News
Results 1-10 of 17 articles.
14th May 2013
UK Songwriting Festival 2013
For the second time, the UK Songwriting Festival is to be held in Scotland. From 11-17 August, songwriters will work intensively in the rural retreat that is Shennanton House. BURNSONG is delighted to be working with partners University of Bath Spa to offer this opportunity, and the Festival is lead by Joe Bennett, and a team of established writers. If you take a moment to read the blog from 2012, you'll get the flavour of the week .....
Follow this link for further information, and make an early booking -
http://www.uksongwritingfestival.com
15th Aug 2012
UK Songwriting Festival - Daily Blog
The UK Songwriting Festival is underway and participants are hard at work crafting new songs together.
You can keep track of their daily progress by checking out the SWF Blog, which is updated daily with articles and videos posted from the site at Shennanton House.
There are still tickets available for the Showcase events on Thursday and Friday nights - e-mail tickets@burnsong.org with all enquiries!
7th Jun 2012
The Gerry Rafferty Songwriting Prize
Burnsong, in association with Renfrewshire Council and The Year of Creative Scotland, is delighted to announce a song writing competition in memory of the talented and widely-respected Renfrewshire songwriter, Gerry Rafferty, who died last year.
The UK Songwriting Festival is an annual five-day residential intensive song-writing bootcamp, now in its 9th year, but held in Scotland for the first time in 2012.
From the 12-17th August, the winner will meet and work with other songwriters from around the UK at Shennaton House and receive mentoring from the distinguished tutors of Bath Spa University’s Songwriting Masters degree, as well as Ivor Novello-nominated Snow Patrol collaborator Iain Archer.
The winner will also be offered the opportunity to perform at two special shows on 16th & 17th August.
Burnsong Chair of Trustees, Ronald Gurr says: “It is a fitting legacy and will ensure that a new generation of local songwriters will get the best possible start to their professional creative career.”
The competition will be judged by Jim Gellatly (Clyde 1), Douglas T. Stewart (BMX Bandits) and Emma Gillespie (Emma's Imagination). Each judge will pick their favourite track and then all three will vote on the final three songs, with the winner being the song with at least two votes out of three. The judging panel will be chaired by Ronald Gurr (Burnsong) and Martha Rafferty (daughter of Gerry Rafferty).
New music mogul, DJ and judge for the competition Jim Gellatly says: “It’s an honour to be asked to judge such a prestigious competition, especially in the name of a legendary figure like the late Gerry Rafferty. I’m looking forward to hearing the submissions, which I’m sure will prove that we continue to punch above our weight as a nation when it comes to the creative arts.”
Detailed competition rules as well as submission requirements are listed below.
Competition Rules
- Applicants must be 18+ and from the Renfrewshire area.
- Applicants may submit up to 2 songs of any genre.
- Each individual song must be no more than 4 mins in length.
- Songs must be original, written by the submitting artist and contain no explicit lyrics.
- Submitted songs must be currently unreleased*
- Winner must be available to attend the songwriting week and the two performances.
- The deadline is the 6th July at 11pm
- The winner will be announced on the last week of July.
Submission Requirements
A contact name, phone number and postal address must be included in the
description section of the submitted song or it will be invalid
For the purposes of this competition ‘unreleased’ will mean not commercially released by a
record label.
About Gerry Rafferty
Born in Paisley and raised on a diet of Irish and Scottish folk songs, he was later influenced by songwriters such as Lennon and Mccartney, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. With an exceptional talent for melody and harmony coupled with a beautifully soulful voice he went on to achieve International success with solo hits 'Baker Street', 'Right Down the Line' and with the band 'Stealers Wheel' the hit song 'Stuck In The Middle With You'.
Rafferty’s musical legacy spans over several decades and its endurance is a testament to the timeless quality of the man and his music. With the Gerry Rafferty Songwriting Prize this legacy now extends beyond his own musical contributions, allowing other talented artists the opportunity to further their career with support from his daughter Martha Rafferty. It is with great appreciation that the competition can be run in his name.
