f28 H
arpist Ruth Wall’s heritage is also drenched in classical music although, growing up in the Highlands also introduced her to a lot of old airs and
Gaelic tunes. She studied piano at college and then began to concentrate on the harp and is reluctant to assign too many labels to her playing.
“I’m intrinsically classical but am happy to move into other camps. Music is music to me and I learn techniques from different places and incorporate them into what I do. I learn from everyone. I’ve a great interest in Highland music and ornamentation and when I write I often use that as a starting point and often pop bits in from there.”
One of those bits is a smidgeon of left- field-indie-dance-rockery, absorbed during a year on the road with the wonderful elec- tro act Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory. A year that had a big impact on her and even required her to play synth.
“That was great. I underestimated what was involved. I was working with great play- ers with great ears who were finely attuned to different types of sounds. Very rhythmi- cally tight. That tour was brilliant fun.”
You didn’t feel disorientated playing pop music?
“No. By the time they brought me in to work on some sessions they already had a strong idea what they wanted, much in the same way Kathryn does. They are not wing- ing it, ever. Everything is note perfect. It’s always about the ear and listening to which textures are working and knowing when it gets too heavy.”
Grainger Prom I thought everything you guys were doing was more interesting than what I was doing. I didn’t even really know what folk music was. It was a new sound world, a new experience.”
Not, she adds hastily, that she has for- saken classical music to become a folkie. “I’m really classical. I still am. I haven’t left that world to join this one. It’s not about me being a folk cellist. I’m not. I don’t even know what folk cello means. I don’t do any- thing differently to the way I normally play. I still practise for hours every day and I’m still putting the same fingers down in the same places. I still have to be completely in shape when we do this. I need to feel as free as I can on stage and to get to that point I have to be on top of my game. I don’t drink any more coffee, I don’t change anything about the way I play and I still get that ner- vous bottom of the stomach thing the way I do when I’m going to play a concerto. The music, though, is very different.”
The differences are manifold. For one
she’s not used to microphones, meaning she can use less force with her right hand bow- ing. There are also long periods of inactivity in an orchestra while other sections are to the fore, but she’s playing pretty much all the time with The Side. Audience interaction also came as a shock.
“Initially I wasn’t happy about people clapping along. They don’t do that when you’re playing Beethoven Five! But it’s all about the audience’s enjoyment… and ours.
If they want to do that, great, I get it. And if they want to whoop when Amy clogs, then great. I whoop too when Amy clogs. There’s a lot more interaction than when you’re in an orchestra playing The Rites Of Spring.”
There is a perception that classical musi- cians look down their noses at folk music.
“Unfortunately that is true to a certain extent. People appreciate it and under- stand it is a different art form but they’ve no idea how you get from playing a Beethoven symphony to sitting on stage playing with a folk group.”
She maintains a solicitous eye on Twiglet, her beloved cello who, quite properly, gets its own seat in the café as befits an instru- ment that’s something of a celebrity in its own right. “He’s like an errant child,” says Louisa. “He has his own seat at restaurants and everything.”
“It’s a very different discipline to the way I’m used to playing,” Louisa is saying. “But it’s about believing in what you are doing. It’s not about thinking about phras- ing or bowing. It’s about having focus and being able to give more than a hundred percent. There’s no satisfaction without that. The point is I’m playing with three great musicians and it’s about getting to a place where you put the music first and it doesn’t really matter what that is. I just have a different knowledge. And now I get to do cello spins and I don’t have to wear all black. I like to put on a bit of colour… now I wear purple shoes!”
An avowed pipe obsessive, Ruth was already familiar with Tickell’s work when she came calling so the offer to team up with her in The Side was a no-brainer. “I’ve always had a passion for pipes so I jumped at the chance. And playing with Amy, too, is incredible.”
Amy Thatcher was just twelve, playing with the Fosbrooks when she first met Kathryn and had regularly deputised when- ever one of the boys in the Tickell band went on paternity leave, which was apparently quite frequently.
“I have no family history in the music, it was all from one school in Stockport and one teacher at that school, Liza Austin Strange, who was interested in folk music and she’s been inspiring people to play for over 30 years.”
The Side even teamed up with the cur- rent incarnation of the Fosbrooks to play together at last summer’s Sidmouth Festival, going on stage together – much to the astonishment of Louisa and Ruth – without the benefit of a single rehearsal. “It’ll be fine,” said Kathryn. “It’ll be fine,” said Amy. And of course it was.
“They still wear the same costumes,”
says Amy. “I sewed on some of the embroi- dery. Black velvet skirts with red ribbons. It’s just normal kids from a non-folk back- ground. That’s where I learned clog danc- ing. I played piano then but decided to learn accordeon and I played a bit of fid- dle as well.”
Consequently, her primary accordeon influences are people who came along to the Fosbrooks for workshops and tutoring… the likes of Karen Tweed and Finnish player Maria Kalaniemi.
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