Martin Rochford

[Steampacket]

A fine portrait of Martin Rochford talking and playing the pipes. I haven't seen this before. Peter have you seen this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brb12wQ ... Vxo-XmK11c

[Mr.Gumby]

Thanks for that Thomas. I had n't seen that and it makes me feel all lonesome. I stopped at the house for a look only a few weeks ago on my way to Scariff, Lough Breda was full of waterlilies, the house overgrown and the roof fallen in. We had some great music when Martin was there.

At some point Martin and Kathleen moved into the new house their son built for them right next to the old one. He put the sheep in the old house. For a while the phone connection stayed in the old house, when you phoned him he'd come to the phone and you'd hear the sheep bleating all around him in the room. Different times, fond memories.

You can see him use the Cnat key in the video to do trill on the high B in the Blackberry Blossom. He had interesting little things in his piping. He'd play them a couple of times to see if you would pick up on them, casually showing what he was doing without making a fuss. Several less standard uses for the Cnat key that he said the Dorans had.

[Seanie]

Hi Steam

Many thanks for pointing out that video. It's great to hear him play and speak again. He was a marvelous story teller and great craic to be with. He certainly loved his music. He had a brilliant memory for facts. He talked about visiting Leon Rowsomes house for a reed and remember Leon's address and how to get to it.

A lot of these old musicians had the full package. Junior Crehan was the same. They could talk or play or whatever and they had a knack of making you feel very welcome. I can understand what Peter means about feeling lonesome. Musicians like Martin were like a bridge to a different era. They gave you a glimpse into a world that had long passed. And they did it through their music and stories and their love of life.

I would only have met him half a dozen times or so yet I have a picture of him on my wall (thanks Peter). He certainly made a big impression on this young Dublin musician (at the time)

Cheers

John

[Mr.Gumby]

It's great to hear him play and speak again. He was a marvelous story teller and great craic to be with. He certainly loved his music. He had a brilliant memory for facts. He talked about visiting Leon Rowsomes house for a reed and remember Leon's address and how to get to it.

It's hearing his voice, isn't it?

He drove his lorry for years, delivering lime form his lime kilns and people said he knew every road. You probably know the story of the hitchhiker and the sileage, John.
Anyhow, during one of the Feakle festivals of the late nineties he spotted me and hauled me inside one of the pubs because he wanted to hear the pipes. I played his favourites to keep him happy while he brought in more of his friends. Johnny Malley was there and others. I got some lovely pictures of them chatting away, in between tunes. Bill Haneman came in as well I believe. Eventuallyt I managed to get him to play some tunes on my wife's fiddle, he obliged, even if his hands were badly swollen with the rheumatism.



Anyhow, a man came in, passing a comment, asking if he was Rochford. 'I am' Martin said and started asking him questions to find out who was asking. He had that knack people of that generation had of asking questions in order to locate a person's place in the word and within five questions had him narrowed down to a townland just across from Killaloe in Tipp, a particular road, a woman there that turned out the man's sister and thus eventually had his name 'so, you are one of the ..'. It was brilliant, the man didn't know what hit him. I have had that happen a few times myself since , you meet an old guy somewhere and within a minute he has you narrowed down to the house you live in. The man who used to look after St Flannan's Holy Well beyond Inagh did that to me once. It's very disconcerting.

[Steampacket]

It's great to hear what you say Peter and John, about Martin especially as he knew Felix and Johnny. A way of life, and a style of playing that has more or less disappeared I suspect. I've only heard Barry Taylor's interviews with Martin before.

The first time I travelled to Miltown Malbay was in 1996, so as regard's musicians of Martin's generation I've only heard a very small number of them play live, Tommy Kearney, Joe Ryan, Michael Falsey, John Maloney, Kitty Hayes, Paddy Canny, Paddy Mills (Paddy was a character indeed), Peter Horan, and a tall, elderly concertina player who came into the back room of Malone's together with his sister, forget his name just now.

Does Martin's son play at all? Interesting about Martin's use of the C natural key.

[Mr.Gumby]

I've only heard Barry Taylor's interviews with Martin before.

Noel Hill did an extensive interview with him for RTE. I have copies of that. Clare Fm used it as well, after Martin died. Harry and Muiris also did one for Dal gCais, published somewhere in the eighties.

Paddy Mills was nice man, one of his standard things was when tunes were played and everybody ended at the same time, he'd say 'we landed safely' or 'that was a safe landing'.

Does Martin's son play at all?

Sinéad H. is the only relation playing AFAIK.

[Steampacket]

Paddy Mills turned up at a session in Tubbercurry at the turn of the century (2000's). He didn't play, but sat and talked. Said that if he couldn't find a nice woman to take him to her house, then he'd have to sleep in a horse box. He was very adamant that I should find a woman, presumably at the session, and make some babies. I declined, as I already had three daughters in Sweden, and merely wished to play some tunes.