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Winners of 'Best Live Act' at the inaugural
Scots Trad Music Awards 2003
"...a
wondrous, perfectly paced display by musicians
firmly in command of their art....
The addition of Sean O'Donnell, who coaxed marvelously
rich tones from his acoustic guitar, and the
continuing improvement of fiddler Alasdair White
were vital in achieving the sound that the band's
sole founding member, keyboardist Alan Reid,
has in mind.
The
vocal aspects were as impressive as the instrumentation.
Reid's singing on "Five Bridges,"
"To a Mouse" and "The Road of
Tears" was superbly matched by O'Donnell's,
including his touching rendition of Tom Waits's
"Shiver Me Timbers."
The
band mates' chemistry at this point is uncanny.
After all this time, Reid has found his best
Battlefield Band in years."
Buzz McClain
The Washington Post
10th Nov. 2006
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"A
quarter of a century after their foundation, the
Battlefield Band are still getting great reviews
and are still in very good shape, as the four
current band members showed us last weekend in
the two most traditional and crowded folk festivals
of Galicia. The Scotsmen were the major attraction
of the 19th Festa da Carballeira de Zas (A Coruña),
and last night they satisfied the expectations
in Festa da Musica e da Arte de Pardiñas, in Guitriz
(Lugo), a show that for the last 24 years has
attracted no less than 10,000 people on every
first Sunday of August".
Fernando
Neira for EL PAIS, Spain |
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Live
at Sauga Festival, Spain 2003
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"Wycombe
Swan Town Hall was 'reeling' from the sounds of the
Highlands and Islands last week when Scottish musicians
the Battlefield Band filled the venue with their exhilarating
music and ecstatic fans. Wild whoops of delight and
stamping of feet accompanied the band as their rich
heritage of Celtic music sprung to life on a unique
fusion of ancient and modern instruments"
Clare Brotherwood, THE OBSERVER,
UK
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"At
the opening of the 'Traversées de Tatihou', Battlefield
Band easily married passion, energy and joy with
the rich heritage of Celtic music. On the stage
the synthesiser and guitar harmonised beautifully
with the fiddle, flute and bagpipes into a fantastic
musical bouquet. The band were poetry in motion
and the public fully appreciated the true value
of the Scottish tradition in Battlefield Band's
hands."
Jean-Charles Letrecher,
LA PRESSE DE LA MANCHE, France
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Alasdair
White
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"All
it took was the sound of Ali White and Highland bagpiper
Mike Katz ripping into a set of dance tunes, including
reels bursting with colour and energy, to entice nearly
everyone in the packed house to underscore the music
with clapping hands and stamping feet.Even an old-fashioned
celtic waltz proved rythmically contagious once the
renowned quartet pushed the tune into overdrive, arguably
its favourite gear"
Mike Joyce, THE WASHINGTON
POST, USA |
Mike Katz
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"New
boy Alasdair White is still only 18, but what a find.
Not only is he a dynamic fiddler but a talented whistle
player, a guitarist and a piper - the bagpipe duet
with Mike Katz was something to remember - and he
can write a good tune too. At the end they had everyone
on their feet."
Keith Clark, BRISTOL EVENING
POST, UK
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Sean O'Donnell |
"Back
by popular demand, Battlefield Band wowed the full house
at Atwood Concert Hall … with a combination of great
talent, engaging humor and delightful music."
S.L. Guthrie, ANCHORAGE DAILY
NEWS, USA |
Alan
Reid |
"...great
songs, superbly sung, interspersed with magnificent
tunes, played with blistering power and speed."
"...one of the aforementioned Rockers, renowned
locally for his disdain of folk music, turned at
the door, with a glazed expression and left hand
clutching the two CD’s he’d bought,
and said, “That’s the best band I’ve
ever heard in my ****ing life.”
Matt
Armour, STONY LIVE FESTIVAL, JUNE 2004
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