Find out what's been happening with the group and with each of its members. Click on the Career Highlights links below.
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Current news, EXPO2005, Archives, BOTTOM OF PAGE
2010:
NACC Northern Performers Concert Series: Ceilidh Friends performed a concert for the Northern Performers Series on January 27, 2009. It was the group's first major performance since the loss of one of its members, Steve Goff, in August, 2009. The group performed 60 minutes worth of material including a few solo numbers from each member of the trio. The concert was recorded by Peter Skinner from CBC North radio and portions will be aired at a future date.
2009:
Ceilidh Friends loses one of its members: One of the quartet, Stephen Goff, died suddenly one month to the day following the group's last performance on Canada Day. The remaining members, Steve Lacey, Dawn Lacey, and Moira Cameron, are committed to the group continuing as a trio, but will miss Steve Goff terribly.
Aurora Arts Society Social: June 22, 2009, Northern United Place - Ceilidh Friends will be providing soothing background music to this arts event. Their CDs will be for sale.
Yellowknife Sings: a marathon of performing artists showcased at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, June 22, 2009 from 12 noon to midnight! Ceilidh Friends will be performing an A capella set halfway through the schedule.
YK 75 Anniversary Celebration: City Hall is hosting a music and arts celebration of the City's 75th birthday. Ceilidh Friends will be performing along with several other local musicians.
Canada Day at City Hall: Ceilidh Friends is one of many groups asked to join in the celebrations on July 1st.
2008:
Yuletide Minstrels: The Northern Arts and Cultural Centre asked Ceilidh Friends to once again provide background Christmassy music for a special musical presentation of the Christmas Carol starring Bill Bourne. We performed as people exited the show.
Festival of the Midnight Sun: November 22, 2008 (Northern United Place); the festival was scheduled much later in the year than usual. It coincided with the Santa Clause Parade. Ceilidh Friends was asked to perform, and since the event was so near to Remembrance Day, we decided to focus on anti-war material. Steve Goff, unfortunately, couldn't participate, so we had to perform our material as a trio. Still, the set went over well, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
South Slave Friendship Festival: August 14, 15, 16, & 17 in the old community of Fort Smith, NWT was a celebration of the 20th Annual Friendship Festival. For this year's special event, the organizers invited as many past festival performers as they possibly could to participate. For all the Yellowknife musicians, Ceilidh Friends included, a charter bus was arranged to transport us all to the festival. It was a ten hour bus ride! Along the way, we saw several herds of buffalo grazing by the side of the rode, as well as the odd sandhill cranes. Some musicians helped to shorten the rode by jamming in the back of the bus. The festival had an impressive variety of music, from heavy metal to folk and spanning cultures from African drumming to Armenian music. Ceilidh Friends decided to go completely a capella for all our sets just so we could supply something different to the ears of the festival audiences. We played three sets: a main stage set at Conibear Park, an acoustic set at a seniors home, and ending with a high energy set at the Legion. We took time out to visit some of the local historical and ecological attractions of the area, like the Salt Flats where the Catholic mission used to mine salt, and the boat launch where the uranium ore used in the making of the atomic bomb that dropped on Hiroshima was portaged past the river rapids. We had a real treat seeing a pair of Whooping Cranes - an extremely rare sight - feeding in a pond across the flats. Overall, the weekend was very satisfying, and we were grateful to be invited to the festival again.
2007:
CBC North Customer Appreciation Day: Wednesday, December 19, in the morning between 6:45 and 8, Ceilidh Friends performed live on the radio as part of CBC North's open house celebration.
Christmas Caroling in the stores: Sunday, December 16th, Ceilidh Friends sang Yuletide songs at Roy's Audiotronics (2p.m.) and Squatterz Books (3:30 p.m.). As per our usual tradition, we wassailed a few select Yellowknife homes on Christmas Eve.
NWT Celebrity Auction: This annual auction raises money for the Council for the Disabled. This year, on November 16, Ceilidh Friends auctioned themselves off. We were bid on by two well-known local business people - Roy Williams from Roy's Audiotronics and the Eggenbergers, who own several local businesses. Roy won us in the end, and will use us as minstrels in his store at Christmas time.
Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention Conference: We performed a short set during the conference's opening concert event at Sir John Franklin Highschool on October 5th. As usual, we attempted to cater our performance to the event, while still trying to have a fairly light and entertaining set.
Amazing Sundays: Ceilidh Friends joined in on the jam session at the Museum in celebration of International Music Day, September 30th.
Festival of the Midnight Sun: Northern United Place in Yellowknife, September 21st at 7p.m.
Sue Glowach Territorial Election Campaign Launch: Ceilidh Friends were invited to perform at the launch of Sue Glowach's campaign on September 7th. We performed a set of our favourite acap material.
MySpace: We finally set up a page on MySpace.
