Battlefield Band

Battlefield Band
The band performing in Freiburg in 2012
Background information
Origin	Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Genres	Scottish traditional music
Years active	1969–present
Labels	Temple Records, Escalibur, Topic
Associated acts	Alison Kinnaird
Website	www.battlefieldband.co.uk
Members	Sean O'Donnell Alasdair White Mike Katz

Battlefield Band are a Scottish traditional music group. Founded in Glasgow in 1969, they have released over 30 albums and undergone many changes of lineup. As of 2010, none of the original founders remain in the band.

The band is noted for their combination of bagpipes with other instruments, most notably on their cover of "Bad Moon Rising", and for its mix of traditional songs and new material. Battlefield Band tours internationally, playing to audiences in Europe, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and Canada, and more than 60 cities annually in the United States.

They have collaborated with other musicians including the Scottish harp player and glass sculptor Alison Kinnaird.

The band was formed in 1969 by five student friends from Strathclyde University (Brian McNeill, Jim Thomson, Alan Reid, Eddie Morgan and Sandra Lang (who became crime fiction author, Alex Gray) and took its name from the Glasgow suburb where Brian McNeill was living at the time.

Their brand of music developed when Brian McNeill and Alan Reid were joined by Jen Clark (vocals, guitar, cittern, appalachian dulcimer and whistle) and Duncan McGillivray (pipes and whistle). Stand Easy, the album they recorded in 1979, still stands up as one of the band's finest. The next line-up included new comers Dougie Pincock (bagpipes) and Jim and Sylvia Barnes along with veterans Alan Reid (vocals and electric keyboards) and Brian McNeill (fiddle).

The band has gone through many line up changes over the years.

Alan Reid, who had been a member ever since and the last remaining founding member, finally left the band at the end of 2010, concentrating on his musical duo with guitarist & singer Rob van Sante who has been Battlefield Band's sound engineer for the past thirteen years.

On 1 January 2015, Battlefield Band revealed in an e-mail sent to their fanbase that, back from their US tour in October/November 2014, they were working hard in the studio on a new recording project with the working title Beg, Borrow & Steal. The Irish / Scottish album would highlight and explore the cultural cross-fertilisation of the vibrant musical traditions of Scotland & Ireland and the group would collaborate with many other leading traditional musicians and scholars. Mick Moloney (USA/Ireland), Nuala Kennedy (Ireland), Aaron Jones (Ireland), Christine Primrose (Scotland), Alison Kinnaird (Scotland) & Barry Gray (Australia) were due to be all on board, with more to follow. The band has been awarded Creative Scotland assistance for this project. If all would have gone well as initially announced and expected, the recordings would have been available on Temple Records by March 2015 – it might even have turned into a tour if all would have gone well and the musicians would have been available.