We need your help!

BBC ALBA is a digital TV channel broadcasting Gaelic programmes daily and programming includes news, Scottish sport, music, factual, children’s and entertainment programmes.

BBC ALBA is available on digital satellite. It will be available on digital cable in due course but Freeview carriage isn’t coming, and the BBC Trust have promised to review the situation in 2010.

While large portions of the outlying Scottish islands still can’t get Freeview those who can and have invested in Freeview are being told they need to make alternative arrangements to see BBC Alba.

And the BBC think this is acceptable.

Help get this story known, join the group, make the BBC see that this isn’t an acceptable situation!

Please

  • Follow this link and fill in the online review process to tell the BBC Trust what you think about the matter
  • Use the text below to email or post a letter to the BBC Trust
  • If you’re on Facebook please join the group Get BBC Alba on Freeview, and post links to the review on any social networking sites you are using
  • PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN!

WRITE TO THEM!
It’s not enough just to fill in in the online review. Show them how important this is by copying the following text into an email or letter and sending it to:
BBC Trust (BBC ALBA review), 180 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5QZ or trust.consultations@bbc.co.uk

RE: BBC ALBA REVIEW
PUBLIC CONSULTATION OCTOBER 2009
(Closing date 18 January 2010)

To Whom it may concern,

I call on the BBC Trust to support BBC ALBA by transmitting the Channel on Freeview.

The Channel is vital to the future of the Gaelic language and BBC ALBA has met all the conditions set out by the BBC Trust since it first started broadcasting in September 2008. This is despite Gaelic speaking license payers being compelled to pay an expensive additional charge to access their indigenous British language on the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Broadcasting BBC Alba on Freeview would enrich the diversity of programming available on Freeview and make the channel far more available to many more viewers.

Beò ann an dòchas,

end.

GASD
s10 Shell Street
Stornoway, HS1 2BS

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Thank you for your time and effort.

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Sincerely,

Kirstie Anderson
GASD

Hebridean Celtic Festival – Sùil air Ais New Year’s Day @ 20.45 BBC ALBA

Hebridean Celtic Festival – Sùil air Ais
New Year’s Day @ 20.45
A look back at the Heb Celt Festival – recently voted the Event of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2009. The programme includes sets from the Megantic Outlaw performance with Calum Martin and band, accompanied by daughter Isobel and also features one of the most exciting young Scottish bands emerging onto the Celtic music scene, Face the West.

Alasdair White ,Alasdair’s website.

Alasdair White Alasdair’s website has been updated visit it at www.alasdairwhite.com

http://www.alasdairwhite.com/Alasdair_White/Home.html

Alasdair White is a Scottish fiddle player from the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. For those fiddle enthusiasts among you, he plays in what might be called a “North-west” Scottish fiddle style, heavily derived from the Hebridean Gaelic and piping traditions. For those that just love good music, then Alasdair’s playing and tune making offer a privileged panorama of the exciting traditional music of Scotland today.

He is already well known as Battlefield Band’s virtuoso fiddle player, joining the band in 2001

In these past years, his musicianship and writing have had a great influence on Battlefield Band’s repertoire and continuing success, and playing with them has given him the wider audience that his music deserves.

Having been highly regarded and talked about since his early teens, An Clàr Geal (his first solo album) was released in 2006 to great critical acclaim: “A thoughtful and stylish album” (- Scotland on Sunday.) It also won an American IMA for best world traditional album.

“The best thing to come out of Lewis since Charles Macleod’s black pudding.” – Rob Adams

Alasdair lives in Edinburgh

PATSY REID’S NEWS

PATSY REID’S NEWS
November ’09

Hello there! Just a short update with some of my news. Feel free to unsubscribe- I wont be offended!


Scots Trad Awards Nomination 2009
I am delighted to have been nominated for Best Instrumentalist at the Scots Trad Music Awards 2009! The Awards will take place in Dumfries on the 28th November 2009. For more information and to vote, please visit:  http://www.handsupfortrad.co.uk/tradmusicawards


Breabach Tune Up Tour 2010
In 2010, Breabach will be joining forces with the mighty Le Vent du Nord for a short tour of Scotland.
Here are the dates:

28th January – Celtic Connections, Strathclyde Suite, GRCH
2nd February – The Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline
3rd February – The Queens Hall, Edinburgh
4th February – Aberdeen Music Hall
5th February – The Universal Hall, Findhorn
6th February – The Eastgate Arts Centre, Peebles

For more information about Breabach please visit http://www.breabach.com

Bridging the Gap News
I’m also very excited to announce I will be touring Bridging the Gap next year and will keep you posted with the finer details.
As usual the album is available to buy on my website http://www.patsyreid.com

‘Patsy has succeeded in creating an attractive fusion of Scottish traditional and classical music where other, more experienced names have been unable to deliver. It doesn’t just ‘bridge the gap’ – it lays down a sparkling tapestry between the two genres.’ Irish World Review

‘This is an astonishingly good CD….her three-movement fiddle concerto is a total triumph….essentially an excellent recording of contemporary Scottish fiddle.
Patsy Reid has done a perfect job of weaving all these strands into one cloth, giving us great width without compromising on quality.’ Alex Monaghan
Well that’s about all for now, thanks for taking the time to read this wee newsletter and please keep in touch and up to date with me via the website.
Hope to see you soon,

Patsy x