A Davy Spillane Low Whistle soon-2004!

Whistle
41

As long as people buy the records, go to the concerts and have sycophants and defenders, the artist can behave as he pleases, it would seem. Does not guarantee personal happiness by any measure, tho. Very often, famous performers seem very edgy, like an alcoholic craving getting through the afternoon to make it to the bar. Or they are just dying to be around a select few familiar faces only (who they can presumably trust), similar to what Zub alluded to.

But I do think people should be aware that stage door encounters often leave mis-impressions. I generally avoid them, even when I would like to meet the artist because you often won’t really “meet” them. From the other side, I have enjoyed the compliments after shows and such but often everything is in such a rush that your usual niceties get pushed a bit. But there is only so much meaningful human interaction possible when you tell somebody they are great, over and over again. Things sour quickly.

The existence of days or week long festivals gives the more accurate impression to me. Too bad about that guy. In fact, too bad about anybody who no longer enjoys their work and the opportunities that arise from it. (I’d love to spend a week with Janice, nyuk.)

Once somebody is very famous, the best thing to do is leave ‘em alone, unless you are actually introduced to them or put in a social interaction where you have some necessary interaction. We have a lot of very famous people runnin’ around the Bay Area, especially Berkeley and SFO. I don’t give 'em a second glance, and they don’t want or need it from me. But the vibe gets weird. I was at a show in SF where Robin Williams was in the audience. During the intermission in the lobby, there was like this halo around the guy. The distance was all the people who wanted to look but were too cool to say anything, Then a few would penetrate the perimeter and tell him he was great. The whole thing was very uncomfortable. If I was him, I might have wanted to bolt or hide somewhere. Imagine going through that, day after day.

In an ideal world, people would be completely consistent in their interactions with everybody and untransformed by fame. I wish…

42

Nyuk, nyuk to you Weeks! :wink:

43

Hi.

I’m not sure what I have to add. First, to Talbert, I would just ask that you review the policy on commercial posting. I don’t think you’ve done anything inappropriate at all, but if you are going to be marketing for Davy, you’ll want to look that over.

I do try to avoid making any judgments about Davy as a person. I don’t know him. In the early days of C&F, I emailed him more than once and got no response. Then I got a rather terse-appearing email from him regarding his demand that I delete from the website anything that might state or imply that he plays or endorses anyone’s whistle. There really wasn’t much to delete (if anything, I don’t really recall) and I emailed back politely and, alas, never heard from him again.

He is free to behave toward fans and fellow musicians as he chooses. But, I can’t help but contrast his approach to that of Joanie Madden, the most widely heard and commercially successful whistle player on the planet. Joanie is accessible, very friendly, and grateful to her fans for being fans.

I await with excitement the entry of Davy’s low whistles on the marketplace. But, I confess I’m not holding my breath here.

Dale

44

Yeah, comparing Davy Spillany to Robin Williams is a good piece of wishtful thinking! :smiley: My whole thought about the issue of Davy Spillane and how he behaves is summarized in one word: yawn!

45

hello dale!! :slight_smile: thanks for your sincere input. i’ll be sure to
read in regard’s to"commercial posting!" also, happy that i’v
committed no wrongs here. thanks much dale. truth is dale
davy really is a great guy! i read ofcourse your reply. i do
appreciate your feelings on all this. i want others to hopefully
see DAVY the way that i know he is. yes, davy can be abit
direct w/ people. he has also giving me a few words or two!
but i dont take it personal in any way. i realize davy does
at times have some pressure on him! but i love this man
for who he is, and i will back him at all cost. because he’smore than a commercial-figure!!! i also admire you along
w/ our other wonderful “chiff” members! you are the best
DALE! WE LOVE YOU DALE!!! thanks for giving us all a chance to express ourselves regarding this. by the way,
davy is reading the 'comments"! -thanks much talbert :slight_smile:

46

The main thing is, as I see it,
whatever this guy is or isn’t,
hope springs eternal that people will
get it together. There are people with whom
I will never deal with again, because they’ve
seriously harmed my interests, defined themselves
as untrustworthy.
They’re not going to be in a position
to do that again. Similarly I keep my
distance from crazies.
But those who are boorish in an impersonal
way, oh well…In the scheme of nastiness
in this world, that’s small potatos, indeed.
I’m not about to go out on a limb
for such people, but where I’ve nothing
at all at stake, personally, well, April’s not so
far to wait and see. People sometimes
change for the better; it’s happened
here. Best

47

I disagree. Well, not completely. I agree that there are often two (or more) personalities – it’s just that I think that the online one is usually the “real” one. Put simply, how one behaves when one believes that they can’t be held accountable for that behaviour reveals their true nature.

