South Korea
by Ian Thomson
B&F January 2006
When the call first came in, “Would you like to play at the St Andrews Ball in South Korea?”, there was only one answer. However, after some discussion with the rest of the band I found myself in need of both a keyboard player and fiddler, due to early motherhood, and impending fatherhood respectively. So we had to find replacements who would not only fit in musically and socially, but would have a similar sense of humour to the remaining three band members. The fiddle was easy; Willie Johnstone from Perth (originally Insch) was an obvious stand-in as he has successfully covered that role on a Shetland Festival trip, and a few other gigs. He was delighted to accept. The keyboard position was a much more difficult proposition, and after a few unsuccessful phone calls, I decided to ask Martin Henderson of The Cullivoe Band from Shetland, who was down playing for my wife’s 40th birthday party in June. He accepted immediately. The band was complete with the line-up being Mark Cummine on second accordion, Willie Johnstone on fiddle, Martin Henderson on keyboard, Stevie Mills on drums and myself on lead accordion.
We all met up at Edinburgh airport on the 16th November at midday, and the journey began. Our flights all went to schedule and we managed an upgrade to Business Class on the London to Hong Kong stage of the journey. So, having set out at midday on the Wednesday, we eventually landed in Seoul at 9pm on the Thursday, which was effectively 24 hours of traveling as Korean time is 9 hours ahead of UK. The first task was to board the correct bus with all the band gear and personnel and make the fifty minute journey to The Grand Hilton Hotel where we were to stay. We managed this successfully and were met at the hotel by the piper Donald Martin, who had traveled a few days earlier. Our accommodation was a four bedroom suite with excellent facilities; a fridge full of groceries which included a case of beer was most welcome. In fact, it was so welcome that only one can remained by the morning!
We were all up bright and early the next morning due to the jet-lag and not really knowing what time it was! Our first gig was at the local school, which was having a mini St Andrews Ball. The British and International schools had got together for this and the pupils had been practicing their set dances for months. The dancing commenced at 11am, with a break for lunch (haggis and sausages), and more set dances afterwards. The standard of dancing was superb; it was great to see almost 200 British and Korean kids dancing dances such as The Eightsome Reel, Hamilton House and The Reel of Seoul, which was devised by Gavin Mackay who is an ex-pat living in Seoul who runs the local sausage factory. We returned to our hotel just before 3pm, changed out of our kilts, and headed to downtown Seoul for some
sightseeing. Approximately 12 hours later we returned to the hotel with our sight slightly diminished due to most of the sights visited being local bars!
After a long lie in on the Saturday, we made our way to the Ballroom at the Hotel for a sound check, which went extremely well even though the sound engineer didn’t speak much English, and he had trouble understanding our accents (especially Martin’s Shetland brogue!) The ball commenced at 7pm with a champagne reception, followed by dinner. Now, it’s probably not the first time that a band has traveled to far-flung places and partaken in too much alcohol before they were due to play, so, to avoid this Mark was in charge of the drinking! The ball finishes at 4.30am with a champagne breakfast, so we had a long night ahead. I’m pleased to report that most band members were actually seen drinking water and just the odd alcoholic beverage before 3am, which was the agreed time after which the curfew was lifted. The tune and the ‘craic’ was excellent (from the band’s point of view anyway!) and when Auld Lang Syne was sung just after 4am, the band weren’t finished! After playing for a wee jig about the floor, the music kept coming until, after a few more sets dances and forty minutes later, we decided that the champagne breakfast could wait no longer. We tucked in to sausages and scrabbled eggs accompanied by whisky and champagne, at 5am, whilst mixing with the British Ambassador, and other such dignitaries. Finally, we returned to the suite, and after another couple of refreshments we retired at 8am, not before being entertained by Willie demonstrating his version of The Highland Fling (and almost falling out a window in the process).
Sunday was mostly spent recovering, but in the evening we had been invited to Gavin (the sausage man)’s sausage factory. He has a small restaurant attached to the factory, which also serves beer and wine, so we were persuaded. We took the instruments along for a tune and had a most enjoyable evening, eventually returning home at 3am.
