Post-Chieftains Awe Disorder

Whistle
1

The Chieftains were in Springfield, MO this last Sunday and not only were they of course awesome, funny and put on a fantastic show, but at the end of the concert, as an encore, they got a bunch of local musicians, including YOURS TRULY up ON STAGE to jam with them!!!

And of course I now have a McHaffie Low A signed and handled by Paddy Maloney and Matt Molloy BOTH. Got a program with everyones sigs. You can bet your booty I’ll have a picture of that up this week! :smiley:

I have thus fulfilled any lifelong dreams I may have needed or desired and can now die a happy man at any point in time. :smiley: :laughing:

I am frantically trying to find any local stations or professionals who may have been allowed to take pictures or footage. I know that individuals were of course not allowed to have cameras or otherwise, so here’s to hoping I’ll get something from somebody!!!

(Sorry about the ‘rubbing it in’ nature of this message, but hey, I HAD to tell everybody! :smiley: )

Take care all!!!
John

2

:astonished: What a day, John! Looks like the planets lined up for you on Saturday. Based on the rough times you have had in the recent past I’d say you had it coming. Congratulations.

3

And best of all, now you can put in any bio you do of yourself that you’ve played with the Chieftains! :wink:

They’ll be here Friday…since it’s my daughter’s birthday, I haven’t decided exactly what, if anything, I’ll be able to take in. It certainly sounds like a good time.

Susan

4

Thanks very much Paul, and no kidding!! planets, moon, stars, solar cycle, tidal forces, banana tree crop rotation, etc!! and the best part was… although I can’t rememer the EXACT words used, due to the anurism I was nearly experiencing :LOL: , I got something along the lines of “now that’s a fine lookin’ instrument you’ve got there” from Matt Molloy!

Oh sure, probably professional courtesy, but it still got me to beaming with pride in front of those few others present! :smiley:

Susan - depends on the place probably. Their mgr was a totaljerk here. (I’m sure he has to be to move things along and all, but talk about RUDE!)

Take care,
John

5

Unfortunately John, managers get paid to be exactly that which you experienced - rude, short and generally snobbish to anyone other than their band(s).

Had a similar experience in denver a couple years ago. Stood out in sub-freezing temps with wind chill very likely close to zero. They KNEW we were there for the soundcheck, and KNEW we had paid tickets but still refused to let us in till about ten minutes before the guys showed up for soundcheck.

They wouldn’t tell us when they were planning on showing up so that we could go find a nice warm coffee shop or book store to look through until then either. It sucked in a big way.

When we got in, we watched the sound check and went over the tunes to play for the encore with Paddy. However when the time came to play, the guys went off on some tangent and only one of the three tunes we had suggested was used - even though we were told otherwise at soundcheck. We just kinda played along as best we could and faked it. :slight_smile:

All in all it was fun, but not what we expected.

B~

6

Unfortunately, I guess managers are used to folks trying to get in to concerts (by any musician), and used to having to be rude to discourage them.

Susan

7

I would like it known that I am sought after by high-profile recording artists, too, who want me to play with them. They haven’t yet asked about my availability for the next tour, actually, but they are busy guys, you see. And Gaelic Storm did come over to our session after their concert. Twice now.

8

Don’t wait by the phone, Bloo. :roll:

John, maybe all Chieftains fans know this, but I don’t: who was playing the harp or are they not going to replace Derek Bell?

Susan

9

Oh, don’t worry. I went and bought a cell phone.

10

I can’t say as to their harp position if it has been filled or not. my guess is not - at least not with another harpist.

I’ve played with gaelic Storm too. Though I felt their concert was a horrible thing to behold - it turned out that the guys were a helluva nice bunch at the pub later on for tunes. Played till about 4am as I recall.

The thing that strikes me as strange with the Chieftains is that they’ve allowd folks to join them for soundcheck/encore numbers for decades. Every show they play I imagine someone asks to join them. The managers weren’t born yesterday. They should be sympathetic to this and know that it is almost as expected of the band as is the concert itself. One can only hope…

11

Well, what tunes did you play??? taps foot

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The tunes were supposed to be:

Wind That Shakes the Barley/Silver Spear/Over the Moor to Maggie.

Silver Spear was the only one they played ‘correctly’. Interesting.

13

You know what? I can’t remember for the life of me WHAT the heck the title of the first tune was in the set, nothing I had heard of or played before, and therfore along with nerves I had and have still blanked it out of my mind :slight_smile:, the second was Drowsie Maggie and the last was Sally Garden. Pretty even, flying tempo for the dancers.

Oh and yes they have replaced the harpist… at least for now. A very lovely young lady who plays keyboard and Harp… WELL. I’ve gone and left my program at my parents house for safekeeping on my way home from the concert until I get it coated next week, so I’ll check it tomorrow on my way home from work and get you her name. I can’t rightly remember it off hand.

I’m on the council of the Celtic Society of the Ozarks, and our piper was in the concert. He played the first tune with them - Brian Boru’s March - the last tune set they did included Brian Boru which he came out and did a segment of again, and in that set they of course kept kicking up the tempo, and at the last (when they all did solo rounds) our piper came out and ripped with them a bit.

