Music to their ears as session moves outside
Positive response to live performance in Coronation Corner
Local musicians met in the recently-renovated Coronation Corner in Blairgowrie on Sunday night to livestream their weekly music session.
East Perthshire musician Bob Stewart has been hosting weekly online live sessions for music lovers to enjoy for over a year now.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Bob hosted popular monthly traditional music sessions at the Royal Hotel in Blairgowrie as part of an annual cultural showcase, the It’s BRAW! festival.
However, the subsequent lockdowns and restrictions imposed as part of efforts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic have meant that those sessions were no longer able to take place in person.
But as restrictions gradually ease, a small group of talented local residents were able to meet in person and in accordance with social distancing guidelines, for the first time in over a year.
And a small group of people, including visitors to the area, were delighted to be able to experience the live music session in person.
Bob was pleased with the success of the evening.
He said: “After the closure of the Royal Hotel last year and the lockdown restrictions soon afterwards, we wanted to keep the spirit of the monthly music sessions going.
“The ethos of the live sessions was to give anyone the opportunity to perform, no matter what age or ability they were, and that was still the driving force behind the online format.
“Thanks to support from Steve Johnson from Proactive Communities, we have been broadcasting the sessions every Sunday evening on the It’s BRAW Facebook page for the last 13 months or so now.
“They are a mix of traditional music sessions, an open mic hour and folk club performances, and as well as some of our regulars from the Royal Hotel sessions, we have also been joined by people from across the UK, from Inverness to Northampton, as well as a core group of Blairgowrie and Rattray and Alyth stalwarts who come along every week.
“Through the live performances we want to create an element of fun and spontaneity and everyone is welcome, either to join in or just to enjoy the music.”
He went on: “This week though, with the good weather that was forecast and the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, we thought we would do an outside broadcast from Coronation Corner, which was revamped last year after a massive fundraising effort by Blair in Bloom, whose volunteers look after the space.
“It was a fantastic location for the session, and we got lots of positive feedback, both on the Facebook page and from the small group of people who stopped by to enjoy the music when they saw what was going on.
“For the performers, it was great to be able to play in front of a live audience again after so long, and it is definitely something that we hope to be able to do again over the coming weeks and months – weather and Covid-19 restrictions permitting of course!”
Any musician who would like to perform as part of the live Facebook shows can contact It’s BRAW music coordinator, Samantha Stewart, via the It’s BRAW Facebook page for more details about the event.
And everyone is welcome to tune in on Sunday evenings from 7pm to enjoy an eclectic collection of performances from musicians.