The camden breeze

[rorybbellows]

Heres the front page of a booklet of tunes I was given by a fiddler ,who got it when he lived in London a few years back.Its from the London pipers club ,anyone seen it before ,it look quite old



Heres a sample of rakish paddy with varations ,Ilike the way its written out ,very handy if you dont read music.



RORY

[AlanB]

It was put together by Edwin Spring (as the cover says), who was also one of the people who got the pipers of UK SouthWest (and beyond) together and started the fabulous SWAUP piping weekends. You can find more at http://www.swaup.org

There's certainly 2 volumes, and I enjoyed both.

[Uilliam]

It was published last century.The 1st edition was in 1987 and the 2nd book was published in 1992.

The tunes were transcriptions of Pipers at the Club or visiting.Billy Browne,John Murphy.Paul Carton Steve Scales Ken Lineham Tim Dowd et al.

We used to charge 50p I think so £1 in all for the two wee books (bit stiff don't ya think ??)

The club used to meet weekly then in the London Irish Centre which was in Camden hense the name Camden Breeze.In the mid 90's they moved to Hammersmith Irish Centre where they live today.

I personally was sad to see it leave the Camden Centre. It was handy for me coz I lived in Camden and also Camden was the spiritual home of the so called traditional session(or for the geeks seisiún )which started there in 1958 ,Sundays being the favourite day for it after mass and before Dinner as we called it not lunch.The pubs were open frae 12 midday till 2pm then open again at 7pm.Word got around which pubs had a lockin and they became the music venues.So the music was strictly illegal which suited the folk just fine as it was one in the eye for the Brits.
Saturdays were not so popular for very different reasons.

Most of the boys were working on the sites and worked Saturday Mornings. After work it was down to the pub which closed at 3pm during the week and opened again at 5 pm.Then it was either back to the pub or aff to the State Kilburn or the Garryowen or Galtimore Ballrooms to listen to the Big Bands and hopefully pull a lassie.
I really do not think many folks realise the powerful effect post war London had on the Irish traditional music scene as we know it today from those early pioneers to the later Shane and the Pogues and the likes of the London Pipers Club.

Happy Days Alan and I am proud to have grown up and shared in this atmosphere to have met some wonderful people,including yersel a brilliant reedmaker not least a great piper also,wouldn't have changed a minute of it.

Finally please perleez per favore will ye stop saying seisiún we never ever used that word or term and it is so corny and I think disrespectful to those early days.

Slán Go Foill
Uilliam

[Steve Turner]

There are some PDF files of individual tunes on the SWAUP website www.swaup.org. Sadly, there are only 4 PDFs at the moment, but I know Edwin Spring, the author of Camden Breeze, aims to give me more files to put on the website in the fullness of time.

Those little books really started me on the road to becoming a piper, as did my association with SWAUP. I really feel that the piping community owes Edwin a big thank you for bringing so many people together.

Slan go foil,

Steve

[brianc]

Heres the front page of a booklet of tunes I was given by a fiddler ,who got it when he lived in London a few years back.Its from the London pipers club ,anyone seen it before ,it look quite old
RORY

Yowzer, it must be 'quite old' - a DOT MATRIX PRINTER!

Uilliam is right, it's from the previous century, for sure.

[Uilleann915]

Uilleann? ....the pig-thing is playing mouth-blown pipes! Should this be in the new non-uilleann section?

[tommyf]

Two great wee books; good piping tunes, and nice variations. Spent the summer of 1970 as a student in Camden, on the building sites. Great atmosphere in the Pubs. "Paddy in the Smoke" is a classic album whcih captures the great players and atmosphere of the music around/before this time.

[Roger O'Keeffe]

One of my daughters curently lives in Islington, and she recently mentioned a pub called the "Lord Nelson". That sounded vaguely familiar, and I had a hazy feeling that Ennis may have played there once upon a time.

I did a Google search and couldn't come up with anything to confirm this. So is it true, or am I just imagining it all?

[Uilliam]

One of my daughters curently lives in Islington, and she recently mentioned a pub called the "Lord Nelson". That sounded vaguely familiar, and I had a hazy feeling that Ennis may have played there once upon a time.

I did a Google search and couldn't come up with anything to confirm this. So is it true, or am I just imagining it all?

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/ ... loway_Road
http://www.professorharbottle.co.uk/pub ... elson.html
One of the music venues back in the 70's given Seamus spent a lot of time in London with his work and his fondness for the drink, I would be surprised if he hadn't been there.
Uilliam

[Calum]

Just in case anyone comes Googling for it, as it is the top search result - these two books are still available from the London Piper's Club. Times being what they are they have gone up to £5 (for both).

I am told they can also be gotten from SWAUP.

Good tunes, and handy to have them "arranged" for pipers.

[rorybbellows]

Seeing the original photos are gone, heres some new ones.





RORY