YES the man, our piper Joel Wren!!! :smiley: They called ahead from Canada and requested him

ORIGINALLY the Chieftains were going to do a meet and greet after the concert, have a 15 min. special sit with the Society, and come to our local Monday night hoolie, and then everything changed so oh well :sniffle: I’m still not going to complain too much! :slight_smile:

Take care all,
John

14

THAT’S IT!!! Wind That Shakes The Barley, although the other two aren’t what were dicussed, and played that I am aware of. Although I do remember Silver Spear as being suggested I believe at one point… Maybe Over the Moor to Maggie was too… I definately remember Drowsie Maggie and Sally Garden as being the final decisions however, because I could actually play those! Not to mention everyone else playing them along side me on stage.

The way you write your message it appears that you were there? Are Silver Spear and Drowsie Maggie similar? :blush: I’ve not heard Silver Spear

Take care,
John

15

Yep John,

I played the encore with them too. It was fun for what it was - though it would have been a bit more enjoyable if Paddy could have taken just a minute or two longer beforehand to check that teh tunes - he - knew by those names were the same ones the rest of us did.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens here in Salt Lake on Friday.

B~

16

Wow, John, what a brush with greatness! Once in a lifetime experience. :slight_smile:

Linda S.
madfifer9

17

'tis true that we were all rather adapting on the fly … but they were similar enough to blend rather well at least. I know that admittedly I at first thought my own personal whistle had miraculously suddenly gone out of tune until I realized there were a couple of notes different to what I was used to, I just figured different adaptation. A million bands, a million different ways to play a tune so to speak. Glad to know I wasn’t totally nuts then.

SHOOT!! I wish I could’ve met you. You never know who and where people are I guess. Darn it. I’ve only gotten to meet maybe 3 true whistle enthusiasts here locally ever and that’s it. It would be nice to see a few of you out there sometime! Ahem is there a Serpent in the house? Ahem There’s still a pint here with your name on it laddy!! :smiley:

Take care,
John

18

OK,

Well, after last night, I have a little bit more insider information about the Chieftains and their willingness to let locals come play the encore with them. I have this information as I was honored with the chance to deliver a chanter to Paddy Moloney himself last night which was acclimated to play in Utah’s high and somewhat dry climate. My Heidi and I got to spend about a half an hour with Paddy in his hotel room chatting about all sorts of things from pipes to concerts to travel plans and tune names.

First off, the band as a group loves it when locals come to join them. They feel it’s a sort of local connection to the city in which they’re playing. It’s the tour managers/stage managers you have to be on the watch for. Much of the time, the band isn’t aware of what’s going on with them in the city (things like radio broadcasts etc.) they’re just told where they need to be and when, and when to show up for sound check.

If you’re going to try and play with the boys it’s suggested that you show up (on time) for their sound check before the concert. Usually this is about an hour and a half to two hours before curtain. You may wish to call ahead to the venue and ask to speak to the stage manager so that he/she is aware of the intentions of the band and the local musicians.

Be courteous to whomever you meet at the back doors as it isn’t usual for this sort of thing to happen. As far as they are concerned, you may as well be some crazed stalker fans who want to maul the artists as soon as they pull up to play that evening and they’d rather you weren’t just ‘hanging around’ their back stage doors.

That being said, it isn’t difficult to convince them otherwise if you happen to pull out a whistle and play a quick set of reels to show them you mean business. :slight_smile:

Sometimes as well, the band will publish something in the local paper(s) asking for locals to join them and will give details about the best way to do so. Keep your eyes on those for several days before the show.

What can I say about Paddy? It took us all of about 30 seconds before we found ourselves laughing and joking together like we’d known each other for 30 years. A genuinely NICE man. And he’s short. Really short. With a funny nose. But what a gentleman. He is extremely pleasant and it was hard to end our conversation although I had a dinner date and he needed to go over some tunes with their new harpist.

He went so far as to offer Heidi and I tickets to the show (which we could in no other way afford) specifically so that we could join him for the encore. We tried to be polite and told him over and over again it wasn’t necessary, but he was quite insistent about it all. What an amazing guy! Dale, so you know I tactfully dropped the C&F name several times which Paddy said he remembered from his interview with you a while back. Pretty cool stuff really!

I’ve got some photo’s I’ll post in a few days.

Bri~

19

You couldn’t resist that one could you, probably the irony is lost though. :smiling_imp:

20

I totally agree. Paddy is a very nice and funny man. I didn’t get to spend a whole 30 min with him though!! wow! how cool!! I only spoke to him for about 5 min before the concert. And I’m darned sure I wish I’d taken my camera, but I was under the impression NOBODY could take in cameras, to my dissapointment, anyone who participated could so I missed out. But at leased I got my signatures!

Yep, they published that they would be doing a jam session and everything, it’s too bad that the managers were so stolid about being so harsh though, I’m really glad you found a way to be able to speak with him like that. That’s really cool!

I was just talking to a few of the guys last night about the jam session too and they all agreed all the tunes were right, just the key was different on on Drowsie Maggie than they were used to… ahhhhh now we get it! :slight_smile: should’ve asked more questions first.

Well, I’m definately jealous. All my best to you and yours.

Take care,
John