Monday was the last day and time to make the long journey home, which was highlighted by an 8 hour stopover in Hong Kong. This allowed enough time to head into Kowloon and do some Christmas shopping; £2 for a ‘genuine imitation’ Rolex.
The Hong Kong to London flight was again upgraded to Business Class, so we arrived home the following day relatively relaxed after the long journey. My thanks goes to the band who without exception were well behaved when they had to be, and performed when required (musically!) to a high standard.
We all met up at Edinburgh airport on the 16th November at midday, and the journey began. Our flights all went to schedule and we managed an upgrade to Business Class on the London to Hong Kong stage of the journey. So, having set out at midday on the Wednesday, we eventually landed in Seoul at 9pm on the Thursday, which was effectively 24 hours of traveling as Korean time is 9 hours ahead of UK. The first task was to board the correct bus with all the band gear and personnel and make the fifty minute journey to The Grand Hilton Hotel where we were to stay. We managed this successfully and were met at the hotel by the piper Donald Martin, who had traveled a few days earlier. Our accommodation was a four bedroom suite with excellent facilities; a fridge full of groceries which included a case of beer was most welcome. In fact, it was so welcome that only one can remained by the morning!
We were all up bright and early the next morning due to the jet-lag and not really knowing what time it was! Our first gig was at the local school, which was having a mini St Andrews Ball. The British and International schools had got together for this and the pupils had been practicing their set dances for months. The dancing commenced at 11am, with a break for lunch (haggis and sausages), and more set dances afterwards. The standard of dancing was superb; it was great to see almost 200 British and Korean kids dancing dances such as The Eightsome Reel, Hamilton House and The Reel of Seoul, which was devised by Gavin Mackay who is an ex-pat living in Seoul who runs the local sausage factory. We returned to our hotel just before 3pm, changed out of our kilts, and headed to downtown Seoul for some
sightseeing. Approximately 12 hours later we returned to the hotel with our sight slightly diminished due to most of the sights visited being local bars!
After a long lie in on the Saturday, we made our way to the Ballroom at the Hotel for a sound check, which went extremely well even though the sound engineer didn’t speak much English, and he had trouble understanding our accents (especially Martin’s Shetland brogue!) The ball commenced at 7pm with a champagne reception, followed by dinner. Now, it’s probably not the first time that a band has traveled to far-flung places and partaken in too much alcohol before they were due to play, so, to avoid this Mark was in charge of the drinking! The ball finishes at 4.30am with a champagne breakfast, so we had a long night ahead. I’m pleased to report that most band members were actually seen drinking water and just the odd alcoholic beverage before 3am, which was the agreed time after which the curfew was lifted. The tune and the ‘craic’ was excellent (from the band’s point of view anyway!) and when Auld Lang Syne was sung just after 4am, the band weren’t finished! After playing for a wee jig about the floor, the music kept coming until, after a few more sets dances and forty minutes later, we decided that the champagne breakfast could wait no longer. We tucked in to sausages and scrabbled eggs accompanied by whisky and champagne, at 5am, whilst mixing with the British Ambassador, and other such dignitaries. Finally, we returned to the suite, and after another couple of refreshments we retired at 8am, not before being entertained by Willie demonstrating his version of The Highland Fling (and almost falling out a window in the process).
Sunday was mostly spent recovering, but in the evening we had been invited to Gavin (the sausage man)’s sausage factory. He has a small restaurant attached to the factory, which also serves beer and wine, so we were persuaded. We took the instruments along for a tune and had a most enjoyable evening, eventually returning home at 3am.
Monday was the last day and time to make the long journey home, which was highlighted by an 8 hour stopover in Hong Kong. This allowed enough time to head into Kowloon and do some Christmas shopping; £2 for a ‘genuine imitation’ Rolex.
The Hong Kong to London flight was again upgraded to Business Class, so we arrived home the following day relatively relaxed after the long journey. My thanks goes to the band who without exception were well behaved when they had to be, and performed when required (musically!) to a high standard.