306 MARCH 20 – Gryffe Advertizer

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Next deadline - Wednesday 11th MarchGryffe Advertizer | www.advertizer.co.ukLochwinnochThe Lochwinnoch Festival is in its 19th year. Thebrainchild of Lochwinnoch residents, Morag Thowand Rowena Murray, it has grown from being anafternoon book festival involving a few local authorsto a three-week, multi-art event that is well-knownthroughout Renfrewshire. We discuss beginnings...“Well, it started 19 years ago as a small afternoonbook event in the village hall because there werequite a few authors in the village....It grew tobe a weekend, then a long weekend... Then twoweekends, then we joined the bit in the middle!”The village certainly has more than its fair shareof artistic residents. From much celebrated localpoet, Betty McKellar to Edinburgh Festival star,Alan Bisset and award-winning writer, Kirsten Innisand many more besides - there’s a thriving creativescene.Q. What makes the festival different from othersmall art festivals?We are more ‘multi-arts’ than a lot of other festivalsin the area. We’re probably the only arts festivalin the area that covers everything from visual art,performance, music and so on. And we really try tobe as inclusive as possible.Q. Why is it Important?We have an absolutely shambolic public transportsystem. We’ve one tiny wee bus that takes peopleto Johnstone Train Station and that is it. Butdisadvantaged people, OAPs, low income people,they can’t get to Paisley, or to Glasgow – even thelast train means you’d have to miss half your show.We run it because it allows people here to have abit of a binge of lots of different kinds of art. Wekeep the prices as low as we can, so people can goto multiple events.Q. Do you have any top tips for the festival?Christine Bovill is coming back – she’s lovely andsuch a phenomenal performer. Also The RoseRoom, who have been with us five years in a row- a fantastic act. Melanie Read is with us too - awonderful writer. She had a horse riding accidenta few years ago, leaving her paralysed, and nowwrites the ‘Spinal Column’ for The Times. She hasbecome a real advocate for people with disabilities.Such a brave, inspiring girl.Q. Do you have a stand out moment from any ofthe festivals so far?Yes, Dougie Mclean about two years ago. Och it washilarious. He was just back from Australia playing,would you believe, at the Sydney Opera House inAustralia. And I introduced him saying “Here he is,Dougie Mclean! He’s come all the way from SydneyOpera House to Lochwinnoch Village Hall.Morag told me that Dougie had parked his motorhome in the village car park so after the gig theyall traversed to the Three Churches (pub) for more14Morag ThowCo-FounderI caught up with Morag to ask herabout the festival, how it started,her favourite moments and othervillage projects.“tellin’ old stories” and “singing songs!”The Festival tagline is “The Friendly Festival”and this certainly bears out. They treat theperformers as part of the village. They’re takenfor tea or invited out to the pub and made tofeel part of the community. Morag says:We’re apt to kinda adopt people!And this friendliness breeds loyalty from theperformers, many of whom keep returning.You get the feeling that making connectionsand linking up people and communities is whatmakes Morag tick. In 2018 Lochwinnoch becamea Dementia Friendly Village – a partnershipscheme which aims to include people withdementia in village life and also support carers– a direct result of The Lochwinnoch ArtsFestival.In 2017 the festival committee selectedAlzheimer’s Scotland as the beneficiary charityof the festival. Morag decided they could goone step further. Her hometown of Prestwickhad recently been given the title of DementiaFriendly Town. Using her connections she setLochwinnoch on the same path.It is interesting you are involved in linking upso many community projects...Ach, I taught in university and that was just partof our job – organising things! And the festivalhas a wonderful committee. All of them artisticin their own way.But I suppose a lot of it is linked to my interestin mental and social health. This is true of thearts festival too. We like having acts on in thepubs too – free of charge – which, again, isabout the community feeling connected withone another.Morag’s academic background is in cardiacrehabilitation. In addition to the festival andDementia Friendly Village, she, along withher colleague Liz, run the local HeartStartprogram, which aims to teach emergency lifesaving skills to the local community. Theyhave signed up over 800 people so far andare aiming for 1,000 (see page 18). This is awoman with many strings to her bow.With over 40 acts to choose from, TheLochwinnoch Arts Festival has gone fromstrength to strength. They now attract actsand artists from all over Scotland. Talentabounds, but there can be little doubt, aftermy discussion with Morag Thow, that a lot ofthe talent also resides behind the scenes!The festival runs from 6th - 29th Marchin various venues throughout the village.www.lochwinnochartsfestival.com.ukImage credit top left: Di Finn6TH - 13TH MARCHPhotography ExhibitionLibrary. FreeFRIDAY 13THFusioneersBowling club 7.30pm £8/£6Songs and Storiesin the Shop with Kirstin Innes andOuti Smith ReMode, 39 High Street£8/£6 BYOBSATURDAY 14THLaura Telford ExhibitionGolf Club 12 to 5pm freeHesu and ZubaGolf Club 7.30pm £8/£6Ragin’ TwilightThree Churches 9pm freeWEDNESDAY 18THOpening of Art ExhibitionLibrary 7pm By invitationTHURSDAY 19THChristine Bovill Paris ShowMcKillop 7.30pm £10/£8FRIDAY 20TH - FRIDAY 27THArt ExhibitionLibrary hours freeFRIDAY 20THMoira MonologuesMcKillop 7.30pm £10/£8Calder Church ProductionCalder Church DonationBilly HampsonCorner Bar 9pm freeJohn Hinshelwood BandBrown Bull 9pm freeSATURDAY 21STAll day Craft FairMcKillop 11am to 4pm freeTravelling GalleryMcKillop 10am to 4pm freeRose Room & John GoldieMcKillop 7.30pm £10/£8Sean MiddletonCorner Bar 9pm freeSUNDAY 22NDLargs Gaelic Choir, LochwinnochBop Choir and RenfrewshireCommunity Gospel ChoirParish Church £8/£6Call For Artists!Lochwinnoch Arts Festival2020 Art Exhibition will runfrom Wednesday 18th March toSaturday 28th March.They are on the look out forartists to exhibit. Optionaltheme this year is Coasts andWater.Submission forms andinformation for exhibitors canbe downloaded from the website and forms must be returnedby 28th February.Contact Gill Bell: 07761 172726.