We've uploaded a few songs from our CDs. Check it out at:
http://www.myspace.com/cei
ATLIN Music and Arts Festival: Over
the weekend of July 7-9, 2006, Ceilidh Friends participated in this
popular little festival in Atlin, BC. We flew down (thanks to the
generosity of Summit Air, who donated the flight) with fellow
Yellowknife musicians The Gumboots, Jay Gilday, and Inuit Throatsingers
lead by Goota Ashoona. The festival location is spectacular,
imbedded in the mountains of Northern BC. We were really impressed
with the volunteers, some of them not even local residents. The
venues were held at several locations around town, including St.
Martin's church, the Globe Theatre, the Atlin Inn, and a main stage tent
in a small park.
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Our acapella workshop took place on Sunday morning in the church - the
perfect setting. It ended up%202006_small.JPG)
being a 2 hour session, which we
shared with the lead singer of the group Mamaguroove, Shara Gustaphson.
We asked the Gumboots to come up and help us with the closing numbers.
The audience was eager to participate, singing along to almost every
number. None of us wanted it to end. It was an inspiring
workshop for all of us.
We were all sad to leave on Sunday afternoon. The weekend went by all too quickly. This is a festival we definitely would like to return to in the future.
JULY 1, 2006: Canada Day: Ceilidh Friends performed a celebratory set in honour of Canada's Birthday.
JUNE 22, 2006: Aurora Tours asked Ceilidh Friends to provide musical entertainment during their 2 hour pontoon boat tour of Yellowknife's Back Bay on Great Slave Lake. The weather was perfect. In between visiting an eagle's nest, Yellowknife's house boat community, the old Con mine village, and other interesting sights, we sang upbeat songs which complimented the evening. We had as much fun on the tour as the tourists did.
January: Ceilidh Friends put on a special multi-media show highlighting their recent adventures and experiences at EXPO2005 in Japan. Using photo slide shows, videos, poetry, prose, and live singing, each of the members of the group and their official photographer and archivist, Caitlin Lacey, told stories of their amazing Japan experience.
Leaving Yellowknife on June 19, 2005, Ceilidh Friends embarked on an unforgettable experience. Several months ago, the group was selected to represent the North at EXPO2005 in Aichi, Japan. An organization called OYE!Canada, contracted by Heritage Canada to provide entertainers for Canada's cultural component of their pavilion at EXPO, booked us in to perform almost every day between June 21st and July 3rd.
None of us had ever traveled to Japan before, so we were all understandably excited. We brought along Steve and Dawn's daughter, Caitlin Lacey, as our official photographer and archivist; we wanted to make sure we catalogued our experiences as fully as possible. We all ended up bringing one or more cameras, including video and DVD cameras to record some of our performances. For a sampling of some of our favourite photos, click here: Ceilidh Friends in Japan, Sightseeing in Japan
Steve Goff, Caitlin Lacey and Moira Cameron all wrote and submitted articles to our local media. The articles covered different aspects of our EXPO/Japan experience. To read more, click here.
Moira Cameron has put together a special newsletter highlighting the group's trip to Japan. It is in PDF format. Click here to download a copy of your own: Raven's Report
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Friendship Festival: For the second year in a row, the Ceilidh Friends was invited to participate in the South Slave Friendship Festival in Ft. Smith, NT. The festival is a favourite among musicians in the North. It is free to the public, and although it performers don't get paid, they have a great time. We performed several sets in outdoor and indoor settings. The weather was perfect, although it was very windy for Sunday's barbeque performance. The entire community gets into the festival spirit. We met our old friend Louis Beck and jammed with him for a while in one of the local restaurants. By the time the weekend was over, our ears were buzzing from all the wonderful music!
Festival of the Midnight Sun: For almost every year since its conception, Ceilidh Friends has performed at the Yellowknife Festival of the Midnight Sun. Normally held in July, this year's scaled down event took place on only one evening, but we were happy to be asked to participate. The Festival, organized by John and Pamela Murray, is devoted to promoting the creative talents of musicians as well as other artists. Using the cozy Northern United Place auditorium, a handful of musicians, carvers, painters, and other creative people gathered to celebrate Art in the North. Caitlin Lacey and Moira Cameron displayed their BottleArt Creations as well. After the music was over, WAMP (Western Arctic Moving Pictures) hosted a mini film-fest of locally produced shorts.
2004-2008: Ceilidh Friends received its second grant from the NWT Arts Council to produce a new album. The group has been working hard in the studio for the past year recording war and anti-war songs. The group was brought together by singing songs in protest of the first Gulf War. They've been singing their extensive war material every Remembrance Day since then, and felt it was about time to record these old favourites. There is no date set for the release of their new album.
Ceilidh Friends Pages:
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To contact Ceilidh Friends, email ceilidh_friends@hotmail.com or write to
Ceilidh Friends, C/O 4505 Schooldraw Avenue, Yellowknife, NT, X1A 2K3, Canada