The Boys have established a reputation for technical brilliance and integrity in their performance of Irish and Scottish music. A ready wit and sense of fun enliven their onstage performance while their original arrangements and dynamic interactions between the two major strands of the Celtic tradition keep the music always bright and fresh. A hallmark of the band's approach has been their refusal to dilute their music with the addition of inappropriate vocalists or electric instruments or percussion. They prefer the natural tone colours of their acoustic instruments, traditionally played. Almost alone among Celtic groups they truly play "music that tastes of itself".

Since the first tour in 1967 the Boys have travelled extensively in their mission to gain traditional music a wider audience and respect. Their warm and vital performances have won them friends from the village halls of Scotland to international concert and festival stages. The television presentations of Aly Bain have taken the music to many more. The music of the Boys of the Lough ranges widely through the fiddle, flute, piping and vocal traditions of Ireland and encompasses the fiddle music of Aly Bain's native Shetland and also Scotland and North America.

Although sometimes melodically complex and difficult to play, the music remains at all times easily accessible to the listener through the compelling dance rhythms which give it such life. Contrast this with evocative slow airs and beautifully structured songs, some in the Irish language. Add the range of tone colours available from the band's acoustic instruments and it is easy to see the great appeal of their lively performances!

BIOGRAPHIES

ALY BAIN is probably the best-known and most significant fiddle-player in the Celtic tradition. Aly was born in Lerwick, Shetland in 1946 and grew up in the islands. He began playing the fiddle at the age of eleven, learning from Tom Anderson, the acknowledged master of Shetland traditional music. After several years playing locally in Shetland Aly headed south to mainland Scotland and life as a full-time musician. His dramatic playing, with great tone and technical ability, brought early recognition. Alert to the musical potential of dynamic interaction between the Irish and Scottish traditions Aly helped establish the Boys of the Lough and began a life of intensive playing, recording and travel that continues to this day.

Although his musical base is firmly in Scotland, his extensive travels have given Aly an appreciation and mastery of many kinds of fiddle music. He has applied this knowledge to the production, since 1986, of several networked television series featuring live performances of music from many traditions. He still finds time for solo engagements and also has released two highly acclaimed solo albums of fiddle music.

A firm believer in the future of the music, Aly recently worked with young Scottish musicians in a project culminating in the recording "Aly Bain and the Young Champions". In November 1994 he was awarded an M.B.E. for services to folk music. In July 1999 he was the recipient of an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

CATHAL McCONNELL, a founder-member of the band, is one of the best flute and whistle players in the Irish tradition and a greatly respected singer. His naturally relaxed and friendly stage presence allied to an air of bespectacled confusion endears him to audiences everywhere. Hailing from County Fermanagh, an area rich in musicians, Cathal can trace the flute back through four generations in his family.

By the time he was eleven years old he was playing the whistle, encouraged by his father and local teacher Peter Flannagan. At fifteen he took up the flute and in 1962, aged eighteen, became the all-Ireland champion on both instruments. Five years later he was touring with the newly formed Boys of the Lough.

Cathal holds in high regard the musicians of his own county such as John Joe McGuire, Eddie Duffy and Mick Hoy, and their influence can be detected in his playing. A recent television documentary highlighted these connections. His extensive repertoire of song embraces long ballads and serious pieces as well as some of the more humorous items, often preceded by introductions of mirthful complexity. A real enthusiast and possessing great kindness and humanity Cathal always has the time of day to explain and demonstrate the music to others. With several solo CD titles to his credit he has recently recorded a new one in New York.

DAVE RICHARDSON has been an integral part of the group since early in the seventies when he left behind him for ever research studies in molecular evolution. His steady, sympathetic playing on mandoline, cittern, English concertina, and lately the button accordion, provides a strong platform for the soloists and has made a significant contribution to the characteristic sound of the Boys. Dave is from Northumberland, the border country between England and Scotland.

He grew up in Wallsend-on-Tyne and in his mid-teens became aware of the rich musical heritage of the area. Beginning by learning local Northumbrian pipe tunes on the tin whistle his interest led him to the traditions of people from Ireland and Scotland who had moved into the area to work and he began his involvement in the repertoire and instruments now featured in the band.

Along with Aly and Cathal, Dave has contributed to the new tunes written by the group - several of which have been embraced with enthusiasm by other musicians. Dave's jig "Calliope House" is now among the recorded works of many well-known bands and features on over a million CD recordings. It currently is being performed in the stage show of the smash-hit dance production "Lord of the Dance". The jig also features in the video, with sales in excess of three million. In addition to his musical contribution Dave also attends to many of the management functions involved in the life and travels of a band. He finds a dry sense of humour invaluable in this area of his work.

NEW MUSICIANS

BRENDAN BEGLEY, a genial giant from the Dingle peninsula in Kerry, is a well-known and accomplished performer of Irish traditional music on the accordion. He has toured extensively at home and in Estonia, Finland, France and the USA. His previous work with the Boys includes an extended tour of the USA in 1989, concerts at the Edinburgh Festival and a special concert in Sweden this summer to celebrate the Boys 30th anniversary. He also took part in the Boys' tours in the UK and USA in autumn 1997.

Brendan has two solo CDs to his credit. The current one, "We won't go home 'til morning", released this August, has attracted excellent reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. His exciting dance music and sensitive emotional playing of slow airs on the button accordion together with his singing in Irish make him a great favourite with other traditional musicians. It is a great pleasure for the Boys to sit down and play music with him at every opportunity.

MALCOLM STITT is too young a guitarist to have yet accumulated a string of honours. They lie ahead of him. From near Fort William in the western Highlands of Scotland, Malcolm is part of the rising movement of very able younger musicians emerging from there, stamping their own mark on traditions well learned from the old masters of fiddle, pipes and song.

Like his respected contemporaries Alan and Ingrid Henderson and Iain MacFarlane (who joined the Boys in June to replace an injured Aly Bain), Malcolm has moved to the Lowlands for further musical study and to take on professional work, basing himself in Edinburgh. In addition to his guitar playing he also keeps firmly in touch with his roots through his playing on the Highland pipes. The Boys were glad to include him in their autumn tour in the UK in 1997. In January this year he joined the line-up again for the band's 30th anniversary concert at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, a great success. They look forward to many more concerts together. Malcolm has collaborated with the Boys on the recording this summer of their new CD.