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All Star Tribute to Gaeldom's Diva





Traditional

SOME of traditional music’s biggest stars will gather at Eden Court next week in tribute to Gaelic diva Ishbel MacAskill.

Originally from the Point area of Lewis Mrs MacAskill died following a fall at her home in the Lochardil area of Inverness at the end of March, aged 70.

Among those helping pay tribute to Mrs MacAskill at the memorial concert on Thursday are her fellow Gaelic singers Arthur Cormack and MacKenzie comprising sisters Eilidh, Fiona and Gillian, who are also Lewis natives.

Other leading names include singers Sheena Wellington and Elspeth Cowie, fiddler Duncan Chisholm and piper Dougie Pincock.

Pincock, director of the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music, is also acting as musical director for the concert, but the Plockton music school has another representative in the band Good Question, which features Mrs MacAskill’s grandson, Charlie Grey.

"It’s a combination of people getting in touch with me or direct with the family or suggestions from the family about people Ishbel sang with," Pincock explained.

Though the concert in Eden Court’s main Empire Theatre auditorium is free, tickets had to be booked in advance and the event was well on the way to being booked out by the start of this week.

Mrs MacAskill’s son Lewis said the family had found the response from both audience and performers to be very touching.

"We are absolutely overwhelmed, both from the initial flow of well-wishers and sympathy to the response to the concert," he commented.

"We’re really touched by the support that mum enjoyed though her career. As many people loved her for her personality and warmth as much as her singing and that is really coming through.

"Many people are coming and giving up their time to perform — friends of mums or people who have performed with her over the years and Dougie has been great in pulling it all together."

Though billed by the theatre as a memorial service, the tribute to the singer is unlikely to be a sombre affair.

"It’s a concert really," her son said.

"It’s going to be an evening of variety, Gaelic music and song. We’ve also got Irish poet Paddy Bushe, who mum got to know in Ireland, coming along as well, so there will be things like that. It will be an upbeat evening in the main."

The MacAskill family will also be well represented at the evening. In addition to widower Bill and the couple’s four children and nine grandchildren, a number of relations are attending from the Western Isles and further afield, with the family allocating between 40 and 50 tickets for friends and relations.

Though a late starter to public singing, making her debut at a fringe event at the 1979 Royal National Mod in her late 30s, she went on to become one of Gaeldom’s most respected singers, performing at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC and overseas locations from Cape Breton, to Sydney and Korea, as well as at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow.

On television she appeared as part of the all star line-up on the BBC’s "Transatlantic Sessions" alongside the likes of country stars Ricky Skaggs and Nancy Griffiths, and even tried her hand at acting as part of the cast of Lewis-filmed Gaelic soap opera "Machair".


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