Donald WG Lindsay

+ Alasdair Roberts

The Hug and Pint, Glasgow

Entry Requirements: 18+
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Scottish musicians Donald WG Lindsay and Alasdair Roberts have been friends for thirty years, since their teenage days. In these three decades, their careers in music have taken them down differing yet similarly unorthodox paths, and they’ve continued to make a lot of music together, usually informally. They’ve only rarely appeared together in concert, but in autumn 2024 they will remedy this state of affairs with their first duo tour. Donald WG Lindsay is best known as the creator of the ‘Lindsay System’ three-octave keyless chanter for the Scottish smallpipes, as played by him on the critically acclaimed album History of Sleep recorded in collaboration with Glasgow experimental legend Richard Youngs. Donald is a former convenor of the Lowland and Border Pipers Society, with which he has a long association. Although a traditional singer since his teens, Donald has rarely ventured onto the stage as a vocalist, although he has recorded sporadically. In late 2020 he received airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music from Iggy Pop, who described his music as “...beautifully played... the whole record is really good.” Alasdair Roberts is primarily known as a singer, guitarist, writer of songs and interpreter of traditional songs from Scotland and beyond. Since the nineties he has released several albums, mostly on the Drag City label, variously acclaimed both by aficionados of traditional song and experimental music. He has toured extensively in Scotland and worldwide. A keen collaborator, Alasdair has worked with many fellow musicians and practitioners from other disciplines including theatre, film, poetry and puppetry. He is a member of the folk quartet The Furrow Collective and the cult underground group Current 93. For their duo tour, Donald and Alasdair will present a programme featuring a rich variety of pipe tunes with guitar accompaniment, as well as a broad selection of songs both traditional and original. The pipe tunes bring together a diverse range of influences, from Scots fiddle tunes (Donald’s elder brother’s fiddling being an early influence), by way of Hungarian and Romanian pipe music, to classic and contemporary Highland piping and Lowland, Border and Northumbrian tunes. The songs range from variants (some rare, some more well-known) of traditional ballads or ‘muckle sangs’, to songs from the Scots lyrical tradition from the early modern period onwards, to contemporary songs written by both Alasdair and Donald. In the company of Donald WG Lindsay and Alasdair Roberts, listeners can expect a thrilling evening in which rare and splendid gems of Scottish musical history and tradition will be brought to life in the hands of two unconventional masters, who invite you to join them in celebrating thirty years of music and, just as importantly, of friendship!

Line Up

I primarily play the Scottish Smallpipes, the Whistle, and the Highland Bagpipes. With these instruments, I've been involved in a diverse array of projects and ensembles.

I play for the most part now, instruments I have invented myself. The main ones are the Lindsay System Chanter - a Scottish Smallpipes chanter, which I've enabled to exceed the usual range of 9 notes. The new range extends beyond two octaves, and although naturally still focused around a tonal centre, in this case 'A' 440Hz, the scale steps have been filled in to give 12 steps to the octave through most of the chanter's range - soon to be all of its working range, if the design of a new reed by a Glasgow reed maker proves to be successful. Current projects include a design that allows easy selection between, and a much wider choice of, drone pitches, and a system to allow the chanter to be readily tempered to any pitch of drone once selected.

Amongst the other instruments I've been working on, is the Qwistle. The Qwistle is based on a traditional penny whistle, but can be adapted to provide any scale required, and modified in a wide range of different ways - the majority of which have only begun to be explored at the time of writing. The range of the Qwistle is also two octaves beginning on a 'D', and within that range, the basic scale of the two instruments is remarkably similar.

I also play the guitar - a 12 string, strung in unison courses, and a fretless 6 string acoustic. Both are usually tuned to DADGAD, and I tend to play melodies against a drone on them (the fretless allows for better intonation in relation to the drone).

For regular updates, particularly about my work with musical instruments, follow ;

www.twitter.com/donaldlindsay

Or if you're interested in reading in more depth about the instruments I'm developing, or in purchasing those that are ready to play, such as the Qwistle, and the Lindsay System Chanter, then you can try ;

www.lindstruments.com

Alasdair Roberts

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