e: info@advertizer.co.uk | t: 01505 613340 March 2020Arts FestivalMONDAY 23RDLocal Writers and BrianWhittingham the TannahillMakar of RenfrewshireLibrary 2.15pm DonationSing for St VincentsCalder Church 7.30pm DonationTUESDAY 24THGilbert & Sullivan and OperettaNightParish Church 7.30pm £8/£6WEDNESDAY 25THGlasgow Theatre GuildParish Church 7.30pm £8/£6THURSDAY 26THWitches’ Brew at ROARMcKillop 1pm freeDrama The West Island WayMcKillop 7.30pm £7/£5FRIDAY 27THVillage Live NightLochbarr 7.30pm freeDrama The West Island WayMcKillop 7.30pm £7/£5SATURDAY 28THAll day AuthorsDiarmid MacArthur McKillop 10.30am -11.30am £6/£4Corinne Hutton, Peter Aitchison,Louise Turner, Rowena Murray, VanessaCollingridge, George Walker, JackHastie, McNicol and Jackson & BettyMcKellar A chance to meet our localauthors at this event.McKillop 11.30am to 12.30pm and1.30pm to 2.30pm freeMelanie Reid McKillop 12.30pm - 1.30pm£6/£4Rock and Roll McKillop 7.30pm £10/£8SUNDAY 29THScone DayMcKillop 11am to 5pmWorldSconeMaking@gmail.comCome and Try PotteryMcKillop 10am to 4pm £5Fiddle WorkshopMcKillop 10am to 12noon £5Accordion WorkshopMcKillop 1.30pm - 3.30pm £5Janey GodleyMcKillop 7.30pm £15christine bovillChristine answers the phone with awonderfully husky voice. One thatwould not be out of place, you’dimagine, in the jazz music halls of 1920sParis. An era to which she is inexorablydrawn...Her show ‘Christine Bovill’s Piaf’ garnered aswathe of five star reviews. In 2017 she pickedup ‘The Spirit of the Fringe Award’ for her nextshow, ‘Christine Bovill’s Paris’ and it is this onethat she will bring to the Lochwinnoch ArtsFestival this March. We caught up with Christinethis month for a quick chat...Q. You seem very drawn musically to thisera. What is it about this time and place thatinspires you?It was an old family friend, knowing of mylove for old music, who suggested I listen to arecord. I was 14 and the record was Edith Piaf.This was where it all began. I started to listento more and more. I loved the Paris scene; I justfell in love with the music. But I HATED French.I loathed it at school! This story is actually ahuge part of the Piaf show.It wasn’t just the music, you see, I becameobsessed with the language and culture. Thisalbum just opened a whole world to me; theworld of Paris that I wanted to inhabit. It mademe obsessively try to understand the occasionalword or phrase and then kind of in spite ofmyself, I just started working harder and harderat French at school and I ended up doing adegree in French... and I err became a Frenchteacher! [Que more wonderful laughing]You might be forgiven for thinking that ChristineBovill’s Piaf is some sort of impersonation, butas Christine explains:It makes it tricky sometimes, people think I’mgonnae don a wig and little black dress and goon as Piaf, but it’s not that at all! I pay homageto her, but it’s my story really.Her Piaf show evolved out of a mistake. Everynight she brought musicography notes onstage, however, one night when she wentto grab them she realised what she had in factbrought along were the driving directions to thegig. She says triumphantly,From that moment on, it kinda steered with its ownsoul.People who are Piaf fans know her life story, yousee. What is more interesting is what she means tome and how a girl from Glasgow is up there doinga show in French. So I just decided to tell my storythat night and it took off from there.The Paris show that we’re doing in Lochwinnochis similar. We’re talking about the era and aboutthese icons. Jacques Brel, Charles Trenet, Piaf andothers. I deliberately choose songs that were bighits in both English and French.Q. Do you see any similarities between teachingand your current career as a performer andsongwriter?You give all your creative energy away when you’reteaching, so juggling the two meant I had nothing leftto channel into my singing. But there is a huge partof ‘performing’ when you are dealing with ‘spirited’kids high school aged kids in Glasgow. They don’twant to speak to you in English nevermind French!Having watched many youtube clips of Christinenow, I can fully assert that knowing French is not aprerequisite for these shows. Just as she was movedemotionally as a 14-year-old, listing to her icon,Piaf, you cannot fail to be moved when watchingChristine. She has the ability to communicate withthe audience through her incredible voice whichsomehow transcends language to the very heartof a song. Not to be missed.Christine Bovill’s Paris is on at the McKillop Centreon Thursday 19th March.15
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306 MARCH 20 – Gryffe Advertizer

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