Nairn Fiddler Wins The Quaich
Another year and another final of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician competition. I tell you, the quality of these competitors gets better every year and tonight, at the City Halls in Glasgow, I was just glad I wasn't one of the judges.
In the end, the big silver quaich went to Ruairidh Macmiilan from Nairn. He had wowed the audience with some fantastic fiddling but he also had great stage presence and spoke with the confidence you expect from a seasoned professional.
The chairman of the judging panel was Alasdair Campbell who spoke about looking for a "certain x-factor". I'm sure he regretted this when our host, Mary Ann Kennedy starting making comparisons to Simon Cowell and his ever-rising waistband.
As ever my role was simple: a few words of welcome at the start and then back on stage at the end of the night to open the silver enevlope and reveal the winner. Recalling how I struggled with this task last year, I decided to share the job with the Scottish Culture Minister, Linda Fabiani.
It's the first time I've ever asked for a Government bail-out, but, hey, it seems to be the fashion at the moment.
POSTSCRIPT
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