Battlefield Band

Battlefield Band

Battlefield Band is a Scottish traditional music group from Glasgow, active since 1969. The group plays folk and Celtic music, combining traditional material with its own compositions and occasional versions of songs from other popular traditions.

Style and repertoire

The band’s music centres on Scottish traditional songs and tunes, alongside modern compositions, including original pieces. Its repertoire also includes carefully researched older Scottish material, and its songs often cover drinking, friendship, hard times, history, geography and politics. The group also uses electric keyboards, which is unusual in a mainly instrumental traditional setting, and its line-ups do not include percussion.

Line-ups and members

Brian McNeill and Alan Reid help shape the group’s later sound, with Jenny Clark joining on vocals, guitar, cittern and dulcimer, and Duncan MacGillivray on pipes and whistle. A later line-up includes Dougie Pincock on bagpipes, along with Jim and Sylvia Barnes, Alan Reid on vocals and electric keyboards, and Brian MacNeill on fiddle. Alan Reid remains a constant member. Other members associated with the group include Iain MacDonald, John McCusker, Davy Steele, Rob van Sante, Karine Polwart, Alasdair White, Sean O'Donnell, Ewan Henderson, Jamie McMenemy, Brian McNeill, Jenny Clark and Ged Foley.

Recording highlights

The band records across a long period of activity, and its 1979 album Stand Easy is described as one of its strongest releases. The group’s recordings also continue to feature revived Scottish songs and tunes alongside newer compositions.

Instrumentation

Battlefield Band is notable for its use of multiple traditional instruments. Members play bagpipes, small pipes, whistles, fiddle, banjo, bouzouki, guitar, cittern, dulcimer, bodhrán and keyboards, with bagpipers appearing in every line-up and sometimes two at once.