I think I am still a bit too much in the middle of it too post any comments. Maybe Az can take care of that.
An unprepared emergency appearance on two minute warning on the main piping concert [Mick O Brien arrived late so there was a gap to fill] blew my carefully maintained cover. So Otter cornered me for a chat after.
It’s all madness this. And you are missing the fun.
Good man Peter. Quite an honour, to be sure, but I would think a pretty nerve-racking occasion, considering the people that were likely to have been in the audience or watching from the wings. What did you decide to play, and why?
Well Steve, it was a matter of get your pipes, which I did, running to the car up the road and then ‘you have two minutes to put them together and be up there’ so I was totally blanked out on the tunes. So I played what came, taking my chances. Why, l ay awake most of the night wondering, and thinking up better tunes I could have played.
Sat down afterward in the back of the central hotel with the fiddle crowd [Joe Ryan Brendan McGlinchey, Pat Mullins and that lot, PJ Howell driving the flute, lovely stuff] so that was nice. Couldn’t get into Hillery’s where James Cullinan, James Kelly, PJ Crotty and a bunch of others were at it. Some nice tunes going.
I did my first on the big one in 1989 my spot wedged between Keenan and Tommy Reck. That was a lot more nerve racking. And I have been in that situation a few times since, you know you sit at the concert Sean Potts or whoever is MC for the night[Gay McKeown in this case], comes down the stage, ‘come here I want you so and so didn’t turn up, will you do it’. Few would but I don’t mind taking chances, if you go up and make a complete bollocks of it, well so be it but if it works out, grand you have spontaneous music. Which suits me fine.
And then, myself and a few others standing in the wings slagging the rest of them, it’s only fair to get up there to get the other end of the stick.
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-07-11 11:01 ]
Wow! Cool stuff, Peter. Wish I could have been there. Do you think Finbar was there in the wings, sniggering? (“What’s wrong with that guy, he never touches his regulators?!?”)
But we need more information. Did you play solo on stage, and what tunes did you play, what tunes did you whish you had played? And which set was it that you had in your car? The concert pitch one, or perhaps one of those somewhere-around-Bb jobs? 
On 2002-07-11 09:59, Bloomfield wrote:
(“What’s wrong with that guy, he never touches his regulators?!?”)
Whatever made you think that.
Well, I seem to remember that you were bashing regulator-bashing a la Rowsome. But don’t mind me, I shouldn’t even be commenting on the uillean pipes, anyway.
There are other ways, non-Rowsome. Actually play them a good bit if the fancy takes me.
On 2002-07-11 16:46, Peter Laban wrote:
There are other ways, non-Rowsome. Actually play them a good bit if the fancy takes me.
… and very well.
T
Thanks you T, that was nice to hear
Sounds cool Peter! I’m still waiting for more field reports of this years Willie Week though - surely there’re other interesting stories from the rest of the gang? I should be heading there next year so I’m very interested to know. Also, can someone give me some advice on attending Willie Week, like how long do I need to plan for proper accomodation before the festival and etc?
Az was posting a bit to another thread, maybe he missed this one.
It seemed more quiet this year [though hundreds of people go dancing at the ceili venues so they disappear from view, scores of other go to other places to play a more quiet tune]and accomodation was readily available in mid week .
Willie week is very much something you take as it comes. I talked to a lot of people, walked around heard some nice tunes and played some nice music with people I knew. [I rarely, if ever sit down with people I don’t know. The first saturday I was playing with two local girls, in come five american guys who sat down without saying a word, unpacked and took off on their repertoire they practised at home. Essentially not paying any attention to the people who were there. I left.].
I enjoy a quiet tune but won’t squeeze into a full pub to try to hear nice music over the noise the drinkers make, I will spent a lot of time wandering around so.
As a first time visit it will be exiting enough to see the sheer amount of musicinas, the very good and the very bad alike, concentrated in a small town, going around their business, from Carmel Gunning going round all day trying to persuade people to go to her summerschool and flogging a few cds to Gussie Russell quietly enjoying listening to a few tunes. And just about anything in between.
It will be interesting to hear what Az and Otter have to say.
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-07-14 04:35 ]
On 2002-07-11 09:59, Bloomfield wrote:
Wish I could have been there. Do you think Finbar was there in the wings, sniggering? (“What’s wrong with that guy, he never touches his regulators?!?”)
On Thursday night, at Glór, Finbar Fury played an old ‘practice tune’, he had learned at the age of eight, he told us. I forget its name. Anyway, virtually the whole tune was played with his left hand on the chanter and the right hand on the regulators. He played them like a piano keyboard! Fabulous stuff!
Steve
Please excuse my ignorance, but what is a “Willie Week” ?
“Willie Week” is a nickname given to the Willie Clancy Summer School (obviously named after the piper), in Clare…where for a week, people get to sign up for classes with fantastic (and popular) musicians and learn something And I think there’s a lot of music going on in that area too.
Peace.
Chih
“A whistle a day keeps the doctor away”
edited for some typos, but there are probably other mistakes.
[ This Message was edited by: psychih on 2002-07-14 11:10 ]
More links and information about Willie Clancy:
http://www.irishmusicweb.ie/texts/clancy.w.html
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/clancy.htm
http://www.miltownmalbaytourism.com/willieclancy/
http://www.setdance.no/eng/clancy.html
http://www.custysmusic.com/mall/CustysTraditionalMusicShop/notes/note-2780.stm
http://www.claddaghrecords.com/cc32.htm
http://www.holidayhound.com/editorials/t6clpwiladvise.htm
I guess that’s enough… oh, Willie played pipes and whistle left-handed.
Congratulations Peter, I thought you did very well playing alongside so many greats at such short notice. I thought Finbarr didn’t play his best in Ennis - Paddy Keenan completely overshadowed him - but his piece with the regulators was interesting. Speaking
of regulators, Mikie Smyth’s ‘Bucks of Oranmore’ left me gobsmacked - such life and all those new ideas in such an old and possibly overplayed tune. I really enjoyed Willie week & I hope to come back next year - I was studying fairly beginners pipes with Ciaran O’Malley.
Jo.
Well, you should at have at least said hello, I was down at the pipers every morning for a cup of tea.
I didn’t hear Mickey do his Bucks, I got the word I’d be on there when he went into his second set and he got a few extra tunes while I got the pipes from the car. But judging by what I have seen him do in the past I don’t think there are any new ideas in it, there’s a lot of Ennis and lots of Ronan Browne. It’s very well done though. Pat Mitchell’s comment on the concert was interesting.
It was a nice week, the weather came out well and it didn’t turn into a zoo over the weekends like it does some year. Had some great music on the sundaynight to finish it off, lots of sets being danced and plenty of good fun.
Stop being so coy, Peter;) what was young Mitchell’s comment?
Yes there was a lot of Ennis in his playing - maybe not new ideas, but you don’t here people playing like that very often. I thougth from your earlier message that you were aiming for annonimity. You were taking photos at the lunch time recitals anyway.
I also thought it was nice to see continental europeans enjoying the irish musc and being so good at it too.
Jo.