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I had the opportunity to interview the four Johnson sisters from Give Way, after their concert held at the St Leonards Hotel in Stonehaven on Saturday 28th June 2003.
The concert was held in conjunction with Stonehaven Folk Club to launch the girl's CD in the North East of Scotland.
The group line up is
Fiona (17) Fiddle
Kirsty (15) Accordion
Mairi (14) Keyboards
Amy (14) Drums
INTERVIEW
- GMG: Were your parents musical?
- Girls: Not at all
- GMG:Who was first to learn to play an instrument?
- Girls: Fiona started learning to play the fiddle when she was 5 years old and Kirsty took up the accordion when she was 4. The twins also developed a love for Scottish Music with Mairie learning to play Keyboard and Amy the accordion and eventually taking up drums.
- GMG: When did you actually start as a group?
- Girls: Fiona, Kirsty and Mairi formed the original group in 1998
- GMG:What was your first major Gig?
- Girls: We appeared at the Celtic Connections Festival in January 2001 when we won The Danny Kyle Open Stage Award
- GMG: Did things start to happen for you after that.
- Girls: Very much so. We were introduced to Trudi Clayton who organises the Stonehaven Folk Festival and we were booked to appear that year. We also appeared at Cambridge Folk Festival. We played at Glasgow Cathederal with Karen Matheson,the lead singer with Capercaille and we have had the honour of appearing on stage with Phil Cunningham and Ally Bain.
- GMG: How long have the four of you played together.
- Girls: Just over two years Amy joined the group as the drummer for the Celtic Connections Festival in January 2002.
- GMG: You must be very proud, now that as a family you have recorded your first CD?
- Girls: Yes indeed. It's something we all wanted to do.
- GMG: You officially launched the CD in Edinburgh, I understand?
- Girls: Yes! We performed at an Industry Lunch at Orwell Lodge in Edinburgh. This event was attended by the press, media and all our friends and Mum and Dad of course. We also played at Currie High School and donated all the funds to the School and any money raised from the raffle was donated to the old folk.
- GMG:What made you choose Stonehaven to launch your CD in the North East of Scotland?
- Girls: We just love coming to Stonehaven. We were honoured when Trudi (Clayton) asked us to appear at the Stonehaven Folk Festival in 2001 and even more chuffed when asked back again in 2002. Stonehaven was the obvious choice for us.
- GMG: How did you enjoy your concert at the St Leonards Hotel.
- Girls: It was great. We had so much fun on stage ourselves and we enjoyed the other acts.
- GMG: To what do you owe your success?
- Girls: Many people have helped us along the way but we would particularly like to thank Phil Cunningham for all his support, Ian Green and all the staff at Greentrax, Stuart Hamilton and for the stage presentation we owe a massive thank you to Gerry Sullivan and Martin U.Jones of P.A. Audio Services who are responsible for all the sound and lighting smoke effects etc..
A big thank you also to Trudi and David Clayton who have been so good to us on our visits to Stonehaven and have helped us to have so much fun.
Last but certainly not least many many thanks to Mum and Dad.
- GMG: What's your plans for the immediate future?
- Girls: We plan to come up to Stonehaven as spectators for this years Folk Festival,but we would love to enter the World Championship Paper and Comb Competition.
We have no other major plans. As we are all still at school, we have to limit our appearances but we have so much fun in doing what we are doing.
- GMG: Thank you girls for your time and lots of luck with your CD. I am sure we will hear a lot more of you in the future.
George McGillivray would like to thank Steve and Morag Johnson for permission to carry out this interview with their daughters.
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