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This article looks at the ways in which songs, alcohol, and local identity are firmly wedded in the bothy ballad tradition of North-East Scotland. Although composed mainly between 1840 and 1890, the songs have continued to be sung long after the system of agriculture in which they were created ceased to exist. As apart of this transposition into a modern environment, new social occasions have evolved that celebrate and dramatize the singing of such songs; for instance, 'bothy nichts' and 'meal an ales' became popular after the second World War. More recently, competitions have become an important forum for their performance. The annual Champions Bothy Ballad Competition, held in Elgin, is the blue riband event. Here, with major sponsorship from distillers the Macallan, the singing is performed against a backdrop of whisky consumption. The interrelationship between the contemporary performance of such songs and the competition context is examined, with particular reference to relevance, significance, and regional identity.
On Saturday, 17 January 2004, at the Town Hall in Elgin, a settlement in Moray in Scotland's North-East, a bothy ballad competition was held for the title Champion of Champions before a 'full house' of seven hundred people. This was a special championship to celebrate the twenty-first year of the competition, which is organized by the Rotary Club of Elgin and sponsored by local whisky distillers, the Macallan. Five competitors, all male, took part - Joe Aitken, Jock Duncan, Gordon Easton, Scott Gardiner, and Eric Simpson - the qualification for entry being restricted to winners from previous years. The singers performed just two songs - one in the first half of the concert as a 'warm-up', the other for the competition proper in the second half. Their focal contribution was framed by performances from a group of young fiddlers and from two guest singers: the one a promising local youth from Huntly, Peter Law; the other a well-respected female singer, Sheena Wellington, who had sung at the opening of the Scottish Parliament.1
The extent of the sponsorship was such that a large promotional banner was draped from the balcony, nips of whisky were served to the audience at half-time, the singers, judge, and compère were provided with a liberal supply backstage, and bottles of whisky were given...