Chiff and Fipple Forums

Thats a very cool catch, the whistle in Mad Max. I wonder what's the backstory behind it being there?

I think somebody posted it either here or in a whistle group on FB. I also wonder why it is there. Was it Mel's idea? Was it his whistle? Does he really play? Did they just put it there to give "Mad Max" a human touch? Would be interesting to know. Too bad we never see him play in the movies.

pulled up my own DVD...sure enough, at about the 2 minute 30 second mark.

You have sharp eyes to have spotted the whistle there Sedi!
I would never have noticed it there myself.

Just Googled 'Mel Gibson whistle' and up came a result in Google Books for The Chieftains Authorised Biography by John Glatt.
Can't read all of it on there, just the page on which the search term 'Mel Gibson' & 'whistle' appears, but it seems that Mel Gibson actually does play the whistle himself:

"The Chieftains got a standing ovation, and as they left the stage after an encore, a smiling Mel Gibson rushed up to congratulate them on their performance. Since being introduced to their music by Roger Daltrey a couple of years earlier at the Irish Evening concert at the Hollywood Bowl, the Australian film star had become a big fan. Now backstage Gibson picked up a tin whistle and played a duet with Moloney as they posed for press photographs.
'Mel loves The Chieftains', says Paddy. 'And he's not a bad whistle player either.'"

If I've copied the link correctly, it should take you directly to the page:

https://tinyurl.com/yyxvhwxo

[Tiny url substituted, and spelling of "Chieftains" corrected throughout. Sorry, OCD kicked in - Mod]

Very cool info! Thanks for sharing. It wasn't me BTW, who spotted it . It was posted either here or on FB.

Your 'car whistles' should be welded inside the exhaust. When you wanna woo woo, it's that woo WOO! You know what I'm saying?
Click the photo below for an explanation.

https://tinyurl.com/yyxvhwxo

[Tiny url substituted, and spelling of "Chieftains" corrected throughout. Sorry, OCD kicked in - Mod]

My apologies on the incorrect spelling, thank you for sorting that out. I have just found the TinyUrl website and learnt how to shorten long links, so I will definitely be using that now - I'd seen tinyurl links before, but never knew what they meant . I learn new things every week here on the C&F

pbff wrote:

https://tinyurl.com/yyxvhwxo

[Tiny url substituted, and spelling of "Chieftains" corrected throughout. Sorry, OCD kicked in - Mod]

My apologies on the incorrect spelling, thank you for sorting that out. I have just found the TinyUrl website and learnt how to shorten long links, so I will definitely be using that now - I'd seen tinyurl links before, but never knew what they meant . I learn new things every week here on the C&F

The tinyurl thing is quite useful. The main problem with those long urls, as far as I can see, is that they mess up the display for people trying to view the site on a mobile phone. This is because, at least on a lot of mobile phones, the url insists on being on the same line, so the whole of the post goes onto that line, but, sadly, nobody else's posts do. So you get this bizarre looking mixture of posts of different widths, some of which become difficult to read because the text gets reduced as well. But one doesn't know these things until one knows them.

The Chieftains thing - yeah, sorry, I just can't see them misspelled. But, now you've activated my OCP receptor, I've also removed the green from your text, and refer you to CCCP#17.

You're going to hate me ...

I don't like TinyURL links! You can't tell what you're clicking on, whereas you can with properly-formed named links to regular URLs.

Peter Duggan wrote:I don't like TinyURL links! You can't tell what you're clicking on, whereas you can with properly-formed named links to regular URLs.

Yes, I get that, Peter. And I don't routinely substitute them. However, when the 'normal', long url messes up the entire thread for people browsing on mobiles, as sometimes happens, then I think the tinyurl links are the lesser of two evils.

bit.ly will make even shorter links (albeit only by a few characters).

But if you add a + to the end of the link, clicking on it will take you to a theoretically safe 'preview' page..

Case in point:

https://bitly.com/2WULSJI
This link will take you directly to the page.

https://bitly.com/2WULSJI+
This link will take you to a preview page that shows where the link will actually take you.

benhall.1 wrote: The Chieftains thing - yeah, sorry, I just can't see them misspelled. But, now you've activated my OCP receptor, I've also removed the green from your text, and refer you to CCCP#17.

You're going to hate me ...

I must re-read the whole of the CCCP again; I read it all when I first joined up but I obviously haven't remembered everything
I think rather everyone might have hated me if my misspelling of The Chieftains had stayed on here, so I'm glad of someone keeping a watchful eye on me

Edit: Interesting info on the Bitly links Wanderer, I'll take a look at that too

benhall.1 wrote:Yes, I get that, Peter. And I don't routinely substitute them.

It wasn't directed at you at all, Ben... just a general statement that I don't like them (indeed basically don't click them at all without confidence in whoever's posting them) and would advise others to be similarly cautious. The bit.ly '+' links look somewhat better in that respect.

Peter Duggan wrote:

benhall.1 wrote:Yes, I get that, Peter. And I don't routinely substitute them.

It wasn't directed at you at all, Ben... just a general statement that I don't like them (indeed basically don't click them at all without confidence in whoever's posting them) and would advise others to be similarly cautious. The bit.ly '+' links look somewhat better in that respect.

Yes, the bit.ly links, with the option of the '+', do look interesting. I suppose it's habit that I go to tinyurl. Maybe I'll have a go at bit.ly ...

Thanks, Wanderer, for pointing them out.

Thirty or perhaps forty years ago, Canberra had a very intensive system of checking cars every year for safety. So intensive that we had to line up for 20 or 30 minutes to get to drive over the pits where they checked all the road train. One year the lines were even longer than normal. Not looking good. What to do to amuse myself? Aha, tin whistle in the glove box. So I made good use of the time as I inched forward, playing every tune I could pull to mind. I was driving a sports car, so nothing to keep the sound in. Who cares?

Finally, I got to the pits and put the whistle away. Chap directs me over the pits, and then disappears down below. "Rock your steering". "Press your brakes". "Left indicator". "Right indicator." "Sound your horn." Finally he reappeared, came around to my side of the car, leaned on the front wheel arch, and said nonchalantly: "Just found a first edition of O'Neill's 1001 gems, the Dance Music of Ireland." You could have knocked me over with a feather....