Horizons, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow

3/5

The musical talent of these islands deserves more concerts like this, with an outstanding line-up of Karine Polwart, Lewis and Leigh, Nell Ni Chroinin, Macanta, Declan O’Rourke, Damien O’Kane and Kate Rusby representing artists from all the countries of the British Isles.

While media interest in Horizons — part of the Celtic Connections festival — was important and welcome, the concert was marred by the demands of the three TV companies filming the event.

The disruption to the artists and increasing delays were an unfortunate intrusion in a line-up already full to bursting. Five top class acts are a lot to cram into an evening which stretched out to four-and-a-half hours.

That, and the weather, meant that Kate Rusby came onstage to a number of empty seats and a decimated balcony.

A pity, because hers was a powerful set which demonstrated that her voice is much stronger than it sometimes appears on record.

She and husband Damien O’Kane shared the same band for their two sets, an arrangement that might have also helped cut delays and unite the different strands in the concert.

For all the strength of the performers, and their undoubted talent, Horizons needed something to pull it together and Karine Polwart (pictured) provided that with a set that ranged from Tinsel Show, evoking the lights of the Grangemouth oil refinery, to a nod forward to the forthcoming Ewan MacColl tribute with a version of his daughter Kirsty’s New England.

Declan O’Rourke also set the scalp tingling with Children of ’16, a tribute to the unrecognised 40 children killed in the crossfire of the Dublin Easter Rising in 1916.

Al Lewis fared best when joined by Alva Leigh, who brought a new dimension to his performance, and Damien O’Kane’s truncated set contained some gems. It would have been great to see them contribute to a more coherent theme.

Chris Bartter