I was supposed to play a gig with my band Sigean, and had to work in Mexico until Saturday. I had a flight from Cozumel Sat. morning to get me home in time. It was CANCELLED! Thanks USAir. I missed the whole gig, got home at midnight from the airport.l
I feel like Linus after Halloween. I missed it, I missed St. Patrick’s Day. If I’d had my pipes I could’ve at least pulled them out in the airport. No frickin way, they were at home. No Guiness, nothin!!!
Hope everyone else had better luck.
Timmy
Well, you can make up for it on Cinco de Mayo. Just start working on your Mariachi skills, though. 
You know, if you celebrated the pagan holidays ( beyond Christmas, Easter, Hallowe’en… ), you’d have more fun and more of them. 
why be picky and celebrate them all
Well I played with the local GHB band from 5:00-6:00pm, which I didn’t get payed for as the funds went to the band. I certainly had a lot of fun in the process, although the venue was a pub there was no after band celebration of course (no seriously 
). Sometimes its just nice to make a lot of noise and disturb the local CBD district for an hour 
. Next I played the Uilleann Pipes for half-an-hour at a medical training seminar. I thought it was a suit and tie event but suddenly realised that doctors in Mackay are a really informal bunch of people…no tie or suite to be found 
. That was a paying event and I got $50. Hullabalu which is a professional group has offered to pay me $100 for an hour sessions (even though I’m not a professional), and they are a really popular group in the district. So I didn’t feel to bad asking for that fee, as there isn’t another piper like myself in the district (not that I know of anyway).
Cheers L42B
L42B said: “doctors in Mackay are a really informal bunch”. That’s good to hear because, back around 1994, I was refused service in a pub in Mackay (Queensland, I assume we’re talking about the same Mackay) because I was wearing a tee shirt. The town standards must be softening.
TnWhistler said: “No Guiness, nothin!!!” Don’t worry pal, I believe Guiness is available the other 364 days of the year.
Bummer!!
We had a storm and a foot of snow. Two of my contracts were cancelled but the other two went ahead.
Got 300$ for less than 3 hours, playing in a few pubs for murphy’s distrubuter, on the GHB…
too bad it’s only once a year… (as for playing GHB for $$$ in Israel isn’t that profitable…)
but that will help to buy the UP i want…
Mine sucked too. My husband had to go to China, so I had to go stay with my relatives in SoCal to get some help with the bb. I had to miss my band playing at the parade in SF for the first time. 
J.
Well St. Pat’s only half sucked here. The daytime gig was at a University pub. Lots of weird green getups, weird green beer and general weirdness. (I think somebody got arrested while we were playing “Worried man blues”.) Took an hour to get their sound system to work! Took longer to get any service from the wait staff!!
The night gig was much better. The house was packed (which made setup a hassle) but the crowd was very appreciative. We really “got into a groove” and the music flowed. Good food, great service, free Guinness, who could ask for more?
A cold mass of dry air fecked up the clime here in Nashville. Pipes were playing like a dream until Friday. Still, I was not about to pass on the opportunity to sit in “The Round” as a guest musician with the pipes at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. They didn’t behave themselves…regs went out of tune on me and chanter reed got funky… but I adapted and the pipes were well received.
My weekend was pretty good. About twenty hours of playing! Played for about 700 people in a big party tent on St Patricks day night! It was alittle loud but the atmosphere was amazing. I have one thought right now. DRINK WATER!!!LOTS OF WATER!
Oh, thank God that’s over…
Actually, it was a pretty decent, reasonably profitable weekend. I won’t miss the booze, noise and claustrophobia, though…Well, I might miss the booze just a bit…
But could someone please inform the church music directors of the world that you CANNOT march and play uilleann pipes at the same time. It seems like some of them are still havin’ a bit of a hard time grasping that concept…
Amplifier/mixer started suddenly make some strainge “BZZ” noice to guitar…pipemic broken beginning of the second set…for good luck I got one spare mic and show continued..
Terrible green beer…terrible much drunken people asking all the time
"..U should play whisky in the jar…Irish rover… 
But gig went fine indeed.
My gig went fine, but on my way home, I got mugged for my Guinness-st.pat’s hat, got a punch in the face, so today I have black eye… I’m just glad that the didn’t take the pipes flute or my fiddle…
/Anders
Lewis, I wished you could’ve made the Florida Tionol the weekend before, the weather was perfect and so was the event… blew any Paddy’s Day event out of the water I have ever known. 
St Patrick’s Day?? To be honest, I simply forgot it was on.
But hey, today the Hindus celebrated ‘Nyepi’ which comes from the word ‘sepi’ which means silence. On Bali everything is closed for the entire day and no one is allowed to do anything, can’t even go outside!! Kind of like Sabbath for ultra-orthodox Jews. No playing pipes, nuttin’.
Not too bad a run of gigs for me. Played at the Mayor’s Breakfast (he is a BIG fan of the uilleann pipes), and at a bakery (paid AND got a free loaf of guinness-gouda bread 
). I also played a theatre/bar: a six-hour gig (sung to the Gilligan’s Island theme). Noisiest gig I have ever played. This event turned out the (curdled) cream of St. Paul’s Greenoisie. The colors (greens that do not occur in nature), the costumes (is there any item of apparel that cannot now light up?) and the attachments/appendages (including inflatibles) have reached new highs in lows. I was horrified yet could not look away. I am thinking the gene pool in St. Paul’s Irish-American community could use a healthy splash of chlorine.
tommygreen
edited to make comments even pither than before!
.. ya’ think? 
I had the same dry air to work with as Lewis, but I had invested in a small humidifier that is quiet enough that it doesn’t intrude. I made it through three two-hour solo performances, but I’m having to type this message with my nose because my hands have gone off on holiday The back D was starting to feel weak by the end of the third gig, but I made it through(barely).
dave boling