July 16: A Scottish Isle - Ossian's legacy

This is a wonderful piece of music, composed by William Jackson, one of the members of Ossian.

The music conveys the atmosphere of different elements of the Scottish landscape, and ends with a suite of pieces named after islands including Iona, Islay and Jura.

They were another band I was introduced to while at Huddersfield Polytechnic.

It can be found on many of the usual music streaming services.

William (Billy) Jackson was a key member of Ossian.

Ossian were a superb band, and one of the finest of their era.

They released five excellent albums with a mix of traditional tunes, and I have listened to them for over 40 years.They were another of the bands that I wish I had seen play live.

Two of the members later recorded an album called 'The Misty Mountains' which has some rather beautiful pieces too...

Some live performances for you to savour as well:

 

and 'The Working Man' from 1990.

Finally, here's the late Tony Cuffe and George Jackson performing 'Jamie Raeburn'.

A search for Ossian will also bring up a very different band with the same name...

Jun 8: A song about drugs or alcohol

Well, there's plenty of choice here, but I shall go for this one...

It's from an album called 'The Wellpark Suite' by William Jackson of the band Ossian. It commemorates the Wellpark Brewery in Glasgow.

The work was commissioned by the brewing group Tennents to commemorate the 1985 centenary of Tennents lager, and was named after the site of its Glasgow brewery, and first performed at the Burrell Collection. 

The work itself was composed by Billy Jackson as a six movement piece in traditional style. 

Largely featuring fiddles, clarsach, pipes, whistles and cello, the introduction of electric guitar and drums towards the end symbolised modernism and progression.

I bought this album on tape cassette from a petrol station in Broadford on the Isle of Skye in the late 1980s from memory...