Says Martha, "I'm delighted that the legacy my Father created can go on to inspire and enable another songwriter to be given a platform for their voice to be heard. It's a long and difficult road to choose and opportunities to breakthrough are few and far between. I'll be listening for conviction, heart and originality - Good Luck!"
Photo © Eddie Mallin
15th May 2012
The Gathering 2012: Submissions Closed!
The response to
The Gathering 2012 has been fantastic. Now that the submission window has closed, we'd like to express our gratitude to everyone who has shared their music with us.
The tracks will now go before our panel of judges who will provide us with a shortlist by the beginning of June.
Good luck to all applicants. Keep an eye on our
Facebook and
Twitter feeds for more news and opportunities coming soon!
19th Mar 2012
THE GATHERING 2012
Scots songwriters offered the chance of joining the UK Songwriting Festival — to be held for the first time in Galloway in August 2012.
Scotland’s songwriting promotion and development body Burnsong today (March 19th) announces the opening of The Gathering 2012 — the annual invitation to submit new Scottish songs, which will be assessed by an expert panel before the winning songwriters are invited to join the UK Songwriting Festival to hone their skills in a week of intensive support and tuition.
Bath Spa University, the home of Europe’s only Masters degree in songwriting, will bring their distinguished tutors including Joe Bennett, Boo Hewerdine, Jez Ashurst, Andy White and Ivor Novello-nominated Snow Patrol collaborator Iain Archer, to Scotland for the first time for a five-day intensive songwriting boot camp which will take place at Shennanton House in rural Galloway between August 12th and August 17th 2012. All participants will then, over two gigs in Bladnoch Distillery, showcase what has been achieved with their fresh new songs premiered to an invited audience.
The competition opens on Monday March 19th and submissions will be accepted until 12 Noon on Saturday May 12th. The selection and judging process will take place between May 14th and 18th with winners notified and announced thereafter.
This year, Burnsong seeks brand new songs of quality, with a distinctly Scottish flavour, inspired by the content, subject matter, interests and concerns expressed in the work of Robert Burns. These may be performed by the songwriter or by a group but the places at the UK Songwriting Festival are for individual songwriters.
Competition rules and instructions on how to submit can be found
here.
Burnsong Songwriters Feature In Olympic Commission
The BIG Breakthrough!
a celebration of Olympic and Paralympic values through song
Wednesday 21st March 2012
The Usher Hall, Edinburgh
1.15 pm
Tickets £5 adults, £3 children
Box Office: 0131 228 1155
Several songwriters connected to Burnsong are performing a brand new commission, Breakthrough, written by Burnsong Gathering Winner Kim Edgar, at The Usher Hall, Edinburgh, on 21st March 2012, after its debut at Celtic Connections 2012.
Karine Polwart, Mairi Campbell, Mattie Foulds and Kim Edgar herself are performing in this celebration of Olympic and Paralympic values, which features children and young people from The BIG Project, Broomhouse (in the south west of Edinburgh), alongside Inverness Gaelic Choir, Sangstream, Cappella Nova, and 10 leading professional musicians.
The newly-commissioned work features all performers en masse, with a series of overlapping themes representing the Olympic rings. Audience members have the unique opportunity to participate in the premier performance of the brand new commission, Breakthrough, and can learn singalong parts by visiting YouTube and searching “BIG Broomhouse Breakthrough”.
Kim explained:
“The commission was inspired by children in Broomhouse; footage of their thoughtful responses to the values is integral to this uplifting concert, which features pop/rock, Gaelic, folk, classical and Scots songs, plus a Glee style mash-up! Audiences will have fun taking part - singing’s great for our physical and emotional health. It’s an ambitious undertaking for The BIG Project kids, but I’m confident they’ll rise to the challenge: recently, they’ve taken Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall by storm, worked with Gareth Malone, and some members performed live on BBC Children in Need. As you can imagine, they’re extremely excited about their Celtic Connections debut!”
