Please click here to download a pdf copy of the December 2023 Newsletter
Dear PCAA Members and Friends,
The onset of seasonal weather this last week put me in the right mood for festive preparations! I made our Christmas cake, and we brought down the Christmas decorations from the attic. I hope that users of room 1 users in the two week run-up to the Christmas Closure will enjoy the little bit of seasonal greenery around the fireplace that Dave & I put up at the weekend!
Christmas Closure
The Arts Centre will close at 3:30pm on Friday 15th December, and will re-open on Monday 8th January. During the closure, café coop volunteers and friends will be working to decorate and brighten up the café and kitchen spaces.
Volunteering Opportunity for someone with Social Media Skills
The PCAA committee is looking for a volunteer with Social Media skills, maybe a young person or a newly retired person, wanting to help out in the community. The task involved is to promote our events on Social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). Images, posters and text will be provided, as well as a schedule for each event. The volunteer must be completely reliable and work with the Arts Association’s dedicated volunteer management team.
Interested? Please email penicuikarts.org@gmail.com.
Art Exhibition “What I did on my holidays”
Dave Owen will be exhibiting new work in January & February 2024. The preview will be on Sunday 7th January 2024 2 – 4pm. It’s free, everyone is welcome, and there’s absolutely no obligation to buy anything.
Dates to note
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Friday 8th December 7.30 – 9.30 pm: Storytelling Club at the Arts Centre. £5/£3 pay less. Tickets from the West Street Arts Centre café or online https://www.penicuikarts.org/shop/
The club will be hosted by Ruth Kirkpatrick, with special guest Roni Fairweather. Ruth is brilliant, and Ronni is a hoot! Another wonderful, cosy evening, warmed by our old fashioned coal fire. Not to be missed.
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Saturday 9th December 10.00 am – 2.45 pm: Ruth Kirkpatrick’s storytelling workshop. £30/£10 pay less. Numbers are strictly limited so please book in advance by email (penicuikarts.org@gmail.com) or by text (0781 505 2929). This is for anyone interested in storytelling, and Ruth is a marvellous workshop leader! No pressure to do anything – come to just listen and learn if you prefer.
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Sunday 7th January 2.00 – 4.00 pm: Free preview of Dave Owen’s Café-gallery exhibition. West Street Arts Centre. All welcome.
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Friday 26th January 7:30pm: JKL Duo (Guitar & Flute) inspired by Burns. £15/£10 (pay less). Come and enjoy this evening of wonderful music from guitarist Jacopo Lazzaretti and flautist Kerry Lynch. Do come and take up the opportunity of hearing LIVE music of the very highest quality on a cold winter’s evening in our cosy venue.
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Saturday 27th January 3.00 – 5.00 pm: Story Swap at the Arts Centre. £3. Numbers are strictly limited so please book in advance by email (penicuikarts.org@gmail.com) or by text (0781 505 2929). A gentle group for learning from each other, practicing our storytelling, and discussing different aspects of storytelling. No pressure to do anything – come to just listen, learn and enjoy if you prefer.
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Hope to see you at one or more of our events soon!
Please continue reading below the posters for news of the PCAA calendar 2024 pre-Christmas sale, the Arts Centre café, a performance from the Two Moronnies, a Folk Club Concert, and why we’re congratulating Brian Miller!
Best wishes!
Sue
PCAA Calendar 2024 – PRE-CHRISTMAS SALE!
PCAA Calendar sales have been disappointingly low, perhaps due to competition from other local calendars, and perhaps due to the need to tighten our financial belts.
In order to recover some of the printing costs, we’re now offering them at cost price £10 from the Arts Centre café, from the Storehouse and online (https://www.penicuikarts.org/shop/). It’s a beautiful calendar and will make a lovely Christmas gift.
PCAA Café news
The café and Arts Centre building will close for the Christmas break at 3:30pm on Friday 15th December. It will re-open again on Monday 8th January 10am.
Current café opening times: Monday – Friday 10am to 3:30pm
Cafe Opening times after Christmas and New year
Monday – Friday 10am – 3pm
Our community and neighbours
The Two Moronnies – Tim Wilcock and Les Morss – are delighted to announce that they will once more be presenting a live show in Carlops Village Hall – Saturday 9th December at 7.30pm. Expect our familiar mix of satire, cabaret and old favourite songs and sketches. Entry is free, but please contact either Les – lesmorss@carlops.net or Tim -tdj.wilcock@gmail.com to reserve places. Alan Ferguson will be on piano, and we’ll be joined by special guests Caroline Gold and Chris Brown. Donations will be taken in support of the Eastgate Theatre, Peebles. They are very popular and anticipate a sell-out.
Penicuik Folk Club present a fab concert on Tuesday 12th December 8pm at the Shottstown Miners Club. Just turn up and pay on the door! A great evening of song guaranteed.
Congratulations BRIAN MILLER!
Brian has been involved with the Arts Association since it first started more than 45 years ago. He is currently a PCAA committee member, helping with events and publicity. He’s also a dark horse! We recently discovered that he has been inducted into the “Hands up for Trad” Hall of Fame. He one one of seven honoured for services to folk music performance. His musical biography on the https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/ website makes astonishing reading
“Brian Miller is a renowned Scottish folk musician who has made significant contributions to preserving and promoting traditional music over his decades-long career. Miller was not exposed to Scottish folk music early in life, but his mother was a classical pianist. At age 15 after moving from Edinburgh to Rutherglen, he joined the school’s Ballads Club run by experts Adam McNaughtan and Ian Davison (who taught him fingerstyle guitar basics).
Miller was inspired by 1960s guitarists like Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Paul Simon as well as Scottish folk bands and singers like the Corries, the Clutha, and Gordeanna MacCulloch. At university, he met Davey Stewart and Artie Trezise and joined their ensemble The Great Fife Road Show. In Glasgow, he met Arthur Johnstone and later joined The Laggan.”
Over his prolific career, Miller has played with seminal folk acts like The Laggan, Swan Arcade, The Singing Kettle, Mirk, Barbara Dickson, The Battlefield Band and more. He also collaborated with renowned artists like Tom Paxton, fiddler Charlie Soane, and singer Siobhan Miller. Miller ran the Penicuik Folk Club and Festival for years and has served as Treasurer for the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland.
Miller is proud to have been selected to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival’s celebrations of northeast folk music and of political song. He was chosen by Jean Redpath for her STV masterclass on singing styles. A memorable highlight was to be involved, along with his daughter Siobhan, in Ian McCalman’s Far, Far from Ypres, showcasing songs and stories of Scots soldiers in WW1. Finishing the 2018 tour in the Usher Hall on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice was an unforgettable experience.
Since 2010, Brian Miller has hosted a weekly folk music radio show on Black Diamond FM community radio station. Miller’s decades of work promoting Scottish folk music through performance, radio, and mentorship have showcased the tradition for new generations. His induction into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame honours his pivotal role preserving and sharing this cultural heritage and Brian is honoured to be mentioned among so many legendary tradition carriers, many of whom became or remain his close friends.
In the photograph below left – Brian Miller with Ruth Crouch (left) and Kirsteen Miller (right) at the Hands Up for Trad Hall of Fame Induction ceremony.
In the photograph below right – Brian’s Hall of Fame trophy made from whisky barrel oak.
That’s all for now! The PCAA committee wishes you a very happy, peaceful and healthy Festive Season.