just curious: Is there a pivotal moment that got you hooked on the pipes? A certain concert? A record? Something else?
I recently discovered that I got bitten by the bug when I was only 9 years old (not too bad for a German boy)! In 1978 there was a TV series of the Stevenson novel “Kidnapped” with a haunting title theme that I absolutely fell for. I forgot that song for 20+ years until I just recently found out that it had the pipes in it - played by LOF. Of course it was a schmaltzy love theme, but it seems to have changed my life looking backwards. I reencountered the pipes in the late 80’s on the “Ommadawn” record by Mike Oldfield. I decided to take the plunge in 1994, ordering a Hughes practice set and going to my very first workshop with A. Rogge. The rest, as they say, is history. I would love to hear your stories as well. What made you take up the pipes?
Wish you a happy weekend
My curiosity about the instrument was peaked by recordings of various bands I had heard, starting with the second Pogues album and then later the Bothy Band, Planxty, and the Chieftains. What really gave me the piping bug in a bad, bad way was meeting Al Purcell while he was living in a condo about a mile from my parents’ house in Detroit. I was 22 at the time. He pulled out this magnificent looking Froment B set and played a few tunes for me and I was just floored. I had to learn how to play one of these gorgeous instruments that instant, and there was no going back. He sold that set a few years later, but I’ll never forget as long as I live hearing him play it that rainy December night in 1994.
As a schoolboy I was a Horslips fan
They were big in Ireland in the 70’s…a precursor of many Trad/Rock bands…check out “The Book Of Invasions”
…one of the band members briefly tried the UP’s, although it wasn’t a big feature of their music. Good sound from it, but I didn’t know what I was listening to.
Most of the Irish stuff I listened to had other instruments, except for the Chieftans.
I really got into the Chieftans in my late 20’s…just loved the quirky sound of the chanter, and eventually ditched my whistles for a dodgy practice set.
I saw Gay McKeon at a session in Dublin and I’ve wanted a set since then, the sound of the pipes was absolutely new to me and completely mind-blowing.
Mark
Chieftains, late '60s. Then mostly college radio in the '70s to learn of Planxty, Bothy Band, Seamus Ennis, etc.
Saw Joe McKenna live in early '80s. He told me I’d have to go to Ireland to get a set of pipes made custom (not even a remote possibility for me then).
Met a girl at work late '90s. I was on my way to the men’s room. She was playing fiddle in the middle of the office. I bought a fiddle, got some lessons from her. Then she introduced me to some local sessions in never knew existed. The bodhrán player put me in touch with Joe Kennedy, who was just starting out making pipes, who introduced me to a fellow in Toronto who was acting as a salesman for Robbie Hughes. After all these years, and then from the bodhrán player to ordering a Robbie Hughes halfset in under a week. I knew the cosmic forces were moving and I went with the flow.
The rest is history … well, not yet, but who knows? I’m workin’ on it.
I got the bug when I heard Finbar Furey play the Fox Chase on a Fureys best-of compilation you can generally pick up for a couple of quid. I’d known for a long time what Uilleann pipes were, having been playing GHBs and the rest for a while, but having done a fair bit of fox-hunting when I was younger, it really did make the hairs on my neck stand up to hear the pipes yelping and barking like that, just like a real pack of hounds. Really, really wierd.
Ditto, Calum. I’d just started listening to Steeleye Span thirty year’s ago, when I found an Irish compilation LP at the library, featuring Finbar Furey’s “Madam Bonaparte”. Blew me away!
About 2 1/2 years ago I walked into an Irish pub and there was a guy there playing these weird looking bagpipes. I never had seen or heard of Uilleann pipes before (I was one of those shelters people who knew of nothing but GHBs)…but was immediately interested but felt they would be way beyond me.
At that point I thought I would maybe, someday play the whistle. After a year on the whistle, and listening to many CDs…I knew I would eventually have to play the pipes.
