Bagpipe rock band Gleadhraich are due to release a movie charting their exciting musical journey. Gayle Ritchie chats to Carnoustie frontman Craig Weir.
Best known as Celtic rock band Gleadhraich’s frontman, Carnoustie piper Craig Weir has played for, and alongside, the likes of Queen, The Libertines, and even the Dalai Lama.
He’s also modelled kilts, crafted a solo EP, and co-hosted an award-winning podcast.
The 29-year-old was hugely excited about Gleadhraich’s 10th anniversary, with a big show planned for March 2020.
However, as with many events, this hotly-anticipated gig, at Dundee’s Whitehall Theatre, had to be cancelled thanks to Covid-19.
It was a huge blow – everyone was massively disappointed. And yet, out of that disappointment a new idea emerged – the band would make a documentary charting their rollercoaster journey.
It would feature footage from rehearsals, gigs, festivals and behind-the-scenes hilarity and emotion, culminating in the actual performance of their 10th anniversary show – two years later than expected, in March 2022.
The documentary, filmed largely by the band’s sound engineer Ali Ogilvie, with further footage from friend Calum Dickenson, and members “chipping in”, debuts at the DCA on September 10 at 8pm.
Something really different
Craig, who hails from Carnoustie but now lives in Dundee, says he can’t wait for fans, old and new, to watch the film.
“It’s something really different for us and it’s full of fun, great music and emotion,” he says.
“We got together as a band in 2010 when we were students at Carnoustie High School.
“We would never have believed we’d still be together all this time.
“We’ve done and shared so much together – we’ve made EPs, performed all over Europe and the US and met and played for and alongside so many amazing people.
“We feel so incredibly lucky to have had these opportunities – and they just keep on coming.”
Noise, clamour, din
While they get together as a band to play as Gleadraich – which translates as ‘noise, clamour or din’ in Gaelic – members have different projects on the go, too.
Craig, for example, plays guitar and ukelele and sings with Dundee-based indie folk rock band Craig Weir & the Cabalistic Cavalry.
And the acclaimed bagpiper has also played for Her Majesty the Queen, plus Rudimental and the Bay City Rollers.
Podcast
Craig, as co-host with the movie’s producer Ali, has also had huge success with his podcast, Weir’s World: The All Ears Podcast, charting in 17 countries since it launched during the pandemic.
Some of these have been done live – in New York during Tartan Week and in Dundee’s Verdant Works in May with Be Charlotte, Chris Van Der Kuyl, Charlie Adam and McMustard and Hunter.
“Ali and I launched this in September 2020 and the plan was to talk about some of the experiences we’d had in the music world and beyond,” says Craig.
“We started off telling these stories and then expanded things to include interviews with musicians and bands, and then we started talking about societal issues ranging from addiction to mental health.
“We had Gail Porter on chatting to us, as well as Alan Cumming and artistes such as Tide Lines and Peat and Diesel.
“We just found we had so much to talk about and people were really excited to get on board.”
Through the Lens
The documentary, titled Through the Lens, is very much an emotional journey, filmed over a 24-month period.
“We’d been so looking forward to our 10th anniversary show at the Whitehall Theatre in March 2020 and were gutted when the pandemic put it on hold, indefinitely,” reflects Craig.
“We had some amazing special guests on the bill – the Scottish Police Choir, the 6th and 8th Boys’ Brigade Pipe Band, Flings and Things, singer Lyndsey Know, and X Factor star Nicholas McDonald.
“So we went from rehearsing a lot, looking forward to this massive celebration, to being stuck at home and not seeing each other for months.
“Ali and I realised we had loads of footage from rehearsals of the build-up to the
show that we’d planned to use on screen on stage.
“We thought, ‘why don’t we make a film tracking our journey onwards?’, so that’s what we did.
“We filmed ourselves on our own at home, then the first meeting of the band in
16 months, a return to gigging and festivals… and then eventually putting on our anniversary show in March this year, after it had been put off for two years.
“It was just so amazing to be getting back into a room with everyone – that was hugely emotional and the film really captures that.
“Lindisfarne Festival earlier this year was the first time we had all stepped on stage together and that was a major highlight.
“And of course performing at the Whitehall Theatre – finally, and after such a long wait – was indescribably amazing and emotional. It had been pretty much three and a half years of planning.”
Tear-jerking
Craig anticipates one of the most tear-jerking moments of the film will be when the band play Granny Gordon’s Tune.
This was a song Craig had composed for his and his brother Paul’s 95-year-old grandmother – but she passed away during the pandemic.
“That was tough,” he says. “We’d obviously hoped to play it live while she was alive but sadly, that didn’t happen.
“It was such an emotional moment playing that, and I think everyone will feel that.”
The band have plenty lined up for 2022 and beyond and, says Craig, “the wheel just keeps on turning”.
“There’s loads in the pipeline and it’s great to be back out playing.
“The two-year gap of enforced restrictions gave us all an opportunity to recharge, to take stock and appreciate the successes we’ve had within the music industry.
“And it made us realise how lucky we are to have each other as friends and to be given such amazing opportunities.
“It will be interesting to see what folk make of Through the Lens but we’re hugely, massively, excited about it!”
- Gleadhraich: Through the Lens premieres at the DCA on September 10 at 8pm.
- Tickets are £11 including booking fee. For more details see dca.org.uk/
- Craig is an ambassador for 21st Century Kilts and the World Peace Tartan and has modelled kilts for both.
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