The Caledonia Collective 2014 has seen Nina Nesbitt, The LaFontaines, Hector Bizerk and Lau play a show together at Webster Hall in NYC as part of Scotland Week on Sunday 6th April.
The diverse line-up showed off the wealth of musical talent coming out of Scotland, and brought together fans of genres such as pop, hip-hop, folk and rock.
Enthusiastic New Yorkers packed out the famous Lower East Side 400 capacity venue, part of the former live recording home of RCA Records which has played host to Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, CHVRCHES, Mumford & Sons, Macklemore and Florence & The Machine among others.
The LaFontaines were in the city having won the prestigious Big Apple Award, which each year sees one band or artist sent to New York to play the Caledonia Collective at Scotland Week. The annual award is part of the fundraising events programme for the renowned Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy charity in Scotland.
Lead Singer Kerr Okan said: “We’ve been in NYC for 3 days now, and it still feels surreal – we played at the Scotland Run in Central Park yesterday morning and then walked the Tartan Day Parade down 6th Avenue in the afternoon – tonight we played our first ever sell-out show in NYC which has been a huge privilege and all thanks to the Big Apple Award.”
While in New York hip-hop rap duo Hector Bizerk have been soaking up the culture of the city, taking part in the history of hip-hop tour through Harlem and the Bronx ahead of their gig at Caledonia Collective.
Next month they return to Glasgow where they will begin recording their new record, which will undoubtedly reflect their trip to the spiritual home of hip-hop. Tonight they proved that the genre may have its roots in New York but that the power of music transcends throughout the world, with a performance that could well have come from some of the finest hip-hop talents straight out of the East Coast.
