Hogmanay Live is BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...

's annual live event programme broadcast from either Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...

's Great Hall or BBC Pacific Quay on Hogmanay

Hogmanay

Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner...

 (New Year's Eve). Regardless of location, the programme rings in the New Year with the firing of Edinburgh Castle's One O'Clock Gun and the subsequent fireworks and celebrations in Edinburgh. Occasionally the programme is networked across the United Kingdom on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 and it is also streamed live over bbc.co.uk

Bbc.co.uk

BBC Online is the brand name and home for the BBC's UK online service. It is a large network of websites including such high profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services co-branded BBC iPlayer, the pre-school site Cbeebies, and learning services such as Bitesize...

 on the internet.

The programme features a mixture of Scottish contemporary and folk music, with some past programming also featuring live coverage of parts of the Princes Street concert in Edinburgh.

Its current presenter is Jackie Bird

Jackie Bird

Jackie Bird is a Scottish journalist and newsreader, working for BBC Scotland.-Career:After working as a reporter for The Sun newspaper, Bird joined Television South in Maidstone as a reporter and presenter for the South East edition of regional news programme Coast to Coast.She has been a main...

.

History

The programme has its roots in The White Heather Club

White Heather Club

The White Heather Club was a BBC TV Scottish variety show that ran on and off from 7 May 1958 to 1968.It was an early evening BBC television programme. Until 1957 there was a silent period in BBC TV broadcasting, between 6pm and 7pm, called the Toddlers' Truce. When this ended, the BBC was unsure...

which preceded it. Whilst Hogmanay Live is vastly different nowadays from the programme that came before it, The White Heather Club brought the Scottish tradition of Hogmanay to television for the first time. Various incarnations and evolutions of the show have appeared over the years, such as The Hogmanay Show, which blend the old with the new and mark the beginning of a New Year from a distinctly Scottish perspective. Hogmanay Live, briefly renamed New Year Live when it was networked in 1998, has continued this tradition, giving viewers a chance to both reflect on the year gone by and look forward to the year ahead in a uniquely Scottish fashion.

2005

In 2005, performances on Hogmanay Live were a mix of segments from the open-air concert in Princes Street Gardens, featuring K.T. Tunstall and Texas

Texas (band)

Texas are a Scottish pop band from Bearsden, near Glasgow, Scotland. They were founded by Johnny McElhone in 1986 and feature Sharleen Spiteri on lead vocals. Texas made their performing debut in March 1988 at Scotland's University of Dundee...

, and acts inside the Great Hall, including Nicola Benedetti

Nicola Benedetti

- Early life and the Yehudi Menuhin School :Benedetti was born in West Kilbride, North Ayrshire to an Italian father and a Scottish mother. She started to learn the violin at the age of four...

 and the now traditional appearances of Phil Cunningham

Phil Cunningham (folk musician)

Phil Cunningham, MBE, born 1960 in Edinburgh, Scotland is a Scottish folk musician and composer.-Biography:Phil played accordion and violin from a very young age. He attended school in Portobello, and was raised Mormon, attending church regularly and playing organ...

 and Aly Bain

Aly Bain

Aly Bain MBE is a Shetland fiddler who learned his instrument from the old-time master Tom Anderson. Bain is now considered one of the finest fiddlers in the Scottish tradition. In the early days of his career he formed part of the band The Humblebums with two other ‘unknowns’ Gerry Rafferty and...

, or 'Phil & Aly' for short.

2006

Due to the poor weather on 31 December 2006, the Edinburgh street party and concert had to be cancelled. As they were unable to relay sections of these events during Hogmanay Live, BBC Scotland instead broadcast the whole hour-long show from inside the Great Hall. Performers included new Scottish singing sensation Paolo Nutini

Paolo Nutini

Paolo Giovanni Nutini is a Scottish singer, songwriter and musician from Paisley. His father is of Italian descent, from Barga, Tuscany, although both his parents are Scottish, his family having been in Scotland for three generations....

, folk-musician Karine Polwart

Karine Polwart

Karine Polwart is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide...

 and again Phil Cunningham

Phil Cunningham (folk musician)

Phil Cunningham, MBE, born 1960 in Edinburgh, Scotland is a Scottish folk musician and composer.-Biography:Phil played accordion and violin from a very young age. He attended school in Portobello, and was raised Mormon, attending church regularly and playing organ...

 and Aly Bain

Aly Bain

Aly Bain MBE is a Shetland fiddler who learned his instrument from the old-time master Tom Anderson. Bain is now considered one of the finest fiddlers in the Scottish tradition. In the early days of his career he formed part of the band The Humblebums with two other ‘unknowns’ Gerry Rafferty and...