North Hero, Vermont in the early 90’s. I was simply overwhelmed by Jerry O’Sullivan and Paddy Keenan performing together in a concert. I thought about a while and had my pipes a couple of years later.
I got started on the Highland pipes around when I turned 16. Shortly after, my teacher brought in a tape of Paddy Keenan to expose me to what he called “the other side of the piping tradition.” I have to admit, I don’t remember being all that blown away by it, but I took up the whistle shortly after so that I could be of more use at the local sessions. Then I saw Keenan at a house concert a couple of years later and I really was blown away. I had uilleann pipes and flute on the brain but went with the flute when I was 18 because it was cheaper and easier to play (well, at least I thought it was at the time…). I had this fear of becoming a mediocre jack of all trades on a bunch of instruments and I was sure taking up the UPs would do me in. Anyway, a few years after that, in the summer of '00, I was living in Dingle, Co. Kerry and walked into Cillian O Briain’s shop hoping to get on his wating list. He said he was so booked up, he probably wouldn’t start taking orders again for a while but as fate would have it, he just happened to have a finished practice set for sale at the time. Well, that was it. Couldn’t hold back any longer. I walked out of the shop with a practice set and a practically maxed-out credit card. Now I’m wondering if I should max out the card again to order the regs…it never ends.
About 1989 I was listen to a planxty album “The woman I love so well”.
I was sold when I heard Liam O`flynns playing in the first track.
Later I listened to The Tailors Twist , but I can remember the next tune following The Tailors tune in that set. Maybe someone can give me the name of that tune?
I bought a practiseset in 1989, since then I have been a uilleannpipe freak. Bought a fullset in 2002.
I’d bought one of Finbar Furey’s Nonesuch records used, and remember thinking “Huh! So those are Irish pipes.” Then I got Willie Clancy’s Pipering Vol. 1, and that bowled me over. I got the second Bothy Band at the same time, which sounded like the Chicago Symphony in comparision.
Tried several instruments over the years but never managed to stick with any of them…Heard Liam O’Flynn Play “Sun in the Stream” on an Enya CD in '94 and blown away. I looked for about 2 yrs on and off trying to find out something about this thing called “Uilleann Pipes” .. Finally found a book on Irish crafts while browsing through the library one day(before Internet) and there was an article about Eugene Lamb pipe maker. I spent several nights on the phone and close to 100 bucks in long distance charges, but I finally found his telephone #, very nice guy to speak with and very helpful. At that time he was selling full sets for about $2800 US … Just couldn’t justify that much money, not knowing if I would stay with it, so I put it off for a couple years before deciding for sure to take the plunge( boy, if I only new then what I know now). Puchased a Clarke tin whistle and tooted it for a while, but it just didn’t blow my dress up!!! … Eventualy found a set, by Ian MacKenzie, on ebay. This guy from Australia was selling a practice set he had owned for 10 yrs and never played. I won the auction and including shipping, grand total of $553 US
There it is!!!
Mike
Never played anything before, and didn’t even know Irish music existed until the dancing of Riverdance just blew me away. I bought the CD, and got all delirious hearing Spillane play the Cu Chulainn lament. I picked up a copy of his Sea of Dreams a while later and when I first heard the Midnight Walker, tears came to my eyes. Actually, a friend had just died and I was thinking about him when I heard the song.
I just sort of knew I wanted to be able to play that kind of music. At Milwaukee’s Irish Fest last year, I got nuts over a piper in a band I can’t remember, was it Kila? The next day I talked to a pipe Maker, researched him on the net, found this forum. All of a sudden it was the only thing I could think about.
Being a visual artist for 30 some years, there was never a thought about learning how to play an instrument, it just never registered. My mode of being and expression was fully realised… visually. It was all I needed.
Actually, a number of things occurred in my life that affected me greatly over these last three years, which seem to indicate that I may have slipped a notch, so to speak. All of which makes me wonder at my present condition, and why I am now, having just turned 59 years, learning how to play the darndest musical instrument I’ve ever seen, knowing I’ll never get my 21 years in… but loving every moment of it.
