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Ceilidh band ‘not Scottish enough’ wins case
An Aberdeenshire ceilidh band yesterday awarded a withheld £800 fee plus costs – after a court threw out claims its music was “not Scottish enough” for a Hogmanay gig. Ceilidh on the Breinnh took the Bancar Hotel at Lonmay to court, claiming the management had failed to pay the agreed £800 fee for the Hogmanay booking.
Following yesterday’s civil action victory at Peterhead Sheriff Court, the ceilidh band spoke of the booking that turned into their “gig from hell”. Band member Art Dickinson said they were happy with the court verdict, but were sorry it had to come to this.
“We have been vindicated in court. But I am still flabbergasted that the defence could stand up in court and claim that our music was ‘not Scottish enough’ for a Hogmanay gig we were booked for. It beggars belief that this can happen. It is amazing that this level of racism exists”.
However, hotel manager Tina Gibbons said last night many disappointed audience members had complained the band did not play traditional ceilidh music ant that is why they were only offered £300.
Mr Dickinson claimed he and the other three band members were subject to a Hogmanay tirade of taunts, jeering and obscenities when they played in the hotel near Fraserburgh.
The two-man and two-woman ceilidh band played on from 9pm-1.30am and claim they were then told by hotelier David Gibbons that he would not pay their £800 fee.
The four claimed they were offered £300, with host Mr Gibbons telling the performers he had received “a lot of complaints that the band was not Scottish enough”. Mr Dickinson said the band had flatly refused the £300, and had no option but t take the hotelier to court.
Ceilidh on the Breinnh had previously played for the annual dinner-dance of the Buchan Tennis League, staged at the Bancar last autumn. Mr Dickinson said “They were a cosmopolitan crowd and gave us a tremendous reception, and were never off the floor. It was after that the hotel booked us for their Hogmanay night, saying we had gone down so well. “On Hogmanay we played the same style of music, just the same programme. But it turned out to be our very own gig from hell”, said the keyboard player.
Over his twenty years on stage and the several years his latest band has been playing at functions across the North-East, he said he had never met such a hostile reception.
“It was simply because two of us were English,” he said, pointing out the audience had repeatedly jeered his and guitar player Dick Trickey’s accents. They joined Dick’s drummer wife Maggie – the couple, come from Ythanbank near Ellon – in vocals. Also on stage was 16 year old Fyvie fiddler Gemma Gall.
Mr Dickinson from Auchnagatt said he was subjected to anti-English comments and swearing from audience members. “To suddenly have your English accent thrown in your face – and I was being sworn and jeered at from a face 4in from mine – was a genuine shock. “These were not yobs. They were not drunk. This was an audience of middle-aged and well-dressed teuchters from Fraserburgh area”, said the countryside ranger for the Buchan area. “We have electric instruments and do rock-style music. Maybe they expected an accordion, a fiddle and snare drum. “But it was obviously our accents that really jarred. We were just too English, and they meant us to realise it.
“None of us could have believed such a racist reaction was possible. “People kept coming on stage to swear at us. We kept going because we had a job to do, and we just had to carry on. But it was very ugly, and it was an ordeal.” Last night Bancar Hotel manager Tina Gibbons said they had been inundated with complaints about the band. “When you go to a Hogmanay party to see a ceilidh band pretty much know what you’re going to hear. “But people were very disappointed with this band. They complained that it was not a traditional ceilidh music sound and you simply couldn’t dance to it.
“They were booked as entertainers, but they just didn’t entertain. That’s why we paid them the £300, because that’s what we felt that was all they had earned. But, at the end of the day the court’s definition of a ceilidh was different from ours.”
She declined to discuss the band’s claims that they had been suffered racial abuse from the 220-strong crowd. “I don’t want to be drawn into that kind of argument. I’m from England so it doesn’t really make sense.”
By Alistair Beaton & Jamie Buchan
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