.

2007

The 2007 Hogmanay Live was broadcast live from BBC Scotland's new HQ at Pacific Quay by the River Clyde in Glasgow. Live music came from regulars regulars Phil & Aly, along with other folk musicians, and Marti Pellow

Marti Pellow

Marti Pellow has been the lead singer of the Scottish pop group Wet Wet Wet since their formation in 1982. He has also recorded solo material.-Early life:...

 and Amy MacDonald

Amy Macdonald (singer)

Amy Macdonald is a Scottish recording artist. Macdonald rose to fame in 2007 with her debut album, This Is the Life and its fourth single, "This Is the Life". The single charted at number one in six different countries worldwide, and charted inside the top ten in another eleven countries worldwide...

 also. Coverage as usual included the firing of Mons Meg

Mons Meg

Mons Meg is a medieval bombard which can be classed as a supergun, now located at Edinburgh Castle, Scotland. There are conflicting theories about its origins, but it appears from the accounts of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy that it was made to his order around 1449 and sent as a gift 8 years...

 and the Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...

 fireworks to mark the beginning of 2008.

2008

In 2008 Hogmanay Live returned to the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle and once again was presented by Jackie Bird, who was joined by Hardeep Singh Kohli

Hardeep Singh Kohli

Hardeep Singh Kohli is a British writer and radio and television presenter.-Background:Kohli was born in London and moved to Glasgow in Scotland when he was four. His parents came to the UK from India in the 1960s. The family's roots lie in the Punjab. His mother was a social worker, and his...

 to present, with various other celebrities in the hall itself. As usual, coverage of the Edinburgh fireworks was shown at midnight.

Live music came from Sharleen Spiteri

Sharleen Spiteri

Sharleen Spiteri is a Scottish recording artist and songwriter, best known as being the lead singer of Scottish rock/blues band Texas. Texas began their career in 1986, and shot to fame in 1989 with their UK Top Ten single, "I Don't Want a Lover" released from Southside...

, Leon Jackson

Leon Jackson

Leon Jackson is a Scottish singer-songwriter. He won the fourth series of British talent show The X Factor in 2007. Following his win, Jackson was the main star of his on-web series entitled Leon's Life, which ran from 2007 until 2008...

, Hogmanay Live regulars Phil & Aly, and a host of other folk musicians. To mark the year of Homecoming Scotland 2009

Homecoming Scotland 2009

Homecoming Scotland 2009 was a series of events designed to attract people of Scottish ancestry to visit Scotland. The campaign, organised by EventScotland and VisitScotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, and part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, claimed that "for every...

, Sandi Thom

Sandi Thom

Alexandria "Sandi" Thom is a Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She became widely known in 2006 after a series of webcasts and the success of the single "I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker ".-1984–2004: Early life:Thom was born in Banff, Aberdeenshire...

 performed at the end of the show, having performed earlier at the Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

 hogmanay celebrations only hours earlier.

2009

Hogmanay Live 2009 was broadcast on New Year's Eve from 11.45pm on BBC One Scotland, with Jackie Bird, Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain presenting. The programme's location returned to Pacfic Quay for this year, although the usual celebrations from Edinburgh were covered over midnight. Musicians included in the line-up were Seth Lakeman

Seth Lakeman

Seth Bernard Lakeman is an English folk singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, who is most often associated with the fiddle and tenor guitar, but has also mastered the viola and banjo...

, Pearl and the Puppets

Pearl and the Puppets

Pearl and the Puppets is a band from Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire in the West-Central Lowlands of Scotland. The band comprises singer/songwriter Katie Sutherland , Blair McMillan , Gordon Turner , Scott Clark and Michael Abubakar .Sutherland's voice has been described as a being similar to...

 and "Scots Singer of the Year" Emily Smith.

2010

Hogmanay Live returned for 2010, with live music from Glasgow and the New Year fireworks from Edinburgh.

In popular culture

• The show has previously been parodied by BBC Scotland's other 31 December mainstay, Only an Excuse?
  Only an Excuse?
  Only An Excuse? is an annual Scottish football comedy sketch show that airs each Hogmanay.Starring actor and comedian Jonathan Watson, the show features impressions of some of Scottish football's great characters such as Denis Law, Tommy Burns, Barry Ferguson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Frank McAvennie,...
  
  .

• During Hogmanay Live 2001, one of presenter Jackie Bird's many costume changes included a small gold glittery top which arguably was not best suited to her figure. Amid derision from the media, the top became one of the infamous moments of that year's programme and was auctioned off for BBC Children in Need
  Children in Need
  Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
  
  later in the year.