Breakthrough was commissioned by Celtic Connections and The Usher Hall, Edinburgh, and its performance is central to a year-long singing project which Kim Edgar is leading at The BIG Project, Broomhouse, funded by Creative Scotland. David McDonald, Youth Arts Manager, Creative Scotland commented:
“Creativity plays a vital role in children and young people’s development; it builds confidence and communication skills. The Youth Music Initiative has given thousands of young people the opportunity to learn about and enjoy making music. The BIG Breakthrough will be an amazing experience for the young people – to play live with some of Scotland’s most talented musicians will be a night to remember and something to inspire their music making for years to come.”
Suitable for children, young people and the young at heart!
10th Jan 2012
Songwriting Festival 2012 Announced - 12 - 17 August 2012
BURNSONG is delighted to announce that the UK Songwriting Festival 2012 will run from August 12th (evening) to August 17th 2012, and will be presented in partnership with our partners at Bath Spa University; it is supported by Creative Scotland. The venue will be the wonderfully secluded Shennanton House in Galloway. Our choice of venue is deliberately rural – so for a whole week you’ll have nothing to do except write, rehearse, record and perform songs with the support of tutors and fellow songwriters.
Bookings open late January 2012 and prices will be modest BUT places are extremely limited – so early booking via the UK Songwriting website at http://www.uksongwritingfestival.com is essential.
Confirmed tutors include:
- Boo Hewerdine
- Iain Archer
- Joe Bennett
- Jez Ashurst
- Andy White
5th May 2011
The Burns Unit on Later with Jools Holland!
The Burns Unit - a band which grew out of the Burnsong Songhouse 2006, featuring Karine Polwart, Emma Pollock, MC Soom T, Kim Edgar, King Creosote, Future Pilot AKA, Michael Johnston and Mattie Foulds - has been invited to perform on the mighty "Later With Jools Holland" show which airs on BBC 2!
The band rehearse in the studio on Monday 16th May, and perform in a half-hour live show on Tuesday 17th May (10 pm), as well as recording a show which will be aired on Friday 20th May at 11.35 pm.
For more information check out www.theburnsunitband.com
28th Mar 2011
Burnsong Under 25s Songwriting Competition Winners Announced!
After much deliberation, the panel of music industry experts selected the following winners from the 313 entries submitted:
The Face In The Mirror - Kirsty Grace
Box Of Thread - Gillian Christie
Everything We Knew - Smoothiesforme
The winners will be awarded a prize of the opportunity to record a demo with acclaimed producer, Mattie Foulds at his new studio, Mobile With A Home. Congratulations!
25th Jan 2011
Enter the Burnsong Songwriting Competition for under 25s here!
The songwriting competition for Scottish young people aged 25 and under is now open! For more details, and to submit up to three entries of original music in any genre, click
HERE.
ADVICE ON THE ENTRY PROCESS:
When you click HERE above, you will be taken to SonicBids, where you need to create an electronic press kit (EPK), which gives us your contact details and allows you to upload your song - in MP3 format only. If you're not familiar with SonicBids, to do this:
1) Click on the big red ACTIVATE AND SUBMIT button (right hand side of the screen).
2) Enter your email address and click GO.
3) You will then be instructed to go to your email account and follow the instructions on the SonicBids email which will verify your details and take you back to your SonicBids registration.
4) Create a Username and Password for your SonicBids account.
5) In your SonicBids account, go to EDIT MY EPK.
6) In BASIC INFO, add your name, contact details, genre of music and any myspace/website info.
7) In CONTENT, go to MUSIC, ADD A SONG, select your song from your computer and click SAVE SONG to upload it. All done!
The competition closes on 28th February and after the anonymous entries are judged by a panel of music industry experts, three winning songwriters will be announced in March via the Burnsong website,
www.burnsong.org.
They will then work in collaboration with Mattie Foulds to plan, record, mix and master their first professional recordings at the fantastic new studio, Mobile With A Home.
For full details, click on the 12th January 2011 news article.
