During the Vicar Street concert (DVD) O`Flynn says that he plays Willie Clancy´s set pipes. Which one is it (Clancy played several)? Who made the reed for O´Flynn?
Cheers,
Hans
LOF says the same thing during a performance at the West Cork Traditional Music Festival at Bantry House.
In the Dance Music of Willie Clancy there is a photo of LOF piping with WC. The chanter LOF is playing doesn’t look like the Rowsome chanter he normally plays.
The set he has were made by Leo Rowsome in 1936 for Sean Reid. He told Leo he wanted his finest set when he ordered them and was to spare no expense in their making. Willie had em for a while and played em upside down, if you know what I mean (him being left handed) and they were given to O’Flynn after that. He still remarks that his pipes are a possession of the Reid family, not that they will ever reclaim them I’m sure.
So there you go, you all thought stain was only here to torment you all and give the evil moderator dude a bit of work to do. (no harm to keep him on his toes anyway)
I think its Sean Reid you are thinking of.
Steve
… said toes are now bloody nubs. 
Well, thanks! So it is the same set (the Reid-Rowsome) Being used to it´s divine sound on the studio-recordings (listening intensely to “The Well Below the Valley” had caused me to pick up the pipes) and the poorer live sound quality (of the pipes only, the lack of the “singing” quality) made me (a bit disappointedly) think that it was a different set.
Cheers,
Hans
I heard the pipes played up during the Vicar st gigs, it was very cold at the time. They worked fine during the earleir gigs in Ennis.
Clancy had those pipes during the early 60s but others had them before his, Paddy Donohue for one.
Peter
Am i right in thinking that LOF prefers his (very) old chanter reed, as it is very responsive/he’s very used to it.
Seems his hard bottom D has given up the ghost entirely, given what we hear on his recent recordings eg for radio
Boyd