That holds whether you believe you can’t be held accountable because you are too famous, or whether you believe you can’t be held accountable because you’re anonymous, or whether you believe you can’t be held accountable because of great distances, or whether you believe you can’t be held accountable because “it’s just a computer screen,” or…well, you get the idea.

On another note – I’ve been interested in IRT for several years and have collected a few dozen CDs. I don’t by any means claim to be an expert on IRT, but I’ve never heard of Spillane except in this forum and usually in context of “does he really make his own whistles,” “is he really a jerk,” etc. My reaction is “who cares?”

48

Hi John,

I believe the VAST majority of people who know who Mr. Spillane is, know him as the whistler/piper from the original Riverdance production. Others know him from his work with artists like Enya or the band Moving Hearts.

But without Riverdance, most of us would never know of him I fear. He’s an amazing musician though not very traditional in style on most recordings. Still, there are plenty of us who would like to have a decent two way conversation with him regarding his whistles, their evolution, and of course his piping.

Davy, if you’re reading this - (and to quote Joan Rivers) : “Can we talk?”

:slight_smile:

Brian~

49

This is a well-stated position and is arguable and defensible.

However, there are other perspectives.

Electronic communication provides unprecedented freedom, yet to many people it just doesn’t feel as “real” as a face-to-face conversation. For instance, there are polite, quiet people who would not hesitate to slam the phone down on a telemarketer–yet the telemarketer is a person, too, and it takes no more time to say “Sorry, not interested,” and then hang up gently.

You might argue that when you see someone hang up on a salesman, you are seeing that person’s truest nature, yet this same person just might give you the shirt off his back if you asked politely face to face.

When you are interacting in email, or in discussion forums, it is entirely too easy to lose sight of the fact that those with whom you are interacting are not merely words on a screen, but are people themselves, with their own personalities, their own gifts, and their own demons.

I am as guilty as the rest: how many of us wonder, when we write these posts, if our words will cost someone a good night’s sleep tonight?

Even those which we do not like or care for still deserve our respect, rather or not they have shown us respect first. This is the core and essense of civilized behavior.

No matter what the history, Mr. Spillane is a person. He may well have read this thread. He may well have read the other comments that have been made about him on this board. For all we know, he may even follow the board on a regular basis. If he does, he may feel he has reason to approach us with caution…or even not to allow approach in either direction.

April isn’t far off, and Talbert in particular seems like a very humane and caring person.

Indeed, as several have already pointed out, why not merely wait and see? Perhaps you’ll be surprised for the better. Wouldn’t that be nice?

–James

50

hi james, :slight_smile: thanks so much for the comment regarding
my personality! i will make sure to the best of my ability
that davy resolve these strong feelings respectfully! again,
i’m not sure if he loged on in the past, but he’s definitely
here now. i care for you all but i care for davy as well!
its really time davy spoke! we’ve already discussed
things and he’s here! p.s. i tried to get that picture for
the board w/out any success! i mentioned the picture
yesterday. i’ll keep trying. i’m a man of my word!-talbert

51

Strange thread.

Talbert comes in with both a grade 3 scoop (on our little scale of Richter) and through a rather innnocent post too.

What comes out of it is… why so many good manufacturers don’t even bother posting, or only in self-defense. And many don’t even lurk around.

One of the best reputed whistlemakers in America wrote me once, when I asked him if I could post here on some feature of his instrument: “I’d prefer if you could please not comment on my whistles there. I don’t think bulletin boards are the best media of communication.” All the same, he was one of the finest persons to exchange mail with, or get a whistle from…

52

The longer i’m around and the more i think about some of the stupid things i’ve posted in the past, in this and other boards, the more i agree with your friend. It’s just human nature, the less we know, the more willing we are to express it and defend it with intense emotion. Me, the more i learn, the less i know that i know.

