John Murphy at The Source

Uilleann Pipes
1

Just in case you’re not getting e-mails from NPU (why not?), there’s an excellent series of videos of John Murphy from 1989. Always was one of favourite pipers. Anybody know if he’s still at it, and where?

http://source.pipers.ie/Media.aspx?mediaId=24283&categoryId=904

2

I have seen him during Willie, years ago but he wasn’t up for a talk then. He did send me a very nice e-mail when we did the CD, which is six years ago I suppose. Can’t remember the exact details but got the impression he was interested and playing although flying well under the radar.

3

Wow, what a player.

Weird/awkward point here: is it just me, or does he look alot like me? Especially the me of 1989. Fortunately he does not play like the me of 1989 :thumbsup: .

t

4

Wow, what a player.

At some point he moved into playing Scottish stuff, straphpeys and all that with the big triplet runs. Very nifty he was at it too.

There was a lovely story how he started the pipes. When the ‘Sense of Ireland’ thing was on in London in 79 or 80 he had to deliver a package or something. When he walked in JOBM was playing there. John was apparently sold on the pipes instantly and went for it.



does he look a lot like me?

5

The resemblence is uncanny. Scary, really.

6

I remember when I was starting out Sheila Church would show up at Chris Langan’s with tapes she’d made at the tionol in Ireland, and John featured prominently on them. One featured his rendition of the second part of the Boys of Tandaragee in Hijaz mode (it’s on the second clip), with some choice commentary quoting Ennis about the overuse of the ghost D being both unseemly and immoral…

Lots of lovely technical stuff–those “delayed” Clancy rolls, use of the C key for tonal variation, nice “breath stops,” and gorgeous rhythm.

7

Johns probelm is that he never really got himself a decent set of pipes. Before he went to Singapore he was playing a Ginsberg C set that he had set up so light that you only had to fart in its general direction to make it sound ,but it proved unreliable. Getting hold of good pipes thirty years ago was not as easy as it is now and it could make or break a good piper.

RORY