THE STANLEY CEILIDH

'The Stanley Ceilidh' is an annual Scottish Dance Music event, held over the first weekend in November in the Tayside Hotel, Stanley, Perthshire, Scotland. Proceeds from the ceilidh have been donated to local charities since its inception.

Contents

Event Details

History of the Ceilidh

Recordings

Charity Donations

History of the Saturday Night Dances

Links

Event Details

A semi-formal ceilidh takes place on the Friday evening, during which the attending musicians form bands and take turns to play for the audience. In this regard it is similar to the numerous accordion and fiddle clubs found throughout Scotland and beyond, except that there is no guest artiste, the whole night's entertainment being provided for free by the visiting musicians. No entry fee is charged for musicians or audience members; instead a collection is held for charity during the evening.
A similar session is held on the Saturday afternoon, although this tends to be more informal. Saturday evening is taken up with an organised dance, to a well-known Scottish dance band.
Finally, the Sunday afternoon sees another informal session, which finishes typically at 5pm.

History of the Ceilidh

The Stanley Ceilidh began in 1979, when local resident and musician Bill Black organised an evening where a group of friends who played regularly with various Scottish Dance Bands across the country could have a night-off and get together for a meal and perhaps a “tune”.
The Stanley Ceilidh gathered popularity amongst musicians and was soon opened to the public in an effort to raise some funds for Guide Dogs for the Blind.
It was a great success, and Bill decided to make the event annual. He organised and ran it for 25 years, before handing over the reins to a group of regular supporters of the Ceilidh, headed by bandleader Iain Cathcart. The committee now comprises Iain, his wife Shirley, Lynne Christie, Scott & Susan Gordon and Dave & Lil Millward.
This group continues to run the Stanley Ceilidh to this day.

Recordings

In 2005 the decision was taken to record the Friday Ceilidh and if the results were sufficiently good, to release a CD of some of the players. Multitrack recording and subsequent mixing was undertaken by Graham Berry.
All artists generously volunteered to donate their recordings free of charge with the understanding that all profits from the CD would be donated to CHAS.
The first CD, The Stanley Ceilidh – Volume 1 Cat Nr. CONISB02, was released in October 2006 on the Conisby Music Label. It was a great success, selling most of the initial run within 8 weeks. A cheque presentation has been arranged with CHAS for the Friday evening of the 2007 Ceilidh to hand over the profits of the first CD release.
The 2006 ceilidh has also been recorded and plans are afoot to release further recordings in coming years.

Charity Donations

Over the first 25 years of the ceilidh, Bill Black raised over £25,000 for local charities. Since Bill’s “retirement”, the Ceilidh has donated all proceeds to CHAS [Childrens Hospice Association Scotland]. To date this figure stands just short of £4,000.

History of the Saturday Night Dances

Ceilidh	Year	Band
10th	1988	No dance held
11th	1989
12th	1990
13th	1991
14th	1992
15th	1993
16th	1994
17th	1995
18th	1996
19th	1997
20th	1998
21st	1999
22nd	2000
23rd	2001	Neil MacEachern Scottish Dance Band
24th	2002	Iain Cathcart & his Band
25th	2003	Alan Nicolson Band
26th	2004	Craig McCallum Scottish Dance Band
27th	2005	Bill Black Scottish Dance Band
28th	2006	Cullivoe Dance Band
29th	2007	Ian Muir Scottish Dance Band
30th	2008	TBA

Links

Report on the 2004 Stanley Ceilidh

Report on the 2005 Stanley Ceilidh

Report on the 2006 Stanley Ceilidh