Prestonpans Airts Burns Club Supper

There is a great wealth of talent coming out of the Prestonpans Airts Burns club these days. This was evident at the annual burns supper that took place on Saturday 27th January at the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club.

A handful of new members have given the club a new lease of life and with Ian giving the Immortal Memory and Billy and Gordon giving excellent renditions of some of burns classic works, it augers well for the future.

Another excellent speaker is Tom who gave the immortal memory in 2005, and on the musical side, Tony sang an played Ye banks and Braes and The Braes o' Killiecrankie-O (A big change from his days in the Panther rock band when Deep Purple was his favourite choice of song!).

It was a family affair for myself with my father-in-law Davie Jefferies being the honorary president of the club, Iain Jefferies being my brother in-law and my oldest son, Stephen Wilson attending the supper for the first time. (Stephen and his Grandpa Jeff pictured to the left).

I was asked along to sing Now Westlin' winds and Aye Waulkin' o, probably two of my favourite songs. Now Westlin' Winds is a beautifully crafted song that describes the tension between man and nature and also describes the joy felt by the young Robert Burns as he walks out with his Peggy dear on a beautiful autumn evening. The song is truly a work of art. Aye Waulin' o' is a sad song about a young woman who is unable to sleep for thinking of her estranged lover. I'm asked to sing all types of songs while entertaining in bars and also when playing at dances but these songs are my favourites.

As you may have guessed it was a very successful evening and I'm really looking forward to the next one.

Prestonpans Labour Party new year bottle party 2007

The annual new year bottle party took place in the Prestonpans Community Centre on Saturday 6th 2007. I think we must have been doing this gig for about twenty years.

The first one was in the Pans Town Hall, my mate Hessel organised a wee band featuring himself, Jimmy Currie, Hecker and myself. I remember it well, Jimmy walked in and I said,"What's in the case Jimmy, yur accordion?", to which he replied, "Naw! the carry oot". So of course we got wired into the bevy and played on until the police arrived and told us to stop at about 3am. The Town Hall is right next to the police station so that didn't help. But sense prevailed and the annual event was moved to the Community Centre and for many years the legendary bottle party carried on well into the next morning!

We've had many great bottle party gigs and this years was one of the better ones. The usual suspects got up to sing, Hessle, Colin T, Stuart and Davie, oh and the young woman who works in the Gothenburg but I can't remember her name, she was pretty good.

I was also very luck to be able to borrow Iain's 1965 custom powder blue Rickenbacker guitar for the gig.

What a joy to play and great sound and it looks so so cool! Thanks Iain.

New web site www.arthurwilson.info

Just completed a new web site called www.arthurwilson.info. I've built it using Mambo, the open source web content managment system. I've included details about gig/events, audio clips, new and old photographs etc.

Please visit and have a browse around. Also, please register for an account so that I can let you know about up and coming events and when I put up any content that I think may be of interest to you.

My main reason for building this site was so that I could share information about getting gigs, guitars equipment, songwriting and recording, so please pay me a visit and register.

Hogmanay gig

Don't normally play Hogmanay but Steven Cross at the Prestoungrange Gothenburg asked us and I thought, why not.

It was a sell-out and a champagne reception and meal at 7pm. We started playing at 8.30pm and had a really good sound. It was packed and the crowd were almost sitting on the stage.
People were up dancing from the start, the piper played in the New Year then we all sang "A Guid New Year" and "Auld Lang Syne". What a great night!

Hopefully we'll be asked back next year!

Have a look at my new web site www.arthurwilson.info

New guitar amp

Finally got fed up lugging aroung my 1984 Peavey bandit guitar amp. decided to get something light, not bothered what, as long as it was easy to carry.

Bought a Line 30watt with built-in effects and it is brill! I only use two sounds, a clean one with a touch of chorus and something with a wee bit distortion. I mic it up through the PA and get a great sound.

And it is as light as a feather!

Prestoungrange Gothenburg September weekend 2006

Prestoungrange Gothenburg, great pub!

The place was heaving' and I was a bit nervous as the majority of the crowed were below 25 and I wasn't sure if they like some of my set.

We were supposed to play from 9 until 11pm but Stevie asked us to start at 8pm. I was still at home but Stuart had started by the time I arrived. So I got tuned in and we started to play together.

We were using Stuart's PA, a Peavey amp with two Hi Sys speakers, not all the channels work properly and I had trouble getting a decent sound. We had mic-ed up the piano and there wasn't much space - fortunately we avoided the old mic - face basing routine that usually happens at these type of gigs.

I've been giving Stuart a bit of stick for singing the same boring songs, so it seems to have worked as he sang a lot of new songs including songs by The Arctic Monkeys, Kooks and the Zutons; well done the Treg!

I had planned some new songs but wasn't confident with them and it was not the type of gig for trying out new stuff, we had to keep it going, so we did our usual set, I sang "Crazy", "It must be love" etc. and Stuart did "That's entertainment," "Substitute" and the usual stuff and it went really well.

We finished at about 11.15pm and Stevie asked us to play another half hour so we did and "500 miles" went down a storm with the Hibies giving it lauldy after that afternoons results (Hibs 2, Rangers 1).

Stuart headed off to the dasher (another local pub) just before 12 and I shouted last orders and grabbed a much needed pint of Fowlers IPA and it was going down a treat when Margaret who was in my class a school asked me to sing "American Pie". I used to sing it as secondary school when it was first released in the early 70s so just for her I blasted out the full version. Well, they were up on the tables singing a long, I think I'll keep that one for the end next week. Oh, and I finished up with "Wake me up when September ends", I just love that song.

Catherine and I were invited to a party back at Brian's and I had a few beers and some Champaign. Felt great on Monday morning! A good gig!