Hans J Marter
all pictures: Billy Fox

22 September, 2008

FRIDAY night's guitar concert at the Garrison was unfortunately one of those occasions where the organisers tried to squeeze too much into a single night.

The variety on offer at the opening of the fourth Peerie Willie Guitar Festival ranged from classical guitar music to singer songwriters from San Francisco, Canada and Argentina, all followed by flamenco from Trinidad.

Redmond O'Toole on his eight string 'Brahms guitar' was absolutely stunning. Playing the unusual instrument like an upright cello, the Irishman's arrangements of music by Domenico Scarlatti, Johann Sebastian Bach and the Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz had me and much of the audience entranced immediately.

The delivery of Bach's Suite for Lute and Albeniz' Asturias from his suite Espagnola Op 47 were pure magic. Sadly, the pin drop silence in the audience was only interrupted by the too regular camera noises from the local paparazzi.

At least Redmond had been allocated 35 minutes to play, enough to give an insight into the depth of his art.

After a "comfort break for a fag and the loo", it was all change with four musicians from four countries playing two songs each. What a mixed bag that was!

After adjusting the ear to finger-style steel string guitarist Brian Cole, it was over to Cecilia Zabala, from Argentina, to be followed by Canadian singer song writer Andy Sheppard. Rounding off the second of three halves (!) was Miguel de la Bastide, a flamenco guitarist from Trinidad who now lives and works in Canada.

While all four musicians may well be great artists in their own right, it wasn't possible to engage with their music as it was clear that their stage appearance would only be short. Two songs each is not enough and I think Shetland Arts would have been well advised to put on fewer artists with longer sessions.

I am sure there were many in the audience of around a 100 who feel differently, but it did not do it for me.

When music development officer Bryan Peterson announced yet another comfort break for yet another fag, I’d had enough and left without listening to the great finale. Remember Bryan, 80 per cent of us don't smoke these days.

After one and a half hours in the backache-inducing seats of the Garrison Theatre, a much longer "comfort break" at home was needed. But coming to know the music of Redmond O'Toole made the evening very worthwhile.

Finally, a word about the constant shutter noise of the cameras of three photographers. I only have a small digital camera which would not do the job at a concert, but it has a function where you can switch off the clicking noise and take pictures without any sound whatsoever.

Clearly, that should be possible with far more expensive equipment as well. After all, people had spent £12 on a ticket and they have the right to be annoyed.