By chance I came across the vinyl LP "The Wandering Minstrel" by Seamus Ennis in the Public lending library. I was searching for a Dubliners album at the time I think. I thought the instrument on the front cover looked odd as I'd never seen or heard a set Uilleann pipes before.
Took it home, played it & that was the beginning of a sometimes stormy friendship between me an' me pipes spanning over 20 years .
Joseph.
Tell us something.: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
A vague but intriguing description of the Union Pipes in an old torn dictionary of music which included a sketch of Paddy Coneely - The Galway Piper. I thought "That'll look different".
Tell us something.: I have been playing Irish and Scandinavian music for more than 30 years. My main instrument is the Uilleann pipes, together with whistles and mandola. Also I play the Breton Veuze and the Swedish bagpipes.
At age 15, I heard Liam O'Flynn's playing with Planxty. After three years I actually started playing the pipes. I bought a practice set by O'Dowd/Bourke in 1985.
I remember listening to this band in the pub called the Press Gang and seeing this weird and wonderful contraption with absolute amazing music coming out of it and the piper's fingers flying all over like sparks. All I remember was all these tubes and things coming off it and going in strange directions (like, back into itself). It first sparked my interest in Uilleann pipes. It wasn't until several years later though that I actually got round to playing pipes (after several years on the tin whistle).
This pommy backpacker by the name of Mark (from London) wanted to sell his set as he needed extra travelling money and was mostly a tin whistle player anyhow. He sold me the set and I then sought out the bloke from the Press Gang and asked if he teaches pipes...haven't looked back since!
Hearing them on a Seán Ó Riada album, I determined there and then to get pipes and play them. A few months later I heard Declan Affley playing his Harrington set at a session and I was hooked for that flat-pitch, narrow-bore sound. I got hold of any album with pipes on it: Chieftains, Rowsome, Ennis, Clancy, Seán McAloon, Pat Mitchell. Didn’t know about Planxty at the time. Then I met Geoff Wooff and ended up buying a flat set from him. There was no warning in the box about what I was in for!