Scotland celebrates New Year with sparkle HOGMANAY: CITIES IN SWING

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Jan 1, 2006 | by Senay Boztas

THE New Year came in with a sparkle, a bang and a breakdance in Edinburgh. Around 100,000 people braved the Scottish drizzle to see highlights of the Royal Bank Street Party and the Concert in the Gardens.

The evening's entertainment ranged from the top Scots performers Texas and KT Tunstall to a more unusual battle of breakdancers from home and abroad.

This year's theme, mixing performers from Catalonia with the best of Caledonia, attracted the normal enthusiastic crowds from Scotland, the UK, the far east, and the other side of the world.

Some of the more colourful revellers who were on Princes Street yesterday evening were a group of 19-year-olds from Queensland, Australia.

Swathed in Australian flags, green kilts and a light coating of alcohol, Adam Finn, Brad Paddison, Phil Minchar and Terrell Hyman were making merry near the party stage, where popular dance albums boomed out courtesy of The Great Calverto, Tartan Dholies and music from the Edinburgh club, Motherfunk.

Hyman said they had come a long way for their first Scottish Hogmanay, and they were making the most of it.

"This is the first New Year in Edinburgh - everyone said to come here, so we did, " he said. "I haven't even looked at the bands, but the feeling of the place is great, and everyone is friendly."

Further up the street, a group of Liverpudlians camped outside Princes Street Gardens, ready for the trio of Scottish acts, El Presidente, KT Tunstall and then headliners Texas.

Dominic Boyd, Jeremy Orr and Jake Grannell came from Liverpool to join their friend Ryan Downer, from Kirkcaldy, Fife. Boyd, dressed like the other three in a black and white suit and hat, said: "It is the biggest party of the year and we are virgins to it, all of us."

One of the most eagerly anticipated events of the night was a novel breakdancing competition between the Edinburgh group Random Aspekts and the Catalan Fallen Angels, on the Urban Dance Stage.

The two acts, unable to find formal rehearsal space, had practised their battle on the subways of Barcelona. Each group tried to outdance the other with acrobatic moves against a thumping soundtrack, defying the winter chill.

Other acts included Hard-Fi, nominees for the Mercury Music Prize, and the Glasgow group Sons And Daughters on the Waverley Stage. The Hoolie Stage featured Hayseed Dixie, playing country versions of classic songs by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Franz Ferdinand.

Meanwhile, organisers said that the weather, with very low wind and only a spattering of rain, would be conducive to another magnificent firework display at midnight.

Pete Irvine, director of Unique Events, the company behind this year's fourday programme, said the city was widening its global appeal.

"There are lots of people from eastern Europe this year, and many from Japan and China, as well as the usual mix, so the idea that it is just Australians is being overtaken by waves from the orient, " he said as the evening commenced.

"We have got three or four really good stages this year, and I'll go to all of them.

Hayseed Dixie are the most excellent thing that has happened to country music, and Randon Aspekts will do their stuff. It is a brilliant idea to have an urban dance stage.

"The Night Afore was the best yet, really mega, and we are all chuffed. We had 300 Catalan people doing their unique thing on George Street - really extraordinary. I'm having a wee glass of wine, and filling up my flask with a wee dram for later."

His only complaint was the plethora of burger vans and merchandise sellers, which, "sadly", he said, were necessary to make up costs in a modern-day festival.

Less concerned revellers included 21year-olds Claire Etheridge from Bristol and Becky Ward, from Bath, who had come to visit their Glaswegian friend Linsey-Anne Marwick. Marwick said:

"We've been in Glasgow for the last few days and are going to the Assembly Rooms later for a ceilidh."

Mirella Dichiara, with Nicky Burr, came from Hertfordshire and was impressed. "It is very well organised compared with London, and the place to come for New Year, " she said.

FURTHER north, revellers began to converge at Aberdeen's Castlegate at around 8pm, where a giant stage was set up for the acts entertaining the city's biggest ever Hogmanay fling.

Tens of thousands were expected to flood into the city to see the newly reformed Liberty X, who kicked off the free street party at 9pm, followed by Merseyside act The Coral, who recently played in Japan.

Scots favourites The Proclaimers, Craig and Charlie Reid, swapped Auchtermuchty for Aberdeen to headline the event.

The duo, originally from Edinburgh, shot to fame with their hits Letter From America and I'm Gonna Be.

Footage of the bands was relayed to the good-natured crowd, backed up along Union Street by a giant screen.

The Grampian Police Pipe Band and ceilidh band Shindig gave a more traditional feel to the bash, where by-laws prohibiting drinking in the street were temporarily relaxed.

But bottles were banned in the entertaiment zone, and anyone wanting to first-foot a neighbour with a bottle of whisky had to be accompanied by a steward.