Still, i’ve learned so much here, and i feel i’ve “met” so many interesting people. You all all figments of my imagination, of course, but still, it’s good to imagine that you’re real! :slight_smile:

53

When you have a message board with a relatively small number of experts and a relatively large number of hobbyists and learners, you essentially have all the chaos of an large open community led by a small, essentially closed community.

This can be a good thing–I’m grateful to have such fine musicians available here–but it also can lead to a kind of closed mentality where you have a One Right Way defined, and anyone who departs significantly becomes a heretic to the community.

The trouble about the concept of a One Right Way is that, in reality, there are usually Many Right Ways, which do tend to converge at common goals but may differ in how they get there.

I can understand why a maker would approach such a community only with caution and hesitation.

–James

54

Ahh, that 'splains it then, as Ricky would’ve said. I didn’t get to see the production live but I’ve seen the video productions of both the original and the later one in NY. Frankly I simply wasn’t blown away by the piping/whistling in either production – not that it was bad or anything, it just doesn’t stand out in my memory – maybe just because there were so many other fantastic things going on. And Enya is, well, let’s just say I think I’ve got one of their CDs around here somewhere but it hasn’t gotten any ear time in years.

Earlier in this thread someone mentioned Spillane’s alleged (to be fair) disdain for paying audiences – I’m in the camp that believes a performer should remind himself that he belongs to that audience for the duration of the performance. The two versions of Riverdance are a good example of this. I know a lot of people dislike Flatley, “lucky drunk” is one of the least denigrating names I’ve heard him called, but in every moment of his performance you could see that he was giving himself to the audience and enjoying the heck out of it. The guy that replaced him was probably a “better” dancer technically, but the guy looked like he was bored to tears and couldn’t wait to get off stage and collect his paycheck. Guess which performance I liked better? :slight_smile:

55

I thought the UP playin in Riverdance was quite fine. It finally helped me to realize that there was room in my world for both kinds of pipes as GHB were always my emotional favorite. I had no idea who it was playing at the time. As I have heard many more UPs since, I have come to appreciate the variety of playing styles. But I still thought that playing was very moving and I think it inspired some of the folks here on this Board. Hey, I am a guy who went to the SF Tionol to hear all the pipes partly because of him and I don’t aspire to play em but think they’re great.

Hard to accept as truth that bit about the builders’ trepidation beyond Zub’s example. I think Rose, Abell, Oriordan, Goldie/Overton, Burke, Hoover et al have been treated very well on this Board. Yes, maybe its not the BEST way of communicating their designs, that’s what websites are for. But its a lot like word of mouth, only more permanent as it gets archived. I think that any builder who releases something not ready for the market has the most to fear from this Board.

56

I so agree. A friend gave me a vid a couple years ago which featured the post-Flatley guy…it just wasn’t the same.

57

You’re into gamma-hydroxy butyrate? Geez, Weeks, you’re a wild man.

58

He never does it on Sunday.
Some of us, you know, we’re
still lost in the 60s.

59

update: i’ll have my final say regarding my friend davy
spillane. 1-i feel that the best thing that could have come
of all this is that individuals had a great opportunity to
express to davy personally through the board how they
felt ( he read them all!!! ) and perhaps otherwise you would
not have had that chance. unfortunately, i do feel that he will
not be making any statements soon to the board. i also
feel that even though this forum is a great medium for
expression, but not always the best way for others if this
is what they wish! 2- regarding davy’s low whistle! again,
april to my understanding is the timeframe for the release
of his whistle to the public. ( to all who say’s they are not
holding there breath, you just may be pleasantly surprised)
he just may surprise you! :slight_smile: i’ll tell you this much: its has
an aluminium body, large finger holes, and black top! its
really cool! i also promised to perform a sample w/ it. i’ll
honor that promise soon enough.i’ll keep you all posted!
thanks again for giving me the chance to simply shed a
little light on davy! :slight_smile: it was really nice that you expressed
your thoughts whether possitive,or negative.all the best!

60

yawn…