B) I don’t give a rat’s arse about Riverdance, LOTD, or Celtic Tiger. I wouldn’t take $100 to sit through any of them. Maybe $1000. Each.
C) That said, the older people who knew him when he was young and taught him how to dance and play the flute still respect him, are amused and sometimes puzzled by his antics, even miss him despite the grandstanding, showbiz trip he’s been on the last 10-15 years.
D) He’s very much a self-made man. If nothing else I respect his ability to bring his dreams to reality. While some of us may quibble with his decisions (myself included), how many of us ever achieve that?
Well, I would probably take $1000 to go to the shows, but not $100 I don’t think. Although I do like dance extravaganzas, so I might rent the videos.
I’m sure this fellow has put in a lot of hard work. And I agree than many of us would be discouraged before we finished the job.
I’m just not too keen on the beefcake thing in any fellow—I find it unattractive. I think that too is part of his promotional job and it is meant to appeal to women, many of whom I’m sure it does. I prefer an unposed fully clothed cowboy myself.
Just came back from the health club and the mid day news had repeated adds for this show. What got my attention was the last second in which a young woman rips open her shirt to display and American flag design bra underneath.
I must say that I almost puked at the tv when I saw Flatley’s American/Irish flag jacket in FOF. I myself enjoy a good show as long as it’s entertaining. I can see plenty of value in watching a show like LOTD, Riverdance or FOF: good dancing, gorgeous women, good music and spectacles. But sometimes it’s just over the top.
That beeing said, I think Riverdance is the best show of them all, because it sort of reaches the limit of what I can stand and never exceeds it. I don’t puke my guts out over what is trad and what is not. This is nothing like trad, even if it would give the impression of being trad to an untrained eye, but I don’t really care. A show is a show. People will watch something because they find it entertaining, not because their ancestors did the same stuff 200 years ago. Some people do enjoy stuff because their ancestors did, 200 years ago, and that is a blessing. But it’s not the point…
Edited to say that only the first sentance was a responce to what you said, all the rest was just letting out what I feel about this.
Well worth seeing. As others have said, though, not a “traditional” piece.. though, it seems to be setting its own .. since it has been quite popular for some number of years now.
He adulterates traditional Irish anything in this show. There are traditional elements to all of the other shows, but Celtic Tiger is by far the least traditional thing that I can think of. It’s all about glitz. FoF was too, but at least FoF had elements from LotD which were traditional.
Celtic Tiger is by far the best Irish Dance show EVER! Riverdance has gone to crap..they have sucessfully turned wine into water, however Lord of the Dance is still as sharp and entertaining as always. Celtic Tiger is more a Las Vegas show then a traditional show but it has the worlds best Irish dancers out of any irish show on this earth..and the steps are the hardest yet. Celtic Tiger pisses all over Riverdance. If you get the chance..GO SEE IT!
the best celtic dancing i’ve ever seen was with The Chieftains.
they had a couple with them who did traditional step dancing in the irish style (looked like Riverdance to my uneducated eyes), they also brought up a troop of girls from a local celtic dance school, which was nice.
but the best thing was these two members of the band that were brothers (with the last name Polanski or something like that) and they did what they called Ottawa Valley dancing. it was somewhere between irish step dancing and american tap and it’s one of the most amazing performances i’ve ever seen.
That’s Pilatzke. Just watching (actually mostly listening) to one of them (John?) on DVD the other night. They’ve played with whistler Loretto Reid’s family band and Chanda Gibson’s group Pulse as well as the Chieftains – actually, I think I’ve seen them live with all three groups.
Live at the Celtic Roots Festival Part Two. It’s the second segment, with Chanda Gibson & Pulse. If the DVD back is to be believed (and I’ve already found plenty of typos and inaccuracies on the 3 DVDs, so take it with a grain of salt!) it’s just John (Jon?), and he plays fiddle and dances. I was in the other room cooking while it was on, so I don’t know how much dancing he actually did – probably not too much I’m guessing – but there is a good sample of his fiddle playing. It’s all Ottawa Valley stepdancing.
The DVD also has Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, the Reid-Taheny Band (with an awe-inspiring whistle solo from Loretto Reid, though they forgot to list her in the credits altogether!), Tony McManus, and Archie Fisher. Each group plays three or four sets. The whole recording is a touch amateurish, but it’s great music, and as far as I know, the only DVD performances available by any of them.
Just reread this thread, and thought people might want to know that Jon Pilatzke has a band, Quagmyre, the website is around somewhere. Haven’t heard their cd(s?) yet, but I’ve been planning on it. Fiddle-rock/pop I think. Jon plays some Irish, some Canadian and some French Canadian fiddle and I’m sure there is some Canadian step-dancing as well.
