I posted a message a few weeks ago recalling how an elderly cousin of mine, who lived in Wexford all his life, studied under, and eventually became great friends with Leo Rowsome. I spent some time thinking on this, and, prompted in part by the recent message searching for Rowsome pipes in Australia, decided to call the son of this man. I have just gotten off the telephone with his wife, who informed me that the pipes had been sold to Sean og Potts(!!!). I have heard of late that Potts had recently procured a set of Rogge pipes, and thought I might try my luck at trying to get the set from him.
The real question is: does anyone have contact information for Sean og Potts? I tried googling him, but nothing came up. Anything would be grealy appriciated.
Jack,
Pat D’Arcy made a valid point in a recent thread with a similiar theme.
It is nice to know where instruments end up and especially when it was a family owned one. But this set of pipes belongs to somone else’s family now. I’m not saying don’t get in touch. Sean may be delighted to hear more about the lineage of the pipes but be careful about approching the topic of sale.
But, I don’t have any contact info for him but NPU would. www.pipers.ie
Mind you if its that Rowsome set that he recorded with through the late 1980’s, the chanter is a cracker but he never had any luck getting the rest of it going well, especially the regs.
The Rowsome set owned by Sean during the 80s was sold long ago (late 80s-early 90s) to German piper Johannes Schiffner who is still playing it as far a I know, I played myself once I think. Last time I saw him he had a Rogge chanter with it. It was troublesome as it would only play near e flat.
I saw Sean play it during one of the Willie week concerts, in mid-performance the lower end of the bass reg fell off.
Sean went through a few sets over time, the old Clarke, then a special Bruce DuVe job, the Rowsome (and others possibly). Johannes’ set definitely came from Sean, I have no doubt about that. This is a picture from around 1994 of Johannes playing the set, as far as i remember he had the set for a good while then so it must have been late 80s when he got it off Sean.
I’m sure Johannes told me some years ago that the Rowsome set he has or had in 1998 was a Willie Rowsome set that he purchased whilst in New Zealand??? minus the chanter. This was in Friel’s where I first met Johannes. He was using a Rogge D chanter with the set. Now I could well be wrong here prehaps he meant that the set had spent time in New Zealand and then returned to Ireland? Or does Johannes have both a Leo and a Willie set? I wonder how many full sets Leo R. made. There is a L. Rowsome set here in Skandinavia although the owner wishes to keep a low profile which is fair enough.
Johannes is coming along to the ‘Floating Tionol’ this June in England. His pipes will be heard in all their glory over five nights of sessions. I shall post the details up nearer the time.
The set definitely is the one and Johannes only has the one. In ´89 we together visited Peter Hunter and Johannes bought it from him. On the picture there already is the Rogge-chanter.
That brings back memories, you guys took along Gabi and dropped off near Lincoln before going to Hunter’s didn’t you, I was there with Geoff but other than that memory is a bit vague. :roll:
Yes, Peter, long time ago. I remember the three of us travelling. We had to leave and lucky Gabi could stay for another week (the Willie Week) and met Geoff…
The way I remember it she went back a week after Willie, we stayed on in Ireland with Geoff, travelled around and were at Martin Rochford’s for several days before travelling to England and then she phoned she was travelling to England with yourselves. Was a bit of a hectic year that one, in good and bad ways :roll:
Hello, Peter, Thomas and all, yes the above mentioned Leo Rowsome pipes are still “living” here in Krefeld, going very well, sounding fine and playing in A=440 Hz. After Andreas Rogge made a serious effort at restoring the regulators, I still find using them and keeping them in tune troublesome, but that’s more my personal rather than a technical problem. I remember Sean Potts told me, that before the pipes came to Dublin, they belonged to a Wexford man called Jack Devereaux (not sure about the spelling..). Leo is supposed to have made them shortly before 1930. When Sean played them as a teenager, the set was in a desparate state of air leaks and other faults and was considered as more or less unplayable, in particular the chanter refused to be tuned down to concert pitch, and it was at some stage decided to arrange a sort of a swap for a new set, that Peter Hunter had made for Sean.
Hello Johannes,
welcome to the list! I guess there is not much to say about you any more. Lots of people already know you. Its nice to have you here as well.
Hans
The same happened to his bass drone slider at the concert in San Francisco four years ago. He said Ronan Browne dubbed Sean the “Leper Piper.” Pity with all of Da’s Chieftains royalties the man can’t afford a spool of thread or tin of cork grease…
Or perhaps Sean puts out enough heat to make the wood shrink on the spot?
RTE did a Pure Drop program on Jack Devereaux (he pronounced it Deveracks) during the eighties. Ronan Brown was on playing the pipes (he played a lovely march called Drockettys March that came from Wexford) and Sean Potts (Daddy) was also there. Jack did a lot of talking and some singing.
The Bank of Ireland used to give out a bursary to classical musicians and Sean Og Potts put in for it one year. He was up against some classical musicians but won through. I think that he got 1500.00 pounds for his efforts ( I think that Robbie Hannon was on the selection committee but I am not sure). He bought the Rowsome pipes out of the bursary.
Every pipemaker in Ireland had a go at the pipes and all proclaimed that the body of the set was unplayable.
I had the chanter for about a year myself and it played well in tune with itself when it was tuned sharp of D.
