We arrive at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for our first day of rehearsals for the third incarnation of the British Council’s ‘Shifting Sands’ project (for general information about the project, see news article here and previous diary on the Kuwait project here). Again, there are a few familiar faces here but in the main I’m in a room with a bunch of people who’ve never played music with each other before.This time we’ve got a week to get it together ready for an hour and a half-long show at the Strathclyde Suite in the Royal Concert Hall next Friday.

After getting our festival passes printed up first thing (and having a photo taken which seemed to catch me gurning, suggesting I’d had a far heavier night than I actually did), the first day’s rehearsal focuses on getting everyone up to speed with some of the tunes we’ve used on the previous projects, ‘Simsima’, a traditional sea song from Bahrain, ‘The Shoemaker’, and the shanty ‘Santy Anna’. So far everyone seems to be keen and taking to the material, I for one am glad to have a chance to work on this material again with a different group of musicians. Let’s see what happens when we throw some new tunes into the mix.

Shifting Sands 2011:

Hasan Hujari - Oud

Mohamed Aseeri - Qanun

Ahmed Al Ghanem - Flute

Mohamed Hamada - Percussion

Thani Salem Thani - Percussion

Pete Flood - Drums

Andy Mellon - Trumpet, Piano

Matheu Watson - Violin, Guitar, Whistle

Corrina Hewat - Harp, Vocals

Inge Thomson - Accordion, Vocals

Sam Carter - Guitar, Vocals