Capital folk club goes online to raise cash for the Paddy Bort Fund

On June 10, Edinburgh Folk Club launched Carry on Streamin, its response to the gap in live performance left by the COVID-19 measures, and a fund-raiser to help performers of traditional music in Scotland who have lost their incomes.
Andy Smith, chairman of Kelso Folk and Live Music Club performs an acoustic instrumental version of Sting's Fields of Gold on the video.Andy Smith, chairman of Kelso Folk and Live Music Club performs an acoustic instrumental version of Sting's Fields of Gold on the video.
Andy Smith, chairman of Kelso Folk and Live Music Club performs an acoustic instrumental version of Sting's Fields of Gold on the video.

The club has a lot of fans in the Borders, and local artists and folk fanatics alike are regular attendees.

Carry on Streamin will offer a 20-30 minute YouTube performance, including numbers by featured folk acts and some footage from the archives. Linked to the performance will be a downloadable newsletter with articles, reviews, guitar tablature and news from the folk world around the country and abroad.

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For instance, in the first video, online now at www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRFa932D5z4, Andy Smith, chairman of Kelso Folk and Live Music Club, plays a haunting acoustic version of Sting’s Fields of Gold – and also provides a print version of how to play it for aspiring bedroom-guitarists.

Also featuring in the first video are Bob Fox, Nuala Kennedy, Jim and Susie Malcolm, Steve Tilston, The Squirrel Hillbillies (USA) and the Wendy Weatherby Band.

The goal of this endeavour is to raise £10,000 for the Paddy Bort Fund – named adter the late Paddy (Eberhard) Bort, former chairman of Edinburgh Folk Club, who died suddenly and prematurely on 17 February 2017.

A larger-than-life character, Paddy, who arrived from Germany in 1995, was passionately dedicated to the traditional music of Scotland and Ireland.

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A lecturer in politics at the University of Edinburgh, he was academic co-ordinator of the Parliamentary Interns programme at the university’s Academy of Government.

Eberhard "Paddy" Bort, folk musician. Photo: Allan McMillanEberhard "Paddy" Bort, folk musician. Photo: Allan McMillan
Eberhard "Paddy" Bort, folk musician. Photo: Allan McMillan

He campaigned through his writing and through initiatives such as the Scottish Rural Parliament and Nordic Horizons for the improvement in local democracy.

For Paddy, this professional activity ran seamlessly into his equally-committed campaigning to keep alive the folk tradition, on which he was equally learned.

After his death, his colleagues in the Edinburgh Folk Club discovered he had quietly put his hand in his own pocket to promote his passion, so it is apt that the legacy fund should bear his name.

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The fund is, therefore, an appropriate tribute to a man who left the world of Scottish folk richer than he found it.

Since it was set up, the fund has disbursed small sums to help performers who find themselves in unforeseen crisis of the “an elephant sat on my guitar” type.

Things have just become a whole lot more serious, however, and the world of folk music is now in crisis, with touring performers losing their always modest incomes, and some of the small and remote venues, which are the life-blood of the traditional music tour, in danger of closing permanently.

Donations can be made on Paypal to www.paypal.me/edinburghfc

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