The standing pipers

lordofthestrings · Post by **lordofthestrings** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:42 am

I've seen a number of pictures of pipers (both real and in pictures) that show the player standing, with some sort of 'cane' or 'leg brace' to elevate their right leg. The only picture I can find right now is this one:

It looks like its actually strapped to his leg (or is that a piper's apron?)

Was this a fairly common thing to use out busking when no chair was around? What exactly is the 'leg brace'? Are they still used now?

CHasR · Post by **CHasR** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:02 am

Somewhere in print there's an account of a piper (perhaps just out of living memory) who crafted some type of shelf attached to the mainstock, where the chanter could rest, enabling him to play standing.
has anyone else has read this story?

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:09 am

I would guess they were home-made. It's about the height of a walking cane with a perpendicular bit to sit on, and a peg about half way up protruding from the side for your foot. I doubt there was anything complicated in their manufacture.

It is not strapped to his leg. Yes, that's just the apron.

It is debatable how many people in Ireland could ever afford a set of UPs, so it is even more suspect as to how many itinerant Upipers there were out busking (accounts seldom specify what type of pipes "the piper" played when mention of one was made).

Johnny Doran is noted to have put his foot up on his pipes case in order to play standing when busking at public events (1930s-40s).

djm

BigDavy · Post by **BigDavy** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:20 am

Is that not a pastoral set anyway?, so putting it on your leg would be superfluous.

David

Joseph · Post by **Joseph** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:28 am

I found this picture in my collection of pics taken from the net over the years. Not sure who it is, but the title of the picture says "McPeake". I captured this many years ago. I thought that this might possibly be Johnny Doran but not sure.
All the best,

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb10 ... Peake-.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

carel · Post by **carel** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:10 pm

I found this one in my archive
somewhere in 2003 on my half set

misterpatrick · Post by **misterpatrick** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:22 pm

All you need is a wheelchair.

I hope one of these years to get all the local pipers together in the St. Pat's Day parade in wheelchairs rolling down the street wailing the Eagle's Whistle.

We just have to hope for some nice weather or it'll be a bunch of pipers in wheelchairs fiddling with reeds.

PJ · Post by PJ » Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:08 pm

misterpatrick wrote:I hope one of these years to get all the local pipers together in the St. Pat's Day parade in wheelchairs rolling down the street wailing the Eagle's Whistle.

2 years ago, I was invited by the Ancient Order of Hibernians to march in the Montreal St Patrick's Day Parade with my pipes. I suggested the wheelchair but for some reason they didn't think it was appropriate

.

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:07 pm

If you got one of lots' piper's crutches and stuck it up yer butt you could kind of hop down the street like a pogo piper.

djm

tommykleen · Post by **tommykleen** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:25 pm

misterpatrick wrote:All you need is a wheelchair.

I hope one of these years to get all the local pipers together in the St. Pat's Day parade in wheelchairs rolling down the street wailing the Eagle's Whistle.

We just have to hope for some nice weather or it'll be a bunch of pipers in wheelchairs fiddling with reeds.

No,no, no. The real way to do this is to have The Gentlemen Pipers Marching Band: all dressed up in black suits and ties, and three-legged stools strapped to their arses. Can't you just see them stoically marching down the parade route, pipes cradles in their arms and the stools all a-bob-bobbing?! Then the command is sounded to stop and sit, followed by the command to tune up. The whole parade just flows around them as they incessantly mess with their pipes for a few hours, never actually getting a tune out.

t

lordofthestrings · Post by **lordofthestrings** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:37 pm

as they incessantly mess with their pipes for a few hours, never actually getting a tune out.

Reminds me of a session I went to where 3 pipers showed up... there was also two drummers there... myself with a fiddle and a friend with a whistle told dirty jokes back and forreth for an hour or so, while the patrons of the bar looked on

Ian Lawther · Post by **Ian Lawther** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:47 pm

When I lived in the DC area I played for a while with the snappily titled "Fabulous Potato Heads Rhythm and Blues Ceili Band" performing on a variety of instruments in pub settings. We were a six piece band including drum kit and pub stages are small so it was often difficult for me to have a chair to pipe. I made a leg brace out of pvc plumbing which was effectively a squared letter A. The top horizontal piece tucked neatly behind the knee and the foot then rested on the cross piece, and with two legs it was stable. It was also light to carry and cheap to make.

Ian

ausdag · Post by **ausdag** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 2:15 am

tommykleen wrote:
No,no, no. The real way to do this is to have The Gentlemen Pipers Marching Band: all dressed up in black suits and ties, and three-legged stools strapped to their arses. Can't you just see them stoically marching down the parade route, pipes cradles in their arms and the stools all a-bob-bobbing?! Then the command is sounded to stop and sit, followed by the command to tune up. The whole parade just flows around them as they incessantly mess with their pipes for a few hours, never actually getting a tune out.

t

Didn't Woody Allen do something similar as a cello player in a marching band, complete with stool. I think he ran to the front of the band, sat and played until the rest of the band passed. Then he'd pick his stool up and run to the front again. I reckon that's the way to do it.

tommykleen · Post by **tommykleen** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:55 am

ausdag wrote:
Didn't Woody Allen do something similar as a cello player in a marching band, ...

He did? Summon my legal team!

t

Pazziato · Post by **Pazziato** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 6:46 am

Summon my legal team!

Woody Allen's kneecaps have been duly broken.