience of playing with the dances.
Perhaps we could talk a bit more about your own career, you mentioned playing with these other musicians and in bands, but you’re mainly known as a soloist.
Yes. I’ve spent probably most of my performing life as a soloist, but I started off in a band called the High Level Ranters, back in the 60s. I dropped out in ‘78 because I was doing more and more solo stuff. I started to tour the states a lot through the 70s and did 35 odd tours there, also went to Australia, mainly playing music from Northumberland and the borders but also some Irish stuff and stuff from elsewhere in England, perhaps some Scandinavian tunes – whatever suited – and tunes I’d learned in America. Interestingly these old guys, shepherds living up in the hills, if I came back from a tour in the States, the first question was ‘well, have you got any good tunes?’ They were quite happy to learn tunes from wherever and what’s more, of course, if they did learn an old American tune within about 6 months it sounded just like an old Northumbrian tune anyway. Then I also started writing music back in the late 70s into the 80s, new music very much rooted in traditional music. The first big piece I wrote was called Steel Skies which we did in ‘82 / ’83 at the Purcell Room in London. After that success, I was asked back to do a festival. So for three years, I ran a thing called South Bank Summer Folk which was part of South Bank Summer Music. I used to perform quite a bit at the theatre-in-the-round in Stoke with the Lindsay String Quartet. Peter Cheeseman the director got us on at various times in tandem and then eventually Peter Crocker of the Lindsays commissioned me to write a piece for quartet and concertina called On Cheviot Hills and we performed that quite a bit and I did another piece with Peter and Donald Grant out of Ensemble 360. So there are always these connections you can make with other musics.
That sounds really good, I’m sure we can find you a violinist or two. Lastly, perhaps we could move to the present day, at the moment you’re up at Newcastle, performing and teaching?
Yes, in the late 90s I started this organisation called Folkworks and we got a whole lot of work in schools and after a while there were teenagers who’d started with us at 12 – 13 who were now hitting 18 and saying ‘well, why isn’t there a course in traditional music’ and my arm was eventually twisted to talk to the university and we started a course there in 2001. I ran it for the first few years and then handed it on but I still get my arm twisted to go back in and teach there and it’s good to see the number of great musicians there who are coming through, as there are around the country. So yes, I still do some teaching there and I’m in this band Old Northlands, and my solo stuff too, so I just keep active. In fact an ex-student of mine from there, Emily Portman, who is now teaching on the course, she will also be down in Dartington which is very exciting. She was in the second intake 2002 – and I’ve seen her an awful lot since. A very, very fine performer, just tremendous and a great asset on the Dartington course. I’m really looking forward to it. I mean, another person, Katrina Porteous there’s another friend, the poet, so looking forward to meeting old friends and making new ones. We’ll just be taking people through the music, seeing where they can explore it for themselves, find their own voice by ok looking back at the way people of previous generations have played (because there’s a huge wealth of stylistic detail that’s worth looking at when actually) while also looking forward because it’s all about finding your own voice through it and putting your stamp on a particular way you’re going to play a tune or sing a song.
Alistair will be teaching a course at the Dartington International Summer School this August. He will also be performing in the Great Hall at Dartington on 8th August. Find out more this year’s Summer School, click here: www.dartington.org/summerschool
Press Image Photo Credit: Bradley